In fact the subtle ambient tones and Jules plaintively forlorn vocals make it an entirely different song altogether. Granted it's a cover of a long lost '80s classic, but Jules and Andrews take on it is wholly their own. Now he's a bona fide pop star with a #1 hit to his name. Now Jules is no longer the critically acclaimed, but almost unknown singer/songwriter from SoCal. Let's just say that the Brits (and the rest of Europe) take their chart positions really, really, really, really seriously and they take the Christmas slots even more seriously. The fervor surrounding the song slowly and intently escalated until this past Christmas it reached the #1 slot on the charts in the U.K. The duo's version of the song began to hit a chord with fans of the film and soon took on a life of its own via the wonders of Internet file sharing and downloading.
Jules included the song on his sophomore album, Trading Snake Oil For Wolf Tickets, which he and Andrews produced and released on their own in 2001. Jules and collaborator Michael Andrews recorded a decidedly low-key version of Tears For Fears "forgotten" classic "Mad World." The song ended up as the aural accompaniment to the end credits in Donnie Darko, a film that was not only critically lauded, but that also developed a rabid, underground cult following. And while the album was critically acclaimed, it didn't make Jules a household name. The Southern California based musician more or less quietly released his major label debut, Greetings From The Side on A&M records back in 1998. Feet stomp, people scream, and then back out into the cold, dark night.Singer/songwriter Gary Jules led a somewhat quiet existence until about 4 months ago. With visuals that vary from neon cartographic tracings of mountains, drizzling binary code, and the glistening of one of Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror rooms, the place turns red when the band end their encore with Shout. Orzabal then doubles down on their brilliant gloominess with a cover of Radiohead’s Creep. Phones rise up when Mad World begins – proof that you can determine an audience’s age by whether they mostly film in landscape or portrait. It’s hard not to notice the smattering of young musicians from Irish bands in the audience. They’re also echoed in contemporary pop, which, like many of the band’s tracks, often retreats into itself, trading on loneliness: sad bangers, as it were. It takes us a while to get down the stairs” – before introducing Change, from their debut album, The Hurting, “for those of you old enough to remember or young enough to discover.”Īnd that’s the thing with Tears for Fears: the songs stand up. The cloche is lifted again and again – Falling Down, Head o ver Heels, Pale Shelter – creating remember-this-one? looks between friends.Īt one stage Smith apologises for the band’s tardiness – “You know, we’re old. It’s certainly a bold move to open with your biggest tune, but that first track acts as a platter on which everything else is served. It sounds as pristine as ever, as icy as the rain outside. Orzabal and Smith double down on the intro music, launching into Everybody Wants to Rule the World as their first song. Tears for Fears are echoed in contemporary pop, which, like many of the band’s tracks, often retreats into itself, trading on loneliness: sad bangers, as it were When covered successfully, as with Lorde’s version, or with Michael Andrews and Gary Jules’s take on Mad World, in 2001, there’s a tendency to gravitate towards the shadows within the songs. Tears for Fears released their first album in 1983, 13 years before Lorde was born, but their retrospectively unusual pop still seeps into contemporary consciousness.
They arrive on stage to another trick of time, the strains of Lorde’s cover of Everybody Wants t o Rule t he World, which she contributed to the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack. Time can make fools of us – there’s a collective gasp when Smith points out that they haven’t been in Dublin since 2005, 14 years ago – but tonight it stretches out until it’s suspended, shielding us from the realities of outside and helping to make this large venue almost feel intimate. A lot of them have waited a long time to see Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith play the songs that helped them sell 30 million albums. After Alison Moyet’s excellent set a few of the crowd are shuffling their feet, but more because they’re here on a bitter winter’s night than because they’re annoyed by the delay.