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Saturday Deluxe / 5 October 2024

The Beatles, Tears For Fears

By Paul Sinclair

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41

Beatles reissue

In a rather unusual move, The Beatles 1964 album A Hard Day’s Night is being reissued on coloured vinyl for National Album Day.

I say unusual, because normally Apple Corps and Universal shun Fab Four coloured vinyl reissues and events such as Record Store Day and National Album Day – perhaps the thinking was such gimmicks are beneath them – but not any more, it seems. The thaw came last year with the coloured vinyl versions of both the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums along with the ‘Now and Then’ single, which they went to town with, in terms of coloured vinyl variants (three seven-inch singles and one 12-inch).

The A Hard Day’s Night re-release is justified because it’s the album’s 60th anniversary (which was actually back in July) and the record will be pressed on 180g white vinyl. For the first time in a long while, a Beatles reissue doesn’t feature audio newly remixed by Giles Martin. The press release makes so mention of the mastering so we can only presume it’s the 2009 stereo remaster.

Another interesting aspect to this reissue is that it is not available to pre-order anywhere. You can only buy it on National Album Day – on the 19th October – and after that date.

New single from Tears For Fears

Tears For Fears have released – let’s just say ‘made available’ –  the song Astronaut from their forthcoming album Songs For A Nervous Planet. It’s one of four studio tracks on what is of course primarily a live album. The song was written by Roland Orzabal and Charlton Pettus and features backing vocals by Lauren Evans. It was produced by the band and Charlton Pettus. Let us know what you think of ‘Astronaut’.

By the way, the pre-order window for the limited SDE-exclusive blu-ray of the album closed a while back, but if you are after a copy you can add yourself to the waiting list by visiting the product listing on the SDE shop and clicking the ‘tell me if you get more stock’ button (if you don’t see this button, please try an alternate browser). We’ll inevitably get some cancellations and so there will almost certainly be some availability, in a few weeks, when it’s released (on 25 October).

Sticking with Tears For Fears, don’t forget about the concert film Tears For Fears Live (A Tipping Point Film). It’s coming to cinemas worldwide on Thursday, Oct 24 and Saturday, Oct 26. For tickets and locations visit https://tearsforfearsfilm.com/. Below is a taster: Head Over Heels.

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41 Comments

41 thoughts on “Saturday Deluxe / 5 October 2024”

  1. “Astronaut” is a pleasant song, almost of the chill out kind… But I agree with @Klaus, the build up is excellent while the chorus is a little bit weak. I think it t is more focused and thus better than the previous “made available”.

    The video is nice and the girl and the little girl are lovely, but… Do I have to understand that the ending is tragic..?? Why such sadness..??

  4. I received an interesting mail with the announcement that The Magazine studio album recordings are refreshed and revisited. There is a super-duper deluxe Give Me Everything box set with all the albums on vinyl and it’s also possible to buy the LP’s separately. For more information https://wire-sound.com/vinyl/

    1. Yes, and the super deluxe has a lot of extra material not included with the individual albums. Only 500 copies of the box set but it is expensive at £200 (and £20 postage!). Nonetheless, this John McGeoch fan couldn’t say no.

  5. What I can’t understand, Beatles-wise. It’s not clear that they’ve done any work on the upcoming US albums. I think almost half of Rubber Soul has already been demixed & remixed, and I understand there’s not a great deal in the vault – certainly judging by Anthology 2.

    It’s like they’ve (the Beatles team) spent the whole year doing almost nothing.

  6. AHDN on coloured vinyl? No use to me as a staunch cd fan but.…
    More importantly, when the heck will we (ageing Beatles fans!) be getting the remixed, remastered cd SDE’s of AHDN, Rubber Soul, Beatles For Sale, Magical Mystery Tour etc etc?

    1. Hear, hear. Totally echo your sentiment. Limited to just one remixed deluxe set a year, but none last year and none this year. Had truly hoped that after the remixed Red and Blues last year that we’d get a deluxe set this year.

