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May Issue 2009
The Return of the Liberty of Norton Foldgate 7
Ok so we reviewed in glowing terms "The Liberty of Norton Foldgate" in whatever issue it was, but the album proper is not going to be released until the 18th of May and so I still have time to advise all and sundry not to buy this album. Eh! Yes don't buy this album, because if you buy the new album proper you'll miss out on all the other stuff on the £40.00 (oh shit my wife's going to kill me when she finds how much I've spent on this) deluxe version. It's not often nowadays that I "egg" people on to excess but here goes. I'm not going to talk about packaging, badges, posters and stuff however insightful or wonderful it is but just give you 7 musical reasons why you should part with such a large amount of KASH.
Reason to be thriftless part 1
From Disc 2 (more studio cuts)"Let's Go" is another Madness yarn in cars, and unlike the cars in the tale, this track is a classic. It's like an interview with music - Suggs spins us a yarn from back in the day from the genesis of Madness. "In the beginning was the word and the word was Madness" why am I speaking like Charlton Heston here, and wait a minute this isn't Genesis it's not even Phil Collins its St John chapter 1, and PLEASE LET'S GET THIS ARTICLE FININSHED PREFERABLY BEFORE MADSTOCK!. Let's start again. Suggs spins us a yarn from back in the day, tearing round the streets of London at 100 miles an hour "on the pull and on the make" and in doing so he evokes vivid memories of a particular time in the life of every young man. Those nights when "the first in the gang to drive" (driving licence or not permitting) borrowed his Father, Mother, Sister or Brother's car and with six in a Ford Fiesta the road was owned. The guitar riffs, the bass pumps, the sax broods, every corner is leaned into and a trail of rubber is all that's left behind.
Reason to be thriftless part 2
"Fish and Chips" penned and sung by Carl Chas Smash Smyth, it sounds like the track most likely to re-launch the career of Jona Lewie, who ever he was/is (someone should tell him - there's a pony in it for you if not a monkey).
The brass um pa pa's and the melody gets a right old Cornet-o-ing, a strong smell of vinegar hangs heavy in the air and you have to suck the salt off your fingers but your left with a warm, warm glow in your tum tum.
So why do chips taste better when you eat them outside? And can you still get chips fried in dripping at the Snow Hill Chip Shop?
Reason to be thriftless part 3
"One Fine Day" is another tale from the Suggs scrapbook; dig the splendiferous wah wah guitar, the whirring fairground organ and the mighty Tuba. So "spend the time and money you'll never save" and this can be yours.
Reason to be thriftless part 4
"Hunchback of Torriano" is launched in to by way of a big fat guitar riff by Mr Foreman and punctuated throughout with an extra lick or two. The Hunchback of Torriano: everyone's got one, the long lost friend you've tried to love and tried to shake off, another great character from MadWorld.
Reason to be thriftless part 5
From Disc 3 (the Demos)"Forever Young" stripped back to its reggae bear necessities - free, E A S Y, but still as tight as a duck's back do da - naked acoustics and splash cymbals lovely.
Reason to be thriftless part 6
From Disc 3 (Live) "We are London", "Idiot Child", "Bingo", "NW5", "On the Town", "MK II", "Sugar & Spice", "Dust Devil", "Clerkenwell Polka", "Forever Young", "The Liberty of Norton Foldgate". Yes my reason number six is all the live recordings from the Hackney Empire, in its entirety, but particularly all the tracks, and though I don't want to single out any track for special praise I find I do need to mention above all the others tracks 1 to 11, with the highlight track being the ones including and between 1 to 11. It's simply a quality item, I wish I could play you some but instead here's some Sunday Paper free Madness, live from back in 2006.
Reason to be thriftless part 7
Finally reason 7, and this is the particularly significant people so be aware, on this (oh shit my wife's going to kill me when she finds how much I've spent on this) deluxe box set, the Nutty Boy's have developed, devised and patented a ground breaking piece of technology - The Lyricom Eater. By pressing a red button on the lyric sheet provided a unique "bouncing ball" follows the words of the song as it plays, allowing you to sing along in harmony. However your platform does need to be running Madbook Pro 2.0 or less apparently so be aware.
Did Madness get all the right tracks on the album? No they didn't. Does it matter? No not really. I bet the band had a right old 2 and 8 deciding what went on where and in what order, in fact it probably took longer than recording the album itself for agreement to be reached andI'm sure ACAS were probably involved at some stage. However the dye is now cast and as the prophet Marley once said "In the Abundance of Water, the Fool Is Thirsty" - so enjoy which ever version you buy - it might not be the best Madness album but it's certainly in the top 1 - The Bigot.