This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs
Movie: Donnie Darko
“Mad World” is one of my all-time favorite Tears For Fears anthems. The opening electronic beat, apocalyptic synth overtures and ominous vocal delivery gave the new wave movement a new voice and a new mood. I didn’t think a cover could ever be greater than the original, but the Michael Andrew take for the Donnie Darko soundtrack exceeded all my expectations. It was a perfect cover to complement the dark, sad end scene in the film.
By stripping down the sound and slowing down the RPMs, Michael Andrews created a unique film score that brought TFF’s profound lyrics to the forefront. Like what Johnny Cash did with Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, the deliberately slower pace in Andrews’ vision for “Mad World” gave the lyrics a harder, darker edge—and prove that, as great as the music was, the words of the song have always been the most powerful thing about the song.
“And I find it kind of funny. I find it kind of sad. The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.”