HiRez Poll Tears For Fears - THE HURTING [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]

[rtbluray]

Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2023 reissue of the classic debut album "The Hurting" from Tears for Fears.
This new 40th anniversary edition is released as a Blu-ray Audio disc exclusively through the SDE store:
https://www.thesdeshop.com/products...g-limited-edition-sde-exclusive-blu-ray-audio(Thanks, @PaulatSDE!)
The Blu-ray Audio disc features the album newly remixed in both 5.1 surround & Dolby Atmos by Steven Wilson!

Pre-release thread for all shipping/ordering queries and non-poll related posts:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...th-steven-wilson-5-1-dolby-atmos-mixes.33905/

 

[Juggsnelson]

Wow this Wilson surround mix is just fantastic. Great fidelity and the mix is very active and really accents the songs. Curt's bass has never sounded better. The numerous competing synth parts are so clear and present.

Suffer the Children is a revelation all on its own. Those sustained piano notes during the second verse! The harmony vocals during the second chorus! The swirling synth towards the end of the track! Just brilliant stuff. The highest 10 I can give.

 

[peterzach]

I don't have Atmos so am rating this on the 5.1 which is in one word,"wonderful". This is definitely my go to listening choice for this album from now on. There are many highlights and I don't want to spoil anything for those that haven't gotten this yet but will mention one song and that is "Pale Shelter" has the lead vocals by Kurt in the front and then when Roland's vocal comes in it's in the rear speakers which is a wonderful choice. Steven Wilson has done another fantastic job of great seperation of the instruments and vocals yet it is very faithful to the original stereo mix and the fidelity is in deed superb.
A 10 for me.

 

[key_wiz]

Easy "10".

One of my all-time favorite albums and the mix is superb. Can't rate the Atmos, but the 5.1 is great and I like it better than the downmixed Atmos as the vocals seem a bit buried on that for some reason.

When the album opened with the drum hits in the rears, I knew it was going to be fantastic. And it is all the way through. "Start of the Breakdown", with the arpeggiated sequence bouncing around the speakers is demo-quality. And best the album has ever sounded, fidelity-wise.

And getting both album covers on the slipcase was a nice bonus as well!

 

[stoopid]

Another easy 10, which I don't easily hand out. Packaging is quality but nothing special, but better than some other releases. The surround and stereo mixes are excellent, top tier. The surround has a few moments of interesting discrete elements/pans/swirls, but is mostly an exceptional immersive mix. SW has mastered his craft.

I love half the songs, only "like" the other half. On a whole the album is very strong musically and lyrically, and enjoyable from start to finish with no filler or skip-worthy songs. Everything punches and feels relevant even all these years later with huge leaps in how this style of music is accomplished. TFF were innovators and we can hear why. 40 years later this album still delivers.

 

[beerking]

Dear God....aka Steven Wilson

Please stop this!!

My Thesaurus is rapidly running out of words which mean the same, when I'm heaping tons of praise on your fantastic, brilliant, breath-taking and just wonderful mix of 'The Hurting'.

Can we just have a category for Stevens work please?

Because this is not 10 or 11 or even 12.

It's infinite.

 

[fetchmybeer]

Yeah, SW just continues to get better. I think this album, as opposed to the latest from TFF, is less dense and easier to mix, particularly in a surround format, but he's just so darn good at making everything sound clean and clear. The original mix is fine...and then you A/B it with the new mix and it has clearly been given the Wilson treatment. Every part is distinct and clear.

I like how he has kind of turned the drums on their axis. You have the snare in the front and the kind of everything else in the back. In some ways, it's consistent with how he does drums on his solo albums lately, with most drums up front and toms and some crashes in the rears. Yet those feel like an upside down U shape (horseshoe?). Since this is all drum machine doing kick, snare, tom, it feels more angular-- like the drums have been turned to go front and back rather than side to side. It is not jarring in the least. It is cool.

You can really appreciate in the mix how much space there actually is in these songs, and how TFF did their cutting/pasting as part of their early songwriting. It goes to show that you don't need a lot of bells and whistles. A drum machine, some synth melodies, a finely strummed guitar to accent. It's all good.

This is a 10. He has taken a great 80s album and made it sound fresh and new while still somehow losing none of its 80s charm.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Dear God....aka Steven Wilson

Please stop this!!

My Thesaurus is rapidly running out of words which mean the same, when I'm heaping tons of praise on your fantastic, brilliant, breath-taking and just wonderful mix of 'The Hurting'.

Can we just have a category for Stevens work please?

Because this is not 10 or 11 or even 12.

The Dolby Atmos or the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix?

 

[The Bright Side]

Easy 10. What else to add to what y'all have already said?

Well, the unearthed versions of those two songs and the instrumentals! That's some tremendous added value that I'm happy to have.

 

[beerking]

The Dolby Atmos or the 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix?

