The Seeds Of Love has long been my favorite Tears For Fears album. Beatlesque in nature at times, it is an upbeat follow-up to their second album, Songs From The Big Chair. I still have my original pressing CD from when the album was first released. A bit worn, it still plays well and is one of the better sounding CDs in my collection. (And I am no fan of the sonics of digital.)
The album was available on Fontana vinyl, and I managed to find a copy early last year. Unfortunately, beneath the crud, I found the vinyl had a bit of a rash and it did not play well on the turntable. (I also made a mental note to be more careful buying used vinyl at this particular store, as I’ve purchased less than favorable copies from them in the past.) Aside from the rash, the tonal balance was nearly dead on to the CD. The noise aside, the only thing I noticed was that the dynamics on the LP were sligthly compressed compared to the CD.
I was ecstatic to hear that this album plus Big Chair were being cut by Mobile Fidelity on their Silver Label series. And as of now, I have a copy of Seeds in my hands. This is a really nice slab of vinyl!
The surfaces are quiet, the sides are on-center, and the vinyl is flat and still weighty for being less than 180 grams (officially 140 grams per the company, but it feels a hair lighter). Mobile Fidelity did a very nice job having these pressed! But what about the sonics? So far, this cutting makes up for the slightly dynamically flat pressing on Fontana. To me this new one is very slightly brighter, but this is only barely noticeable. The opening bass drum on “Badman’s Song” has the weight I’m looking for, and the snare pops as it should, as it does on my original Fontana CD. Roland’s voice is clear enough, but that very slight brightness does give it a tiny rasp at times. I may go to the pain of dialing in my turntable a bit to see if it goes away–it’s that close. A song with a lot of detail, such as “Seeds of Love”, manages to sound less congested in this vinyl presentation.
Very nice job overall! And frustrating! The quality of this and the other three Silver Label MoFi LPs I own makes me want to splurge on a big ol’ pile of these pressings. It is nice to hear their attention to detail showing through in the finished product. Great album musically, and a fine example on vinyl! Grab this one!