Tears for Fears: The Hurting poll

what a great album, probably the first time i ever really fell in love with an album.

I agree, this is a great album. I voted for Change.

"Pale Shelter," which "Change" right behind it.

whoops, WITH "Change" right behind it.

i should get this album. i think it was the horrific cover of "mad world" from donnie darko that fucked up my perception of how awesome this could be.

The title track is so fucking incredible.

i think it was the horrific cover of "mad world" from donnie darko

I'm so glad someone else feels this way. I hated that movie, too.

obviously an incredible album, I think I will vote for Memories Fade

The videos for "Change" and "Pale Shelter" do the songs in question incalculable damage in their indefensible silliness, but both tracks remain untouchably great.

So, Will the "Graduate" album be up next?

"Memories Fade". Love the title track and "Change" too.

Interesting. I had never listened to this album before this morning (though I had heard "Change" literally once, decades ago, on some MTV Knebworth broadcast). You can almost tell exactly what the band was going for/listening to at the time, which is pretty fascinating. I don't know if it's my greater familiarity with the next album that makes this sound like an (excellent and nearly fully-formed) dry run for "Big Chair," but I'm really liking it all the same.

someone post the original cover please

That is the original cover. The band shot was the US release

You're thinking of this...

http://www.scottastevenson.com/images/tearsforfears1983lp.jpg

yeah, i agree maybe i shouldn't have posted those videos. still a wonderful album!

VOTE, if you know these songs.

if you type "mad world lyrics" into google, gary jules comes up first and second.

Gary Jules doing Mad World on Jay Leno

Definitely "Mad World". Surprisingly, I liked the acoustic version at the end of DD, and I pretty much HATE ALL acoustic covers, but on this one it helped they left the melody and the CHORDS intact.

...sorry for the caps.

The acoustic version at the v end made me think, 'Damn, he just took each line of this song and made it into the movie...sheesh.' It made the whole movie seem like this really bad story someone shared in a creative writing class I took that was based on a Savage Garden song...just a sad, sad way to write a movie. OTOH if that is what he did, he picked a good song to work with.

Also that pissed me off bcz I got made fun of a lot for listening to Tears for Fears, which was considered very square. Then AFTER Donald Darko came out, everyone was like, 'Man, have you heard this band Tears for Fears? They're really good!" Ach strangle strangle. I was working in a music store and it got to be where if a kid with bad posture and a tight hoodie w/the hood over his head so he looked like the Emperor came up to the counter (I was at a 'finding things' counter in the middle of the store) he wld be asking if I'd heard that 'amazing song from the end of the movie Donnie Darko.' Gonna kill a kid.

'The Hurting,' I think, is the only good thing to ever have come from Janovian Scream Therapy.

Abbott, you've very nicely explained why the stupid ass Donnie Darko crap gets to me.

I really don't know how I feel about this album. I'm determined to listen to it again tonight. When I first bought it back in the day, I thought it was alright, but aside from Change (a masterpiece, really) it didn't leave any kind of lasting impression. I listened to it again once or twice in the last year and quite enjoyed it.

'The Hurting,' I think, is the only good thing to ever have come from Janovian Scream Therapy.

See ye also "Mother" by the Plastic Ono Band

No, I meant what I said.

And you're mistaken

That is the original cover. The band shot was the US release

thanks for clearing this up....after 26 years
i thought thats a cheesy cover from a re-release xD

no matter how much i love their singles, i felt like i had to vote for an album track.

"It's the start of the Breakdown
I can't understand you"

OK, i just listen to this coming to work, so good. it's actually a question "Is this the start of the breakdown?, I can't understand you."

anyways my top three non singles are:

1. Memories Fade
2. Start of the Breakdown
3. Watch Me Bleed

Excellent choices! I love the title track the best tho.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Memories Fade" iirc

change.

good to see the anti DARKO feeling on here. blee.

I like donnie darko & "Mad World" just fine

Yeah, I didn't mind that cover of "Mad World" either.

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

Surprised "Change" didn't do better. Who can argue with those xylophones?

Same here. But not embarrassed by the results.

I always loved that tune that closes "Real Genius" (something like "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", or something; yes, I'm incredibly lazy to look it up).

Pale Shelter was especially memorable, yes. But I'm embarassed that I didn't actually get too listen to this whole album again before voting. Sigh...shall do so right now.

