Xbox: Tears for Gears

SPOTTED: Yet another resuscitation of the melancholy, hypnotic Tears for Fears song "Mad World." It's Adtunes.com's most popular song ID request, thanks to its role in the new Gears of War video game TV commercial--you know, "the 'killer app' for the Xbox 360 game console, a hoped-for darling of the holiday season.

WHAT CAUGHT OUR EAR: We loved this '80s song when it was relatively underground and brooded to by college students smoking clove cigarettes. The Gary Jules-Michael Andrews' reinterpretation is grown-up, with insistence and Morphine-like pacing (the band!). Some of the song's busy history, according to AdTunes: "This particular 'Mad World' cover first appeared on the Donnie Darko soundtrack ... (and) became so popular (far beyond the ... film itself), it was the number one single in the UK in December 2003. ...The song has appeared in commercials for the F/X show Thief and in the soundtracks of Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle, CSI, Without a Trace and several other TV shows."

GET IT: On the Donnie Darko soundtrack