20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection (Jewl)

Tears For Fears | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 27, 2000)
• Original Release Date: June 27, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B00004U0OU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,292 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The 20th Century Masters series is the best-selling single-artist line in music history and is being re-released by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) in its ground-breaking, environmentally-friendly packaging format. A first for the music industry, the standard package (both sleeve and tray) will be completely paper-recyclable, continuing the company's long-standing commitment to being "green."

To further reduce the amount of paper in the Eco-Pack, the CD booklet will no longer be offered. Official liner notes are easily accessible on the Internet at http://www.ilovethatsong.com/green.

UMe is the first North American music company to replace the traditional jewel case with recycled paperboard sleeves and the plastic tray with trays made from PaperFoam®, a new packaging technology from Shorewood Packaging, a business of International Paper, that is paper-recyclable and biodegradable. Shorewood Packaging is the first North American packaging supplier to produce disc trays from PaperFoam®. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars TFF makes great music, but this isn't the collection to get, June 18, 2005

By 

L.A. Scene (Indian Trail, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection (Jewl) (Audio CD)

Tears For Fears is my favorite group, so it is very hard for me to be critical of any effort that they release. However when I look at the various compilations available for Tears For Fears, I definitely see "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection" as the weakest of all the compilations on there. As someone who is a deep Tears For Fears fans, this compilation focuses on the hits. It brings a couple of things that may be unique, but ultimately not enough for a deep fan to add this to his/her collection.

Tears For Fears was a band formed by Bath England's Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. Curt and Roland would leave Graduate in 1981. Much of the reason why they left Graduate was that they didn't want to be confined to a band. When they would form Tears For Fears - they would operate in a "project" mode. This would mean that Curt and Roland would form the nucleus and bring in surrounding musicians to help them complete the picture. Tears For Fears would release three albums with Curt and Roland as the core nucleus: "The Hurting" (1982); "Songs From the Big Chair" (1985), and "The Seeds of Love" (1989). For the first two albums, the lineup would also consist of Keyboardist Ian Stanley and Drummer Manny Elias. On the third album, R&B/Gospel singer Oleta Adams would also be a part of the project. There are also many other various and talented musicians that would work with Tears For Fears - including Nicky Holland, who emerge as a key songwriter on "The Seeds of Love". Unfortunately, after "The Seeds of Love", Curt and Roland would go separate ways. Roland would continue to record and perform under the Tears For Fears name - releasing two albums "Elemental" (1993) and "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" (1995). It wasn't until 2004's "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending", where Curt and Roland would reunite as Tears For Fears once again.

Many people associate Tears For Fears as a 1980s "Pop" band. This is partially true. In a lot of ways, their music reflects the 1980s Pop music scene. As many are aware, the early 1980s sound started out as a Synth-Pop song, but by the late 1980s transformed to a more "natural" guitar-laden sound. When Tears For Fears would release "The Hurting", you could generalize it as Synth-Pop, but it really was an album that put a dark and haunting spin on New Wave. As the title indicated, many of the songs dealt with hurt and pain. By the time "Songs From the Big Chair" was released, it could be argued that the band moved more toward a Pop sound. But the sound would incorporate elements of jazz, and even harder-rock. By the time "The Seeds of Love" was released, they would have completely transformed themselves to a natural, guitar-laden sound - some would even term this sound as "Beatlesque". Overall - innovation is not a problem with Tears For Fears.

For this collection, eight of the songs are from the two most successful commercial albums - "Songs From the Big Chair" and "The Seeds of Love". There is one song from "The Hurting", one song from "Elemental", and one B-side song that was also released on "Saturnine, Martial and Lunatic" CD- a CD devoted to rare and B side songs by Tears For Fears. There is no song included from "Raoul and the Kings of Spain", but that is because this collection focuses on material done for Polygram records and "Raoul" was done for Sony Records. The distribution of "hits" is as follows: "The Hurting" ("Change" - an extended version); "Songs From the Big Chair" ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Shout", "Head Over Heels", "I Believe" - 'a soulful recording', "Mothers Talk" - 'U.S remix'); "The Seeds of Love" ("Sowing the Seeds of Love", "Woman in Chains", "Advice for the Young at Heart"); "Elemental" ("Break it Down Again"), and the song "Pharaohs" (from "Saturnine")

Unfortunately "Millennium" doesn't have its tracks in chronological order. I usually prefer my greatest hits compilations to be in chronological order. This allows me to see how the band has evolved over time. With the case of Tears For Fears, this would have been a most positive thing - because this band not only evolved - but they underwent a transformation during the 1980s.

Here are other compilations to consider:

"Shout: The Very Best of Tears For Fears": This is a more comprehensive collection than "Millennium". All of the original songs on "Tears Roll Down" are on "Shout". For the most part, this collection also goes in a chronological order.

"Tears Roll Down: Greatest Hits 82-92": This includes 11 songs from the first three albums. All of the songs from "Millennium" except for "Break it Down Again" and "Pharaohs" are on this collection. Instead of "Pharaohs", this includes "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" - this song is also from the "Saturnine" collection and is a better song.

"Ultimate Collection": This is a three CD import set - and is the most comprehensive set. It includes 37 songs in chronological order. It includes songs through 1995's "Raoul and the Kings of Spain". One of the CDs is devoted to remixes and also contains a rare Curt Smith solo track. If you are looking to go deep, this would be the collection to get.

"Millennium" is clearly the weakest of the compilations out there. Overall, this is clearly a economically affordable collection that is geared more toward the new or casual fan of Tears For Fears. However, one may still get more value my looking at the "Shout" or "Tears Roll Down" collections. Better yet, you may want to invest in "Songs From the Big Chair" and "The Seeds of Love" to get the 8 songs from these albums. While Tears For Fears makes great music, this isn't the collection to get to listen to it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare find, January 7, 2001

By 

Darren Peterson (Fargo, ND) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection (Jewl) (Audio CD)

For thirteen years I had searched for a better recording of the US remix of Mothers Talk, which I bought in 1986 as a scratchy vinyl 45, and the closest I got was another very poorly recorded version on the remastered Songs From The Big Chair with bonus tracks. This new album "completed" my TFF collection, and the quality of the Mothers Talk recording is excellent! This collection is a must-have for anyone who love the music of TFF, and particularly the US remix of MT that unfortunately received very little air-play back in 1986.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars TFF's best package a CRYING Shame, August 7, 2000

By 

B. Ackley "jumpstudios" (Douglasville, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection (Jewl) (Audio CD)

Was quite disappointed with the overall selection of songs for this latest "best" package. While Tears For Fears' had only a short run of hit singles in the mid to late 80's, their work was far more exciting than what is presented here. Early synth-pop tracks like "pale shelter" were overlooked as was Orzabal's later "solo" TFF work. The package does try to update the TFF story with the inclusion of "break it down again" (the only "solo" Orzabal track) but still falls short of being a great "best of" collection. Check out "tears roll down (greatest hits 82-92) instead.