The Rise & Fall

Possibly not one for purists as their music is aimed at the masses and may be associated with drunken uncle dancing at weddings! However, I like it as it is fun and is full of catchy songs.

I am not feeling great so didn't listen to all of this but this is a 5 star album anyway. Exactly what I like in an album and it has some massive bangers

Pain the butt to find, but I ended up finding out they play the song "One Step Beyond" of the 2-Tone ska era... I love that stuff. But THIS album I eventually found and was "Meh". Here's the link for the album: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HPjcc9Vi-9s&list=PLwTsihu-EGpB-o1DIUfRUq0O2b1VSinBY&index=1&pp=iAQB8AUB

Listened before?: i think i might recognize Our House, but otherwise, no. i hate complain (i have no issue searching for music), but i don't really know why this isn't on spotify. i don't mind finding it on youtube, but it's a bit of a pain sifting through playlist that haven't had the majority of tracks removed for copyright or something Rise and Fall - 5/5 Tomorrow's (Just Another Day) - 3/5 Blue Skinned Beast - 3/5 Primrose Hill - 3/5 Mr Speaker (Gets the Word) - 4/5 Sunday Morning - 3/5 Our House - 5/5 Tiptoes - 3/5 New Delhi - 2/5 That Face - 2/5 Calling Cards - 2/5 Are You Coming (With Me) - 3/5 Madness (Is All in the Mind) - 3/5 Average score: 3.2/5 ⭐⭐⭐ well, this doesn't really sound like ska at all. i would argue that this album shouldn't even be labelled as such, but i suppose there's a crumb of ska sprinkled over a few tracks (if you squint hard enough) it seems they went in a more pop-centric direction on this album. as a fan of ska (particularly 2 tone), i'm a little disappointed to not hear as much of that rocksteady influence that was so heavily featured on One Step Beyond. perhaps they were moving on to genres that sold better at the time? who knows. the group is called Madness, and yet, the album is lacking *MADNESS* on the bright side, the tracks aren't all bad. in fact, the band's performance is still great here, and Our House is still catchy. still, the album as a whole just doesn't quite have that spark that their debut had, mainly due to the drift away from 2 tone in favor of the more commercially viable sound. maybe others will appreciate it more if they're more of a fan of this sound (or just haters of ska/rocksteady)

I've always loved Madness, and *The Rise & Fall* has two of my favourite songs by the band on it, so I was really looking forward to listening to this today. "Our House" and "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" are both absolutely brilliant songs and show just how good Madness could be. However, beyond these two tracks, I found the album a little disappointing. There are some enjoyable moments, with that familiar Madness sound, some excellent saxophone playing and the quirky, humorous lyrics they're so well known for. However, there's less of the brilliant ska sound that I associate with their best music, and some of the songs begin to feel a bit tiresome towards the end. The middle of the album in particular has a few tracks that didn't really grab me. One thing this challenge has made me realise is that Madness might be more of a singles band than an albums act. They've released so many fantastic songs over the years, but *The Rise & Fall* is their only entry on the 1001 Albums list, which perhaps supports my theory. When you think about the incredible run of singles they had, it's surprising that more of their albums haven't made the cut. Overall, this is a decent album, but I don't think it's Madness at their best. I love the band, and there are a couple of absolute classics here, but the quality isn't consistent enough throughout. I'd much rather listen to a collection of their greatest hits, which is packed with brilliant songs from start to finish. Favourite tracks: "Our House" is an iconic pop song and one of my favourite Madness tracks. The music video is fantastic too. "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" is another brilliant song. Least favourite track: Nothing particularly awful, but several tracks in the middle of the album are quite dull and forgettable. Album artwork: Great album cover. I love it.

