Gary Jules – Mad World (2001)
This can be the shortest post in this series, first because the choice is so obvious I feel a bit cliche about it, and second because I’d say that more than enough ink has been spilled on this song-topic.
This was a breakout hit for Tears for Fears in 1982. It actually predated their debut album by a couple of months, and the young Smith-Orzabal duo went from zero to bieber in less than a Kardashian marriage.
It was deserved. The song, an inspiration from Dr. Arthur Janov‘s Primal Scream, was an energetic bit of synth pop that fit with its era and brought just enough of Curt Smith‘s throaty tenor to sound exotic to North American audiences. And there was nary a cymbal crash within earshot. New wave had achieved its malt.
Fast-forward nearly twenty years and a couple of obscure singer-songwriters with thin resumes. US film composer Michael Andrews teamed up with singer Gary Jules to arrange and record the song for an independent film Donnie Darko in 2001. Not just relegated to the soundtrack or the rolling credits, the song was conspicuously placed in the ending scenes of the aptly named dark film, and its impact was tremendous.
The new version was the same tempo, but in a cut time signature, and the instrumentation was stripped down to a solo piano, sampled cellos and some light effects on the brooding soft vocal. The loneliness and angst captured the song more perfectly than Orzabal could ever have dreamed.
To similar effect as in the movie, the Jules-Andrews cover was not only released as a single, but also featured in a bevy of television programs as well as a chilling ad for XBox‘ Gears of War game.
Amazing what some people can hear in a pop tune.
