Tears for Fears: Scenes from the Big Chair

C'mon, these are the things we can do without. Even when this fluff piece was made, back in the mid-‘80s, it was strictly for fans of the boys from Bath, who'd just scored a big-time smash with Songs from the Big Chair and its hit singles “Shout,” “Head Over Heels,” “Broken,” and the ubiquitous “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” TFF never came close afterwards to equaling the success of that album, and even old fans hoping to rekindle some of the short-lived magic won't be happy with the sketchy sound quality of the concert segments recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1985 (even with a trio of extra musicians and backing vocals, the sound is thin and hollow—Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo sound notwithstanding) in this vintage music documentary. Performed onstage and laid bare of studio production wizardry, the album's weaker tracks are exposed for what they were: filler. The unkindest cut is that the promised 2005 “exclusive interview”—the only feature on the DVD that isn't ancient—doesn't even feature frontmen Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. If you¹ve ever wondered what happened to TFF, the answer is simple: their 15 minutes, which this DVD documents, were up long ago. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (M. Moore)