그냥 들음

Heavy nostalgia plays a big part in this album. After being an absolute diehard Madness stan growing up (until they showed their ironic true colours as Brexiters and Reformers, the complete opposite of what 2 Tone stood for), I listened to my old copy on vinyl and had forgot how good these little pop tunes were. Loads of tunes packed onto this one album which flowed into each other. Melancholic, gloomy and catchy. Definite sign of the times of 1980's Britain, even including things that wouldn't be acceptable in this day and age. Dark ska with its quirky and unequivocally mischievous Madness style. Great chromatic keyboards and strings peppered throughout highlighted by Suggs' unique voice. Madness at their commercial and conceptual best. 5/5

Madness definitely seems like the type of band whose first 2 albums were their best, and their third was their attempt to go in a commercial pop direction. I say this without having heard those first 2 albums because it just sounds that way to my ears. The best songs here are the ones that let the ska influenced flag fly, but this is a very easy-going and fun record to listen to overall. It does kind of have this cheesy and cloying atmosphere to it I have to admit - I guess it's a little too British for its own sake is what I'm maybe implying here(?) I can see this influencing a lot of that really theatrical kind of pop rock that came about from the 80s onward. The only one I can really pinpoint as I write this review is Tally Hall, so I suppose The Rise & Fall by Madness is a proto-Tally Hall record. But nothing could have prepared me for the second half of this because I swear I jumped out of my seat when "Our House" started. That's a song I had heard consistently for about 20 years without ever knowing who wrote it. Naturally, it's the best song on the album, not only because it's their biggest hit, but because it synthesizes all of the band's very best elements into a pitch-perfect pop tune. The second side takes a kind of vaudeville turn after the smash hit: make of that what you will. I found this album decent but unexceptional, "Our House" aside. I'm not sure why it's considered so essential, but it was a fun little romp full of British ska whimsy, which definitely counts for something. Key Tracks: Blue Skinned Beast, Our House

Rise & Fall: fall down

Our House is clearly the standout. The rest left me sitting. ★★★

Apparently this was meant to be a concept album about nostalgia but they gave up three songs in. They should have doubled down if you ask me.

This was hard to find, so I did the best I could to piece together this record. I love 80s music and Our House is a great staple from that era. A very fun song. Unfortunately, the rest of this wasn't that great. Ska has it's place, but it generally doesn't do it for me, and it didn't here either. Mediocre overall.

Two of my favorite songs of the era, and I didn't remember the artist.

I like madness but never listened to this album. Very creative ska sound with the it hit Our House. But not all tracks are even strong to keep my full attention

Decent album. Not for me musically.

In their prime Madness were a peerless singles band. They released more greatest hits compilations than original albums, after all. (13 studio albums to 19 compipations) So quite what.the point is of including a 13 track album that included one hit single and wasn't ever released in the US is a puzzler. If you want to hear them at their best grab one of the greatest hits disks and dance away. This isn't it.

