Songs similar to mad world
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This week’s pick is actually two versions of the same song– Mad World.
The original is by ’80’s pop rock duo Tears for Fears, and sounds exactly like you would expect an ’80’s pop hit to sound. Synthesizers and percussion, and a pace meant for dance.
It’s catchy, but if you’ve heard other similar songs from the era, I wouldn’t blame you if you were bored after a while.
That’s where the second version comes in.
This is the better version, in my opinion. It’s a haunting ballad, unlike the original. It’s made more haunting by the fact that it played in the movie Donnie Darko. So every time I listen to it I can see a young Jake Gyllenhaal and his manic laugh as he lies down in bed. And I can see Frank the rabbit. Watch the movie, if you don’t understand.
This second version is by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules, featuring primarily a piano and cello, and was released twenty years after the original. And, thanks to
Donnie Darko
, it became an unqualified hit.
The lyrics are an especially good fit for the movie:
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in wh
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I used to be a massive horror buff.
It started off with me reading “The Body”, one of four novellas in Stephen King’s “Different seasons”, because I learned that it was the story upon which “Stand by me”, one of my favourite movies at the time, was based. And because I flew through it in a matter of a couple of days and I still had a few weeks on my Bowmanville Public Library loan, I read the other three in the series*, loving those as well. From there, I read “The shining”, “The Dead Zone”, “It”, “The Stand”, “Christine”, “Carrie”, and when I finally ran out of King books, I moved on to Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. It wasn’t long before I was ploughing through the Horror section at our local video rental store. If it was scary, freaky, or even just a little bit creepy, I loved it. I even still distinctly remember lining up at the Cumberland theatres in Toronto with Ryan, my roommate at the time, to see “The Blair Witch project” and walking out dazed at the end, adrenaline still coursing through my veins.
It w
Who Sings Your Favorite Cover of Tears for Fears’ ‘Mad World’? Vote!
Artists have been cautioning their fans about the “Mad World” we’re living in by covering Tears for Fears‘ 1982 hit recently.
Brandi Carlile reimagined the new wave song with a twinkly-light-decorated, stirring piano performance on Monday (Sept. 14) that shed a glimmer of hope at the end. “It’s a mad world, but we’re in this together,” she concluded and finally instructed, “Vote.”
On Wednesday (Sept. 16), Pentatonix shared their emotional rendition of the pensive ballad, with each member harmonizing together against a pitch-black background.
But the Tears for Fears track once famously made the rounds on
American Idol
when then-contestant Adam Lambert covered it during the eighth round of the singing competition in 2009. He’s since performed his rendition multiple times, including at the Global Pride 2020.
But Michael Andrews and Gary Jules performed the most notable cover of “Mad World” for the soundtrack of the 2001 psychological thriller
Donnie Darko.
Their rendition
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