Madness: Classic Or Dud?

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Playing one of seemingly a billion hits comps right now and surely, they were a great, great singles band, up there with pretty much anyone the UK has produced on that front. Putting thoughts of Suggs' solo career aside for a second, Madness - classic or dud?

― Tom, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Any band who can write a song consciously as a counterbalance to "Another Brick In The Bastard Wall" have to be classic.

It helps that their singles were, invariably, wonderful. So uber- classic, without doubt.

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Classic but sort of annoying. (Which is good.)

― duane zarakov, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The soundtrack to my childhood so classic, natch.

Mike Barson = much overlooked and undervalued songwriter/musician.

― Venga, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Beyond classic. My first ever favourite band ever.
But slightly dud for large idiot skinhead (the bad kind) contingent in fanbase.

― DG, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

there's a "good" kind?

― duane, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

THey have pop appeal, funkiness and likeability. I can't say I love em but I like 'em . Especially "It Must Be Love"

― Mike Hanley, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I meant bad as in NF skinheads, as opposed to the 70s ska obsessed kind.

― DG, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Any band who can write a song consciously as a counterbalance to "Another Brick In The Bastard Wall" have to be classic.

Which song would that be ?

― Patrick, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Never liked them. There is something in ska that always irritated me. Even at a young age, when I could be one of those kids in that Madness video. Still their appearance in The Young Ones was classic.

― Omar, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Completely classic. I've been meaning to post this myself for ages. They were the band that I and everyone was into (well, all the boys, anyway) when at primary school. I've always felt a bit smug about not having a first musical love that I don't have to be embarassed about. This is probably a cliché, but their most celebrated 'wacky' numbers, 'Baggy Trousers' and 'House of Fun' are my least favourites. In fact their whole nutty boy image does them few favours. But, wow, those songs. Plenty of great album tracks too. And at least one great album, in 'The Rise & Fall'. I'm not surprised Omar doesn't like them. They're a kind of London flipside to the kind of Englishness that bores him in the Smiths.

The most critically underrated band I can think of, right now.

― Nick, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

The think about the nuttyboy songs you mention is that they're the biggest motivators, rhythm-wise. "House Of Fun" is about the most kinetic record of the early 80s. So maybe the wackiness hopped up their energy levels (counter-example: "Driving in my Car"). And yes Nick, exactly - very critically underrated - I'd take them in a second over Blur or the Kinks.

― Tom, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Jeez, you remembered that? ;) I wouldn't say bore, rather hard to connect with since it is an almost closed world of in-jokes, oblique references of an England lost. As for Madness, I really dunno why *I* don't like them, my girlfriend still loves them, all my mates at school used to like them, I should like them. I really suspect there is an inherent quality in the rhythm of ska that comes close to scratching-the-blackboard ;)

― Omar, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

One of the [makes huge effort] gREAt things abt alleged happyfeet pop groups at this moment (dawn of the 80s) was that they were all so naturally infected by nihilist bleakness. "Welcome to the House of Fun": cue video of surface goofiness, deep background menace. The Beat had a songline: "Slip gently into mental illness"

― mark s, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Almost broke up with former G/F when asked if what I thought of them: 'terribly over-rated', cue tears. Hugely popular amongst my peers, 'Baggy Trousers' was a fair reflection of our schooldays, but that 'Nutty Boyz' persona, so insular and self-satisfied (we're mad we are!). A few pop-tastic moments but alongside the Specials...ordinary, a bit twee. Sometimes muse whether the give- away was their being one of the few Ska/2-Tone acts without a black member in their line-up.

― Stevo, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

For me, what Tim H said perceptively about Orange Juice and Josef K applies to the 2-Tone bands. The Specials and The Beat were/are more critically regarded because they clearly took their sound and themselves seriously, whereas Madness had the sweet'n'sour mixture of seriousness and playfulness which people never quite know how to take.

― Tom, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

I don't think it's fair to write them off as a ska band - their most famous songs are a bit tainted admittedly, but certainly by 'The Rise And Fall'...well, I can't remember a single ska-tinged track on that.

― DG, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Patrick: I meant "Baggy Trousers". "Some of us actually *enjoyed* school", quoth Suggs only last year ...