    2. The earlier albums are a lot less sophist in terms of recording and instrumentation.
      Magical MysteryTour (with the extra tracks), Yellow Submarine, Past Masters (vol2) have more to offer for new masters once we are beyond Rubber Soul.

      I’m not entirely a fan of the new mixes. Revolver, particularly, seemed to be all surface, no depth. On She Said, She Said the title line should disappear in to the music, not pop out from it as the mix does. It changes the feel of the song and not in a good way.
      It’s far from an improvement.

  7. For any Magazine fan out there, Wire Sound will release a magnificent 6-LP boxset limited to 500 copies at £200 (not cheap, but fans don’t count, do they?). Details can be found at https://wire-sound.com/vinyl/ – the boxset comes with several goodies. The question is: why did they omit Magazine’s live album “Play”?

  8. Re A Hard Day’s Night being available on pre-order, I placed a pre-order via Norman Records yesterday afternoon. Not used them before so will see…….

    1. I have used Norman Records before and always had very good service… that said I can’t find it on their site now so it’s possible they listed it in error? The listing on HMV suggests it’s a non-preorderable release.

  9. Re: ‘Astronaut’:

    Build-up during the verse is great, chorus not so much.

    Not a bad track but sounds like an outtake from ‘The Tipping Point’ for reasons i can understand quite well.

  10. I think it would have been a good idea for Giles Martin to mix A HARD DAY’S NIGHT especially for the 60th anniversary instead of just ‘throwing it out’ on white vinyl. Basically iron out the mistakes. For example the broken harmonica introduction on I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER and Paul’s vocals on IF I FELL. There are no other additions with this re-issue either such as new sleeve notes like with the BORN IN THE U.S.A. anniversary release a few months ago.

    1. I need a fixing of the ‘broken harmonica introduction’ on ‘I Should Have Known Better’ like i needed walkie talkies in ‘E.T.’…

      And btw, while we’re at it: Maybe some remix wizard could go over the vocals of all recordings ever made by members of The Velvet Underground (explicitly including Nico) and auto tune them so they will finally be suitable for airplay on daytime radio?

          1. I was trying to slip into Mark L.’s shoes there…

            The Velvet Underground are perfect as they are.

    2. If only The Beatles had somebody like Mark L around to tell them where they were going wrong back in the day, they could have been MASSIVE.

    3. It seems the Beatles and each individual artists have had ups and downs when it comes to re-releases. Just look at some of Paul’s messy SDEs.
      I’m expecting One Hand Clapping to be re-released as a deluxe edition with the 7″ vinyl tracks, maybe additional audio and the video that is going into movie theaters.

  11. As I’ve already said elsewhere, “Astronaut” is an incredible track that breathes more of what I find makes TFF unique and important than some of the tracks on The Tipping Point (or “The Girl That I Call Home” for that matter). It’s probably not going to set the pop charts on fire but well, better to be a bit challenging than to take the Coldplay route.

  12. I’m a big fan of Tears for fears since 1983 when i was 18 years old and i’ve bought (almost) everything from them because i think they are one of the best Bands ever. I’ve seen them 3 times live and the shows have been some of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Having said that i think that the 2 new songs are their weakest singles so far.

  13. Love both the new TFF songs. Really looking forward to the album. I think the National Album Day hits a different audience so understand the reason for taking part. Not for me though.

  14. I like this one more than the first cut they “made available” a few weeks ago. In my ears, the drums sound a bit more organic (* towards “Seeds of Love”-era?) than the ones on “The Tipping Point.”

  15. Well…..coloured Beatles aren’t completely new. There were quite a few in the late 1970’s and they issued some singles on recent RSD-s.
    So it was only a matter of time that Universal would go the colour route (again). Money, money, money! Everything has been issued on black vinyl over and over, remastered, remixed, re-whatever and now rebranded in colour. So open your wallet and buy!
    (Can’t buy me love…..though)

  16. Fab Four colour vinyl is definitely thin on the ground, but they are no strangers to Record Store Day. They released a box of 4×7” singles back in 2011 and even more bizarre was the novelty vinyl selection of 4 x 3” vinyl singles for RSD this year (along from a mini record player) more of which are coming on Black Friday this year. (Why?)
    And the Meet the Beatles US album on blue vinyl about to arrive too.

