The album's title cut features a guitar riff reminiscent of Bryan Adams's hits from days gone by. However, when Heaton asks why humans fight over such things as religion, he comes off quite naïve. It's as though the non-religious folk in our land somehow fail to realize the significance of religion in the lives of believers. Islamic extremists, for instance, don't do what they do because of economics, as some have suggested. They sincerely believe their worldview is worth fighting and killing for, and the sooner the free world wakes up to this truth, the better. Yes, it would be great if everybody just loved and respected everyone else's beliefs and learned to live together. Such expectation is severely unrealistic, however.

Meat & potatoes rock music is many times beautiful in its simplicity. Nevertheless, it can also be a little over simplistic. The song "When We Danced" paints a picture of how the act of escaping by dancing to music can be healing. And while this may be true, Heaton doesn't say much more than, "When we danced/Maybe I felt real romance." This is good and all, but not overly insightful.

Listening to World Gone Mad won't provide any new revelations about life. But in the right circumstances, when all the evils of our fake news world have become too much, these basic sounds have a way to sooth.