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SINGLE OF THE WEEK - MADNESS: Shut Up (Stiff)
And when the banana daiquiris are all finished, Madness have the upper hand. What other group captures the feel and the fun of modern music's rush so well. Their singles are always right there on the pulse of the moment but still manage to stand the test of time. A hectic carnival, f'sure, but their music is as much sussed as it is sassy, has as much insight as it has frivolity. Madness are masters of a social type of social observation - problems, struggles and peculiarities are related in a friendly offhand way because the group realises that sadness and weakness is no revelation to anyone. Maybe RAR, Au Pairs and the Banshees could learn something here.
'Shut Up' is a wry spy on small-time criminal types, a step or two away from 'Absolutely' though not quite the balmy funk one has been lead to expect from album three. No matter, this is great with big chunks of frantic galloping excitement -- a guitar plays a western theme of mock grandeur, lavish piano from Monsieur Barson and an ineffable McPherson/Foreman song and lyric: "I've got a wife and three kids, y'know/They'll tell you I'm straight, at least I think so/I'm as honest as the day is long, the longer the daylight the less I do wrong."
Madness are still sorting through a rich heritage of folklore, British comedy and '60's bop 'n' soul and converting and circumventing the line(s) of history to make themselves the primetime pop movers of the era. Right now everything about 'Shut Up' sounds, smells and feels good and I know when I see the video it's going to look good as well.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK - MADNESS '7' (Stiff)
WITH THIS, the third LP from Madness, the group take massive leaps and bounds and go into areas that pop stars do not usually enter. Madness are fans scanning the vast expanse of music and attitudes that pop history has to offer - the urchin charm of The Sex Pistols, Motown's three minute symphonies, ska's compassion, mid-period Beatles' melodies and optimism ... Tie the knots and give the components contemporary credence and you have a glittering mosaic from the best things in history making some of the nicest things of the present.
There's a popular line of critical appraisal that crusty old hacks love to apply to Madness - good tunes, great fun but let's keep it in its place, chaps. So let me just say here that with a lot of the material on this album Madness capture the mood of Britain 1981 better than any one of the trumped up soap-box cranks regularly afforded the position of latter day messiahs in these very pages by people who really should know better.
'Cardiac Arrest', 'Grey Day' and 'Mrs Hutchinson' in particular grasp the feeling of tawdry despair and alienation many young people and their parents are experiencing in the present bewildering social climate. But they realise that to have strength you need to be able to smile and to keep your pride you have to make a, sometimes figurative, dance through the depression. Align the group's understanding of their surrounds with an intuitive grasp of music very much in the ascendant and you have a precious combination.
Although the LP was recorded in Nassau there is nothing on the sleeve or the record to tell you as much. What is noticeable, however, is the seriously improved tact and style with which the group boost their back beats and rhythm flows. Musical supremo Mike Barson expands his instrumental range to include vibes and marimba while drummer Woody helps out by playing congos and, not to be outdone, self-styled stage-invader-made-star Chas Smash adds trumpet and vox contribution to his footsure dance steps. The capacity the group now have to bear the full fruits of their imaginative and shrewd songwriting is very much expanded and on the first side - every song a gem - they dive into the splash with much grace and enthusiasm.
'Cardiac Arrest' tumbles out of the speakers head over heels with all the scatter-brained nervous energy of a flustered office worker late for an appointment, trapped in the rush hour. The insight and black humour that is the twin edged attack of their lyrics is well to the fore in a song which recalls The Jam's superb 'Smithers Jones' only this time the song ends with the poor sod actually going over the brink.
'Sign Of The Times' is a sneer at gutter press mentality, cutting out and across familiar paths and routines while 'Missing You' is a heartache lovesong somewhere between The Temptations with Whitfield and Beatle bounce, possibly the sort of thing The Moptops would have made if they hadn't started to take their drugs very seriously around about the time of 'Revolver'.
Madness are presenting an ingenious form of creative entertainment, a very special natural talent which is being ruthlessly crushed in today's Britain but thanks to them it's a gift that is being kept alive and healthily refurbished. They manage to say a lot - musically and lyrically - with the minimum of fuss. 'Mrs Hutchinson' is a perfect example - the music gorgeously crafted, nimble fresh and sweet and the song weaving its way towards being a sharp little paradigm on the rapidly declining welfare state. While many composers deal with reality and make it sound trivial, Barson, Foreman et al take formalism and turn it into reality.
While 'Benny Bullfrog' and 'Pac a Mac' fall short of the wealth of achievement elsewhere on the record, it has to be said - '7' is the most consistently appealing and resilient album since 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels'. Madness have successfully wedded the aims and aspirations of their first two records and come up with an irresistable balance and fortitude. '7' is pop as a communal expression, it's pop as a rejuvenated artform and it establishes them as giants in a field of their own. Don't miss it.
- Contributed by Fredd Boeuf
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