Third albums are usually rubbish. It's a well documented phenonomen in the music press..( Oasis - Be here now - I rest my case). But lets go back to 1981 and the mighty Madness were just poised to take over the world, well, England at least with their infectious, stomping, singalong songs. Along comes their 3rd album, "7" (because there's 7 of 'em) and their campaign to take over the world was underway. I'll admit it, I'm a huge Madness fan, and having trailed around 2nd hand shops and record fairs I have all their albums and singles, and this is the one I have listened to the most. It's brilliant. There's the singles, Grey Day and Cardiac Arrest, about depression and heart attacks, but you wouldn't know because they are smashing tunes, and it just gets better and better. "Missing You" is fabulous, "Mrs Hutchinson" is fantastic, "Tommorrows Dream" is great..I could go on. 9 of the 13 tracks were written or co-written by keyboardist Mike Barson, and it shows. Swirling organs, thumping pianos, xylophones..it's enough to make you weep. This albums has not dated and will stand the test of time until the next millenium! Great stuff
Sally Baines |
