Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 7, 2014

Were you one of the countless people who saw Donnie Darko and fell in love with that moody rendition of “Mad World” performed by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules? Despite the song charting internationally in its original version decades earlier than its film appearance, many people who grew to love the tune courtesy of the Jake Gyllenhaal film never realized it was actually a Tears for Fears outing, written by Roland Orzabal and sung by Curt Smith in a decidedly more synth pop version than in its later iteration. While many people continue to associate the band with their sophomore effort, Songs From the Big Chair, it was actually The Hurting that introduced the duo to a worldwide audience, an album that included what had already been a substantial hit in several markets, “Mad World”.

As might be inferred from an album called The Hurting (not to mention songs like “Mad World” or “Start of the Breakdown”), this premiere album by Tears for Fears is not exactly a celebratory exultation about being human. The songs tend to be in minor keys, fueled by a kind of aching questioning that would finally find release in the primal scream therapy of “Shout” on Songs from the Big Chair. While this album doesn’t have the melodic ingenuity that would define some of the band’s later pieces (especially some of the “solo” outings by Orzabal, as heretical as that may sound to some fans), there’s a unity of vision and technique here that makes The Hurting one of the seminal albums of its era.

Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aside from the static menu screen, there's no video on this disc.

Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again this High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray disc offers three audio options, all at 96/24. The PCM 2.0 track streams at a steady 4.6 Mbps, while the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix averages in the high 3's (actually cracking 4.0 a few times), and the Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix tends to stay in the lower 3's. As with the previous HFPA releases I've reviewed, the differences here are negligible, but to my ears the PCM track features the best dynamic range and fullness in all registers. Clarity here is superb, delineating the plaintiff wails of the guys' voices really well. There's some excellent stereo effects (almost like the ping ponging effects on old Enoch Light records from the early sixties) on tunes like "Start of the Breakdown", and effects like the synth pads on "The Hurting" or "Suffer the Children" resonate with a new vibrancy. The percussive attack of the synth marimba on "Change" also sounds fantastic. Fans of the album know that almost all of these songs actually begin with synth effects (many of them synth percussion effects), and those have a nice resonance as well.

Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As has been the case with previous HFPA releases, there are no on disc supplements. There are some interesting liner notes in a nice insert booklet that folds out like a map and also has photos of the duo. See my final thoughts below, though, for what I feel is the single biggest issue with this release.

Tears For Fears: The Hurting Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tears for Fears have been one of my favorite bands, perhaps even more so after Curt Smith took an extended leave of absence from the group. UMG's many imprints continue to offer some tantalizingly great audio on these new releases, but they also keep missing the mark on supplements. Why doesn't this release feature any of the copious supplementary material for The Hurting that came out in 1999 and (especially) last year? They keep trumpeting the "vast storage space" of the medium, and yet they steadfastly refuse to utilize it. That's about the only complaint I have with this release. Otherwise, The Hurting comes Recommended.