Chris Foreman once described The Rise & Fall as Madness’s Sgt. Pepper, and having listened to it from beginning to end, I understand exactly what he meant. This is the absolute apotheosis of the Nutty Sound: an extraordinarily elaborate, sophisticated and occasionally exhausting attempt to take everything Madness had developed during their first three albums and turn it into something approaching a complete theatrical production. The comparison with Sgt. Pepper is particularly useful because it encompasses the limitations of such ambition as well as its achievements. I’ve never considered Sgt. Pepper the Beatles’ finest album. Its elaborate presentation doesn’t necessarily make it superior to the more economical, arguably more radical Revolver. Similarly, The Rise & Fall demonstrates just how far Madness could develop their established musical identity without necessarily establishing that bigger, busier and more elaborate always means better. But what an extraordinary achievement it is. Madness are popularly remembered as a singles band, and with good reason. By 1982, they’d become an almost permanent fixture in the British charts, producing one apparently effortless pop classic after another. But those singles sometimes disguised a group of unusually sophisticated musicians and writers, with an appetite for characterisation, social observation and musical experimentation that extended well beyond their reputation for cheerful tomfoolery. The Rise & Fall reveals the scale of that ambition. It plays less like a conventional collection of songs than a musical revue, populated by eccentrics, dreamers, failures, lonely individuals, cheerful criminals and people struggling to make sense of their circumstances. Each song introduces another character, another setting, another little drama. The arrangements provide the scenery, costumes, lighting and movement. The title track functions almost as an overture, establishing the album’s preoccupation with childhood, ageing and the passage of time. Its changes of tempo give the verses a surprisingly anthemic quality, demonstrating how adept Madness had become at using musical structure to shape a narrative. Then Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day) introduces an altogether darker emotional landscape. Despite its relatively perky introduction, the verses have an unsettling minor-key character, while the chorus introduces unexpected harmonic tension. Mike Barson’s emphatic, staccato piano has something of the monumental quality of the Beatles’ Penny Lane. Beneath the melodic invention lies a lyric of weary resignation, in which tomorrow promises little more than another repetition of today. It’s a reminder that the Nutty Sound was never exclusively cheerful. Madness had already demonstrated their appetite for darker material on songs such as Grey Day, Embarrassment and Cardiac Arrest. The difference here is the increasing sophistication with which those subjects are explored. Blue Skinned Beast takes us into the political atmosphere of 1982 and the Falklands War. Unlike Elvis Costello’s Shipbuilding, which exposes the moral contradiction of a war providing employment while threatening the lives of those employed, Madness offer something more grotesque and ambiguous. Military ceremony, death, institutional evasiveness and cheerful hospitality become entangled in a song that seems almost wilfully unwilling to settle into a straightforward moral position. The music compounds that uncertainty. Its predominantly major-key brightness gives way to a sudden modulation into a peculiarly lumpy, unstable chorus. The patriotic celebration sounds as though it has developed a limp. Where Shipbuilding exposes a contradiction, Blue Skinned Beast inhabits one. And this is where the album’s theatrical character becomes increasingly apparent. Primrose Hill portrays a housebound man surrounded by accumulated newspapers, observing a world in which he apparently cannot participate. The arrangement is astonishingly restless, incorporating successive musical ideas before arriving at an extravagant brass-band coda. It occurred to me that the composition itself almost resembles the protagonist’s house: musical ideas accumulate like the newspapers, with nobody apparently willing to throw anything away. Whether that is deliberate characterisation or simply an example of overarrangement is impossible to establish from listening alone. Either way, it’s fascinating, although this was the point at which I began to find the album rather exhausting. Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word) is a more successful exercise in controlled chaos. A cacophony of apparently meaningful but largely unintelligible voices introduces an eccentric character desperate to communicate an important message. Barson’s tin-tack pub piano and a rhythm somewhere between reggae and the Small Faces propel the song forward like a ramshackle procession. It’s essentially a musical shaggy-dog story. The message is a MacGuffin, the entire narrative existing to create anticipation for a revelation that never arrives. The musical disorder serves the joke beautifully. Sunday Morning closes the first side with another remarkably sophisticated arrangement. Its almost permanent stop-start rhythmic character reminded me of the incidental music from a long-lost ITC television series. That comparison is one I return to frequently, perhaps because those programmes supplied an entire generation with an unconscious education in orchestral pop, jazz, psychedelia and dramatic musical shorthand. Here, the music accompanies the mundane rituals of British Sunday life, constantly changing direction rather than settling into a comfortable groove. A song about the traditional day of rest seems constitutionally incapable of resting. Then we turn the record over, and the curtain rises on Act Two. Our House is the enormous production number, and what a difference its original context makes. Heard as an isolated single, its orchestral extravagance can seem almost comically disproportionate to its subject. The strings soar majestically over an affectionate account of a crowded family home, elevating the everyday business of domestic life into something approaching a Hollywood spectacle. Yet within The Rise & Fall, it isn’t remotely an outlier. It belongs completely. There’s considerable emotional subtlety beneath the familiar singalong, too. The narrator celebrates his family while recognising the inevitability of leaving them. The same home that provides security and belonging eventually becomes somewhere he must move away from. The song is simultaneously a celebration of childhood