Ignoring commercial directives to avoid long albums that require constant attention, Madness A. album generous and theatricala narrative sequence and a Background message hinting at the beautiful chaos that surrounds us. This bemused troupe from Camden Town said he had armed himself with reasons to create the “perfect antidote” to despair during the pandemic without looking the other way: his ‘theatre of the absurd’ is not without cruel humour, wrapped with care. A songbook combining pop with operetta and music hall In the high tradition of the Kinks.
This is an album that, like the critical ‘The Freedom of Norton Folgate’ (2009), has a unitary concept and tells us about the maturity of Madness 44 years after ‘One Step Beyond’. Here are six of its seven original members with acidic (and melodic) vocal confidence ‘Recommends’ Graham McPherson up front, a further six ‘tracks’ are added, which are nothing more than narrative infusions from the actor, on an album that runs to 56 minutes across 14 songs Martin Freeman. Already in the early stages, Suggs encourages us to join “the meanest cabaret” among the Victorian orchestral confines, placing us in a hermetically sealed theater from which there is no escape.
baby thieves
It parades a songbook that points to changing landscapes, attitudes, and perspectives, all converging on the same point. a sardonic portrait of the world. The noir tale of the ‘baby thief’ moves around a confused figure, a metaphorical ‘baby thief’, and the gallop of ‘C’est la vie’, a theme that brings exculpatory fatalism to a (subtle) ska rhythm: “I’m not doing this, That’s life / That’s the way things are.” In ‘Isolation and escape’ the paranoia around Covid-19 is evoked and ‘Run for your life’ sounds alarm with echoes of the third world war.
All this with him trademark emotional relativism, the irony slips even when the costuming gives way to hyperrealism: ‘On My Street’ takes the cake, a sort of rip-off of the classic ‘Our House’, peppered with references to drug traffickers, streets piled with garbage bags and scenes of the day of the death. trial. And it displays creativity, both in terms of flashy and unorthodox arrangements, and in the composition itself: the ‘uptempo’ of ‘Round We Go’ is reminiscent of ‘Dr. ‘Kipa’ and ‘Set me free (let me be)’ from the tempered ‘groove’.
Suggs may sound old-fashioned, but he’s not oblivious to the stories he tells. conveys both naivety and emotional involvement. And Madness completes a high-flying piece of work, without being pretentious, by turning worldly troubles into spectacle and, in the end, eliminating a plea for mercy for the fate of humanity. Jordi Bianciotto