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| | The Business | | | Music Artist : | | Madness | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | EMI Int'l | | Release Date : | | 1993-11-29 | | Store Price : | | $63.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $63.99 | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Intro
2. Prince
3. Madness
4. One Step Beyond
5. Mistakes
6. Nutty Theme
7. My Girl
8. Stepping into Line
9. In the Rain
10. Night Boat to Cairo
11. Deceives the Eye
12. Young and the Old
13. Don't Quote Me on That
14. Baggy Trousers
15. Business
16. Embarrassment
17. Crying Shame
18. Return of the Los Palmas 7
19. That's the Way to Do It (AKA Odd Job Man) [Demo Version]
20. My Girl [Live]
21. Swan Lake
22. Grey Day
23. Memories
24. Shut Up
25. Town With No Name
Disc 21. Never Ask Twice (AKA Airplane)
2. It Must Be Love
3. Shadow on the House
4. Cardiac Arrest
5. In the City
6. House of Fun
7. Don't Look Back
8. Driving in My Car
9. Terry Wogan Jingle
10. Animal Farm
11. Riding on My Bike
12. Our House [Stretch Mix]
13. Walking With Mr. Wheeze
14. Tomorrow's Just Another Day
15. Madness (Is All in the Mind)
16. Wings of a Dove (A Celebratory Song)
17. Behind the Eight Ball
18. One's Second Thoughtlessness
19. Sun and the Rain
20. Fireball XL-5
21. Visit to Dracstein Castle
22. Michael Caine
Disc 31. If You Think There's Something
2. One Better Day
3. Guns
4. Victoria Gardens
5. Sarah
6. Yesterday's Men [Harmonica Version]
7. All I Knew
8. It Must Be Love [Live]
9. Uncle Sam
10. David Hamilton Jingle
11. Inanity Over Christmas
12. Please Don't Go
13. Sweetest Girl [Extended Version]
14. Jennie (A Portrait Of)
15. Tears You Can't Hide
16. Call Me
17. (Waiting for) the Ghost Train
18. One Step Beyond [Italian Version]
19. Maybe in Another Life
20. Seven Year Scratch [Edited Version]
21. Release Me
22. Carols on 45
23. National Anthem
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 Absolute gold, with one flaw
Submitted on: 2009-06-04 |
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The music here is incredible. There aren't that many bands that put as much care into their B-sides as they do their main album tracks, but Madness clearly wasn't slacking off. As a result, you have three discs loaded down not just with the A-side of every single (which means all their big hits), but tons of amazing music you'll otherwise have a lot of trouble finding.
The first disc covers everything from the original version of "The Prince", the "One Step Beyond" and "Absolutely" era, and up until "Shut Up" off of "7". Virtually everything here is interchangeable and at times superior to things that may have shown up on albums. To put it in perspective; nearly every B-Side from the One Step Beyond era was played live.
The second disc picks up with "It Must Be Love", then finishing out the "7" singles, and moving through the "Rise And Fall" period, finally stopping at the "Michael Caine" single, at which point the transformation from ska to pop has been completed. We also start to see alternate single mixes show up; "The Sun And The Rain" and "Michael Caine" have rather different introductions, and "Our House" is presented in a remix form. Highlights include "One Second's Thoughtlessness", "Fireball XL5", and the swath of non-album hit singles we know and love.
The third disc is probably most likely to be ignored, seeing as it seems to be in the least-admired era of Madness' career, from the "One Better Day" single onwards (and by "onwards" I mean "1986", since when this came out "Wonderful" had not yet happened). There are still gems here, some that outshine album material on Mad Not Mad. Also, I love "Keep Moving", so there. We have a very interesting alternate single version of "Victoria Gardens", with the verse/chorus structure changed (for the better, I think). Then things do get a bit boring, although "Yesterday's Men" has a new layer of melancholy added with the harmonica solo. After sitting through some (admittedly funny) Christmas stuff, a live "It Must Be Love", and some kind of boring stuff, we run into "Jennie (A Portrait Of)", which might be one of their coolest songs from the era, and finally we reach "(Waiting For The) Ghost Train", which I adore.
The album ends on what could be a sad note; after Ghost Train we have the melancholy "Maybe In Another Life", the nostalgic Italian "One Step Beyond" (Un Passo Avanti, I should say) and "Seven Year Scratch", and the humorous joking-around of the last (very short) three tracks. It would have been a kind of sad way to end the album, not knowing that one day we would see "Wonderful" and have "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate" coming out imminently.
Now, that flaw. The interviews. They are placed after certain songs, in the same track. Some of them are actually interesting (well, actually, probably just the tour manager's stories after "Baggy Trousers" and "The Business"), but a lot of them are short, reveal no information, and at one point whoever is speaking is totally incoherent and must not say more than five syllables. You could try resorting to clipping those bits off in an audio editor of your choice, but for some reason "Mistakes" has a good deal of speech over the intro.
Now, it doesn't RUIN the album. The music is still there and largely untouched (minus "Mistakes"), it's good stuff, and at times the interviews are atmospheric if you listen to it all straight through. It could've been handled better, but it's still a killer album. I love it; highly recommended for the Madness fan or newcomer. |
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 Great Collection... Bad production
Submitted on: 2008-10-28 |
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Great collection of songs, but about 75% of them have little 5-15 second interview clips on the end of them. These clips are part of the tracks themselves so you can't just skip over them or program your player to ignore them. They aren't bad bits, but I don't want to hear the same comments on the end of the same song every time.
I went in with an audio editor and edited a lot of the clips out, but some actually overlap the music itself, so people start talking even before the song has completely faded out. No good way to edit those. It took me about an hour and a half to clean this CD up enough to really enjoy the music. If I had listened to it first and heard these bits, I would not have purchased this collection. |
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 The Best Band
Submitted on: 2007-12-22 |
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| This triple CD covers "the first era" of Madness' 30 year history, so far. This covers all their singles from 1979 thro' to 1985. But what makes this CD set so special, is that it also contains all the B-sides to the singles, which makes this an absolute must for all the nutty fans. Not only that, but in between each song, there are insightful "snippets" by the band members, crew, management and friends, which are not only informative, but a delight to listen to. I highly recommend this CD set to, not only all Madness fans, but to the curious people out there, also. You will not be disappointed! |
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 the interviews
Submitted on: 2005-03-15 |
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| I don't usually write reviews, but felt I needed to bring the rating down on this one to save people some money, great music, but as said in other reviews, the interviews kill it. Stay away. |
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Ugh... ALMOST perfect
Submitted on: 2004-06-02 |
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| Box sets can always lead to frustration when oddities, rare or live cuts stop the goodness dead. That doesn't happen here because an oddity for Madness is fairly incredible. This box set includes every single wonderful moment that you could possibly want in one fell swoop. However, I'm docking it a notch because of the interview segments placed before/after songs. You cannot program out the interviews because they are attached to the same track. Interesting the first time you listen, but after that it's incredibly frustrating. And to make matters worse the majority of the interview clips are spread out over the first two discs... which happens to include the best songs. It would have been MUCH better if the folks who compiled this box would have put the interview segments on the end of the 3rd disc. If you don't think this will bother you then go ahead and buy this baby... it's filled cover to cover with amazing music. |
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