Tears For Fears first new album since 2004... The Tipping Point!

[Strilo]

Okay, I did a lot of work to pull out the good posts from my original Tipping Point thread and merge them with the discussion about the CD's mastering. Let's consider this the main thread for the Tipping Point general discussion. I would recommend any and all discussion of the SDE Blu Ray go to the thread on that topic in the Blu Ray forum. Thanks!

 

[Mackspower]

Arrived from CD Japan via DHL today, Sunday which is unheard of in Australia. This is the SHM-CD.
Not sure if the lime tissue paper was just a co-incidence or just the wonderfully thoughtful approach Japan retailers take to all things, and they matched the lime theme of some of the vinyl releases. Hope to have to listen to it tonight.

 

[esimms86]

Staple '80s band Tears For Fears is back on the scene after 17 years : NPR

An 8 minute interview with Curt and Roland.

 

[sjcorne]

Nice live rendition of the title track (I think only some of the background SFX are programmed?):

 

[kap'n krunch]

Just received my Target order and , no surprise, they sent me the "wrong" pressing, it was supposed to be cerulean blue with the extra 7" with 2 songs and I received a green pressing WITHOUT the 7 inch but with a "litho" print which happens to have a huge "dog eared" bend.
I filed a replacement ipso facto and they stated I could keep the item.
Playing it right now and it's a VERY noisy pressing but at least it's not warped. Mind you , I ALWAYS clean LPs before playing and this one sounds like it has a lot of dust; I know because it starts sounding "dirty" most of the time halfway thru the side but on this one it started on the first song... ouch!
¡Que panda de inútiles!!!

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

Does anyone know who the woman on the album cover is?

 

[The56Kid]

Just received my Target order and , no surprise, they sent me the "wrong" pressing, it was supposed to be cerulean blue with the extra 7" with 2 songs and I received a green pressing WITHOUT the 7 inch but with a "litho" print which happens to have a huge "dog eared" bend.
I filed a replacement ipso facto and they stated I could keep the item.
Playing it right now and it's a VERY noisy pressing but at least it's not warped. Mind you , I ALWAYS clean LPs before playing and this one sounds like it has a lot of dust; I know because it starts sounding "dirty" most of the time halfway thru the side but on this one it started on the first song... ouch!
¡Que panda de inútiles!!!

Exactly why I think my personal vinyl journey is in my rearview. For a source to sound dirty on first listen after a cleansing is massively disappointing.

 

[Strilo]

I’ve finished my first listen to the streaming Atmos mix on Apple Music and my hot take is that this is a HELL of a mix. Tons of surround content, lot of discrete items, enveloping choices that have emotional resonance with the song. It's another great mix by Steven Wilson for sure. Can't wait to listen more and to get my Blu Ray!

 

[Strilo]

Did any of our UK friends get the special CD version with the three extra tracks?

 

[Sal1950]

Dang, a DR 5 ???
That's just pitiful

 

[Ranasakawa]

I played the high resolution stereo version today and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Definitely not poppy as their 80s style. I look forward to hearing it in 5.1 in the future

 

[dr. simple]

Did any of our UK friends get the special CD version with the three extra tracks?

I did, but I'm not in the UK.

 

[Strilo]

I played the high resolution stereo version today and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Definitely not poppy as their 80s style. I look forward to hearing it in 5.1 in the future

Wait where did a high resolution stereo version come from?

 

[JediJoker]

Wait where did a high resolution stereo version come from?

Downloads or streaming, I'd imagine. It's available in 24-bit/44.1kHz (debatably "high res") here on Qobuz, and probably elsewhere, too.

 

[Sal1950]

Downloads or streaming, I'd imagine. It's available in 24-bit/44.1kHz (debatably "high res") here on Qobuz, and probably elsewhere, too.

HDTracks sells the 24/44.1 (hi rez) file also.
What a joke hl rez badging has turned into.
Mark Waldrep was (of course) right all along.
I wonder where this file came from? I know the master wasn't done in 24/44.
The hi rez market has gone beyond ridiculous , simply become a big money grab.

 

[kap'n krunch]

HDTracks sells the 24/44.1 (hi rez) file also.
What a joke hl rez badging has turned into.
Mark Waldrep was (of course) right all along.
I wonder where this file came from? I know the master wasn't done in 24/44.
The hi rez market has gone beyond ridiculous , simply become a big money grab.

Mark usually is right... that's why my money is on him!

 

[JulesRules]

The album is on its way to top several charts...

Missed the top spot in the UK but Number Two is still a major achievement.

 

[Strilo]

And does the hi res stereo version have the same dynamic range issues as the CD?

 

[kap'n krunch]

it seems the LP was mastered from a CD... you can definitely notice the 21K cut off on the spectrogram of the LP rip done at 96/24...very sloppy, Roscoe...

(BTW, I think it may be time to get a new stylus cause I am starting to get a LOT of that extra hi freq info on my rips which I had not seen before...finding out WHEN to get a new stylus is a very delicate task cause by the time you can hear it , it's too late; I can not hear it now and I don't want to get to that point!)

 

[JulesRules]

Okay, I did a lot of work to pull out the good posts from my original Tipping Point thread and merge them with the discussion about the CD's mastering. Let's consider this the main thread for the Tipping Point general discussion. I would recommend any and all discussion of the SDE Blu Ray go to the thread on that topic in the Blu Ray forum. Thanks!

Thanks for this - only noticed the existence of this thread now. And I also noticed your signature.
Just came across this interesting comparison:
https://magicvinyldigital.net/2022/...lp-cd-qobuz-tidal-amazon-atmos-blu-ray-audio/

So I found a copy of the CD and this is a bit alarming.

foobar2000 1.6.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Tears For Fears / The Tipping Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR5 -0.35 dB -6.67 dB 4:42 01-No Small Thing
DR5 -0.35 dB -7.76 dB 4:13 02-The Tipping Point
DR5 -0.35 dB -7.11 dB 4:32 03-Long, Long, Long Time
DR5 -0.35 dB -8.04 dB 3:56 04-Break The Man
DR5 -0.35 dB -7.21 dB 3:08 05-My Demons
DR5 -0.35 dB -7.93 dB 6:09 06-Rivers Of Mercy
DR6 -0.20 dB -10.91 dB 3:06 07-Please Be Happy
DR6 -0.35 dB -8.03 dB 4:37 08-Master Plan
DR4 -0.32 dB -5.89 dB 3:24 09-End Of Night
DR6 -0.20 dB -9.12 dB 4:37 10-Stay
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of tracks: 10
Official DR value: DR5
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 1536 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

So "End of Night" is officially the most compressed song ever released by TFF (the European mastering of "Who Killed Tangerine?" also came in at DR4 but with a higher peak and lower RMS should be slightly better). No wonder my ears were hurting!

I played the high resolution stereo version today and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Definitely not poppy as their 80s style. I look forward to hearing it in 5.1 in the future

I wouldn't call tracks like "Memories Fade", "Start of the Breakdown", "The Working Hour", "I Believe", "Broken", "Listen", "Badman's Song", "Standing on the Corner of the Third World", "Swords and Knives", "Year of the Knife" or "Famous Last Words" poppy!