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- Summary: Available for several years on his own website, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Gary Jules' second album finally got a major-label release in 2004 thanks to the unexpected success of one of its tracks--a cover of Tears For Fears' "Mad World"--that appeared on the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
- Record Label: Universal
- Genre(s): Rock, Adult Alternative, Singer-Songwriter
- More Details and Credits »
Top Track
| Mad World | |
|---|---|
| All around me are familiar faces Worn out places, worn out faces Bright and early for the daily races Going nowhere, going nowhere Their tears are... | See the rest of the song lyrics |
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 10
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Mixed: 6 out of 10
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Negative: 0 out of 10
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The album fully delivers on the crackling promise of "Mad World" with an accomplished set of hard-won folk-rock.
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Gracious and redemptive, it is a rapt, quiescent masterwork.
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UncutGorgeously warm, forlorn and wounded. [Mar 2004, p.95]
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Q MagazineThere's a gnawing gutlessness at work here, which ultimately sells him short. [Feb 2004, p.101]
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Jules’ talents lie closer to the downhome folksiness of Cat Stevens, enlivened by an eye for detail previously thought the sole preserve of Elliott Smith.
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'Trading...' may be better than we had any right to expect, but the fact remains that there's nothing here that would've catapulted him to public consciousness were it not for his astuteness and the Donnie Darko connection.
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It's pleasant, but hardly earth-shattering, not helped by a shortfall of notable tunes.... There's just nothing here that grabs you in the same way that Mad World did.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 1 out of 2
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EricCMar 20, 2007
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Apr 5, 2021Just not good. Quite contrived and boringnfor the most part. And bland on top of that.
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