This is the fourteenth installment of "Highlights from My Vinyl Collection," an appreciation of great music, not necessarily rare finds or expensive imports. This is not about "deleted Smiths singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums," as Rob Gordon so eloquently put it, though a small few select gems might appear every now and again.
Tears for Fears - The Hurting
Most of my peers were likely to own Tears for Fears' sophomore release, Songs from the Big Chair. It was a huge mass audience breakthrough for the duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, spawning two #1 hit singles in the US, as well as another in the top 3. And, as much as I truly love that album, I am definitely more of a fan of their debut, The Hurting. For this look at a record in my collection, I will try to avoid repeating my Treblezine review, but that might be somewhat difficult. History definitely looks kindly now on this album, at least outside the UK, where the album hit #1 on the charts and produced four singles, three of which hit top 5 status. In other words, in TFF's home turf, they knew what a gem they had on their hands from the very beginning. Those three singles, "Mad World" (now made famous by the cover version in Donnie Darko), "Pale Shelter," and "Change" are three of my favorite songs from the entire decade. The first time I heard "Change," seeing the video on MTV, I was immediately hooked. I had to hear more. So, it was quite a day for me when I found this vinyl copy of the album (with the above pictured cover, which happens to be the "international" version, whatever that means) for $5.99, slightly more expensive than most of my great finds, but well worth it. Tears for Fears has long been my audio therapy and now it will continue to be, just in a warmer format.
No comments:
Post a Comment