I can only echo what Nick, Tom and DG have said.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Possibly my favourite Madness moments would be '7' and 'Mad Not Mad'. As one of those ska-obsessed skinheads in their fanbase, there were NF elements following 2-Tone bands around to incite trouble, (a recent Bad Manners gig I attended ended up with Buster Bloodvessel pouring buckets of water over a couple o' Nazis in the front row, so they haven't gone away), and I think that tarring the Nutty Boys with the wrong brush was a popular media pastime in the early years. The strong anti-Nazi feeling amongst the 'faithful' meant that the bigots at the gigs were not tolerated. Madness were a soundtrack to adolescence, and totally infectious. Definitely a classic.

― Rob Wosley, Thursday, 21 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Definitely classic. Since I am Dutch I can't react on all the comments on Englishness. For me that was totally appealing as I connected Madness with England and all things nutty. In all my naive silliness (I was 11, so please do forgive me) I rather saw England as a product of Madness and not the other way round. So you can say they made an impact on me. I have changed my mind over this in the meantime, but not with respect to Madness. I have been following them over the years and I can't think of another band that changed so much within a relatively short period (compare 'Baggy trousers' to 'Michael Caine' or 'Yesterday's men'). Another positive thing about Madness is the fact they don't take themselves too seriously, that was the thing that bothered me most when Britpop became a hip thing. All bands were so smug, and as soon as the novelty wore off, the only thing left was the arrogance. Sorry to bother you al ls long with my drivel, but what I really want to say is: Madness were (and still are, listen to 'Wonderful') a clssic band, undoubtedly.

― Robert-Jan Breeman, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

I keep meaning to say this to Nick when I see him but it would probably lead somewhere boring but thanks for the recommendation of 'Rise And Fall' above - an excellent record and a definite grower.

― Tom, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Oh good - super nostalgic record for me. It's easier for a record to evoke nostalgia when it starts with a line like 'These are the streets I used to walk / On summer nights, sit out and talk".

Did I mention that it's supposed to be a concept album about madness?

― Nick, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

"the rise and fall" was the first LP I ever bought, aged 8. "Primrose Hill" still floors me every time.

― Alasdair, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Alasdair = hero. I'm so glad someone else recognises the fabness of 'Primrose Hill'.

― DG, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

"Primrose Hill" I find a bit frustrating - you get that fabulous piano opening and then the rest of the song doesn't quite measure up to it.

― Tom, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Used to think it was esp. good for the nostalgia-bending line "Although I've never been there / I wish I was there still". Then I started thinking maybe it just meant "I wish I was there all the same", which is just weak.

― Nick, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Oh no, I wuv it.

― DG, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

has an mc ever introduced madness by pointing offstage and saying, "that way lies madness"?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 19 September 2004 03:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

seems like a good thread to ask:
has anyone heard of a band called the villains. i barely remember them, kind of like a darker sounding madness? i think i use to have an lp or ep, and there were a couple of songs i liked; saxophone, lyrics about "walking the streets at night".... hard name to search, i did try google, amg, sl5k.....

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Wednesday, 22 September 2004 23:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

It's easy to forget the genuine pathos of some of their music, e.g., the chorus to One Better Day. I've just spent a rather emotional 20 minutes or so nostalging my way through the lyrics pages on madness.co.uk. [sigh]

― Japanese Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 11:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

simon reynolds tells us that RISE AND FALL is the one to get lp wise. is this true? i heard a great track in a shop in london once, and it was NEW DELHI off that.

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 13:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

Especially "It Must Be Love"

I actually can't stomach their cover of this. Labi Siffre's original is just so immaculate.

But they have many good singles (especially Our House), and I am a Two-Tone fan in general.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 14:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'd say get The Rise and Fall first yeah. And then 7 (which was the album before R&F). Those two capture the gradual shift between the early nutty stuff and the later, more melancholic/subdued period pretty well.

My overall answer to the original question is obviously HUGE CLASSIC! First favourite band ever, yes!

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 14:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yes, Pisces, I've heard that there's a large piece about Madness in 'Rip it up...'

Rise and Fall is a beautiful LP, to be sure, and quite unexpected in the context of their career.

― Japanese Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 15:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

They just signed to V2.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 15:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

Rise & Fall is the best, as I said upthread err... four years ago. Blimey!

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 15:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

Classic, classic and nothing but classic.

My favourite is "Seven". By then, they had slowed down a little and started writing a larger number of sophisticated songs. At the same time, there was still some left of their ska roots, and they didn't sound that much like a typical Langer/Winstanley thing. "Grey Day" is the best song they ever wrote IMO.

