The part of the song containing "'enlargen' your world" had bothered me for a long time --- even though it has clearly been adopted to "enlargen" your world in the Gary Jules cover version, the original Tears for Fears version does NOT sound like Curt is saying "enlargen" at all. Later performances by Tears for Fears seem to skip the reference entirely, raising further suspicion. If you read Curt's lips in this youtube video of a 1982 performance, it's even more apparent that he's saying "hlaajean" and not "enlargen" --- youtube.com/watch (see 2:00.)
Possibilities I came up with which matched the speech sound more closely, but still didn't seem quite right, were "Herodian world," in reference to Herod The Great (who massacred babies fearing the rise of Jesus) and "Alogian world," in reference to the Alogian sect (a group who rejected Christ as the rational principle that governs the universe.) Both terms were a little bit off from what Curt was saying phonetically, and though either could be interpreted as conveying a "harsh" world that fits the atmosphere of the song, both are subjective religious references.
I think "Hlaajean world" refers to how alien and foreign the world can sometimes feel. People of modern societies can become so easily caught up in themselves that they become isolated and disconnected from the rest of the world. While this still holds today, I think it was especially true in the 80's, when people had more money to spend and seemed driven to express their individuality in exotic ways.
@jayjech Actually, in Roland Orzabel's own words, the line is "Halargian world". You won't find any meaningful reference to it; it's a "made up" planet that they came up with back when they wrote the song.
@jayjech Actually, in Roland Orzabel's own words, the line is "Halargian world". You won't find any meaningful reference to it; it's a "made up" planet that they came up with back when they wrote the song.
Thanks to biba01 for the "hlaajean" correction.
The part of the song containing "'enlargen' your world" had bothered me for a long time --- even though it has clearly been adopted to "enlargen" your world in the Gary Jules cover version, the original Tears for Fears version does NOT sound like Curt is saying "enlargen" at all. Later performances by Tears for Fears seem to skip the reference entirely, raising further suspicion. If you read Curt's lips in this youtube video of a 1982 performance, it's even more apparent that he's saying "hlaajean" and not "enlargen" --- youtube.com/watch (see 2:00.)
Possibilities I came up with which matched the speech sound more closely, but still didn't seem quite right, were "Herodian world," in reference to Herod The Great (who massacred babies fearing the rise of Jesus) and "Alogian world," in reference to the Alogian sect (a group who rejected Christ as the rational principle that governs the universe.) Both terms were a little bit off from what Curt was saying phonetically, and though either could be interpreted as conveying a "harsh" world that fits the atmosphere of the song, both are subjective religious references.
I think "Hlaajean world" refers to how alien and foreign the world can sometimes feel. People of modern societies can become so easily caught up in themselves that they become isolated and disconnected from the rest of the world. While this still holds today, I think it was especially true in the 80's, when people had more money to spend and seemed driven to express their individuality in exotic ways.
@jayjech According to Curt Smith it's 'Halargian world' and the imaginary planet is called 'Halarge' theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/10/how-we-made-mad-world-tears-fears
@jayjech According to Curt Smith it's 'Halargian world' and the imaginary planet is called 'Halarge' theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/10/how-we-made-mad-world-tears-fears
@jayjech Actually, in Roland Orzabel's own words, the line is "Halargian world". You won't find any meaningful reference to it; it's a "made up" planet that they came up with back when they wrote the song.
@jayjech Actually, in Roland Orzabel's own words, the line is "Halargian world". You won't find any meaningful reference to it; it's a "made up" planet that they came up with back when they wrote the song.