I’m making very slow progress converting our cassette tapes to digital, but in doing so discovered we had no Madness. At all. Despite both of us growing up with them. They are national treasures, and form a part of the ambient musical fabric of life, and as such I think I take their music for granted. I just assume it’s there.
Often the music we grow up with is part of the musical landscape without the coherence of music we discover later on. So I don’t think I could name a single album. So I’ve picked up this 42 track beast, which seems to encompass pretty much everything I know while also including some newer stuff not so familiar.
Madness feel, even in their darker days, like a positive force in music.