and an acknowledgement that childhood cannot be preserved. It’s rather a shame that the enormous success of Our House, accompanied by its exuberant video, has largely separated it from the album that gives it such a satisfying context. Tiptoes is another favourite. A delightfully macabre little number, propelled by an almost cha-cha-cha rhythm, it tells the story of a man convinced he can fly, with predictably dreadful consequences. He’s a domestic Icarus, with the nineteenth-floor lift button replacing the wings of wax. The arrangement is playful, almost indecently cheerful, while the narrative is potentially tragic. This is the sort of musical incongruity Madness handle brilliantly. The apparent frivolity intensifies the grotesque humour without entirely eliminating the underlying horror. It reminded me why Cardiac Arrest remains my favourite Madness single. Few bands are quite so adept at making catastrophe sound like tremendous fun. New Delhi is another curious miniature, with its skanking rhythm, vaguely exotic melody and increasingly feverish atmosphere. Slightly detuned instrumental textures suggest a heat haze, while elaborate strings evoke the grandiosity of an imagined Indian film soundtrack. It occupies a peculiar musical crossroads somewhere between Driving in My Car and Night Boat to Cairo. The background impersonations of Indian voices, however, belong rather more obviously to the comic conventions of It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. They’re an awkward reminder that some aspects of British popular entertainment in 1982 have aged considerably less gracefully than others. That Face exposes another limitation of the album’s prevailing aesthetic. Beneath its spiky, restless arrangement is an intimate song about romantic loss and personal change. Here, the Nutty Sound feels rather shoehorned into material that might have benefited from greater restraint. It crystallised an important distinction for me: musical incongruity can illuminate a song, but it can also distract from it. Fortunately, the following pair of songs demonstrates just how effective Madness can be when musical invention and subject matter work together. Calling Cards is hilarious. A cheerfully disreputable narrator advertises what sounds suspiciously like a criminal enterprise, with the breezy confidence of a perfectly respectable businessman. It reminded me of Paul Whitehouse’s Crafty Cockney character, whose cheerful acknowledgement of his own dishonesty somehow makes him seem more trustworthy. The chorus is delivered with magnificent slyness, and the entire arrangement seems complicit in the joke. Are You Coming (With Me) is more emotionally complex. Its slightly woozy atmosphere accompanies an apparent appeal to someone drifting towards a destructive way of life. There’s affection, frustration and an awareness of the danger of being drawn into another person’s difficulties. The rhythmic treatment of the narrator’s appeal to offer a lifeline is especially sophisticated, the phrasing almost stumbling over its own feet. Barson’s musical imagination repeatedly impressed me throughout this album. He has a remarkable ability to disturb rhythmic expectations without sacrificing the underlying pulse. The music can stumble while the band itself remains completely assured. Finally, Madness (Is All in the Mind) brings the curtain down. Its verses have something of the nightclub cabaret character of Fever, while the chorus settles into a slowish ska lope with the warmth of a communal pub singalong. After all those individual characters and their peculiar predicaments, it feels like the entire company returning to the stage for a final bow. There’s even a satisfying philosophical resolution. Where Tomorrow’s treated living through another day as weary resignation, the closing song seems to embrace taking life one day at a time. After an album devoted to the peculiarities of human behaviour, Madness conclude by suggesting that eccentricity might simply be a perfectly reasonable way of existing. The Nutty Sound, ultimately, is a state of mind. What prevents me from embracing the album without reservation is its sheer density. Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley’s production is exceptionally accomplished, with remarkable instrumental definition even during the most elaborate passages. But clarity isn’t the same thing as space. The best description I can find is that The Rise & Fall resembles an overlit stage. Everything is illuminated, every musical gesture articulated, every instrumental detail presented for our attention. The songwriting frequently contains considerable darkness, but the production doesn’t always leave enough room for shadows. Occasionally, the fixed grin becomes the Joker’s rictus. By the time I’d reached That Face, I was almost aching for the atmospheric restraint of the later Michael Caine. And it’s telling that I adore The Dangermen Sessions, where Madness rediscovered how much pleasure could be generated simply by trusting a groove and allowing the musicians to play. But something interesting happened during this listening. Initially, I was leaning towards a strong four-star judgement: enormous admiration for the accomplishment, tempered by doubts about whether this was an album I’d spontaneously reach for again. As side two developed, particularly through Calling Cards and Are You Coming (With Me), I found myself warming to the entire conception. The closing number then gave the whole extravagant enterprise a satisfying sense of completion. The theatrical framework had survived the journey. What initially felt like a collection of exceptionally busy compositions had revealed itself as a remarkably coherent artistic statement. I still have reservations about the relentless busyness. This isn’t necessarily an album I’ll put on at an arbitrary moment simply for the pleasure of hearing it again, as I do with many of my most cherished records. But demanding that every great album provide that particular pleasure would be an unnecessarily narrow definition of greatness. Chris Foreman was right. This is Madness’s Sgt. Pepper, in its ambition, its theatrical extravagance and perhaps even its occasional excess. A crowning achievement of the band’s original musical identity, demonstrating both the extraordinary possibilities of the Nutty Sound and the reasons why they might eventually need to move beyond it. It’s an exceptional album, one that earned my highest rating despite my reservations. The qualification is ultimately a matter of personal taste rather than any failure to recognise what Madness accomplished. It’s not them. It’s me.

