Our House: The Original Songs

Description

Although Our House is yet another hits-milking compilation from a band who've become as cherishable a British institution as the doorstep pint, this one is a little different. In a manner of speaking, the very best (and often most memorable) Madness songs were always those jovially slapstick, micro soap-operettas about school larks, embarrassing teenage condom procurement scenarios and buying your first set of (wholly unreliable) wheels. Even their "darker" themed thoughts on depression ("Grey Day"), stress-induced heart attacks ("Cardiac Arrest") and--how old fashioned it seems now--pregnancy out of wedlock ("Embarrasment") were filmic vignettes waiting for theatrical props to happen (whilst also suggesting that Madness contained many a frustrated social worker and GP within their ranks). Lo and behold, a Madness-based stage musical: Our House (a London love story in which a boy meets...oh, don't let us spoil it for you), featuring 19 of the old hits (all here, these are not re-workings bar a spruced up remix of "It Must Be Love") plus a pair of adequate new songs "Simple Equation" and "Sarah's Song", two purposely composed numbers which ought to provide the impetus for the avid Madness collector (always wears a pork pie hat in bed, owns a dog called "Suggs") to shell out the readies yet again. However, if it's strictly all the hits you're after, then, as it were, "don't touch that, touch this", 1998's Heavy Heavy Hits has them all (except 1999's comeback "Lovestruck") and is probably a better bricks-and-mortar investment than Our House. --Kevin Maidment