I have to say, I too prefer the "we're dour dudes who're looking at ducks" cover to the little brat cover.

The dour-ducks cover is funnier!

Yeah actually, I don't mind the cover w/ the dudes on it. Reminds me of how the U2 Boy cover was changed for the US.

"Ideas as Opiates" should have gotten at least one vote

this album is astonishing and as much as I love their later work, they never bettered this

not gonna deny "Pale Shelter" as an amazing song tho

I was repping for "The Hurting" then but the one that kills me now is "Memories Fade."

as much as I love their later work, they never bettered this

^^

I couldn't believe they did "Watch Me Bleed" on the recent tour.

"Memories Fade" is my JAM!!! OMG what a song.

"Ideas as Opiates" should have gotten at least one vote

also "Suffer the Children" is another song that got robbed.

I was in a store that had some Muzak stream of new wave hits going on, which of course was just fine with me, but they played the frigging sad hoodie guitar guy version of "Mad World" from Donnie Darko, from the wrong millennium for this radio feed, and not the Tears for Fears one. I felt less enraged four or so songs later when they played "Shout" but it still stings a little.

But that version of "Mad World" is really good, in fact when I saw the lads last year they played the original version as well as the sad hoodie one!

Ha, I guess I am too fussy to see beyond its context!

WAAAHL I FEEEE-EEEL
HOPELESSLY WEIGHED DOWN BY YOUR EYES OF STEEEEEEL

this has to be one of the last threads that Bimble posted in. miss that guy, a lot. RIP

How classic is The Hurting?

How overblown does everything afterwards sound upon first listen?

Yeah, I completely agree, although I think 'Songs From The Big Chair' is a great album also.

I'm very surprised that 'Pale Shelter' managed to take the poll by such a large amount, because I think there's a lot of great stuff on this album. I would have picked 'Suffer The Children' if I had been voting at the time.

M83's 'Reunion' has some truly remarkable rips of the Curt Smith backing vocal style.

Gonna buy all the CDs for pennies anyway and find out.

everything post 'seeds of love' kind of follows the same template, which is a completely different psych-beatles-pop template, and not like the hurting at all. but, a lot of it is still pretty good.

Alfred you said something on one of these TFF threads (I can't find it right now) about how they were the best synthpop band to manage to both become huge and maintain their essential miserablism... was listening to "So" yesterday and was wondering how you fit Peter Gabriel into that equation cuz that album (apart from the two biggest singles obviously) is a total downer

Songs From The Big Chair and So are probably my favorite albums of '85 and '86 respectively, it was a very good time for sad stadium synths.

i'm going to play this right now, "Memories Fade" always seems to be the highlight

Hmmm...

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/07/24/tears-for-fears-hurting-reissue-box-set/

The UK arm of Amazon.com currently features two bare-bones listings for The Hurting with no band name attached: a two-disc set on Mercury Records, the label that originally released the Tears For Fears debut, and a four-disc CD/DVD box set on Commercial Marketing, a reissue imprint of the Universal Music Group, Mercury’s parent company. Both versions are due out Oct. 7.

Earlier this year, some speculation on what could be included extra tracks wise:

http://theseconddisc.com/2013/03/07/reissue-theory-tears-for-fears-the-hurting-30th-anniversary-edition/

Disc 1: Original LP (originally released as Mercury MERS 17 (U.K.)/811 039-1 M-1 (U.S.), 1983) and B-sides

The Hurting
Mad World
Pale Shelter
Ideas As Opiates
Memories Fade
Suffer the Children
Watch Me Bleed
Change
The Prisoner
Start of the Breakdown
Wino (B-side to “Suffer the Children” - Phonogram IDEA 1, 1982)
Saxophones As Opiates (B-side to “Mad World” – Phonogram IDEA 3, 1982)
The Conflict (B-side to “Change” – Phonogram IDEA 4, 1983)
Disc 2: Bonus material

