Recently, pop star, Demi Lovato released a new album entitled The Art of Starting Over. The 17th track on the album is her song, “Mad World,” and when I first heard this song, I was immediately intrigued. Now, for the past two weeks, I have listened to this song on repeat, and I have every word memorized, so it’s safe to say that this has become my new favorite song. Honestly, I really enjoyed the entire album (with a few exceptions), but overall, I’d give the album a 7/10.
Now, the other day, while scrambling to get class before 8:01am, like I usually do, an unfamiliar song played on my Spotify. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it. I didn’t have time to stop and look at the before throwing my phone into my bag, but when I got to class and looked at my phone, I saw that it was “La La Land,” a song from one of Lovato’s earlier albums. Spotify most likely played it based on my recent Lovato obsession, but I noticed that the song had similar vibes to “Mad World,” but I dismissed it because I thought it was just me, especially because the two songs differ vastly when it comes to sound.
However, while researching to write this review, I found an article that said, “Lovato’s ‘Mad World’ lyrics seem like a mature version of those from ‘La La Land,’ which was the 2008 hit from her debut album Don’t Forget.”
It’s not just me! But the story doesn’t stop there…
As I was researching, I discovered that Lovato did not write “Mad World,” and it is actually a well-known song written by British band, Tears for Fears. Does that name sound familiar? It’s probably because you’ve heard or read, literary icon, Callie Matthews’ endless ramblings about her favorite bands, one of them being (you guessed it!) Tears for Fears.
Now, I still agree that the two Lovato songs have similar vibes, but I don’t think that was intentional, seeing as how Lovato didn’t even write “Mad World”.
Now the question is: whose version is better? Tears for Fears? Lovato? Gary Jules?
Personally, I think Lovato’s version is the best. The smoothness of her voice with playing of the piano was so beautiful. I also really enjoyed the key she sang it in, and maybe it’s just that I prefer female voices to male voices. No disrespect to Tears for Fears because honestly, they get all the credit because they wrote the song. They ran, so Lovato could walk, and she definitely walked the walk.
