Great album, but in my opinion it comes third in TFF's back catalogue behind Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, which is more a collection of 12 singles than a 12 track album, and the totally majestic Seeds Of Love.
Thanks for commenting! I really enjoy it when people have a different opinion than me. I would not have thought to put _The Seeds of Love_ over _Songs from the Big Chair_. "Majestic" is such an apt way to describe _Seeds_ though. It has a bigger sound in places, and it certainly has more to say about the world it exists in.
I agree with Robert Christgau's review in the village voice upon the album's commercial release in 85: Songs from the Big Chair [Mercury, 1985] Never one to pay much mind to the plaints of English lads with synthesizers, I got duly annoyed at the surface and let it go at that. Imagine my surprise when I discerned substance underneath--uncommon command of guitar and piano, Baker Street sax, synthesizers more jagged than is deemed mete by the arbiters of dance-pop accessibility. Even found a lyric that went "We are paid by those who live by our mistakes," not bad at all. Yet in the end the surface is still annoying--not so much pretentious as portentous, promising a depth and drama English lads have been falling short on since the dawn of progressive rock. B
He makes an interesting point. Appreciating 80's music-at least in regards to its pop/electronic elements-is always going to be an exercise in negotiating with the limitations of that era's musical technology. In my opinion Songs from the Big Chair is about as close as you can get to that synth pop sound without being wholly a synth pop album.
Definitely a jewel 💎, love the album
Great album, but in my opinion it comes third in TFF's back catalogue behind Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, which is more a collection of 12 singles than a 12 track album, and the totally majestic Seeds Of Love.
Thanks for commenting! I really enjoy it when people have a different opinion than me. I would not have thought to put _The Seeds of Love_ over _Songs from the Big Chair_. "Majestic" is such an apt way to describe _Seeds_ though. It has a bigger sound in places, and it certainly has more to say about the world it exists in.
I agree with Robert Christgau's review in the village voice upon the album's commercial release in 85:
Songs from the Big Chair [Mercury, 1985]
Never one to pay much mind to the plaints of English lads with synthesizers, I got duly annoyed at the surface and let it go at that. Imagine my surprise when I discerned substance underneath--uncommon command of guitar and piano, Baker Street sax, synthesizers more jagged than is deemed mete by the arbiters of dance-pop accessibility. Even found a lyric that went "We are paid by those who live by our mistakes," not bad at all. Yet in the end the surface is still annoying--not so much pretentious as portentous, promising a depth and drama English lads have been falling short on since the dawn of progressive rock. B
He makes an interesting point. Appreciating 80's music-at least in regards to its pop/electronic elements-is always going to be an exercise in negotiating with the limitations of that era's musical technology. In my opinion Songs from the Big Chair is about as close as you can get to that synth pop sound without being wholly a synth pop album.