Customer Reviews

Total Madness - Very Best of Madness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Get "Madness the business", a 3 CD box set of their singles. Not only do you get to hear the band mature from its Swiss Cottage "bad boy" beginnings to its sophisticated nutty pop sound of the early 90s, but you get to hear fun commentary about the mega-band between tracks. I hear the band has recently returned to the studio. We'll see...

If you're not British, you may only have a vague recollection of Madness. I consider myself to be among the music literati, and I assure you that you've missed one of the great bands of all time. Alas, like all things, the world moves on, and the "sound" that was so exciting and different back then is a bit thin and dated today. None-the-less, "Madness the business" is a must-have if you are a true collector of great music.

If you are only familiar with Madness' few U.S. hits ("One Step Beyond" "Our House") this is probably the collection for you. The CD captures the basics of the sound this group put out and the influences they have had on many other bands, (Mighty Mighty Boaatones, No Doubt, Smashmouth) is evident even on this limited set. As you can read in the other reviews, this was a band that deserves a much more complete compilation. Hopefully, this CD will make you want more Madness. If not, this is a good addition for anyone who might want to broaden their musical taste to include one of the best ska bands ever.

Okay, let's be honest: it is not a great compilation. Lots of their best bits are definitely missing. You will have much more fun in buying DIVINE MADNESS (Digitally Remastered) where you really find nearly all of their fantastic hits in great quality. Or you get a copy of their latest album WONDERFUL which really shows the lads at their best. But buying TOTAL MADNESS is still better than not buying any Madness-record at all. A fair chance to get in first touch with a splendid band!

I love Madness. I've payed large sums of money for import CDs. And believe me, this is an absolutely TERRIBLE retrospective. First of all, you only have twelve tracks. Given the variety of the band's work, how is it possible to paint an adequate picture with that few songs!? Secondly, the actual song selection is stunningly terrible. The group's later period wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't good enough that you'd want to clutter HALF THE CD with songs from their last two albums! Then we have two songs from Seven and two from The Rise and Fall--decent enough selections; perhaps if ALL their albums were thus represented this would be better. Unfortunately, they're not--Absolutely is entirely ignored, and all we have from One Step Beyond is the title track. It also has the non-album single It Must be Love, but as that's found on the infinitely better self-titled compilation, that's no excuse to buy this. And, of course, the track order shows no rhyme and reason at all (One Step Beyond, LAST?). All in all, even though it includes some good songs, this is absolutely (not a pun) inexcusable. Buy Madness--it was released while the group was still around, so it's not entirely authoritative, but it includes work from their best period, INCLUDING the excellent House of Fun, which you won't find anywhere else this side of the Atlantic. Star FAR away from this mess.

The best of Madness has a lot more than just this 12 songs. I don't have this CD but from the short song list I know there are better Madness CDs, for starter look for Madness Ultimate Collection, there are 19 songs in it, not complete yet, but better than this.
Note for casual listener, In Business Box Set contain interview/commentaries between each song, very annoying.
Five stars for the band, 3 for the lack in quantity.

This Collection of Madness goes a long way towards proving that these "nutty boys" were a terrific singles band, but it is too skimpy to give it a beefier rating. From the opening bellow of "One Step Beyond" to the inspirational "Wings of a Dove," there really isn't a dud in the bunch. 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.

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.

Pop thrills, nonetheless. BUT...not having the coming of age classic "Baggy Trousers" or "House Of Fun" is reason to skip this. If you want to dig deeper, "Ultimate Collection" has all the goodies.

Well, where to start when talking about my all-time favourite band? It has been said that Americans never totally understood Madness because they were 'too British'! Well, then why did No Doubt, The Bosstones, Smashmouth and all the rest rate them so highly? Seems to me someone somewhere is VERY wrong and judging by the success of said American bands, we know WHO! True, this particular compilation doesn't do the band TOTAL justice (look for the British compilation 'Divine Madness' for full enjoyment), but it has enough great tunes on it to convince the American public that Madness were indeed NOT a one-trick pony (Our House) but a very quirky AND intelligent pop band a` la` Kinks. Forget the British tag... just put it on, clear the floor and start dancing! This one will keep you up all night.

1. Madness is pop fun with loud horns 2. "Wings of a Dove" (A Celebratory Song) is a wonderful Caribbean-sounding blast 3. "One Step Beyond" is a ska materpiece 4. "Micheal Caine" is a twisted delight 5. Madness completely trancends its '80s roots 6. That said, "Our House" is a dance classic 7. Unlike a lot of 80's stuff (like most Time-Life collections) this is disc is nicely remastered 8. If you have only heard "Our House," you're in for a treat - Madness is so much more than a one-hit wonder 9. It's goofy 10. It's fun

I hesitantly give this two stars. It's a "Best Of" collection. So where's the best??? This CD needs a much better selection of tunes.

This is a terrible retrospective which, without any other knowledge of the band, would lead many to conclude that Madness were little more than a crappy New-Wave band. Everyone knows "Our House." I'm glad "One Step Beyond" made the list. How come no "Night Boat to Cairo" or "House of Fun"? Pass this up, and just get the first album instead.