Tears For Fears' first album. Best debut ever?

[bristolian]

great shout. I am absolutely with you- The Hurting is all raw talent and just great songs. I have fond memories of them, saw them in Bath aged about 12/13 when they were just hitting the bigtime. Saw them around the time of Rule/Run the World 2/3 yrs later in Brum and thought they were a massive le t down- short set, poor standard of play, juts not interested. I actually love the title track The Hurting.

[iainn]

Loved this album.have it on vinyl.I remember seeing them in 1990 on the seeds of love tour in b'ham,thought they were brill.

[dynatech]

I've never owned 'The Hurting' but the singles from it are classics & still sound good today. They did 'jump the shark' straight away, they recorded and junked most of a follow-up (late '83 single The Way You Are has been practically air-brushed out of history). I have the 'Songs From The Big Chair' album on tape, and it has dated terribly - lumpen, earnest, overwrought, over-produced. Mothers Talk is about the best track on there Head Over Heels is ok, Everybody Wants to Rule The World is an ok pop single but it has been far too overplayed, Shout was far too long and the rest collapsed under the weight of pretentious lyrics. Sowing The Seeds of Love (the track) was worth the 4-year wait (it's Beatles-esque construction & 6-minute length pre-dates Oasis by some 5 years) but the album Seeds Of Love was not - though it was a lot better than SFTBC.
The 'Tears Roll Down' singles collection is a worthy addition to any collection, but past 'The Hurting' they represent all that went wrong with the 80's music scene, and why 85/86 was an anti-climax after the richness of the 1980-84 pop goldmine

[steve56]

Sewing the seeds etc was like a Beatles track semi psychedelic Video was good too its on one of the Now Videos.

[dynatech]

Sowing The Seeds Of Love stands out as one of the greatest singles of 1989 - and showed TFF were still capable of great work. They released it at the right time, just as 'retro' was rising. In the mid-late 80's, a lot of otherwise fine music was spoiled by the production trends of the time, from the horrible big drum sounds loaded with echo to the hackneyed over-use of 'New-Jack' style beats & samples, the glorious latter half of 1989 saw a growth in popularity of more blues-style rock & the release of several 'slow-burning' albums (Pauls Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz, Terence Trent D'Arby's Neither Fish Nor Flesh being 3 examples) that courted a more traditional & authentic production sound - and all of which have aged a lot better than most. If only Roland Orzabal could have made his Seeds of Love album as good as the lead-off single & some of the Oleta Adams stuff he produced at that time (and as pleasant as Woman In Chain & Advice for the Young at Heart are, they were never capable of being big hit singles)

[steve56]

Who recalls China Crisis ?

[WigBilly]

Tracy Chapman's debut knocked me for six first time I heard it back in '88, surely a qualifier for best-ever debut album.

[colonel]

Still touring rock clubs- still going strong and Eddie Lundon has now 'grown into' his face.

[steve56]

Sounded like Joan Armatrading to me doidnt like either.