Ticket 2 Ride

Can it really be 40 years since Songs From the Big Chair was released? We’ve all gotten older. Mercury released a 3 CD deluxe edition of his classic album in 2025 to commemorate (and cash in) the occasion.

Tears For Fears were building their audience but this album was a huge leap forward internationally. To look at them, they had that youthful yet confused expression, weird 80’s hair and synth-pop vibe – like so many British bands of the era. Dropping the needle you found out otherwise. Beneath the 80’s industrial sound, these lads could write sophisticated, layered and gorgeous songs.

“Shout”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, “Mothers Talk” and Head Over Heels” were all hit singles. The band at time consisted of Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Ian Stanley and Manny Elias. By the end of the decade the band would just be Orzabal and Smith. And still later, only Orzabal. He and Smith would reunite and while they would navigate huge creative differences, they are still together today.

Chris Hughes produced The Hurting and Songs From the Big Chair, but would depart during recording the third album. I believe there has always been creative tension in this band, no matter the lineup.

The 40th anniversary deluxe edition is a collection of different versions of songs from the album. The release of this anniversary edition coincided with a Las Vegas residency for the band.

The remaster of the original album sounds great. It never sounded bad, but it sounds even better. If you want a fresh version of the album, this is it.

Should you splurge in the 3CD set?

Do you need eight versions of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”? I can picture Pete, my music pal, rolling his eyes that I would even ask the question. Granted, eight versions of any song is crazy. There are also eight versions of “Shout”, a song I never really liked. Each version ranges from minor changes from the original to more extreme remixes.

“Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Urban Mix)”

“Mother’s Talk (U.S. Remix”

“Mothers Talk (Early Mix)”

“Head Over Heels (Lost 12” Version)”

It’s unfortunate that one CD doesn’t consist of live versions of each album track. Then have one disc contain different versions and edits.

Or, you could search out a copy of the 2014 30th anniversary, six-disc super deluxe edition box set that, amongst all the bonus material, delivers every commercially issued b-side and remix of the era, previously unreleased radio sessions and early mixes and a high-resolution 5.1 surround sound mix courtesy or highly respected remixer and engineer Steven Wilson. (There were other editions of the 2014 release, a Blu-ray set, a a 2 CD set, and a single CD of the remastered album.)

I’m a big fan of this band, and I’ve waffled on whether to purchase one of the anniversary sets. For now, I won’t, but I have to say, I really enjoyed a couple of listens to the 40th anniversary set. Songs From the Big Chair is a great album, well-written and produced, it stands the test of time. While it was released in the middle of the 80’s, that awful time for music production, the album has only a minimal amount of that dreadful production sheen.