Tears for Fears

Much of the music produced in the 1980s - particularly much of the New Romantic era - is pilloried and laughed at now - sometimes because the synthetic style has not aged well or sometimes because it was over indulgent or just plain bad. However, the music can get an unfair hammering, considering that so much of today's music is influenced by the 80s - with bands like The Killers and White Lies (to name just two) openly admitting their love of the New Romantics.

It was also still the decade when bands still produced albums - rather than collections of singles. The Hurting is considered by many as a classic and rightly so. Listening to the ten tracks now - the synthesizers obviously sound slightly dated but the record does not feel overly out of date. There is of course one of the 80s best pop singles with Mad World's catchy hook hiding its darker message (until THAT cover of course). The title track highlights the band's grandiose and pretentious ambitions - with wide open spaces in production but still giving you a claustrophobic feel.

That intense feeling was deliberate - as the band took their name from the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov - who worked on the Primal Theory, a trauma based pyscho-therapy. It was those kinds of references that led to some cynicism from reviewers - and wasn't helped as the band became more self important over the course of their next two albums (Songs From The Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love). Despite this, they managed to produce great pop songs - and Change and Pale Shelter hold up better than expected in 2013.

This 30th anniversary edition - as ever beautifully packaged - contains a feast of added extras for the die hard fans. The album itself has been remastered by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal themselves. There are also b-sides and instrumentals (a common way of filling a b-side in the 80s) and some cracking 12" remixes, especially Pale Shelter's. There is also a slower version of Change, which gives the song a different and improved feel.

There are also John Peel radio session versions included and with some versions of the package - a live DVD from Hammersmith.