Time to eat all your words, swallow your pride, open your eyes: Tears For Fears are finally giving their third album the deluxe treatment.
The Seeds Of Love, the British duo's 1989 release, will be made available October 9 from UMC in a number of formats. The crown jewel is a 4CD/Blu-ray box featuring a new remaster of the album by Andrew Walter at Abbey Road, rare B-sides and remixes, 23 previously unreleased demos, mixes, outtakes and rehearsal audio, plus a long-awaited 5.1 surround remix by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, following up his work on the Songs From The Big Chair box in 2014. (That box was reissued earlier this year, along with a similarly rare 2013 set for TFF's debut The Hurting (1983).) The box also features in-depth liner notes and a replica of the original tour program - all packaged in a lidded box with individual CD wallets, sized to match UMC's other two TFF boxes.
Highlights include rare promo edits of singles like "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" and "Woman In Chains" from around the world, rare mixes of the non-LP B-side "Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams" (released anonymously as a single in 1990), and insightful session material from the vault, including an early instrumental take of album cut "Badman's Song" with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley and an unheard demo of "Rhythm Of Life" - released a year later on the major label debut by Oleta Adams, a singer/songwriter/pianist who contributed mightily to The Seeds Of Love. There's also a half-hour of live jam session material from 1988 featuring Orzabal, Adams, bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Manu Katché running through early, alternate versions of some of the album's tracks. In addition to Wilson's surround remix, the Blu-ray also features Waters' remaster as well as Bob Clearmountain's original master.
If 1985's Big Chair found Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith expanding from the icy synth-pop of debut The Hurting (1983) to melodic, electronic-assisted rock - giving them international hits in "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and "Shout" - The Seeds Of Love found their sound evolving even further, with baroque pop, soul and progressive flourishes unfurling through its grooves. Recorded over three arduous years, the duo largely aborted sessions with Langer & Winstanley and Chris Hughes (who contributed heavily to Big Chair), choosing to self-produce with engineer David Bascombe. An all-star cast of session musicians laid down tracks for the project, from Palladino to Phil Collins and guitarist Robbie McIntosh (formerly of The Pretenders and then a member of Paul McCartney's band). The album's arguable breakout star, though, was Oleta Adams, a Midwestern singer/pianist noticed by the band in a hotel bar while on tour and plucked from obscurity to lend impassioned vocals and piano on opening tracks "Woman In Chains" and "Badman's Song." (TFF's longtime keyboardist Ian Stanley contributed to the Beatlesque title track, "Sowing The Seeds Of Love.")
With anticipation building, "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" rocketed to the Top 10 around the world, reaching No. 5 in the U.K. and No. 2 in America. Follow-up "Woman In Chains" only brushed the lower reaches of the Top 40, however, and "Advice For The Young At Heart" - the only lead vocal on the album by Smith - only dented the Top 40 in Europe. A lengthy tour saw Adams further gain attention as part of the extended live line-up; she later recorded a well-received album produced by Orzabal and Bascombe which featured a Top 10 cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here." After Curt Smith acrimoniously left the group after that tour, Orzabal carried on under the Tears For Fears name for two albums in 1993 and 1995. He and Smith reunited for Everybody Loves a Happy Ending (2005), and another album has been purportedly in development between the group's European tours and the release of two new tracks on 2017's Rule The World: The Greatest Hits.
The Seeds Of Love will also be available as a 2CD set featuring the remastered album and B-sides disc, plus new LP and picture disc pressings. All versions are available October 9 and can be pre-ordered below!
