Because I'm lazy, I simply threw my German review into Google Translate. Expect some fixes later.
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Five stars, "but" ... (read on!)
In 2013 there was the box for the 30th birthday of Tears for Fears' first album "The Hurting", one year later the anniversary of their greatest success "Songs from the Big Chair" was celebrated (prematurely!) with an even more extensive re-release . Since 2015 fans have been hoping for a box set that will celebrate the third and most ambitious TFF work "The Seeds of Love". Blogger Paul Sinclair, who was instrumental in all three sets as co-compiler and interviewer, fueled these hopes year after year, but ultimately it took until 2020 for the reissue to finally see the light of day. A few months earlier the first two box sets were reissued, but the repress is already sold out again!
A brief overview: The first two CDs contain the original album and most of the single tracks released from 1989 to 1991. CD 3 contains work-in-progress recordings and a few other radio edits, while CD 4 is devoted to demos and townhouse sessions. On the Blu-Ray Disc there are two different masterings of the original mix as well as the surround mix by Steven Wilson, who described the undertaking as probably his most demanding remix project ever and in the booklet also provides information about where he did not quite succeed in "recreating" the original mix.
The box itself is pretty nice to look at (e.g. with the symbols that mix between the usual format and copyright information), even if the title "Rhythm of Life" is referred to as "Rhythm of Love" on the back. I find it a bit strange that the box is flatter than "The Hurting" and "Songs from the Big Chair", even though it contains more discs than "The Hurting". Is that supposed to suggest that the album is weaker than the first two? If so, I strongly disagree. With its sophisticated mixture of Beatles pop, blues, jazz, soul, rock, ambient and classical influences, "Seeds" is still one of my all-time favorite albums.
Annoying: The sticker is so oversized that you can practically not stick it anywhere without covering the artwork or lettering. That was done better with the first two boxes.
Unfortunately, a certain lack of love also runs through the inner artwork. At least I would have made the disc sleeves much more colorful and included a poster of the cover in LP size. (Unfortunately, the cover on the box is cut due to the rectangular format.) However, the beautifully designed booklet and the reprint of the tour program make up for it, although the latter seems a bit unsuitable given the complete lack of live recordings. What is also missing are the lyrics again. This is only available on the individually re-released single CD, which I would
clearly advise against buying. Why?
Because CD 1 is a disappointment. Announced as the new remaster by Andrew Walter, who did a really good job on "... Big Chair", it is actually a minimally modified version of the 1999 remaster by Jon Astley, which I and others criticized! (If you lower the volume of the CD from 1999 by 0.3dB, the two versions are identical down to the last bit.) I really expected more. Limiting at the loud places may have been en vogue in 1999, but SFTBC in particular showed in 2014 where the trend is heading, namely away from the loudness war.
The second (and last in the deluxe edition) CD is titled "The Sun" and contains almost everything that was released on singles at the time. Among them are five songs that did not make it onto the album and four of which were already on the 1999 CD, three again on the (unfortunately incomplete) B-side collection "Saturnine, Martial & Lunatic" from 1996.
The depressed "Tears Roll Down" is a polyrhythmic, experimental piece that ends in a chorus. After Curt Smith left, Roland Orzabal made a "complete" song out of it (which is not included here, "Laid So Low" from 1992), but the original has a bit more warmth and charm. "Always in the Past" is one of my all-time favorite TFF songs and with its driving bass groove and catchy chorus is actually much too commercial for a single B-side. Apparently the song, which also has a great guitar solo, was actually intended for the album. "My Life in the Suicide Ranks" (the only B-side that was not taken into account in 1999) is the complete opposite: over a rhythm actually programmed for "Rhythm of Life", Roland Orzabal spontaneously improvises a crazy vocal that reaches the highest heights . According to Chris Hughes, there is more "under-produced" material like this, but none of it is on the box. "Music for Tables" is an elegant, repetitive instrumental and one of the better TFF experiments. "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams", the intensely experimental togetherness of a hymn-like chorus and "Sowing the Seeds of Love" transformed into a rap, gets a lot of space. In addition to the regular version, there is the instrumental (without vocals and rap!) as well as the remixes by Fluke released in 1991, which were successful in the dance charts as an "anonymously" released single (number 1!). "Mix One" was already on "Saturnine ..." and consequently takes the piece further, while "Mix Two" completely dispenses with the vocal part and is therefore much less interesting.