  17. For one fantastic nanosecond I saw the photograph of AHDN and the title and thought – yes! Then I read the article. Oh, well. Next year, maybe.

  19. ‘Astronaut’ is in the key of ELO meets the Beatles meets Duran Duran re-branding with a new sound (circa 2004). It’s melodic but an oddity, only sounds like the Tears for Fears of yore when the voices merge in the second half of the track. I appreciate TFF always willing to take risks, and this does harken to the days of their third record.

  20. Absolutely love the new Tears For Fears! Beautiful song!! I have my blu-Ray on order, very happy with that. As it relates to the Beatles and Record Store Day, people seem to think you have to buy these releases on Record Store Day. I thought so too at one point. I stood in line for an hour only to find out that you can order all these RSD releases online the next day. If you wait a bit, you can get them for much cheaper even. So anyone who based on the above Beatles info is going to stand in line for an hour at RSD, it’s really not necessary.

    1. If you want your best chance to get items that are on the more rare side (or high in demand).. then nothing beats getting in line and hanging out with your fellow music fans (honestly the chats are one of the GREAT parts of it).

      Yes, you can buy things online (in fact, many places.. as soon as their line has finished, the open to online orders). Sometimes you can get it for the same price.. sometimes.. its inflated. Sometimes, there are none left at all.

      I will give you two releases as an example:
      1) Dee Gees/Foo Fighters 2021 RSD release. I was coaching softball for an out of state tourney. No chance to get a copy. Never figured it would be a problem. Well.. its been a problem. Cheapest I have seen it for (for a non-damaged, NM or better copy), is around $125.. and those get scooped up quickly. I won’t pay more than $50 for it.. so I just keep waiting…

      2) Jim Croce Jim Croce Live: The Final Tour (2024 RSD).
      My local store got one copy.. I was 30th in line. Figure.. no worries.. no one wants that but me. Nope. Gone. So I figured.. ok.. pick it up for a reasonable price online. Again.. NOPE. I missed out on a couple reasonably priced.. and then they started getting listed (but not selling) for $150+ . No idea why this one is so popular.. but the prices have been stupid. It finally dropped into the $75-85 range.. but still.. thats more than makes sense.. but it was selling at that price. So.. I waited more. I recently saw it listed for $49.95.. and grabbed one (funny enough, due to arrive today). I am sure if I waited til next year.. I could grab one for $10-15 cheaper. but.. at this point.. I want it in my collection, so I can play it.

      1. I was fortunate to get a copy of the Dee Gees / Foo Fighters RSD the day of release, and I highly recommend picking up a copy if you can. Whenever I have friends over for a long night of cards and drinks, this inevitably gets a spin on the record player!

    2. I think National Album Day is UK-only and there is usually higher availability of individual titles. There tends not to be the same sort of requirement to queue on the day (certainly where I live!)

      1. Yeah, in previous years indie shop sales have tended to feature a lot of NAD titles, which may be a sign of the concept failing to capture the public imagination.

        But it is also true that NAD releases don’t seem to be announced as particularly limited pressings (I suspect they’re mostly one-off variants but you don’t see a “only 500 copies” in listings. Perhaps that’s because they’re available to a wider range of retailers.

    3. The other part of getting in line the past 2-3 years is.. don’t let the line size worry you TOO much (unless you are actually there for Taylor Swift/Olivia Rodrigo/etc type releases). I don’t tend to share my want list TOO much while in line, but this year.. I woke up stupid early (not by plan).. and figured.. Fine.. its 3AM and I am awake.. so why not just go get in line.

      And I was 30 people back. I expected to be FAR closer.

      But… you could tell most were there for the current pop star. Others were there for a specific limited release. Outside of the surprising Jim Croce miss, I got everything I wanted.. even the ones they only got 1 or 2 copies of.

    4. This is National Album Day which is different to RSD. But I would imagine that the white vinyl of A Hard Days Night will be flying off the shelves – I’ve already set a reminder!

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