this album is so unequivocally ass, that honestly it redeems itself with how ass it is, and makes it somewhat enjoyable

I felt so English listening to this, I genuinely went to make beans on toast when the album ended. Madness have always been a singles band for me, and after listening, I'm happy for it to stay that way!

Pretty good

Oliver Twist Shite

Really? I mean, I liked Our House alright in the 80s but they're kind of a one hit wonder. Why on this list?

Not released in the US and not on Spotify, so I listened to it on YouTube which has it in the wrong order. It's not very ska-like, is it? I'm not sure what it is.

Probably sounded better when it came out but it was alright. Just too many songs that were just ok, nothing special.

While my childhood love of ‘House of Fun’ is strong (I snapped the tape of their Greatest Hits album through too much rewinding). Turns out this wasn’t in this album, only the later reissue I listened to. Which only really leaves Our House as the source of quality here. The rest of it is a pretty mixed bag of plodders, rather devoid of their early ska energy. Thought it was rather disappointing really. My random Madness fact. The grandson of their keyboard player was briefly my boss.

struggled to connect with this one. very british. usually i don’t mind that. some good songs though. just didn’t really jump out at me as anything special

¿Dónde ha quedado el Ska y el 2-Tone de los Madness? Aquí desde la inicial Rise and Fall se ve que van hacia el pop, la New Wave y otros géneros. Todo bien compuesto y ejecutado, sobre todo la gloriosa Our House (con estupendo vídeo). Ya antes los Specials habían señalado el camino con su segundo álbum. Los Madness quisieron hacer un disco nostálgico, salvo Our House no es así, y les quedó este que ni siquiera fue publicado en USA. Combatibos y políticos, con conciencia social (The Clash, UB40, The Jam y tantos otros...). Bien, tampoco es un disco que sea gran cosa en comparación con su debut.

Our House is great for the first minute and then it gets overly repetitive. They had a great hook, but never went anywhere else with it. There is also a very aptly named song called Shut Up. That's how I felt half way through this one.

album grande do carai

When searching this album on Spotify you end up with a completely different track listing and no one has ever updated it because no one ever seeks this out.

It’s SO British, and I love that. Also nice to find the album Our House comes from

The Rise & Fall - Madness (1982) Loved this so much more than my last Dexys Midnight Runners album. Very whimsical. Gets all other the place which is part of the whimsy but sometimes makes it a bit tedious to listen to, which is much less fun. Every track is good but listening to the whole stuff all at once is not necessary and could be detrimental to your appreciation of it. But it was a fun listen anyway, so I'm gonna give it a good rating. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 7.75/10

Couldn’t tell you. This album is impossible to find on streaming.

