Madness: Its Second Step Beyond
Almost everyone who owns a radio knows the song “Our House.” And while the guys comprising Madness are unquestionably glad they collectively wrote that song and subsequently made a (night) boatload of money from the effort, it shouldn’t be considered the pinnacle of the group’s creative achievement.
That song cropped up during the mid eighties, but even Madness’ first long player of the decade saw profound shifts from what was portrayed on the ensembles first disc, One Step Beyond.
By 1980, the punk thing had pretty much become a joke. And along with it a great deal of Two Tone stuff had changed to the point that it was difficult to recognize. That being said, a number of critics saw the changing approach to song craft as bands maturing.
