Madness:

The Dangermen Sessions Volume 1

(V2)

Hard to believe, but back in the early ‘80s, Madness were, along with The Jam and a few others, England’s greatest singles band, with a seemingly endless string of pop ditties. Unlike Weller and company, the Camden septet’s brilliance on 45s didn’t always translate onto 33s, with their long-players being mostly hit-and-miss until 1984’s all killer/no filler Keep Moving.

Well, Madness reformed recently, playing club dates billed as “The Dangermen,” filling their sets with the ska and reggae repertoire of their early days. The experience was fruitful enough to inspire an album of covers both well-worn (The Kinks’ “Lola,” the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On”) and obscure (Barbara Lewis’ “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”).

The playing is tight throughout, the mood loose, and leader Suggs McPherson has certainly lost none of his vocal cheekiness. That said, the band’s two best instrumentalists, saxophonist Lee Thompson and pianist Mike Barson—who always added much-needed spark to the Nutty Boys’ sound—have little to do here, since the songs’ structures are so locked-in. Also, while lighthearted tunes like Prince Buster’s “Girl, Why Don’t You?” Lord Tanamo’s “Taller Than You Are” and Sir Lancelot’s “Shame and Scandal” are perfectly within the band’s grasp, more Rasta-centric or socially-conscious cuts like Bob Marley’s “Trouble in the World” and Desmond Dekker’s “The Israelites” are simply outside it.

www.madness.co.uk

5 Blips out of 10

By Matthew Christoffersen

8/2005