Apart from the singles from the album there is a distinct lack of spark in the album. Madness are a great singles band. It is noticeable the biggest seller is the divine madness which is a collection of singles. This album although has high points is a grind

I have heard of Madness through their, what I'm assuming, only mainstream hit "Our House". I went through a punk/ska phase in high school and Madness always came up as pioneers in the genre so I look forward to listening to this. Seeing brownface on the cover photo was an unwelcome surprise. "Rise and Fall": Not really the sound I expected. Kind of bland - "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)": Better than the opener but didn't enjoy - "Blue Skinned Beast": Interesting song, the genres seem to shift as the song goes. Didn't move me though - "Primrose Hill": Sounds like a rejected Beatles tune with more horns - "Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word)": More ska in this one. First song I've liked so far + "Sunday Morning": Started strong but faded quickly - "Our House": Catchy and fun. There is a reason this was a mainstream hit. + "Tiptoes": I was waiting for this one to catch me but it never did - "New Delhi": Very boring song for me - "That Face": Sweet bass line. But again not for me - "Calling Cards": This is a fun one. + "Are You Coming (With Me)": Another song that is boring for me. The hook grates on my nerves - "Madness (Is All in the Mind)": All I can hear is "Fever" but not as good - Songs I would add to playlist if Spotify had them: Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word), Calling Cards I expected a lot more ska from this album but instead got a lot of bland 80's pop. This is definitely not an album I enjoyed but there were a few songs I liked enough to keep it at 2 stars.

I guess they can't all be as good as Our House, huh?

Two tracks licensed to Spotify, not on Apple Music at all, and no whole album on Youtube though I can listen song by song there it would appear. Do I keep the wikipedia track listing open in one tab to work this hard for The Rise & Fall of Madness? I'm not sure. Who doesn't love Our House and maybe even Primrose Hill? But I don't think we get a sense of what these songs mean for the band, in context, without being able to have the table set with Rise and Fall, and Tomorrow's (Just Another Day). Anyway, if you're in the US you can thank the fact that Madness was a band filled with several talented songwriters and the fractured rights landscape that is the Stiff records as distributed through Geffen and Geffen's decision to take repossess Our House and package it with other material to put out a compilation instead. I've brought youtube to heel and now each track is autoplaying and the album is fine. Madness is all in the mind and somehow maybe that's where this record will exist for Americans.

legalzinho, apesar de uma músicas muito repetitivas

It felt like being pulled through a house of mirrors against my will, but I also kind of enjoyed the ride.

uopće mi nije loše, naprotiv, dosta mi se sviđa! čini mi se da je ovaj bend izvršio velik utjecaj na našu scenu osamdesetih i da je koliko-toliko poznat tu, možda je i danas omiljeniji nego na zapadu. slušam evo drugi put. kao slabu stvar izdvojio bih možda jedino »new delhi«, možda je tada zvučala bolje, danas se dosta izlizala. ostatak mi je jako dobar! :) [odslušao i napisao 21/10/26]

Pish

Fine, but not particularly interesting or memorable.

A song that we had to listen to before we died (Our House), but the guy already decided this list was going to be “1001 albums” not “1001 songs” so he added the whole album.

Fine in small doses. Completely untenable to listen in one sitting.

I loved it

We had the greatest hits album back in the day and always thought of Madness as a ‘singles band’ because they had tons of catchy, tunes. Maybe ska-lite/pop/novelty (?) however much of the rest of the record is also good. Like the title track and the buy a drink song particularly. Lots of little reflections and observations about their youth. The odd racial stereotype would be frowned on now - dodgy Asian-type accent in one tune (anyone else spot the blacked out face on the cover?!) Deserves a reasonable 2.9/5

Expected it to be all high tempo ska but loved the more thoughtful feel. Favourite: Madness all in the mind - a lovely remix of Fever 's main melody

I came to this album as a Madness fan already. I didn’t know every song on this album but I knew a few. The ones I already knew are definitely the stronger tracks on the album: Our House (possibly their best song), Tomorrow’s but I enjoyed the album in its totality. The complexity of the music is great fun and thematically interesting, nostalgic and very British. Rating: 4.0

It was worth a listen

Really not for me man, but there are just enough decent tracks here to keep it out of 1 territory. The horns are also somewhat interesting, but not enough to make me wet my pants. Let's lose the black face though, guy

Pretty good stuff honestly. The standout, "Our House", is pretty recognizable but honestly it doesn't even sound like the other songs on the album! That's huge praise since most of these are pretty one-note, but this band has a lot of interesting range.