The Dolby Atmos mix, as that is my main interest in surround music.
But also gave the 5.1 mix, a good listen.

I don't know how he can top this release?

 

[RustyStatic]

Easy 10. Echo all of the previous comments and especially @fetchmybeer. While there's nothing "new" in the mixes, there's a ton of "oh wow, that's what they were doing there" and "ah, that's where that sound/vibe came from" as you hear individual elements broken out of their 2D confinement. That's especially true of the percussion (I had a major WTF right in the very beginning of the title track that then provided more insight into how they built the classic, esoteric beat of the song).

Definitive. Icy crispness and also warm and enveloping. An enduring enigma. Essential.

 

[BPWingN]

I am not Atmos equipped so my review is of the 5.1 mix.

I am not very familiar with this album other than the 3 cuts that received airplay. I listened to it last night and.....wow.
Mr. Wilson has hit another home run. The 5.1 mix is active, with lots of discreet use of the rears. The fidelity throughout the album is stellar. There are silky smooth very present highs. The midrange is perfect. The vocals in the center channel are as good as any I've heard. I could go on and on and on.
A very, very well deserved 10.

EDIT: A really big Thank You to Paul and all the folks at SDE for providing us with these releases!

 

[JulesRules]

Since this is all drum machine doing kick, snare, tom

Not all of it, actually - this was a big point of contention between TFF and Mike Howlett, who just wanted to use the LinnDrum on everything while Roland and Curt actually wanted some real live drumming as well. If you compare those Howlett versions, as well as the 1982 BBC sessions, to the album cuts, you can appreciate that.

Anyway, I've only sampled the disc very briefly, but what I heard sounded like Steven managed to recreate the original sonic picture with frightening accuracy.

 

[Quadkid]

I am not Atmos equipped so my review is of the 5.1 mix.

I am not very familiar with this album other than the 3 cuts that received airplay. I listened to it last night and.....wow.
Mr. Wilson has hit another home run. The 5.1 mix is active, with lots of discreet use of the rears. The fidelity throughout the album is stellar. There are silky smooth very present highs. The midrange is perfect. The vocals in the center channel are as good as any I've heard. I could go on and on and on.
A very, very well deserved 10.

EDIT: A really big Thank You to Paul and all the folks at SDE for providing us with these releases!

Just sat down for a listen and I’m also blown away! Even sampled the stereo remix and enjoyed it very much!

 

[gene]

Easiest 10 I ever gave. Such a great job on the mixes. This album has always sounded timeless to me and even more so now with Steve's brilliant 5.1 and ATMOS mixes.

 

[sjcorne]

Joining the "10" crowd - some minor niggles aside (a few spots here and there where the synth drums sound a bit overexposed, lead vocals in the center speaker are a touch veiled), in my book it doesn't get much better than this. The 5.1 & Atmos mixes are quite different in terms of the spatial positioning and both worth checking out, I agree with @key_wiz that the dedicated 5.1 sounds considerably better than the Atmos downmix.
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/tears-for-fears-the-hurting-5-1-surround-sound-dolby-atmos/

 

[key_wiz]

This is on pace to dethrone Dark Side as the highest rated disc on QQ!

Hard to see how anyone can give this less than an 8 or even a 9. The surround mix is one of the best I’ve heard, period. The sound quality is stellar. The only complaint anyone could maybe have is that the material isn’t their cup of tea but even then one has to acknowledge both the quality of the songwriting and that this is peak material for the genre.

 

[key_wiz]

Joining the "10" crowd - some minor niggles aside (a few spots here and there where the synth drums sound a bit overexposed, lead vocals in the center speaker are a touch veiled), in my book it doesn't get much better than this. The 5.1 & Atmos mixes are quite different in terms of the spatial positioning and both worth checking out, I agree with @key_wiz that the dedicated 5.1 sounds considerably better than the Atmos downmix.
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/tears-for-fears-the-hurting-5-1-surround-sound-dolby-atmos/

Nice review.

 

[JulesRules]

Joining the "10" crowd - some minor niggles aside (a few spots here and there where the synth drums sound a bit overexposed, lead vocals in the center speaker are a touch veiled), in my book it doesn't get much better than this. The 5.1 & Atmos mixes are quite different in terms of the spatial positioning and both worth checking out, I agree with @key_wiz that the dedicated 5.1 sounds considerably better than the Atmos downmix.
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/tears-for-fears-the-hurting-5-1-surround-sound-dolby-atmos/

Minor correction: Ross Cullum (not Callum) didn't work on Songs from the Big Chair, David Bascombe took his spot.

Also, the 30th anniversary box erroneously included wrong versions of "Ideas as Opiates" and "We Are Broken" on the second disc. This error was never rectified and the original b-side take of "Ideas as Opiates" has never been on CD at all. I kinda wish they'd included those two tracks as further bonus tracks on the Blu-Ray, but oh well. Can't have everything.

 

[bgf1973]

An easy 10.