That being said, "Rise & Fall" was a great album too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:22 (7 years ago) Permalink

Keep Moving is horribly underrated.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

Lots of great songs on "Keep Moving" (I mean, "Michael Caine", obviously...). But by then they sounded a bit too much like a typical Langer/Winstanley thing. I mean, you could almost hear "Come On Eileen" coming through in those later Madness albums.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

I swore it used to say "tha naziest sound around", which explained the skinhead connection.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

Madness was my first favourite band. Classic, obviously.
Best LP was 'Absolutely', but 'The Rise & Fall' is a truly great British pop album, you can put it on the shelf besides any Elvis Costello or Squeeze LPs.
A lost masterpiece really, maybe it should have an own thread.

― zeus, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 18:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

Absolutely was the first record I ever bought (I was 7).

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 21:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

That's the one with "Baggy Trousers," right? Hmm.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 22:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, but some of the best tracks aren't the singles. Close Escape is excellent.

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 08:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

Their U.S. catalog really needs some work. Terrific band.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 08:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

such a massive case of ignore the singles and dig into the rest.

the back catalogue is chocka with some drop dead classics.

i'd add my vote to rise and fall and 7.

but then this was my 1st fave band .. and remained so for many many years. i still love em despite rarely listening to them these days. though the forthcoming ska based album sounds like it could be fun.

― mark e (mark e), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 08:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

chrissy boy just quit as guitarist, according to pitchforkmedia

extra spooky, since i watched the greatest hits dvd and 'take it or leave it' with the band/director's commentaries on just the other night.

― stevie (stevie), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 11:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

no way !

gosh.

i always assumed the band was effectively powered by chris/lee/mike

never expected The Boy to leave the gang first after Barso returned ..

― mark e (mark e), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 13:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

he says he quit last year, and the time in between he's been trying to get management to make a statement and they've been waiting for him to get over it and come back. he and Lee still have the Nutty Boys/Crunch together though.

― kit brash (kit brash), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 21:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Revive!

I just saw them over the weekend. I had no idea they were in the states and touring.

They were outstanding!

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 12 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Anyone who says "dud" is the nemesis of fun,

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 13:23 (5 years ago) Permalink

They played at the 50th birthday party of the Conservative Party treasurer. They had a choice.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 13:24 (5 years ago) Permalink

I've been waiting for this from Dom for years. Strange, this moment just arrived now.
And naturally, Dom's wrong.

― zeus, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 17:04 (5 years ago) Permalink

There isn't a great deal of fun in the later works of Madness.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 09:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

If you are speaking post-comeback, no.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 11:48 (5 years ago) Permalink

Dom is Rong. Suggs was good on the Paul Morley thingum last night. Last couple of Madness albums (pre split) were bleak in places, but still great records...

― stevie, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 11:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

You feeling Suggs as a Virgin Radio drivetime DJ, big man?

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 11:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

I'm feeling killing Suggs for those twatting fish finger adverts.

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 11:54 (5 years ago) Permalink

Shows you how bad that Morley thing must have been if Tory Suggs was the best he could manage.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 11:59 (5 years ago) Permalink

Is he out as a Tory or are we just running an exciting McCarthyite witchhunt? Which I'm totally cool with by the way.

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

Presumably, Madness' agency booked them for the gig, so it's more about "were they violently opposed to whoever it was" as opposed to "are card carrying tories" right?

― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:03 (5 years ago) Permalink

Suggs, the Madness frontman, chaired a special Question Time for local teenagers at Camden Town Hall earlier this week as part of Local Democracy Week.

Over 50 teenagers from schools and youth organisations across Camden fired questions at a panel of Councillors representing the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats parties. Among the topics covered in a very lively discussion were education funding, leisure facilities, voting for 16 year olds, anti social behaviour, environmental issues and how relevant politics was to ordinary people.

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

Tory Suggs commented that the party gave them an opportunity to see "how the other half lived."

But they took the thirty thousand pieces of silver and THEY HAD A PRINCIPLED CHOICE

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

Oh I didn't read upthread. OK cool Tory Scum. Ban.

