Audio CD review:
Tears for Fears - Chronicles: The Hurting/Songs from the Big Chair/The Seeds of Love

Tears for Fears - Chronicles: The Hurting/Songs from the Big Chair/The Seeds of Love

Band: Tears for Fears Title: Chronicles: The Hurting/Songs from the Big Chair/The Seeds of Love Rating: Release Date: 21 June, 2005 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: The Hurting 2: Mad World 3: Pale Shelter 4: Ideas As Opiates 5: Memories Fade 6: Suffer The Children 7: Watch Me Bleed 8: Change 9: The Prisoner 10: Start Of The Breakdown 11: Pale Shelter 12: The Way You Are 13: Mad World 14: Change 15: Shout 16: The Working Hour 17: Everybody Wants To Rule The World 18: Mothers Talk 19: I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording) 20: Broken 21: Head Over Heels / Broken 22: Listen 23: The Big Chair 24: Empire Building 25: The Marauders 26: Broken Revisited 27: The Conflict 28: Mothers Talk 29: Shout 30: Woman In Chains 31: Bad Man's Song 32: Sowing The Seeds Of Love 33: Advice For The Young And Heart 34: Standing On The Corner Of The Third World 35: Swords And Knife 36: Year Of The Knife 37: Famous Last Words 38: Tears Roll Down 39: Always In The Past 40: Music For Tables 41: Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams

Customer Review Great Synth-Pop Set- Terrible Packaging That is to say, the singles are phenomenal, the album tracks have cool synth experimentation, but there are a few slow spots on each disc. The first three Tears For Fears albums are all quintessential 80's pop. "The Hurting" is almost like a therapy session on record. Some of the lyrics may be a little too introspective, but the hooks more than make up for it. Mad World is an amazing song (follow it up with great cover version in "Donnie Darko") and Pale Shelter remains a sturdy single. "Songs From the Big Chair" contains this group's biggest hits. Shout is almost like an ode to primal scream therapy, and Everybody Wants to Rule the World may be the best single of the entire decade. Head Over Heels turns out to be part of a pretty cool song suite. There is no filler on this album with the possible exception of track 8 (the instumental last track of the original album which just doesn't really seem to go anywhere). "The Seeds of Love" start to drop the synth-pop vibe for more Beatles-like sounds and late 80's pop values (which these guys actually do quite well). The title track and Woman In Chains are the singles here, but my favorite is Standing On The Corner Of The Third World, featuring Manu Katche on drums and some really cool worldbeat sounds. The packaging on this set is a bit of a problem. The CD's seem to have trouble holding in their spots, and I had to exchange this set because of strange warping on the second disc. My next copy still had a few strange warped marks on it, but at least it plays ok. Additionaly, while you do get the CD booklets, this set leaves out the back covers. This unfortunately makes putting these discs in normal CD cases less desirable, as well as robbing the owner of the back cover art. Still, this is a pretty cheap way of getting these albums remastered with bonus tracks (as separate purchases it would cost $45-60). . You can see a complete list of all Tears for Fears discography, or go back to the Tears for Fears tabs