Sowing The Seeds Of Love: Deluxe Edition (Virgin/UMC, 2020)
4CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Picture Disc: uDiscover Music
Disc 1: Remastered album (released as Fontana 838 730-1, 1989)
- Woman In Chains
- Badman's Song
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love
- Advice For The Young At Heart
- Standing On The Corner Of The Third World
- Swords and Knives
- Year Of The Knife
- Famous Last Words
Disc 2: The Sun - 45s and B-Sides
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love (7" Version)
- Tears Roll Down
- Woman In Chains (7" Version)
- Always In The Past
- My Life In The Suicide Ranks
- Woman In Chains (Instrumental)
- Advice For The Young At Heart (7" Version)
- Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams (Instrumental)
- Music For Tables
- Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams (Mix One)
- Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams (Mix Two)
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love (Radio Edit)
- Woman In Chains (U.S. Radio Edit)
- Advice For The Young At Heart (Italian Radio Edit)
- Year Of The Knife (Canadian Single Version)
- Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams
Tracks 1-2 from "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" single - Fontana IDEA 12, 1989
Tracks 3-6 from "Woman In Chains" U.S. 12" single - Fontana 876 249-1, 1989
Tracks 7-9 and 16 from "Advice For The Young At Heart" CD single - Fontana IDCD 14, 1990
Tracks 10-11 from "Johnny Panic & The Bible Of Dreams" single - Fontana PANIC 1, 1991
Track 12 from "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" U.S. promo CD single - Fontana CDP 119, 1989
Track 13 from "Woman In Chains" U.S. promo CD single - Fontana CDP 163, 1989
Track 14 from "Advice For The Young At Heart" Italian promo single - Fontana AS 5000 847, 1990
Track 15 from "Year Of The Knife" Canadian single - Fontana 876 897-7D, 1990
Disc 3: The Moon - Radio Edits and Early Mixes (previously unreleased except where noted)
- Year Of The Knife (Overture)
- Year Of The Knife (Early Mix - Instrumental)
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love (Alternate Mix)
- Tears Roll Down (Alternate Mix)
- Year Of The Knife (Steve Chase 7" Remix)
- Badman's Song (Early Mix)
- Advice For The Young At Heart (Instrumental)
- Year Of The Knife (The Mix)
- Johnny Panic and The Bible Of Dreams (Mix One Edit)
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love (Early Mix - Instrumental)
- Woman In Chains (U.S. Radio Edit 2)
- Year Of The Knife (Canadian Single Version - Instrumental)
- Famous Last Words (French Radio Edit)
- Woman In Chains (Reprise)
Track 9 from "Johnny Panic & The Bible Of Dreams" promo single - Fontana PANR 1, 1991
Track 11 from "Woman In Chains" promo CD single - Fontana IDCDJ 13, 1989
Track 13 from "Famous Last Words" French single - Fontana 875 950-7, 1990
Disc 4: The Wind - Demos, Diversions and Jams (previously unreleased)
- Rhythm Of Life (Demo)
- Advice For The Young At Heart (Demo)
- Swords and Knives (Demo)
- Famous Last Words (Demo)
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love (Demo - Instrumental)
- Badman's Song (Langer/Winstanley Version - Instrumental)
- Woman In Chains (Townhouse Jam)
- Broken (Townhouse Jam)
- Rhythm Of Life (Townhouse Jam)
- Badman's Song (Townhouse Jam)
- Badman's Song (Reprise) (Townhouse Jam)
- Standing On The Corner Of The Third World (Townhouse Jam)
Blu-ray: The Rain - Album Mixes
- 5.1 surround mix by Steven Wilson
- 2015 remaster by Andrew Walter
- 1989 master by Bob Clearmountain
Patrick Shirley says
Definitely one of my all time favorite albums. Ironically, earlier this morning I was wondering if there would ever be a box set for it.
I've never been a fan of single edits etc. This looks chock full of those types of things. Hopefully the last disc makes it worth it. I was also hoping they would include the live in Santa Barbara show.
So a mixed blessing I think. Still gonna buy it!
Steve Marshall says
Looks great, but I was also hoping they would reissue the Santa Barbara show...
Jeff says
Make that 3 people who hoped Santa Barbara would've been included!
joel says
I too was ecstatic when I learned of this today...a little bummed at no "going to California on either dvd or cd...but ecstatic all the same...from what I read, it took longer to put out this deluxe edition, than it did to record the original, they started in 2014 or 2015...not sure if I have any other "wishlist" deluxe editions as important as this one or Alison moyets 4 sony albums (that were also re-done)...so glad for music...fyi, I totally enjoy this site and enjoy picking through things that are new to me
Larry Davis says
The Holy Grail is finally upon us...my friend Paul Sinclair from SuperDeluxeEdition.com curated this set, like he did the previous two...instant purchase, one of the greatest albums ever made IMO, in terms of both the music itself and the recording quality...this box looks immense and like a box of jewels...early birthday present for myself...first Prince "Sign O The Times", now this...makes me not think of the pandemic...
Robert says
Finally. Wouldn’t expect them to do any more deluxe editions, so this one likely finishes off their expandable catalog. Hopefully the price comes down some before release. $80 seems a little hefty. Now waiting for the announcement of the much-rumored Beach Boys set that starts diving into the 70’s vault material.
ISH says
This arrived this week. And yes the price came down. It is really great. I would say this is the first super deluxe expanded album that I have enjoyed every moment of the extra material. The demos and alternate takes are really terrific. Well worth it, exactly what I hoped for from a set like this. Record labels take note!