Madness - The Liberty Of Norton Folgate

Ahhhh Madness. Guilty pleasure to be sure. This new offering of songs from this Legendary British hit making, dance creating machine is Dub heavy and sickly sweet. Opening track We Are London sets the tone of the album; lush vocal melodies, toe tapping bouncy beats, interesting musical interludes and that dry, sardonic wit than can only come from being a Londoner. The lads Ska and Dub influences are all over these songs, but long gone are the days of songs like The Prince and Baggy Trousers. The newer stuff is more along the lines of Grey Day, or maybe even It Must Be Love. Yeah, more introspective stuff, as opposed to the Nutty Dance days of yore. Let's face it, these guys aren't as young as they used to be, and the fact they can put together a nice collection of music like this is a good enough reason to celebrate being alive. Songs like the scary catchy We Are London, Idiot Child and That Close are some of the standout tracks on here. Could of done without a ten minute opus though (The Liberty Of Norton Folgate). You gotta let that Ragga drop, man! LOL Madness are one of the originators, one of the Rock Steady foundations upon which a whole genre of music was built upon. Pay respect to your Elders, kids. To not give this CD a listen would be doing a great disservice to your ears and your feet. On Yep Roc Records.

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