It’s easy to characterise Madness as a fun singles band, and that’s certainly true. However, this is an interesting grown up album full of nostalgia but also a warning about the dangers of nostalgia. Like the Kinks but if they’d realised the hole that always looking back leaves. Throw into the mix the pop nugget that is our house and you have an album that has layers… but maybe think about losing the cover and the last 30 seconds of New Delhi

Fire

Okay so basically now even 1 hit wonders can be included in the list as long as they were born somewhere in the UK? By this standard why aren’t the Bay City Rollers in this list? Plus 1 for Our House, the rest is just typical 80s pablum.

You should've seen me getting progressively more annoyed at the lack of Ska on this album. The genre thing says, quote, Genres: Rock, Reggae Styles: New Wave, Ska So you'd think there's either some Reggae or Ska on here. Nope. Entirely New Wave. It's not bad New Wave or anything, I mean Our House is an all-time classic, but WHERE'S THE FUCKING SKA, MR. 1001 GUY?

I know that single!

Notable Textzeile: Balanced on the edge only time could tell Some say he was pushed, others say he fell Standing on that rooftop his brain told him 'no' But all the dreams in nights before told him he must go Das hat mich nicht nur genervt, sondern richtiggehend geärgert. Ich kann gar nicht genau sagen warum. Es ist eigentlich komplett so doof und nervig, wie ich es mir basierend auf dem Wissen um "Our House" vorgestellt habe und trotzdem dachte ich irgendwie es könnte mehr sein. Musikalisch gar nicht meins, textlich hatte ich keine Lust mich damit ausführlich zu beschäftigen, also falls ich ihnen da irgendwie unrecht tue bitte ich um Verzeihung.

Ok, wir hatten jetzt Dexys, Ian Dury, Specials, Pogues, Madness... irgendwann ist Pubrock auch mal durch, oder? Immerhin kann ich das jetzt besser unterscheiden. Madness machen recht komplex arrangierte Popmusik, hier so was wie ein Nostalgie -Konzeptalbum mit manchmal recht treffenden, oft aber auch einfach egalen Texten und Melodien. Gefällt mir geht so.

nice enough

Some cheeky fun. Our House is a classic, but Mr. Speaker (Gets The Word), Tiptoes and Madness (Is All In The Mind) are some solid tracks as well.

I like ska, but this is a little bit all over the place. «Our house» is a great song but the rest of the album is not of the same quality. Favourite: Our House

I have a soft spot for Madness, they have that weirdo music hall Englishness beneath the surface that I really like. let's just not focus too heavily on that album cover or the one song where he's doing an Indian accent

Great album, but docking points for racism of "New Delhi" track and black face snake charmer. 3.5

sorry lads this ain't it

Ska is dross

Bright and Fun and Madness.

3/5 Solid musically, some tracks were even interesting.

A bit of a mixed bag - little touches of class, but a whiff of shite. Favourite track: Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day)

Our House takes the points, all the rest had it's time, I guess

Developing Madness, but always a singles band. 1. Tomorrow's (Just Another Day) 2. Our House 3. Calling Cards

Easy but quirky music.

Det begynner smått okay, men jo lenger det går, desto mer begynner beaten å gå meg på nervene. Dette er jo basically oompah musikk...? Nytt bidrag til samlingen "nå kan jeg navnet på bandet som har _den låta_ og stiller sterkere på musikk-quiz enn jeg gjorde før."

Høres ut som Blur til tider. Noen kule låter, åpningssporet og åpenbare "Our House". Men syns hele plata har et musikalpreg over seg. Det er sikkert masse Thatcher-referanser her som jeg ikke tar, men musikalsjangeren gir meg ikke mye uansett. Gi meg heller "Night Boat to Cairo"!

