- Sun-Times Media
- This is actually in the Sun-Times archives.
Last week Universal reissued Tears for Fears’ 1985 album Songs From the Big Chair in a ludicrously bloated and extravagant “Super Deluxe Edition” featuring four discs, two DVDs (one a DVD mix of the album and another consisting of a documentary, music videos, and live performances), and “a 30-page replica 1985 tour programme and a 32-page booklet” (according to the album’s Wikipedia page). I can spare you the trouble of even wondering if you should purchase the musical equivalent of a Corvette and note that all this additional material is superfluous and unnecessary. However, the first disc, which more or less repeats the track list of a two-disc “Deluxe Edition” released in 2006 (they couldn’t even get the date of the 20th anniversary right), is still worth owning in some form. As with other big-name synth-pop acts at the time, Tears for Fears were influenced by prog-rock staples that turned to art-pop later on in the 70s, so it makes sense that they’d find inspiration in someone like Robert Wyatt.
