Tears For Fears
Mad World
This was written by Roland Orzabal but sung by the group's other vocalist, Curt Smith, who connected with the tune right way. He explained it "was easy for me to sing because I could relate to Roland's lyrics. We were both the middle of three sons and had been brought up by single mothers with absent fathers. My father always worked away, and died when I was 17, but I hated him by that point. It hit me later in life, but back then I was teenage and angry. The song was the perfect platform. It worked better with my voice because it's more melancholic, darker."
Most listeners feel a sense of disconnect between the dark lyrics and the upbeat 80's pop sound. That dissonance was later removed with the release of the Gary Jules version in 2001.
However what most don't realize is when the song was originally written by Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears, he wrote them based on ideas by psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So the line "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" might suggest the thought of suicide, but when the subject wakes up, he feels much better and no longer in a morbid state.