#31
February 20 1984
Madness
Keep Moving
2.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Wings of a Dove
One of the first “finds” of the New Wave era, for me, was One Step Beyond by Madness. The title track was the first song I ever played when I had the chance to guest dj at the college radio station. Well, it would have been if the DJ kept his promise…instead of leaving me there, holding a stack of records and ignoring me for 45 minutes.
Anyway, that album is one of the best of the era. And they’ve had a few great ones after. This one…is more 7 than Rise and Fall. Sounds like Suggs and the boys have run out of gas. Even a song that should be cheeky, goofy fun, “Michael Caine” is so subdued that I have to wonder where the fun has gone. By “One Better Day” I am left wondering what happened to the boys. I get that some people take a shine to this sort of antiseptic material but it’s sooooo lifeless.
Only at the very end, “Give Me a Reason” can you hear the traces of the old band, that hint of menace, like music for spies for the ridiculous. Would that the whole album was closer to this.
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