Tears For Fears - POLLing The Seeds of Love (1989)

immediate reaction is either sowing the seeds or love or advice

advice

leaning towards either Woman in Chains (hooooly shit Orzabal's vocal) or Year of the Knife, which is the band's most ferocious rocker, like Boys of Summer but 250% more grandiouse

sidenote, this n elemental were my first cds as a teen, formative years

Woman in Chains (hooooly shit Orzabal's vocal)

And Phil Collins drums!

Too many of the long songs ("Badman's Song," "Year of the Knife") are long to no purpose, but the pop songs are beautiful. "Advice For the Young at Heart" is my vote: it's a sophisti-pop song.

I recommend Oleta Adams' Orzabal-produced debut Circle of One too.

sophisti-pop is a good word to describe TFF's whole thing

actually, it's hard to pin them down: a miserabilist synth pop duo? An arena rock band? Lite jazz? That's why critical re-appraisal took a while.

yeah i get that. they were always mainstream-minded, even when they were experimenting, with an exceptionally broad sonic palette.

"year of the knife" imo

Too many of the long songs ("Badman's Song," "Year of the Knife") are long to no purpose

awful opinion

leaning towards either Woman in Chains (hooooly shit Orzabal's vocal) or Year of the Knife, which is the band's most ferocious rocker, like Boys of Summer but 250% more grandiouse

― paul mccartney & whinge (voodoo chili), Monday, June 18, 2018 2:10 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

voodoo chili knows what's up

hi Brad

woman in chains or badman's

hi Brad

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 18, 2018 2:34 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in my head, there is a mirror
when i've been bad, i've been wrong

thought you were gonna quote MEN OF STONE

Fresh out of being indoctrinated in hardcore feminism at Mt. Holyoke College, I adored "Woman In Chains" at the time, so that one.

It felt like Oleta suffered from being turned into Sade/Whitney/etc at the time.

what's wrong w/being Sade?

Orzabal preserved her empathetic cocktail-bar-singer-at-the-piano essence.

I get the melody of "Advice" stuck in my head with a frequency disproportionate to the amount I actually listen to this album.

i love this album, it's their best imo. voting for the transcendent Woman in Chains

what's wrong w/being Sade?

Probably nothing, but in the 80s she was so overplayed that I grew to dislike her.

Now at 50, i’m amazed at how different my tff hierarchy might have been if i were 25 when the hurting came out.

Im not sure that makes any sense, but im voting for woman in chains here and now.

i just heard songs from the big chair for the first time, lol - man christ.

'Advice For The Young At Heart' ... This album took a little longer to get its claws in me than the two albums prior, but is now without doubt my favourite Tears For Fears album. There's nothing at all wrong with the longer songs. I really love every song on this album now.

Advice is the only song that has stuck in my mind since first listen and until now. Other than the one that DJ shadow sampled from
A sample

'Famous Last Words' is one of the best songs Orzabal has ever written, too - that one never fails to move me every time.

The sun and the moon, the wind and the rain.

^ OTM!

Just refreshing my memory of the whole thing after decades. It's not bad is it! Though I never knowingly heard another note of TFF after this, despite liking all of the first three LPs as a child. The Beatles-isms of the title track has consistently made me cringe from the outset and the blues-isms of "Badman" are still not entirely convincing, so...

Has to be one of "Chains", "Advice" or "Famous Last Words".

had a real moment with the guitar solo in "swords and knives" last night

badmansattva, will you take me by the hand?

What do we think of "Tears Roll Down," now added to the reissue?

was having a moment with the swords and knives guitar solo right as i clicked on this thread now

Orzabal plays it, I assume.

'Advice.. '.

xpost to alfred, tears roll down is very good

going with the exhilarating year of the knife. im listening now and im exhilarated.

TOOO LATE for the YOUNG GUN
to lead a simple life

TSOL is a step down from the first two but there are still strong moments. I tend to skip the first 3 cuts and start with Advice. It's a pretty great listen from there, including the sketch-like bonus tracks. Best to stop with Music For Tables and avoid the cringe-worthy Johnny Panic, which is truly awful.

as i discovered last year the roland orzabal solo record is good

didn't he also produce the first emiliana torrini record?

lol i have no idea now why i brought that up xp

https://img.discogs.com/Uoxyf_CynW_c1qG3Xx-dLEgR69E=/fit-in/526x536/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-190740-1159455722.jpeg.jpg

Weird that Johnny Panic thing.. they released it on its own, i never liked it much but clearly somebody did.

It was definitely a product of its time

This is such a strangely sequenced album, especially following "Big Chair," which is a perfectly sequenced record.

i like that. feels like you’re getting lost in it immediately

how would you switch it up? i might switch advice and third world, but that's it

I have no idea what "Third World" is trying to say beyond experimenting with sumptuousness and hanging it on imperialist tropes that may or may not be ironic; it's hard to tell from the singing.

Good discussion here: Tears for Fears: C or D?

i could vote for any of these:

woman in chains
advice for the young at heart
swords and knives
year of the knife
famous last words

Honestly the sequencing feels so random that you could probably just shuffle it up and it would work as well. I mean, "Woman in Chains" to "Badman's Song" is as radically oddball a contrast to start a hotly anticipated follow up to a blockbuster as anything since "Over and Over" to "The Ledge." So I don't know what would help the flow.

