HiRez Poll Tears For Fears - THE SEEDS OF LOVE [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Tears for Fears - THE SEEDS OF LOVE

  • 7

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Terrible Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    105

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At long last, please post your thoughts and comments on this 2020 reissue of the classic album "The Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears.
This 2020 reissue features a brand new 5.1 surround mix of the album from Steven Wilson on the Blu-Ray audio disc included in the super deluxe edition box set.

(y) :) (n)

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Voted 10 absolutely. On first listen, it's already a go-to disc and a demo disc. Very active surrounds, very enveloping sound. Content is solid, packaging is solid. Can't say enough about this Steven Wilson mix. It's top notch!
 
What a day...Oct 9th 2020.
Three fantastic surround releases, two by Steve Wilson!!
Of which this one is top dollar.
Like many here, I've been chomping at the bit, waiting for this one to be released.
They say be careful what you wish for....not in this case.
Seeds of Love is a tour d force in its musical structure and song writing. Let alone the superb singing and instrument playing.
Need a thesaurus for every other word that means fantastic....as it just is!!
The boy's done good...No tears here...a Love it 10.
 
Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears. This Steven Wilson remix is sublime. Up until last night I had never heard this album before. I am now a fan of every song on this album, it is so well done by SW. Very discrete 5.1, truly a model of what a 5.1 mix should be. 10 across the board for content, mix, fidelity.
 
I wasn’t going to pick this up. I could never really get into this album whenever I tried to, the album starts off incredible with Woman In Chain which I absolutely love but from then on it doesn’t really hold my attention. Songs From The Big Chair was always my favourite from them, but I missed out on the blu ray audio of that when it came out. The great reviews and praise for the 5.1 mix this on here is making me rethink ordering this. I don’t want to end up regretting not owning it.
 
It usually takes about 2 listens for me to form an opinion, and that may be a little unfair given the incredible amount of effort that went into the production of this album. Nevertheless, mine is here, and it is a 10, with a couple of minor caveats.

The production (sound quality on vocals and instruments as well as supporting arrangements) lends itself very well to a surround experience and the work Steven Wilson did on the surround is superb. One complaint I have about the sound quality is regarding the percussion. Cymbols, maracas, tambourine, any percussion in the higher end of the spectrum has a "fuzziness" to it (for lack of a better description), perhaps due to digital sourcing or multi tracking - maybe both. It's a minor thing in my opinion but once I heard it, I could not stop hearing it. I am curious if anyone else hears this as well. Having heard that, I tried to determine if it was present in the higher overtones to instruments and voices but didn't hear it in anything else only the percussion. Moving on, my other nit is with the general density of the production. Most songs seem to have layer upon layer of instrumentation, effects, one-off arrangements of an instrumental fragment, buried vocals, etc. Wow, the effort put into this is staggering. One wonders if a simpler approach would have served some of the songs a little better. But like I said, it makes the surround experience top notch.

Song quality is consistently very good, better overall than Songs from the Big Chair, though Big Chair's heights were, IMHO higher than those found in Seeds of Love. I never heard this album before, but it will get a lot of listens from me. It's definitely a desert island package even though a desert island wouldn't be expected to have electricity. I would also take the Lennon "Imagine" box set as there is plenty of supplemental reading to keep one occupied until global warming and rising sea levels submerge the island for good. Going back in time, I recall the song "Seeds of Love" was touted (by I do not remember who) as an homage to the Beatles, and I can see rhythmic shades of "I am the Walrus" and the horn solo is sort of similar to Sgt Pepper era Beatles, and to me it falls a little short. But hey it is still a good song.

To keep this as short as possible, it was easier to write about the few nits I had, rather than go into each and every one of the positives. This is a great release, and I am really glad to have this. As I said before, a 10.
 
