Post by Jules on Mar 12, 2017 10:20:34 GMT
Honestly, what were they thinking? Recording a DVD at a large festival is OK when you're an aging band that can't pull a large crowd like that anymore on its own*. But this is about half the length of a normal Tears for Fears live set. At the very least, they could have given us a proper concert as a double CD. Of course this is nowhere near as good as the best of their concerts - the band are playing in broad daylight and have probably not had enough sleep; the audience, while appearing reasonably happy, doesn't seem to be tuned in to TFF (almost nobody sings the "time flies" part at the end of "Head over Heels", as opposed to hundreds of YouTube live videos...). Roland strains a lot while singing and Curt has lost a lot of vocal depth anyway.
The live version of "Mad World" on the GOLD double CD must be taken from a different gig (anybody know?) and while it's the same arrangement, it sounds noticeably tighter. Why they didn't release THAT concert as a whole is beyond me.
Still, at least we get relatively good versions of the (measly three) new tracks that don't sound nearly as smothered as the overloaded studio recordings. "Call Me Mellow" in particular sounds just so much more fun and involving here, stripped down to its core. And I like the slightly rearranged versions (different "Shout" intro, more guitar in "Head Over Heels"). With only one keyboard player (sometimes a bit too low in the mix), no additional backing vocalists and no saxophone player invading songs, it's a relatively small TFF. And I do like it when they get into a groove (end of "Sowing the Seeds" or "Shout" after the middle part). And I love Curt's bass in several places (end of "Mad World"!). Oh, and Roland's French introductions are funny - "sse 'urting"!!
The big bummer here is that Curt talked about putting together a live album years ago. Most of the tracks from ELAHE were played live at one time or another, "Floating Down the River" as well. (In fact there are (I think) only about 30 songs from their catalog that never got played live, and only three (!!!) of them are regular album tracks.) It's just a question of actually releasing something that does their live act justice!
*Mind you, some of the crowds in Brazil or the Philippines some years later were quite large. Also, Roland's far better looking these days compared to the Paris video.
The live version of "Mad World" on the GOLD double CD must be taken from a different gig (anybody know?) and while it's the same arrangement, it sounds noticeably tighter. Why they didn't release THAT concert as a whole is beyond me.
Still, at least we get relatively good versions of the (measly three) new tracks that don't sound nearly as smothered as the overloaded studio recordings. "Call Me Mellow" in particular sounds just so much more fun and involving here, stripped down to its core. And I like the slightly rearranged versions (different "Shout" intro, more guitar in "Head Over Heels"). With only one keyboard player (sometimes a bit too low in the mix), no additional backing vocalists and no saxophone player invading songs, it's a relatively small TFF. And I do like it when they get into a groove (end of "Sowing the Seeds" or "Shout" after the middle part). And I love Curt's bass in several places (end of "Mad World"!). Oh, and Roland's French introductions are funny - "sse 'urting"!!
The big bummer here is that Curt talked about putting together a live album years ago. Most of the tracks from ELAHE were played live at one time or another, "Floating Down the River" as well. (In fact there are (I think) only about 30 songs from their catalog that never got played live, and only three (!!!) of them are regular album tracks.) It's just a question of actually releasing something that does their live act justice!
*Mind you, some of the crowds in Brazil or the Philippines some years later were quite large. Also, Roland's far better looking these days compared to the Paris video.