Suffer the Children (Single Version)
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love) (Single Version)
The Prisoner (Single Version)
Ideas As Opiates (Single Version)
Change (New Version)
Suffer the Children (Remix)
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love) (Extended Version)
Mad World (World Remix)
Change (Extended Version)
Pale Shelter (New Extended Remix)
Change (Live in Oxford)
Start of the Breakdown (Live in Oxford)
Disc 2, Tracks 1 released on Phonogram single IDEA 1, 1982
Disc 2, Tracks 2-3 released as Phonogram single IDEA 2, 1982
Disc 2, Track 4 released on Phonogram single IDEA 3, 1982
Disc 2, Tracks 5 and 9 released on Phonogram 12″ single IDEA 412, 1983
Disc 2, Track 6 released on Phonogram 12″ single IDEA 112, 1982
Disc 2, Track 7 released on Phonogram 12″ single IDEA 212, 1982
Disc 2, Track 8 released on Phonogram double 7″ single IDEA 33, 1982
Disc 2, Track 10 released on Phonogram 12″ single IDEA 512, 1983
Disc 2, Tracks 11-12 released on “The Way You Are” double 7″ single – Phonogram IDEA S6, 1983

Disc 3: DVD - In My Mind’s Eye and promo videos

Start of the Breakdown
Mothers Talk
Pale Shelter
The Working Hour
The Prisoner
Ideas As Opiates
Mad World
We Are Broken
Head Over Heels
Suffer the Children
The Hurting
Memories Fade
Change
All tracks recorded live at the Hammersmith Apollo, December 1983. Released on Music Media laserdisc 04 349-1 (U.K.), 1984

Promo videos:

Mad World
Change
Pale Shelter
Mad World (Top of the Pops, 1982)
Pale Shelter (Top of the Pops, 1983)

Again, speculation, but that certainly seems pretty comprehensive.

"The Hurting" (the song) is just a total jam to blast when you get home and need a few beers. just the best.

I'll be buying it for the 5th time.

really want to listen to this album right now because of this bump. yeah if i did buy this it would probably be around the fourth time for me.

How the fuck did 'Pale Shelter' win this by so much?

Blame Gary Jules

Wicked xylophones, that's how.

Nope. That's Change. Good question then.

Big interview about the Hurting here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/13379-tears-for-fears-the-hurting-interview

Haven't read it yet but it looks great.

And a lot of the above speculation was accurate:

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/tears-for-fears-the-hurting-four-disc-box-set-exclusive-details/

Disc 1 – The Hurting

The Hurting
Mad World
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love)
Ideas As Opiates
Memories Fade
Suffer The Children
Watch Me Bleed
Change
The Prisoner
Start Of The Breakdown

Disc 2 – B-sides and Remixes

Suffer The Children (7″ Version)
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love)
The Prisoner (B-side)
Ideas As Opiates (B-side)
Change (New Version)
Suffer The Children (Remix)
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love) (Extended Version)
Mad World (World Remix)
Change (Extended Version)
Pale Shelter (Extended Version)
Suffer The Children (Instrumental)
Change (7″ Edit)
Wino (B-Side)
The Conflict (B-Side)
We Are Broken (B-Side)
Suffer The Children (Promo CD Version)

Disc 3 – Live Sessions (Box Set Only)

Peel Session 01.09.1982

1. Ideas As Opiates
2. Suffer The Children
3. The Prisoner
4. The Hurting

Jensen Session 20.10.1982

5. Memories Fade
6. The Prisoner
7. The Start Of The Breakdown
8. The Hurting

From ‘The Way You Are’ single

9. Start Of The Breakdown (Live)
10. Change (Live)

Disc 4 – DVD – In My Mind’s Eye – Live At Hammersmith Odeon (Box Set Only)

Start Of The Breakdown
Mothers Talk
Pale Shelter
The Working Hour
The Prisoner
Ideas As Opiates
Mad World
We Are Broken
Head Over Heels
Suffer The Children
The Hurting
Memories Fade
Change

Meantime the Peel Sessions tracks have an official stream going

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/10/02/tears-for-fears-peel-session-1982-stream/

looking back at this, as it came up in the New Wave 80s series. i stand behind my vote of "Memories Fade." what a god damn brilliant album.

Yep. The deluxe box set is great, I particularly enjoy the sessions versions after wearing out the original LP.

Note there's lots of little details about each track on disc 2 noted in this entry: https://www.discogs.com/Tears-For-Fears-The-Hurting/release/5009064 - the biggest mistake is they used "Broken Revisited" instead of "We Are Broken".

Excellent album, although prefer the next two far more!

i re listened to this again last night. i want to change my vote to "Start of the Breakdown." i actually had a hard time deciding which side i liked better, side one has all the hits outside "Change" but side two is almost perfect. in fact when it ended i played side 1 again, something i never do.

man, the remaster makes the title track JUMP