Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection (Jewl)

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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.

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.

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.

Tears For Fears are my all-time favorite band. This CD is a millenium edition of their biggest hits and also a B-Side.

Two songs on here are different from the versions on their parent album. I Believe(A Soulful re-recording) is more electronic than the Big Chair LP version and the ending is a jumble of saxophones playing. The hit version of Mothers Talk was not the parent album version, it was the remix version. The remix version is less hard and a slight bit more jazzy but actually is better than the original.

This is not a bad sampler of the best band is the world but I say go and get the Shout: Very Best of TFF. That one is a better investment.

A plus on here is the inclusion of a B-Side called Pharaohs. Pharaohs is the B-Side to Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Pharaohs is a very haunting beautiful song that samples the drum loop and several guitar structures from EWTRTW but played with different notes to give a whole different feel even with the familiar guitar and synth licks.

I in no way am dissmissing this CD but I would suggest getting the 2001 Hits Shout: Very Best Of TFF for their bigger hits and for the B-Sides get the brilliant Saturnine Martial Lunatic CD. It has eighteen B-Sides including Pharaohs. This CD is more for the newbies who want to hear a good sampler CD of TFF. On top of it all though I say get all of their CDs including Raoul And The Kings Of Spain and get Roland Orzabals brilliant solo debut Tomcats Screaming Outside.

As a die-hard fan of this band, I would say that this is not a very good collection of their songs to start with, first off, this has the song "Phaorahs", which has it's own bussiness being on another CD and not really being on a "Best Of" CD. This CD also leaves out a few of TFF's early hits-Pale Shelter and Mad World. The way that this collection is thrown together says that it's best to buy their 1992 hits collection.

I agree with previous reviewers who think this is best left to those who have only a marginal interest in Tears for Fears - I happen to be in that category myself.

What this collection does have going for it is that most of the songs included will be familiar to anyone who owned a radio in the 80s and early 90s. This truly is a hits collection, with very little filler. I'm particularly pleased that this includes Break It Down Again, which was not on the "Tears Roll Down" collection. The extended version of Change and the b-side Pharoahs are the only rarities included, which is fine with me. Personally, I'd rather not wade through a bunch of their album tracks - just give me the hits. If I want to hear more, I'll get the original albums. No 80s collection is complete without a little Tears for Fears, and if you're only interested in the hits, this is the one to have.

The duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith made their album debut with "The Hurting" (1983) gold certified, represented on this - "THE BEST OF TEARS FOR FEARS" with the exended version of "CHANGE" found on track ten. The '80s would not have been the same if "EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD" (1985) along with "SHOUT" (1985) both tunes charted number one on the pop charts.

For a short time "TEARS FOR FEARS" were bigger than life. It seems like an eon has gone by since they "ruled the world," and quite frankly, the music world was a better place when Raoul "Roland" Orzabal and Curt Smith were residing on the throne. But this album will bring it ALL back, when you give a listen to "best of" from the most significant music artists of the past century!

Total Time: 55:47 on 11 Tracks/ Mercury Records - 314 542 492 2 (2000)

People seem to really dislike these 20th Century Masters "Best Of" collections, but they've been quite useful to me in that they have allowed me to (affordably) explore an artist's catalog beyond just the radio hits. I was familiar with the first four singles on this collection, but wanted to hear a bit more Tears for Fears material without committing to the full studio albums.

I think the record company nailed it perfectly with the Tears for Fears 20th Century Masters album. They picked the band's best known singles, added some deeper cuts, cleaned up the sound considerably, and presented them in a very affordable package. You get about an hour's worth (more than the typical 20th Century Masters disc) of material, including all of the band's radio hits, digitally remastered, all for about half the cost of the average CD.

The Best of Tears for Fears: the 20th Century Masters Millennium Collection is an ideal introduction to one of the 80's better pop acts. It provides a great overview of the band's catalog to the casual fan (like me). Even if you just want to get the band's biggest hits in one place, it's hard to beat this compilation in terms of price and sound quality.

NOTE: This compilation is also available in eco-friendly packaging (recycled paper sleeves and trays, liner notes posted online rather than including a CD booklet), for those who prefer a "greener" approach to CD buying.

Don't buy this vastly imcompletely compilation.

Tears For Fears are a superb band and their music is among the best of the last 25 years but this so-called 'Millenium Collection' misses the mark by miles.

Go get the "Shout: Very Best of" collection as it has almost 80 minutes of their singles and has a much more complete scope of their career.

As for "Pharaohs", get "Saturnine Martial and Lunatic" instead.

This 'Millenium Collection' is completely unnecessary.

Go with the "Shout" compilation - which is far superior to this.