Search - Madness :: Business

Ugh... ALMOST perfect

atlantamoi | Scottdale, Ga United States | 06/02/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

A mad must

Julie | USA | 12/24/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A very important release for Maddies everywhere. This set chronicles the band's career better than any of the greatest hits releases (there have been several). The hits are all here, but finally! Gems like Lee Thompson and Woody Woodgate's demented One's Second Thoughtlessness, originally released as a bonus track on the B-Side of Wings of a Dove 12" single, is available on CD, along with early EP releases, demos, and tracks of the band goofing off (in two instances, to the tune of Our House). You can't find this stuff anywhere else outside of vinyl, and if you're like me---my vinyl is warped and my turntable quit years ago---all three CDs in this collection will be permanently liberated from the CD case. Here and there, various associates of the band, from Elvis Costello to Madness valet Hector Walker, bridge tracks with stories about the band. The talking is intrusive in a few places---for instance, when it's played over the beginning of the ancient Mistakes, unavailable elsewhere on CD---but Lee's Uncle Jack disapproving of Lee's big green boots is worth the price of the whole set. If you're a Maddie and don't have this box set, don't wait another minute. It's very possible that it will out of print some day soon."

Great Collection... Bad production

Zambia | United States | 10/28/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"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."