Madness: Mad Not Mad (1985)

This is what it looks like when good bands go bad. There area a couple of OK tracks, but I am underwhelmed. What happened?

Madness: Madness (1983)

Our House was overplayed so much, I cannot even listen to it, even after all of these years. This compilation puts that song on side 1, track 1. Ugh. Beyond that, the collection is plain weird, as it features the earlier (better) stuff, mixed in with the later more boring stuff.

Madness: Absolutely (1980)

Absolutely, the second record from Madness is very much like the first. Some people view that as a bad thing. I think it's OK. Why not? Yes, the first record is better, but so what? In any case, it seemed to me that they were migrating away from ska, even on the second record. The regressive left would now probably view that as a good thing. After all, a bunch of white English dudes playing ska is cultural appropriation, right?

Madness: One Step Beyond (1979)

I would never describe myself as a huge fan of ska music, but I like some of it very much, and I have a few ska records in my collection. As you may know, ska originated in Jamaica in the 1950s, and was reborn as part of a neo-ska revival in the late 1970s. Most people probably who were enamoured with the new ska were probably completely unaware that it was a revival. You can include me in that batch of people.

Madness was part of that scene. The new ska had a faster, harder edge. People will often refer to this era as the 2 Tone ska revival, after the 2 Tone record company founded by Jerry Dammers of The Specials. That's all I'll say about that.

The first ska song I ever remember hearing was the single One Step Beyond--a cover tune from the golden days of ska--on the radio. My sister bought a copy of this record, and I recall that my dad liked it too. It's a fun record, to be sure. Like many of the seminal records of the new-ska era, it has been repressed. I have a copy of the original Canadian pressing.