Best Madness album poll

Absolutely

― Herman G. Neuname, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 18:59 (5 years ago) Permalink

all depends on my mood of the day with Madness.
One Step Beyond > 7 = party and sing-a-long
Rise and Fall = kinda blue
Wonderful - nostalgic

going to have to think about this, but i suspect my votes going to Rise and Fall.

― mark e, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 19:17 (5 years ago) Permalink

Rise & Fall is my favourite, has a sort of Beatlesque ambition and sprawl to it, a melodic adventurousness. but they're all good, tho i think 7 is patchy.

― stevie, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 20:02 (5 years ago) Permalink

For me "7" is the key album. Before that, they were a bit too fast and quirky. From "The Rise And Fall" onwards, they got more sophisticated but the production also got increasingly boring and they started to sound less like Madness.

"7" is where they managed to combine those two sides, still kind of "nutty", but at the same time more sophisticated with a larger number of minor key songs.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 21:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

i guess i just hate 'benny bullfrog' and 'pac a mac' - 'when dawn arrives', 'the opium eaters' and 'day on the town' are astonishing tho, and 'grey day' of course.

― stevie, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 21:29 (5 years ago) Permalink

'Benny Bullfrog' is one of my favourites from the album, a very typical Madness song I think.

― zeus, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 21:30 (5 years ago) Permalink

'when dawn arrives', 'the opium eaters' and 'day on the town' are astonishing tho

i rarely do the ILM thing, but a loud OTM is needed for this statement.

― mark e, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 21:54 (5 years ago) Permalink

so mine'll be the solitary vote for "mad not mad", then.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 23:14 (5 years ago) Permalink

i love 'burning the boats'

― stevie, Wednesday, 26 September 2007 12:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― ILX System, Sunday, 30 September 2007 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― ILX System, Monday, 1 October 2007 23:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

I always enjoyed "Mad Not Mad" most, esp. "Yesterday's Men".

― Morley Timmons, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 02:25 (5 years ago) Permalink

Pleasantly surprised that their second best album won. I would have expected one of the two first ones to win.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 02:46 (5 years ago) Permalink

weirdly, other than the lack of any love for Wonderful, this list is a perfect representation of my own Madness album rating.

― mark e, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 09:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, good result, though 'Keep Moving' is much better than 'Mad Not Mad' in my opinion.

― zeus, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 10:41 (5 years ago) Permalink

hurrah! two votes for MNM. i can die happy.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 11:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

Keep Moving's a great album, maybe my second favourite of theirs.

― stevie, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 12:24 (5 years ago) Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFJVsjpfg8

a return to the style of Rise and Fall perhaps ?

― mark e, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 14:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

so - anyone going,or went to the hackney shows where the band are playing the new album out in total with orchestra/stage settings etc (ie not just doing the party faves) ?

i get the feeling, (ok, hope), that they are going to be getting the big mojo/word magazine treatments with the release of this album.

from the youtube clips i've seen and heard, i'm still holding out for the possibility that they are pushing this towards the darker edges of their Rise And Fall style.

[awaits the kickback from dingbod about them all being fat old tories b*stards now]

― mark e, Thursday, 26 June 2008 10:24 (4 years ago) Permalink

So will The Liberty of Norton Folgate' replace Rise and Fall in the bands catalogue as the ultimate moody/downbeat Madness album ?

Quite possibly.

The team up with Rhoda Darkar is very special.

― mark e, Friday, 1 May 2009 08:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, much better than this old fanboy expected. Negatives: a bit relentlessly midtempo throughout; choruses mostly take easy way out (not unheard of in older days, but not as ubiq).

But arrangements & production is spot on, and damn how good the Barson piano feels to hear. And the unexpected Bollywood (?) break in the title track is hilarious and also promising; I believe these guys could do londonworldmusic decently.

Amusing myself with guessing songwriting credits (bought from emusic, so I've no physical copy). Anyone got the answers?

― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 18 June 2009 21:08 (3 years ago) Permalink

keep moving is a lot better than i ever remembered.

f*cking love the appearance of general public in victoria gardens which i have now realised is the lost madness gem

― mark e, Monday, 30 April 2012 20:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

You know, I have a couple of Madness albums here I acquired quite cheaply a few years ago, and it's occurred to me that I haven't given any of them a real deep listen yet. Must rectify that.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 00:30 (1 year ago) Permalink