Japanese CD of the Day / Tears For Fears: Songs From The Big Chair
While we wait patiently for The Hurting deluxe box set, for our rather irregular ‘Japanese CD of the Day’ feature we thought we’d look at the 2010 Japanese Paper Sleeve (mini-LP CD) reissue of Tears For Fears 1985 album Songs From The Big Chair.
This replicated the audio from the 2005 two-disc deluxe edition, but presented it with the usual Japanese panache. Each disc in this set was housed in its own wallet, with the sleeve for disc one replicating the original UK vinyl and the second disc in a wallet that used photographs from the era. The inner sleeve design was recreated and shrunk down to CD size, while this set even came with a two-sided, numbered card which reprinted the original vinyl label designs.
A larger-than-normal booklet contained Paul Lester’s essay about the album, and although largely in Japanese, the folded paper poster contained lyrics in English (even for the bonus tracks).
Catalogue number for this release was UICY-94430 and as stated on the OBI strip this was part of a “Golden ’80s Paper Sleeve Collection” (The Seeds Of Love was also issued at the same time). This is an “SHM-CD”. The SHM stands for Super High Material and it is suppposed to provide “enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic”. Although playable on all CD players, many remain unconvinced by the merits of SHM-CDs.
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We remain unconvinced of the merits of SHM-CDs because the entire conceit of the concept—that thirty years on it’s suddenly been discovered that players have a problem playing “regular” polycarbonate CDs, and that a “special” polycarbonate somehow resolves this problem—is demonstrably false.
SHM = Suckers Have Money.
Lovely package – love the attention to detail with the repro of the label. Does it still have Everybody Wants To Rule The World, instead of …RUN the World on disc 2?
Yes, but it isn’t labelled as RUN the world, which I think was the issue originally. Having said that, it is labelled as 7″ version, but I’m not sure if it’s any different to the album version.
The original version of the deluxe edition didn’t list the so-called 7″ version of “Rule the World” as “Run the World”. Rather, the booklet gives a completely different tracklisting and THIS includes “Run the World” as well as “The Conflict” and “Shout (Beatchuggers Remix)” – all of which are not on the cd. And yes, CD1 had glue on the surface which was REALLY annoying…
Although not having “Shout (Beatchuggers Remix)” on there should be considered a plus…
Agreed, but the point is that the tracklist in the booklet is completely different from what ended up on the CD. Apparently, the original plan was to have only the LP on CD1 and the “rarities” on CD2 – which is how the booklet is set up. Also, this set includes the lyrics which the Universal Deluxe Edition didn’t. Does the “Hurting” box include the lyrics?
Edsel maybe use this protective sleeves (nylon) for his reissue programme. Every disc in those casebound books is scratched or have some glue (Deacon Blue, S.O.S. Band). Probably same problem will happen with ‘Bananarama’ deluxe editions.
And what is the price for this ‘Tears For Fears’ outstanding Japan edition? This is really great collector item.
Find something very similar on amazon but it is currently unavailable. Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Big-Chair-Tears-Fears/dp/B001GM7GMQ/ref=sr_1_11?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1378400727&sr=1-11&keywords=tears+for+fears+songs+from+the+big+chair+japan