Among the remaining bonus tracks, a few rarities stand out in particular: The full instrumental version of "Woman in Chains" clearly shows the perfection of the sound - and whoever dares to take on Roland Orzabal and Oleta Adams can do karaoke
"Advice for the Young at Heart "is mixed significantly differently in the single version, for example the guitars sound stronger and there are wind effects in the intro. "Year of the Knife" is also a completely different mix in parts and was probably an attempt to condense the seven-minute epic into a single, but ultimately only appeared in Canada as a promo. There is an edit of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" popular with German radio stations that throws the entire middle section overboard: nice to have.
On the other hand, the regular single version of the same song is less interesting, which is simply faded out a little earlier than the LP version. Even more annoying is the "Italian Radio Edit" of "Advice for the Young at Heart" - simply the LP version that is abruptly faded out at a completely inappropriate point. Unnecessary! Unfortunately, the "full version" of the title track is missing, which runs longer than the LP version and is mixed slightly differently. Apart from that, the CD is a successful all-round, and also reasonably sequenced.
Unfortunately, this CD also has its quirks. In "Always in the Past" the opening chat is missing. OK, it's just a second, but who was bothered by it? The sound is a bigger more annoyance. The rarities sound good, but the B-sides have lost a lot of dynamism compared to the 1999 CD, the chorus of "Tears Roll Down" is extremely loud. Why? And isn't it actually the point of mastering to give a CD a uniform volume? This simply isn't the case here.
The holy grail for TFF disciples are undoubtedly CDs 3 and 4, which can only be found in the box set. While SFTBC has already given five exclusive insights into the way the duo works, here we get full service. Fans know: "The Seeds of Love" was a difficult birth. Several producers and a lot of musicians were worn out in different recording studios until the album was finally finished after almost three years. Judging by this, the material contained here is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
CD 3, "The Moon", opens with an orchestral intro that was supposed to go over as an overture to "Year of the Knife", which was still planned as an opener (!) at the time. The song is available immediately afterwards as a backing track, which is longer than the LP version due to the intro and an additional verse.
A fully played out version of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" follows. The mix is not quite finished: Orzabal's vocals have an echo in some places that is very reminiscent of John Lennon, some effects are still missing, in the middle a guitar solo suddenly appears and at the end Orzabal's vocals really go wild. Great!
"Tears Roll Down" is the only B-side that is available in an alternate version. This is much longer and has a lot more echo in the chorus.
The most abridged version of "Year of the Knife" follows, which was probably planned as a regular 7 "single, otherwise it is similar to the version on CD 2.
"Badman's Song" is already quite close to the finished version, but the piano intro and some guitar tracks are still missing.
"Advice for the Young at Heart" is titled as an instrumental, but not entirely without vocals. Still nice to hear.
"Year of the Knife (The Mix)" is a particularly curious variant. The version, probably intended as a 12" track, was created with the participation of Chris Hughes and Andy Connell from Swing Out Sister. The rock rhythm of the original has been replaced by a completely different beat, which sounds kind of exciting and strange at the same time. We also get the deleted verse - which adds nothing essential to the song.
"Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" is represented again in the Fluke version, this time as a promo edit of "Mix One". OK to have.
Much more interesting is the original, completely "naked" backing track of "Sowing the Seeds of Love". Here you can finally hear the e-piano and organ tracks in their full beauty.
Another radio edit manages to shorten "Woman in Chains" to a measly four minutes. Less interesting.
There is also an instrumental version of the "Year of the Knife" single version.
The "French Radio Edit" of "Famous Last Words" is only included for the sake of completeness, the first verse is missing.
At the end, the electric piano from "Woman in Chains" can be heard in isolation. OK.
