Madness - Divine Madness

Track list:

1. Prince
2. One step beyond
3. My girl
4. Night boat to Cairo
5. Baggy trousers
6. Embarrassment
7. Return of the Los Palmas 7
8. Grey day
9. Shut up
10. It must be love
11. Cardiac arrest
12. House of fun
13. Driving in my car
14. Our house
15. Tomorrow's just another day
16. Wings of a dove
17. Sun and the rain
18. Michael Caine
19. One better day
20. Yesterday's men
21. Uncle Sam
22. Waiting for the ghost train

Superficially, Madness seemed to be a lightweight pop group who had a lot of fun, but some of their songs had a lot of depth. I've seen them compared to the Kinks - both groups having (in their different eras) offered interesting insights into London life. This is high praise indeed so although I wouldn't quite put Madness on the same level as the Kinks, their music has far more to offer than you might think. Between 1979 and 1983, Madness had fifteen UK top ten hits and two UK top twenty hits. Taking their group name from a Prince Buster song, their first hit (The Prince) was a tribute to him and their second hit (One step beyond) was a cover of one of Prince Buster's songs. They later had another cover hit with It must be love (Labi Siffre) but wrote most of their own material. Their biggest UK hits were House of fun (UK number one) and Wings of a dove (UK number two - an original song, not a cover of the old gospel standard), but they also made the UK top five with My girl, Baggy trousers, Embarrassment, Grey day, It must be love, Driving in my car, Our house and The sun and the rain. After one of their members quit in 1983, the hits generally became smaller although Madness continued to make great music. They disbanded in 1986 but have re-formed intermittently since then. One such reunion (with the original line-up) recorded a new album in 1999, which yielded the UK top ten hit Lovestruck and another great song, Johnny the horse, both featured here.