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

they are pay cheque whores though aren't they.
they have always moaned about how during their peak years they were all broke and got ripped off by Stiff (though having 7 members in a band is always going to make the money a lot less per person) and always go on about it via little digs here and there (video commentaries), so i'd suggest that this was just a way to earn a few extras.
as for the music - well i still think that Wonderful is just that.
I hate the Party Pleasers a lot, but as i stated ago up there ^^^ i still love this band.

xpost : oh fair enough. they are tory twats.

― mark e, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:09 (5 years ago) Permalink

The sight of Suggs gurning and doing his jerky dad-can't-dance dance in a Phil Jupitus cast-off big loud suit, singing Cecilia on TOTP in the mid 90s still haunts me for some reason.

Morley was right though, My Girl wasn't a bad song.

― DavidM, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:12 (5 years ago) Permalink

Tracey Ullman's version is better though.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 12:14 (5 years ago) Permalink

i would listen to suggs drivetime djing if he did not play anything off their playlist.

― stevie, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:02 (5 years ago) Permalink

Madness represent archetypical North London Cockney culture, and I guess for some people that is automatically Tory as it is so typically English in a traditional way.

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:14 (5 years ago) Permalink

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:18 (5 years ago) Permalink

Geir, you're a moron.

― stevie, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:21 (5 years ago) Permalink

Madness represent archetypical North London Cockney culture, and I guess for some people that is automatically Tory as it is so typically English in a traditional way.

-- Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:14 (17 minutes ago) Link

"This is a chemist not a joke shop"

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:33 (5 years ago) Permalink

Does anyone have any ill-informed opinions about Norway they'd like to get off their chest?

― Neil S, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:45 (5 years ago) Permalink

As regards the thread title, total Classic.

Having written the likes of Return of the Las Palmas 7, Our House, Embarrassment, One Better Day and House of Fun, they can be forgiven a bit of middle-age toryism, if indeed that is the case. There must be a thread somewhere about the political skeletons in one's record collection...

I enjoyed the Paul Morley programme, by the way, and I found Suggs' contribution thoughtful and insightful.

― Daniel Giraffe, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 13:46 (5 years ago) Permalink

they can be forgiven a bit of middle-age toryism, if indeed that is the case.

is there any more evidence of middle-age toryism on their part than rote Marcello witch-hunting? i don't think its cool they played that gig. i also don't think it makes em tories, or invalidates their previous activism/writing.

― stevie, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 14:35 (5 years ago) Permalink

What's Marcello got to do with all of this?

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 14:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 14:42 (5 years ago) Permalink

Phil O'Donnell morelike

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 14:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

What's Marcello got to do with all of this?

*frowns*

xp EXACTLY dom

― stevie, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:17 (5 years ago) Permalink

It'th a mythtery.

Anyway all middle aged Tories should be rounded up and shipped to Kenya, same as the rest of them. Especially traitors like Madness and their domed Cameron-loving audience.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

Guy Incognito OTM

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

SUCKS morelike

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:44 (5 years ago) Permalink

No, I meant your last comment was on the money, "Dingbat".

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

In a 1979 NME interview, Madness member Chas Smash was quoted as saying "We don't care if people are in the NF as long as they're having a good time."

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

And then they recorded "Don't quote me on that" as a comment on that, um, Quote.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 15:58 (5 years ago) Permalink

I'm waiting for that ARE MADNESS RACISTS?! thread. Will be great fun!

― zeus, Wednesday, 9 January 2008 16:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

You know what's really pretty "One Better Day".

Watching them play "The Sun And The Rain" was a highlight of my Glastonbury 09 experience.

People don't really talk about "Return Of The Los Palmas 7" though do they? It got into the top 10. Think about that for a mo. A self-consciously cheesey instrumental muzak cha-cha-cha that isn't really designed for dancing like "One Step Beyond" was. It just quietly rounds off "Absolutely" - an afterthought. It's as if Blur had released "The Debt Collector" and it had got really popular. I wasn't really around at the time to witness it charting, but was this considered weird practice at the time?

― dog latin, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 15:00 (3 years ago) Permalink

Return of the Los Palmas 7 didn't seem weird at the time. Perhaps because they had previously had a hit with an intrumental and another semi-instrumental but more likely because in the UK pop charts, novelty is king and you never know what form it's going to take. Madness were on Stiff Records - an indie who would take chances that major record labels might not.

― everything, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 17:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

Coincidentally, Absolutely and 7 were reissued today in 2CD deluxe versions.

― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 16 February 2010 19:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

I had Absolutely on vinyl when I was a kid.

― Pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 February 2010 19:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

In hindsight, Las Palmas was a stroke of genius, but at the time it seemed, to (13-year old) me at least, a huge mistake and not what I wanted the world to hear off Absolutely.

― Daniel Giraffe, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 09:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

Why a stroke of genius, and why a huge mistake Daniel? The reason I ask is I'm writing a piece at the moment which refers to the track, but only being semi-consciously aware of it at the time and being unable to find much about it online other than Stiff wanting another instrumental following the success of One Step Beyond, I'm interested in hearing personal recollections. To me it's the sound of street parties (royal wedding was about this time right?) but then again, I was still in nappies in 1981 so I doubt I'd even have been conscious of it.

― dog latin, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:41 (3 years ago) Permalink

Stroke of genius, because I now (obviously) recognise that there was much more to Madness than the "nutty sound" and ska. TROTLP7 now sounds ambitious, witty and fun, and in terms of their career it consolidated their position as a band that set its own rules and simply had a good time. The song doesn't look in any way out of place in the Madness canon.

Back in 1981, though, I loved Absolutely and there were seemed to be so many other strong candidates for singles to follow up Embarrassment and Baggy Trousers. I couldn't believe it when I heard that TROTLP7 had been chosen as the single - I was gutted.

Firstly I was a Madness fan so why couldn't they release a single that, as far as I was concerned, sounded like Madness?

Secondly it was quite cheesy, and when you're a serious kid the last thing you want is 'cheese' even if it's done knowingly.

I was also in that ska mindset whereby it was a disappointment when the bands from that scene produced anything that wasn't ska, especially so when it was a single and the rest of the world would hear it and may even mistakenly believe it to be ska.

Worth mentioning, just looking through the tracklisting of Absolutely, that there weren't that many songs that could reasonably be described as ska on it!

― Daniel Giraffe, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 11:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

No they moved away from the ska thing very early on, but then first impressions and big hits will prevail. (thanks Daniel). Thinking about it, The Specials appeared to be moving in a similar direction as Madness at the time, More Specials also moving away from ska to a kind of eerie/cheery Zirkusmusik. All those Bontempi tango rhythms on tracks like International Jetset, the purposefully cheap-sounding end-of-pier organ sounds are a parallel to ROTLP7's fun-in-the-sun cha-cha-cha, both bands displaying this perfectly English creeping melancholy.

― dog latin, Wednesday, 17 February 2010 11:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

They're such a slippery band for me. I always liked their singles, as simple and overplayed as they were, but was also struck by how sophisticated the album cuts were. Absolutely finally arrived a couple days ago. It's only their second album and they had already largely left the "nutty" sound far behind, and had more in common with The Kinks, The Jam, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, etc. On the other hand, while the deep cuts have great lyrics, their lack of hooks sometimes leave my mind wandering and I have to go back to re-listen because I hadn't remembered what I just heard. I get in a Madness phase once every few years since the 80s, and I'm still not sick of them. Absolutely is nearly as rewarding as The Rise And Fall... and includes a cracking live BBC concert on disc 2. I probably should go ahead and get 7 too.

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 18:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

looking forward to getting these 2 cd editions.
the one they sorted out for OSB last year had a great Peel session.
weird how Mad Not Mad is not going to be given the same treatment though as for all the over production involved (drum machines !), there are a couple of cracking songs, and the singles had some lovely remixes (Yesterdays Men especially ..)

― mark e, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 18:55 (3 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

Mad Not Mad deluxe is out now. Lots of extra content and still not gone through the liner notes or dvd which both look like they should be pretty good.

― reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Friday, 19 November 2010 17:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

Suggs talks his fave albums:

http://thequietus.com/articles/07068-madness-suggs-13-favourite-albums-bakers-dozen

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 September 2011 15:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

given i know the how some of the folks @ tQ rates the ex-nutters, this is an unexpected surprise.

oh, and for gods sake, not another bl**dy reissue/repackage set.

who on earth needs that new boxset ..

surely their stuff is one of the most rereleased/revised catalogues in modern times ?

― mark e, Tuesday, 27 September 2011 15:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

well i never.

this is a very different cover art than i'd ever expect from the band !

and not only that, but this remix by andrew weatherall is fucking ace :

i may have to forgive them for the queen/olympic shyte at this rate ..

― mark e, Thursday, 13 September 2012 19:31 (8 months ago) Permalink

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