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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Stunning Comeback, 12 Nov 2001
They're back! Having not released an album since Mad not Bad way back when, the nutty boys reform and go straight to peak form with this stunning album, perhaps the best way to look at it is by individual songs.1- Lovestruck - This song is Madness as we remember them. Chirpy and upbeat, lovestruck holds you with it's catchy lyrics and soaring chorus that epitomes what we've come to expect from Madness. It's a perfect opener, a great vehicle for all the talents of Madness with great lyrics, beautiful melodies blended effortlessly with the upbeat nutty sound (less present on this album) and a great vocal from Suggs, and so we're away - 5/5 2- Johnny the Horse- Another poppy song, Johnny the Horse is quite quirky with a good beat and works well after lovestruck, keeping the pace going but it does deviate in mood slightly with a somewhat darker undertone to the lyrics which are complimented by the nonsense of the chorus. again, classic madness is to be had here. if you didn't catch this on single (just about got into top 100), don't miss out here - 5/5 3- The Communicator- Ah, some old skool ska! This is really a track for people who enjoyed the early madness of one step beyond and the prince. This is a good fun track which replicates their early style perfectly. Not a classic, but certainly cheered me up - 3/5 4- 4am- The real fans amongst you will already know this one!! It's lifted from Suggs' earlier solo album 'The lone ranger'. This is more of a downbeat track in comparison to the first three, but it does have a very good love ballad style about it. This is better than the original because of the full madness septet being involved this time. Madness are showing real versatility here, no bad thing either... - 4/5 5- The Wizard- Hard to place this one. It's got some good pop elements but you can quite clearly register the old nutty sound coming through here. It's a bit of a nonsense song as far as i can tell but we like a bit of that really - 4/5 6- Drip fed Fred- This is probably the strongest song on the album. It features a bouncy beat, some nice pub piano from Mike Barson and some guest vocals from one of the lads' heroes, Ian Dury. Again, this was an abused single that should really have been massive but wasn't. It displays a good tune and some darkly comic lyrics. The chorus is very anthemic in quality and we see a complete package - 5/5 7- Going to the top- A repetitve song this one. It's actually quite clever though if you listen carefully. Some nice harmonising mark out this one but other than this, it's fairly standard - 3/5 8- Elysium- In the same way as drip fed fred earlier on, this ong mixes a dark musical style with a specific lyrical style, only this time instead of black comedy, we have a sort of lonliness, jilted individual type lyric. It also has a lot of strings in giving it good orchestral quality. Well polished - 4/5 9- Saturday night, sunday morning- Some more poppy antics with love ballad style lyrics here. It's a bit more upbeat that Elysium but has the same musical quality, just without the full orchestral backing. This is a good neat track, that will really grow on you - 4/5 10- If i didn't care- The weakest track off the album, possibly because it wasn't written by the boys, we don't know really. It's quite slow and has some pleasant melodies but it just seems out of place on a madness album, still, they manage it nicely and it's not that bad - 2/5 11- No Money- A good strong finisher. This certainly has some leanings towards the nutty sounds of yesteryear. it's not as good as some of the earlier upbeat songs, possibly because it's trying to be nutty, upbeat, and yet slightly subdued at the same time. Still, another good fun song to round off a fairly superb collection - 4/5
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