CD 4, "The Wind", is then devoted exclusively to unpublished material. At the beginning there are four demos that Roland Orzabal and Nicky Holland recorded on cassette in 1986. "Advice for the Young at Heart" shows that the decision to give the song to Curt Smith was the right one. Except for the long middle section, "Swords and Knives" is very close to the finished product. The same applies to "Famous Last Words". The greatest discovery is certainly "Rhythm of Life", the song that TFF recorded several times, but ultimately rejected - it was not until 1991 that it finally reappeared on Oleta Adams' solo album "Circle of One". In this demo version Orzabal's limitless voice is astonishing. You have to hear it!
"Sowing the Seeds of Love" is available as an instrumental demo with a different beginning.
The (unfortunately only) excerpt from the interrupted sessions with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley is very exciting. "Badman's Song" (still instrumental) is basically recognizable, but the sound aesthetic is completely different from the later LP version.
How "The Seeds of Love" finally matured to the end result can be heard at the "Townhouse Jams". With Oleta Adams on piano and vocals, Simon Clark on organ, Neil Taylor on guitar, Pino Palladino on bass, Manu Katché on drums and percussionist Carole Steele, they work their way through a few songs. "Woman in Chains" sounds more earthy here and still has a few structural differences to the finished product. "Badman's Song" is available as a regular version, from which some elements have been retained for the LP, as well as a fooling around, in which Orzabal falls into "All Day and All of the Night" and Oleta Adams jokingly demands that the men with the white jackets should be called! A briefly played "Broken" (including solo) is just as fun. "Rhythm of Life" is represented again, but unfortunately this more organic version breaks off after three minutes. "Standing on the Corner of the Third World" is really long, it's still without all the overdubs of the LP version and comes up with interesting developments at the end.
As great as it is to hear these recordings: Selecting just 30 minutes from what is apparently a full twelve hours of audio material is, in my opinion, just not enough. Even if Paul Sinclair assured me that these were the best recordings and that most of the material consists of other versions of "Woman in Chains" and "Badman's Song": With a quarter of an hour space on the CD it would have been really appropriate to choose a few more alternative takes - also in view of the many single and radio edits!
Finally, the fifth disc is not a DVD, as in the previous boxes, but a Blu-Ray disc. However, its content caused a lot of displeasure: It had long been known that Steven Wilson had created a surround mix for the album (a stereo mix too, but he didn't want to see it published - in my opinion a bad decision, if only due to the limited resolution of the original mix). There is also the original mix in stereo, both in the "new" remaster (see above) and in the still best version, namely Bob Ludwig's original master from 1989. However, many fans had also hoped for video material, and that is still there the large capacity of a Blu-Ray. The concert recording "Going to California", published on VHS and Laserdisc, was released as bonus material on the DVD "Scenes from the Big Chair" in 2005 and is considered an excellent document by a musically high-class band (see tour program!). The video clips (especially "Sowing the Seeds of Love") are very aesthetic and lively implement the LP and single artwork.
The lack of any live recordings is generally a weak point. So far there have always been at least a few songs. Hopefully Tears for Fears will release complete live albums on CD, DVD or Blu-Ray in a few years' time (I received an audio clip of the "Going to California" laser disc from a fan friend and burned it to myself as a terrific double live album ).
Nevertheless, just because of CD 3 and 4 (I haven't heard the 5.1 mix yet, but it has already received extremely good feedback on the relevant forums), I can't really deduct a star. "The Seeds of Love" is and remains one of my all-time favorite albums, and the bonus material, as well as the very informative interviews, is a nice addition. You should just be aware that at least on CD, the original release is clearly preferable when it comes to the sound.
The booklet is really great with a lot of information that even TFF fans didn’t know before (although you could easily write a whole book about the long recording process). The circumstances surrounding Curt Smith's exit are also mentioned here. As should be known, with the next album "Elemental", Roland Orzabal continued right where "The Seeds of Love" left off. Even if I don't like the '93 album as much as the '89 masterpiece because of the less colourful production and some weak songs in the second half, we can only hope that the deluxe edition of "Elemental" (so far never re-released!) will also see the light of day soon.