Album Review- Madness- Theater of the Absurd Presents: C'Est La Vie

Madness are a bunch of things. In the US, a one hit wonder with one massive evergreen song. For ska bands, an influence. But in many ways, maybe best known for their Britishness. This particular style that somehow doesn’t translate to America- like the Kinks, the Fall, Roxy Music, the Jam, and Blur, to name a few. Like nearly every band of their era, they now have two segments of their career. By the time I had became a fan, it was the mid 80s and the band was making unremarkable albums for Geffen. 

If you are an American like me, you likely picked up 83s self titled album which was if not quite a greatest hits (92s Divine Madness would do a better job of that), then definitely a premier sampler of their music. Regardless, the band had a great set of singles. 22 songs charted in the UK Top 20. The band reunited in 1999 with the Wonderful album and added five more studio albums since. The band is often ambitious and nearly all of their work has been critically acclaimed. My favorite of these is probably the least acclaimed but I love their 2005 covers album The Dangerman Sessions Vol 1. Uncut gave it a devastating 1.5 stars out of 5, though the accompanying review seems to suggest it’s a worthy album. 

After a soundtrack celebrating the bands career- 2022s Get Up- November 2023s Theater of the Absurd Presents: C’est La Vie is their most ambitious album in years- a concept album of sorts about England and about the band that lines up with that Kinks influence. And like the Kinks, an albums “concept” doesn’t really matter if the songs aren’t good. Early Madness records effortlessly captured the Nutty Boys but the Geffen records sounded like a forced formula. 

 C’est La Vie is a fun album that references previous points in their career. It captures that pop sound you hear on their classic singles. I am not sure that any of the songs measure quite up to the classics, but Madness fans should be happy