Rule The World: The Greatest Hits [VINYL]

It's great to have Tears For Fears back, writing and releasing music as well as about to embark on a UK tour next year. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are excellent songwriters and musicians who have given the world many memorable songs, including the iconic Mad World and their anthem, the Beatlesque Sowing The Seeds Of Love. All of the huge smash hits are present and correct here and the biggest moans are probably what aren't on this album, rather than what is. For the uninitiated, this is a perfect single disc compilation that does well to represent Tears For Fears' output over the years. There are even a couple of new songs (I Love You But I'm Lost and Stay) which will entice people such as I, who already have everything Tears For Fears have released on CD. Some of their tracks which really should have made it into a "best of" album are scuppered by the "Greatest Hits" moniker which makes this an exercise in gathering up that band's hits rather than what fans may consider to be their very best songs. With this premise, it's always a bit of a cheek to chuck a couple of new songs into the mix too, but - given that it's their first new material for many years - I'm not complaining.The duo formed in Bath in 1981 and released their first album, The Hurting, in 1983, which immediately gained them admirers for songs such as the aforementioned Mad World (are there many better lyrics than "And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad/The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had"?) , as well as the dark, rhythmic Pale Shelter and the charismatic Change. Their 1985 follow-up, Songs From The Big Chair, arguably bettered their debut, boasting hits such as the magnificently catchy Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Shout, the soulful I Believe and one of the greatest love songs in disguise, Head Over Heels (possibly my favourite Tears For Fears track of all time). It took them another six years to release their third album in 1989, the bombastic The Seeds Of Love which featured the (almost) title track Sowing The Seeds Of Love as well as Woman In Chains and Advice From The Young At Heart. Curt Smith left the band in between their third and fourth album, Elemental, which is represented here by the quasi-orchestral Break It Down Again and Roland Orzabal went on to complete a fifth album without Curt, Raoul And The Kings Of Spain, the title track of which appears on this compilation; perhaps not their finest hour, but still an undeniably Tears For Fears track.Thankfully, Curt and Roland re-united for the sixth Tears For Fears album, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. Probably, and certainly in my opinion, one of the finest albums they made together, but is represented on this compilation by a solitary song, Closest Thing To Heaven. I would urge any fans who aren't familiar with this album to check it out as soon as they can. As I mentioned before, there are two new songs included, one can only presume, to get long-time fans to dip into their pockets, but, for anyone who has everything else, is this album really worth it? Well, apart from providing a rather convincing retrospective of the band on one handy CD (or whatever format you prefer), I'd have to say that the new songs struggle to live up to the rest of the material. I Love You But I'm Lost is especially disappointing and sees Tears For Fears in near-Coldplay mode with lots of spacey synths giving the track an atmospheric, yet ultimately shallow, feel. Stay is a little nicer and almost wanders in Erasure territory with the electronic drums and effects which are layered over the reverb-laden vocals and acoustic guitar. For what it's worth, I believe it may have been a better track with just vocals and guitar. Neither are going to get the listener reaching for the skip button, but I also doubt that either will join the ranks of the listener's very favourite Tears For Fears tracks either.I've given this album the full five stars because I cannot, in all conscience, award a collection that is comprised of a majority of utterly fantastic songs anything less and, again, for anybody who doesn't own any Tears For Fears albums, this is an excellent, bang-up-to-date place to start. For those who have followed them for the last few decades, it offers very little that is new and, indeed, what is new doesn't quite live up to the high standards they have set themselves. It's a shame they didn't include Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down), though, as that is the only track from their previous 1992 Greatest Hits compilation that is missing and, for me, it's a song well worth having. Still, I very much doubt that anybody who likes the band will listen to this and do anything other than love it; from the melodic pop anthems to the soulful slower numbers, they have so many special moments from their career and most of them are captured on this rather brilliant sixteen track album. Just one last thing: it would be doing them a disservice if I failed to mention the many musicians and co-songwriters who made the band what they were; it wasn't all Roland and Curt, even though they are generally who the public think about when Tears For Fears are mentioned. On a short review like this there are, sadly, too many to mention individually, but the cast of dozens, including Nicky Holland, Chris Hughes, Ian Stanley and Alan Griffiths, who helped Orzabal and Smith write, record and perform these timeless songs shouldn't be forgotten. Thank you all and a big welcome back to a truly great band.

Great cd TFF fab

My partner loves this band & was so impressed that I managed to get this for listening to in the car.

Good sound quality. Make sure to clean the records before first use as mine had vinyl swarf from manufacture that impaired the stylus reading the tracks.

Love this

A great collection of tracks, spread over two vinyl records.Sounds great and good quality vinyl.

A thoughtful and easy gift for a life long fan for christmas :)

Good quality, good value for money Fabulous Band great Album