I've mentioned before my epiphany that Tears For Fears is one of the few bands (or at least Big Chair one of the few albums) clearly influenced by '80s Genesis, which is why I find it so ironic that the album that finds them totally breaking from that is the one that features Phil Collins.

Brad otm those are the key tracks

I don't think the sequencing is very weird and it flows great, Woman in Chains to Badman's Song is the only transition that feels weird at all and I don't know how else you'd sequence it

The track order is perfect and not strange at all. It's also not a great idea to compare this record to Songs From the Big Chair because it's a very different record.

I also don't hear any direct influence from Genesis in Tears For Fears - perhaps indirectly on the production since having a big drum sound was the "in thing" production-wise in 1985, but absolutely not in the songwriting.

Invisible Touch has a bit of a Big Chair vibe about it in places, but it was released afterwards.

Yup otm

and we will carry war
no more

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the sun and the moon

will not accept
the greatness of man

I still can’t get into this album. The songs just go on forever.

“Woman in Chains” is pretty enough.

it's impressive how great this album is despite it being a 'putting down the synthesizers in order to make something real' album where most of the tracks are 6+ minutes

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

daaaaaaaaaamn!

I agree

Yup ^

wooo

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/tears-for-fears-the-seeds-of-love-reissue-coming-in-october/

Love this album but I'd still rather have a new album from them!

live-in-the-studio sessions

This is the most enticing bit. I'd totally listen to an album of Pino and Manu messing around.

Nice! I look forward to assembling an alternate tracklisting for this album, parts of which I love, parts of which I can't stand.

Can't stand seems a bit harsh.

Interested to know which ones they are

"Year of the Knife" does grate.

Well, it's really just the title track that I can't stand. It seemed like a goofy pastiche when it was first released and then it was horribly overplayed during a summer job when all I had for music was a radio. I generally skip the first three tracks. Woman In Chains was also overplayed and while Badman's Song should've worked, I never warmed to it.

I love everything from Advice onwards, even Year Of The Knife. Wish the more percussive Tears Roll Down was about twice as long. It would've made a great opener (although maybe it wasn't recorded during the album sessions?)

"Year of the Knife" does grate.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 August 2020 14:34 (two hours ago) link

*great

I wish "Woman in Chains" had been overplayed in the States.

i don't think it would be possible for a song as good as "woman in chains" to be overplayed

unreleased demo version of "rhythm of life," which they eventually gave to oleta adams for her album: https://youtu.be/1Asyb8IY2hw

My intro to her. VH-1 loved it.

i know the tff version is just a demo, but i think they made the right call in letting her have it.

A....lot of music on this box set. The interesting stuff consists of jams that loosen the shackles from "Badman's Song" and "Standing on the Corner..."

if you feel like polling the seeds once more, consider pulling the trigger for roland and oleta

Match E4!

1 Tears For Fears/Oleta Adams! https://t.co/ZBLvBkddXt
2 David Bowie/Pet Shop Boys! https://t.co/rHzr43VrOb
3 Womack And Womack! https://t.co/rGYaMETfOF
4 Positive K! https://t.co/Hu3O6BhX8H

— World Cup Of Duets (@peoples_pop) October 13, 2020

"Love Wars," man.

ha yes, that song is also excellent. so is positive k. a shame that name recognition is pushing the pet shop bowies ahead

The super deluxe reissue of "Seeds Of Love" arrived the other day, haven't spun it yet but the preview tracks have been intriguing. I'm most interested in the Townhouse jams and demos.

They're worth a listen.

The original CD issue sounds so incredible, don't think I could remotely handle the new version

'Advice' just came up on shuffle, and...huh. Wow. They never really did much for me in my youth but anytime I hear the singles these days I'm a little taken aback. Think I might be ready to give the albums a go.

it's a world gone crazy, old lunch in chaaains

For a band whose records seemed freighted with so much "significance" in the 80s, they've kind of vaporized since. If they didn't deserve the hype then, they don't deserve the indifference now.

every time I play this album I like it more

(at the time I vividly remember being appalled by the Seeds of Love single/video and wouldn't go anywhere near the album)

My brothers and I used to sing it as 'sewing machines of love'.

Who am I kidding, 'used to', we did this as recently as our xmas zoom call.

SEWING MA-CHINES (yup, works for me)

new curt smith interview where he intimated that a major inspiration for “woman in chains” was alice cooper’s “only women bleed”: https://www.spin.com/2021/11/curt-smith-tears-for-fears-5-albums-i-cant-live-without/

also reveals other things lol, but i can’t say i expected that

lol wow

Time

To eat all your wooooords

New live album coming out for what it's worth...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ2P9r-jOwI

nice song, sounds like a San Jacinto sample at the beginning (and intermittently through the song). Disappointing AI looking art on the album though, just generic.

Now they have two of the worst front covers ever

New single is good though

pleasant song if not very distinctive. there's supposed to be four new studio tracks on the live album, including this one

His voice is so beautiful, another new one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyerIpcCoQw

the four new tracks are all fine, not really as striking as the best stuff on The Tipping Point. "Emily Said" reminds me a lot of XTC, but the two bands have always had some shared Beatles DNA. Of the live tracks, "Woman in Chains" was a standout, wish I could have seen it live