80'S

so many great songs some to my head when i think of the 80's/ but if u ever want a CD that will bring you back..its this . wow

Essencial!

While "The Hurting" is surely an artistic triumph "Songs From The Big Chair" made Tears For Fears songs.The arrangements
are fuller and a full band sound is evident but their lyrical themes haven't changed-more people just were able to share in them.The result are the classic radio hits "Shout" and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"-not to mention the John Lennon-like "Head Over Heals".It's obvious these guys spent alot of time not just with new wave but with John Lennon and Cat Stevens albums-the songwriting is classic and the aforementioned songs sound timeless despite this albums fairly recent vintage.The uptempo "Broken" is actually very dancable and "I Believe" is a simple,almost Beatlesqe ballad of high note.Mabye in the next twenty years or so "Songs From The Big Chair" will emmerge along with the "Sgt.Pepper"'s and "Pet Sound"s of all-time classic rock albums!

One of the best CDs ever made

Tears For Fears music has endured very well, far better than alot of music from the 1980s. What TFF put in their music was depth and creativity, something alot of other music at the time and especially now lacks.

There were two huge hits off The Big Chair. Shout is one of the angriest and heaviest songs with it's blasting guitars and angry lyrics. Everybody Wants To Rule The World is the other one. EWTRTW is one of the best songs that 1985 offered. There was one lesser hit and that was Head Over Heals.

In my opinion I like the parent album version more than the version on both the Tears Roll Down(Greatest Hits 82-92) & Shout: Very Best Of TFF mainly because the song ends with a live performance of Broken as an attachment for a more incredible listen.

The best song though in my opinion is The Working Hour. This track my favorite song off The Big Chair. It's a very intense song that begins with as an eerie track but then African drums come in and then a huge wash of powerful synthesizers and rock guitars come in.

The other track to point out is the final track(On the 8 song editon of this CD)Listen. Listen is a very apocolyptic song with a cold brooding atmosphere that is more intensified with the industrial mechanical beats and sound effects combined with dark melodies.

The Big Chair was re-issued in 1999 with seven bonus tracks added. The Big Chair(song title), Empire Building, & Marauders are also available on the brilliant B-Sides rarities collection Saturning Martial Lunatic. One track called The Conflict was previously unrealeased. The other three are remixes.

For those who might be turned off by the excessively abstract bonus tracks I wouls say get the older edition but for those want to start their TFF collections get the remastered editions of their first three albums. They're all worth owning.

A great album that was very well handled in it's reissue The Big Chair deserves a place in everyones music collection.

After this TFF would morph into a whole different sound with the artistic pinnacle known as The Seeds Of Love