Mad World
I caught the beginning of Top of the Pops 2 this evening, and heard that they were going to be featuring the brilliant version of the Tears For Fears song Mad World by Gary Jules which closed the equally fantastic film Donnie Darko. So I grimly stuck it out through a pile of 80s trash (‘The Lambada’, anyone?), albeit with a few gems sprinkled in it (Roxy Music), because of course they put Mad World on last.
The song is completely stunning, and the video is pretty special too. I think that it’s a bit of a shame that Tears For Fears didn’t use a similar arrangement in the original version; the lyrics are so stark and beautiful that they deserve to be heard properly, accompanied only by a quiet piano part. Still, it was the 80s and big synths and over-wrought vocals were where it was at.
Gary Jules’ latest album, Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets sounds like it would be worth a proper listen. It’s another one for the Christmas list, I think.