My copy arrived late yesterday evening but I didn't have time to listen to it. I was anxious to hear the title track so I did demo that one cut before retiring late last night.
I bought the original CD when it was released. I loved the Sowing the Seeds of Love track and MTV video. The Beatlesque style was very obvious and enjoyable to me. I thought they did a great job of building the song up to it's glorious finale. The rest of the disk didn't really grab me, and over all, I prefer their Songs From the Big Chair release. I probably haven't listened to The Seeds of Love CD for over a decade now.
So last night I anxiously put in the new disk and selected the Sowing the Seeds of Love track and ... it was just OK. The mix sounded off to me with some of the vocal parts mixed too low and it didn't seem to build up to the glorious finale that I remembered. Strange. After listening to the song I sat there fairly disappointed. Yes the mix is in surround sound but it wasn't as good as I had hoped or imagined. Then I did something that I never do with these surround disks.... I saw that they had included the original 1989 Bob Ludwig stereo versions and so I played the stereo (gasp!) track. Immediately, I had to turn up the volume to get it to a good listening level (Wilson's 5.1 is mastered higher) and the sound that came out was beautiful, with an almost 3D sound from just the two main stereo speakers. I actually had to verify that my AVR was outputting stereo and not an up-mixed surround sound, it wasn't. Hummm. I played the 5.1 track again and I could obviously hear the surround mix is wider and more spacious, but to me, it is missing some.... magic.
Today, I've listened to the entire disk twice and the title track several times, and think it's OK. Unfortunately, it's not the glorious, magical surround sound experience I was expecting based off of the music.... much like my feelings for The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - it could have been so much more. I'm leaning towards an 8 for the poll, but I want to give it some more time and a few more listenings...
 
My copy arrived late yesterday evening but I didn't have time to listen to it. I was anxious to hear the title track so I did demo that one cut before retiring late last night.
I bought the original CD when it was released. I loved the Sowing the Seeds of Love track and MTV video. The Beatlesque style was very obvious and enjoyable to me. I thought they did a great job of building the song up to it's glorious finale. The rest of the disk didn't really grab me, and over all, I prefer their Songs From the Big Chair release. I probably haven't listened to The Seeds of Love CD for over a decade now.
So last night I anxiously put in the new disk and selected the Sowing the Seeds of Love track and ... it was just OK. The mix sounded off to me with some of the vocal parts mixed too low and it didn't seem to build up to the glorious finale that I remembered. Strange. After listening to the song I sat there fairly disappointed. Yes the mix is in surround sound but it wasn't as good as I had hoped or imagined. Then I did something that I never do with these surround disks.... I saw that they had included the original 1989 Bob Ludwig stereo versions and so I played the stereo (gasp!) track. Immediately, I had to turn up the volume to get it to a good listening level (Wilson's 5.1 is mastered higher) and the sound that came out was beautiful, with an almost 3D sound from just the two main stereo speakers. I actually had to verify that my AVR was outputting stereo and not an up-mixed surround sound, it wasn't. Hummm. I played the 5.1 track again and I could obviously hear the surround mix is wider and more spacious, but to me, it is missing some.... magic.
Today, I've listened to the entire disk twice and the title track several times, and think it's OK. Unfortunately, it's not the glorious, magical surround sound experience I was expecting based off of the music.... much like my feelings for The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - it could have been so much more. I'm leaning towards an 8 for the poll, but I want to give it some more time and a few more listenings...

This jogged my memory, from listening to the stereo mixes on Saturday. There were two times, when my head turned to the speaker to my left, i.e. the seperation of the sound & had to stop myself from thinking this wasn't the 5.1 mix.
I agree with what you say about the 5.1 mix. I feel it could have been better. It's not that "WOW" that i expected / hoped for.
 
I remember buying this album on cassette back in the day... I bought it after hearing “Sowing The Seeds of Love” and thought the whole album would be “Beatle-ish” based on the album cover. Well, it wasn’t, so it didn’t get a lot of repeat listens. Now, decades later, I’m really digging this in surround. I found five tracks I love, and the fidelity and mix are superb. Can’t wait to listen again when I get home tonight!
 
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