The Theater of the Absurd, a prologue (“Mr. Beckett Sir…”) and three acts – all for free. Because behind this Pipifax are 14 songs by Mike Barson, Graham McPherson, Chris Foreman and Daniel Woodgate (he’s the drummer), and they wurlitz, jingle and gyrate as they always have for more than 40 years. You just don’t know who writes the best songs in Madness.
The new record is elegant and grandiose
I would say Mike Barson, who often writes alone. They’ve arranged strings and horns, and Barson – who left the band for a while in 1984 – has rediscovered the lost ska and brings Lee Thompson’s saxophone to the forefront. Such wonderful records as “Keep Moving” and “The Rise & Fall” were never about slapstick, but rather about music hall and matinee of the last, if not the century before last, about the satire of Jonathan Swift and the melancholy of Oscar Wilde. And the new record is elegant and grandiose. But older men should no longer call themselves Suggs, Barzo and Woody.
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