Tears for Fears - Songs From The Big Chair
UPDATE 23/09/25: Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement of a zillion selling mid 80’s art pop classic in Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome, comes another one! Tears for Fears’ 1985 album Songs From The Big Chair is being reissued as an Super Deluxe Edition exclusive blu-ray audio for its 40th anniversary on 14th November, including a brand new Dolby Atmos Mix by yours truly. I’ve also taken the opportunity to update my original 2014 5.1 and stereo mixes with the benefit of 11 years more experience, primarily with the aim to be even more faithful to the original stereo mix. As with FGTH the original mix for me is definitive and irreplaceable, but as always making my own stereo mix was a necessary step on the way to creating the 5.1 and Atmos mixes, so it’s “thrown in” as an alternative.
Please note that the multi-track tapes for both parts of album track ‘Broken’ are still missing, presumed lost. A decade ago, I made a pseudo 5.1 surround version of this song using Penteo upmix software, but this time around more recent advances in the technology allowed me to split the original 1985 mix of ‘Broken’ into several individual ‘stems’. While no substitute for a proper remix from multitrack tapes, with this I have been able to achieve a greater degree of consistency with the rest of the spatial remix.
All three audio streams (Atmos, 5.1 & Stereo) are also available in instrumental form on the SDE exclusive blu-ray, as well as 12 bonus tracks (original stereo mixes only) of all the extended remixes issued in the UK of the various singles.
ORIGINAL POST: My remix of Tears for Fears' iconic 80’s album “Songs From the Big Chair” is included on a 30th anniversary reissue, to be released by Universal Music Group on 4th November.
Songs from the Big Chair was one of the biggest albums of the 80’s, and particularly successful in the USA where it reached number one in the Billboard chart on its way to selling several million copies. It features two US number one singles, Shout and Everybody Wants to Rule the World, as well as 2 more hit singles Head Over Heels and Mother’s Talk.
It’s a brilliant record by a truly innovative 80’s band - both accessible and ambitious. The reissue will be available in several different formats including a stand-alone Blu-Ray and a comprehensive 6 disc deluxe edition with live tracks, singles, B-sides, TV/radio appearances, remixes, videos, and the original mix.
There will also be a vinyl edition of my new stereo mix. The new stereo and 5.1 mixes were overseen and approved by Roland Orzabal (and are included as flat transfers with no mastering).
