Ultimate Collection

Madness | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 14, 2000)
• Original Release Date: November 14, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hip-O Records
• ASIN: B000051Y0T
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,957 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #6 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > British Ska

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bit of the Best, but not quite "Best of", April 11, 2002

By 

K. Brown "El Rudo Lucky Pierre!" (Walnut, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultimate Collection (Audio CD)

This really is a pretty decent dose of Madness, and it was good to see they picked a generous selection from the first two albums.

The only downer is: the first two Madness albums were fantastic, and, in my opinion, they lost much of their pizazz on future releases. It's hard to picture a Madness "Best of" without tunes like "Bed and Breakfast Man," "Middle of the Night," "You Said" and "E.R.N.I.E," especially when they include mediocre songs like "Michael Caine."

This is a good ---but not great--- Madness collection. But if you want an excellent selection of Madness tunes, search for their first album and "Absolutely."

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good collection, July 25, 2003

By 

Jonathan Monaco "cheesegod" (Hicksville, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Collection (Audio CD)

This collection brings you what someone considered to be the best of the British Ska group Madness.
First off, every song on this CD is good, great even. The major draw back is, as if with every "best of" album, it's only worth buying if you're not a huge fan. If you are a fan than you should already own every Madness CD in which case there is no reason to buy this CD.
If you're new to Madness, or you just want their major US hits like Our House, It Must Be Love, House of Fun, and One Step Beyond than this will be great for you.
The other draw back to this album is that it features nothing from "Wonderful," which is a 'wonderful' album but never realesed here in the states.
All that said it's still a great album featuring many great songs.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Nutty Boys are Back, February 16, 2001

By 

Victoria Vaughan "Vaughan" (Oberlin, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Collection (Audio CD)

I defy you to listen to track 4 ("Baggy Trousers") without doing that ridiculous SKA dance; you know, the one where you lose all flexibility in the knees and your head bobs back and forth like a chicken! This fab compilation successfully manages to maintain a sense of chronology without reverting to the 'this is all we've done with our lives' sense of decline which other 80s bands have resorted to in their "Best Of" albums. It's hardly up to the standard of Duran's "Decade", and is noticably lacking one excellent Nutty track "Cardiac Arrest" (perhaps this track wasn't released in the USA?) but other gems are there, notably the glorious scalic piano introduction in "Shut Up", the inimitable 'Michael Caine", everybody's fave "Our House", and the ultimate sing-a-long finale in "Wings of Dove". Well worth its exceptional bargain price.