Songs From the Big Chair

The two most popular tracks are bangers but all together it's just not for me :(

TEARS FOR FEARS É FODA

New Wave Prog Masterpiece. Equal parts warm soul and cold synths.

pretty good in spots

Gets my vote for best album of the 80s. "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" are perfect pop, and the rest of the tracks are great too. At 45 minutes, it never outstays its welcome.

An 80’s pop masterpiece.

The opening track 'Shout' sets the ethos of album perfectly. The musical space created across 'Songs From the Big Chair' is voluminous and enveloping, thanks to ambient keyboard pads and reverb-a-plenty. The result is a sense that each song feels like there is enough space in it to shout your lungs out and still barely be heard. And from within that space, the group laments, longs, reflects, and rejoices. The track 'Working Hour' shows how enchanting the effect can be.

It really is a beautifully enduring album, in addition to being a powerhouse hit of its time.

Love the hits...head over heels is an absolute banger. However there was too much filler. 3/5

not my jam

I was delighted to see this pop up, one of my favorite albums of the 80s! Put it on and went for a jog this morning, great start to the day. Maybe it's not completely perfect, more like a 9/10. But without a doubt one of the best pop albums ever released.

I have very mixed feelings. Parts of this album (e.g., Mothers Talk) are too "Rick Astley" for me to enjoy unironically. Other parts are too sappy for me to take seriously (e.g., I Believe). On the other hand, Everybody Wants To Rule The World is deservedly eternal and the opening to Head Over Heels (also, closing notes to Broken) make me feel like I'm heading out on an amazing adventure. Shout is also a banger. The 80's synth-pop vibe is something I had to grow to appreciate; I have to get past ingrained bias against traditional wood and metal instruments. That said, I've listened to it four times today and have zero regrets. 4/5.

Shout has me off the bat interested in where this album goes. Everybody Wants To Rule The World is a perenial hit. The rest is just sort of filler.

I grew up with this album on cassette in my early pre-teen years. And it has been fun to re-listen to this after so many years. And interesting how well this music has been ingrained in my memory.
It's a great album with some really good songwriting, even better than I remember.
But on the other hand Tears for Fears suffers from the thing that's so prevalent in the 80's, and that is that every possible silence had to be filled with another sound. And another. A cowbell here, a trumpet there, a quick voice over the top and then a drumroll.
Nothing wrong with their songwriting, clearly talented, but the lesson of 'less is more' never reached them.

Pretty bad

I love new wave. It definitely feels dated but I can’t help but still dig it. This album is one of the better ones

I just knew one song from this band, but this album surprised me. It's very good.

80-talet komprimerat till ett album.