Ultimate Collection
This CD is great! It has all the classics and really brought back memories for my dh who grew up listening to Madness!
January 7, 2008 |  | Madness is all in the mind |  |
The "Ultimate Collection" of Madness goes a long way towards proving that these "nutty boys" were a terrific singles band. From the opening bellow of "One Step Beyond" to the inspirational "Wings of a Dove," there really isn't a dud in the bunch, and the CD clocks in at over 70 minutes. Even with these little nuggets of radio gems (sadly, hardly any of them US charters), it is easy to underestimate the influence of Madness. I recall one Saturday morning in college as the dorm TV was on, and a cereal commercial had a bunch of little kids doing that "One Step Beyond" dance/walk during the Saturday cartoons.
Which meant that, despite meager American success for "Absolutely" and "One Step Beyond..." (enough so that Sire dropped them and the next two albums came out on Stiff as imports), there were a lot of eyes on these seven young Brits. Their mix of pop, R'n'B, goofy personalities and - of course - ska made them irresistible to those exposed. But once you scratch the surface, darker themes flowed beneath the shiny surfaces. "Embarrassment" dealt with a real life family reaction to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy from an interracial relationship and their not-so-enlightened response. Both "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" and "Grey Day" deal with people who discover their dreams have run aground.
However, it was a peppy piece of nostalgia that finally broke Madness stateside. "Our House," with memories of growing up, caught the fancy of American ears and went top ten. It also helped that Geffen records, determined to prove they were an "artists record label," put considerable effort at breaking the Madness album, cobbling tracks from the first four albums (two of which had not even been released in the US), and even sneaking the cover "It Must Be Love" into the top 40. But it was also at the moment that Madness seemed to be growing up. Madness Presents the Rise & Fall was a strikingly mature album, and the ska was breaking down to pop.
Pop thrills, nonetheless. The coming of age classic "Baggy Trousers" is still inescapably catchy, and the carnival fair music that permeates "House Of Fun" is still a blast. But as the bittersweet "Michael Caine" (featuring a one line cameo from the subject in question) and "The Sun and The Rain" tracked, Madness was gradually moving into mature territory and their fans weren't necessarily following. "Mad Not Mad's" single "Yesterday's Men" was more than a little prophetic, and the band broke up afterwards. (Subsequent reunions are not represented here.) But all the joy and exuberance of the boys' style is here. If you don't want to dig deep, "Ultimate Madness" has all the goodies.
October 1, 2007Hearing this album really brings home not only how funny, engaging, and entertaining these boys were but also how stylistically creative- and ace songwriters to boot. My fellow Americans: why didn't we get it? Here they were mostly known as a one-hit wonder but practically every track here coulda-shoulda been a smash hit- as many of these were in the UK. All these accolades aside though I'd recommend "The Lot" or "Complete Madness" over this album since those titles give more focus to the band's earlier "nutty" sound of the Two Tone ska era. Ultimate Collection spans the whole career and in so doing seems to give more equal treatment to the less interesting later electro-pop tunes. Still this is an excellent album.
May 21, 2007 | | A few gems but The specials were the ska wonders! | |
Madness no doubt has a few classics- One step beyond Our house House of fun The prince and Embarrasment, and maybe Madness (they call it) is allright. But when it comes to British ska they are a distant second to the Specials whose recordings sounded tough authentic while madness's came off to polished and well too "white".(the Specials were interracial and had the best (riddim) section in london. This is a good way to collect the well known hits and for the money its a good buy i guess- but alot of this material sounds welldated in that bad eighties way- ive seen Madness live however and they sound better live than on recordings. This is all a casual fan would need for sure- if youre new to the first wave of british ska then pick up the Specials debut which is a true ska classic.
March 13, 2007The songs One Step Beyond,House of Fun,Our House and It Must be Love . I like very much the rest of the songs I gotta get use to.
August 11, 2006More reviews at Amazon.com ...
