Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love [UK Bonus Tracks]

Tears For Fears' third album was their third -- and, in many ways, their most impressive -- pop masterpiece in a row, which was lucky, because it had a production history that made The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's look like a spontaneously generated single. The comparison with The Beatles' album is especially apt, not just because of the time it took to make -- the three years between this record and its predecessor recalled that whole late-'60s/early-'70s phenomenon of artists in a seeming contest to see who could take the longest between releases and spend the most studio time on an album -- but also in the ornate cover and interior art, and the album's centerpiece, "Sowing the Seeds of Love." The latter was a conscious homage to "All You Need Is Love" and also a political song (with a dig at British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's conservative government) of the same type that John Lennon and company used to engage in occasionally as a band -- though American soul and gospel influences are the most musically obvious attributes here. Read More