shopaholic_man's Full Review: Ultimate Collection by Madness
I get nostalgic once in a while for the decade I grew up in, the 80s! It was a fun time when hair styles were huge, greed was good, Reagan was president, MTV played music videos and CDs had just been invented. Cell phones were huge and the internet was confined to a few geeks who posted to message boards.
So, I was watching TV and a commercial for Maxwell House coffee came on. Our house, it's good to the last drop, our house I immediately recognized this tune as a great song from the eighties Our House by Madness with slightly different lyrics. I had to listen to the song with the proper, non commercial lyrics. I looked through my CD collection and found early Madonna, Pat Benatar, U-2, The Police, the LIVE AID concert, and Duran Duran, but no Madness! Off to Newbury Comics I went, and brought home Madness - The Ultimate Collection!
What is Madness?
Madness was a ska band from London that reached the height of their popularity in the 80s in England and had a couple hits in the U.S. Their music was a blend of ska, reggae and pop. Their biggest hits in the US were Our House and It must be Love. Their first album was released in 1979, then 6 more albums spanning the 80s, and a final album was released in 1999. All but one reached into the Top 20 on the UK charts, and even 1988's the Madness reached # 65. In the US the video for Our House was in constant play on MTV.
The Songs 19 songs are included on the album and they are: One Step Beyond, My Girl, Night Boat to Cairo, Baggy Trousers, Madness, The Prince, Embarrassment, The Return of the Los Palmas, House of Fun, Our House, It Must be Love, Madness (is all in the mind), Grey Day, Tomorrow's Just another Day, Shut Up, The Sun and the Rain, Michael Caine, Yesterday's Men, and Wings of a Dove.
The songs here are culled largely from the first three albums, One Step Beyond, Absolutely and Madness with a few songs from Keep Moving and one from Mad not Mad. Nothing is from the last two albums The Madness or 1999's Wonderful.
The Feel of the Music
I won't do a track by track description but I'd like to try to describe how Madness makes me feel. It is a happy energetic sounding band. The underlying ska and reggae beats fuel the songs, while a horn section adds a swing sound like Cherry Poppin Daddys or The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. You can't be sad listening to Madness, the band really evoked the feel of the 80s. There is an exuberance to the music just not present in many of today's songs. Even the songs I wasn't familiar with had a nice driving beat, and I like the English accent singing, and the full horn section on the songs, especially that deep sax sound. It made me wonder why I never picked up one of their CDs when I was in college.
A Few Tracks described
Our House A funky bass riff comes in with a low keyboard accompanyment. Soon the horns join in. father wears his Sunday best, Mother's tired she needs a rest, the kids are playing up downstairs, sister's sighing in her sleep brother's got a date to keep he can't hang around The horns and guitars provide an infectious riff as the band bursts into the familiar chorus our house, in the middle of our street, our house It is the excited and happy rememberance of childhood. Listening to the song immediately transported me back to the carefree times of youth in the mid 80s.
It Must Be Love begins with a spright sounding piano playing. A bass joins in, and drums. I never thought I'd miss you, half as much as I do, and I never thought I'd feel this way, the way I feel about you, as soon as I wake up, every night and every day I know it's you I need to take the blues away The horns join in with the full band on the chorus it must be love, love love. We even get some great saxophone solos in this song. You can also hear strings in the song, the band pulled out all the stops musically.
One Step Beyond An announcer yells out the intro to this song in rhyme, and soon a monster sounding baritone sax starts in with the steady riff of the guitars. The song is mostly instrumental, except the occasional shout One step beyond!, but it is great sax backed by a driving beat.
Summary If you grew up in the 80s, this may help to round out your 80s music collection without buying all the individual Madness albums. Its a fun collection and it includes the hits that helped to define a decade of Madness.
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