From the album
Title: “Mad World”
Artist: Tears For Fears
Year: 1982
Writer(s): Roland Orzabal/Curt Smith
Genre: Synthpop/New Wave
Highest chart position (if applicable) 1 (UK) 30 (US)
Album: The Hurting
Did I own it? No
Album, single or both? Neither
Opinion then: Negative
Opinion now: More positive
These days: Remembered more for the slower, more morose version by Michael Andrews and Garry Jule for the movie
Donnie Darko, also for its use in the videogame
Gears of War, and later for the version sung by Adam Lambert on
American Idol. Yeah.
Now these guys were on my hate list when I were a lad. I had no time for synthpop, new wave or what a workmate used laconically term “puff bands”. I was a rocker, and those that did not rock could, quite frankly, rock off. I saw no merit in songs like “Pale Shelter” or “Change”, which is slightly ironic, as my attitude towards not just Tears for Fears, but the whole genre of music lumped in as new wave but which was mostly a mixture of that and synthpop, has undergone a radical change. This kind of happened reasonably quickly though, at least with this band, with the release of Tears for Fears’ second and indeed breakthrough album,
Songs from the Big Chair, with singles which have now become iconic rising from it, such as “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, “Head over Heels” and “Shout” forcing me to take another look at the band.
Of course, they too had somewhat changed their sound, moving into a more rock idea and away from the synthpop, but that’s another story. Back then, I found their music cold and unemotional (which is pretty silly when you consider both the title of their debut album and its now-iconic and disturbing cover) and had no time for them. When I listened to Andrews and Jule’s cover, I found myself surprised to realise I was defending the TFF version, snorting that it was not a slow, boring, depressing song (well depressing yes, as it does tackle the basic senselessness of the world) but a fast, boppy, synth-driven anthem. Of course, by now I had already been seduced by the glory that is
The Seeds of Love and had bought their greatest hits compilation
Tears Roll Down, so it was really a different Trollheart than the 1982 version who has scorned the original who now defended it.
But listening back to it now, it is a pretty excellent slice of synthpop and the lyric does mean something. I feel personally the cover version deprived it of its immediacy and its punch, and reduced it to a kind of moan at the world, but I guess everyone has their opinion. For me, this was a song I sneered at and hated when it was released, but have learned to see the good points of since then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZvPSpLxCg