With their second album of material since 2009, time to check in on Madness, not the best Two Tone band (that would be Selecter…) and not the most consistent but if the principle behind Ska is skanking like crazy while having lots and lots of fun, than the truest to their roots.
In 2012, Madness are elder statesmen, Ken Dodds of pop, and much loved. And on the Euro Pounds challeneged Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, they prove that if the moment moves them they still have it going off.
Despite a lousy "My Girl 2" (though the Clive Langer remix concluding the deluxe version is better), a thoroughly depressing "Never Knew Your Name" and and ska meets Bossa Nova "La Luna" which doesn't quite manage to pull it off, the album settles down, with a handful of very good second tier Madness tracks. "How Can I Tell You" features a terrific sax solo by the brilliant Lee Thompson, and a pleasant Nutty Boys vibe
Two songs later "Misery" is Skaville as Brit vaudeville and so much fun, and Chas and Suggsy suggest we suck on our silver spoons and tells us to stop being such misery guts. This is what we pant from Madness, you could sing this in a Bier keller with nothing but and while it is blatantly a ancestor of the great Prince Buster, any reggae vibes are long gone. And "So Alive" is another knock out melody that you can love like breathing.This is the sort of song you want to share with your gal forever.
But two of the three extra songs on the deluxe version are right out dogs, the final song of the album proper, "Death Of A Rudeboy" is bathetic and uneven if this hard mix of Ennio Morircone and Clashy reggae did work, it is such a downer that it wouldn't. work as the end of the album.
At their heart Madness are as much a Brit comic combo as the Goons, they are personalities playing at being pop stars and so good that they are also pop stars playing at being a knees up mother brown comedy team. In the early 1980s they nailed one hit after another, 214 weeks on the Brit charts, Oui Oui isn't that" age creeps up on it, and it can be a downer and disheartening, nothing can save around a third of these tracks. But at its best, it is more than a nostalgia trip.
Grade: B