Our House is a great song, the rest are not. 2.2

It was a really good album. It was Pop and Ska, but I really liked it. It's one of their greatest albums and was really important and had a really strong influence on pop culture. Amazing!

I usually like ska because it has this driving intensity. Its kind of telling you, its rough out there but keep on. This has none of that.

Madness is ok. I don't think this is their best album, though. I was in the mood for some ska and got some pop instead. Whatever, it's not bad or anything and I still enjoyed most of it.

These boys are very unserious

I've listened to my fair share of Madness, but this is my first time listening to one of their albums in full. This album is more new wave than ska so I don't think that labeling this as reggae feels appropriate whereas the Specials albums and Fishbone you can kinda make an argument for. Far from the first time that the genre labels haven't been completely accurate but I just think this is silly. Anyways this was a fun little romp. Favorite track: Our House 3.5/5

Got annoying after a while :(

One hit wonder from the 80s.

idk man

Leuk man, ik hoop stiekem op een full on Ska album, maar denk niet dat dit helemaal aan mijn verwachtingen gaat voldoen. Instrumentaal is dit dus echt top. Er gebeurd een hoop, hallo saxofoon en trompet solos. Krijg daardoor ook heel erg big band achtige vibes van dit album. Wel een prettige afwisseling op de meer standaard rock n roll die normaal voorbij komt. Our House is wel een rammer maar merk dat halverwege zeker niet elk nummer even goed binnenkomt. En oprecht bijzonder hoe anders het klinkt dan de rest van het album. Maar uiteindelijk? Dit was een prima album, maar niet iets wat ik heeeeeel snel nog eens zal luisteren. Vind het instrumentaal best wel nice, maar merk dat ik richting het einde het toch een beetje circus muziek ga vinden. FAVO: Tomorrow's (Just another day), Our House

Good album. Everything top notch, love the horns.

Really boring music

Our House jumpscare. Honestly, I had no clue who made that song, so did not expect it to show up at all. Genuinely a legendary song for a reason. There are a few other bangers on here as well, I really enjoyed Blue Skinned Beast, Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word), and New Delhi. The rest is hit or miss, sometimes leaning towards annoying.

Really well played and recorded, and to think this was happening during new wave and post-disco. This must have been a breath of fresh air. It's oddly charming, unpredictable. House of Fun and Blue Skin Beast are absolutely wonderful.

That was delightfully quirky and fun.

Unfortunately, today brings another album that just doesn't do it for me. For me, a lot of 80s pop music is a no-go. "Our House" was all over the charts back then; I think I even danced to it with a girl—though we were apart, not wrapped around each other. Aside from that, I can't really connect with the album. It hasn't improved with the passage of 44 years, either.

Well it's not electronica or Brit pop, so I am thankful for that. And for that I give it a 2 even though I really didn't like it at least I can understand why its here.

SKA!!! But British ...

Madness is perhaps my least favorite Two Tone band.

6/10

DNF

Mostly unavailable on Spotify

I was really surprised by how much I liked this. I was expecting it to be meh with just "Our House" as the highlight, but I found myself liking most of the songs throughout! They have a very distinct style with a cool blend of rock and ska. Really catchy songs and great instrumental moments. I feel like this should be more popular. Cool music. Side note: why is this still not available in the US? Top Songs: Tomorrow's (Just Another Day), Blue Skinned Beast, Primrose Hill, Our House, Tiptoes, Madness (Is All in the Mind)

1001

Uppfriskande optimistiskoch svängig musik. Älskar blåset. Men vid sidan av Our House saknas det minnesvärda låtar. En fyra

Couldn't find this album on YouTube Music so I listened to their self titled instead, which has some of the same songs. UK music scene in the 80s must have been a lot of weird shit.

I felt like a supervillain walking through the streets of Britain in the mid 1900s. Would I listen to it again tho? Probably not.