Review: Madness ‘The Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C'est La Vie’ (2023)

Originally posted Nov 2023 (pre-GWIM Project)

I think it’s important to note that the vast majority of this review was written before the album entered at Number 1 in the UK Album Chart making it Madness's 1^st ever number 1 album (excluding ‘best of’ collections). A surprise. Although they came very with their 1^st two albums (1979/1980) and have had a number of very successful albums since, they’ve never actually managed to achieve that Holy Grail. So, whatever I thought or think of the album, it’s actually turned out to be something of a ‘game-changer’ in the history of the band!

Now, despite the fact the 7-man line up has remained consistently unchanged (although its not unusual for 1 of the members to be missing from time to time – currently its Chas Smash), when I talk about Madness I’m usually talking about 2 different entities. The 1^st is pre-split Madness (Mad.1) which refers to their original 6-album run from 1979-86. The 2^nd is reunited Madness (Mad.2) which is from their permanent re-uniting in 1999 to the present. I’d say that Mad.2 has never really re-captured the magic of Mad.1, and I feel it is somehow unjust to view them in the same light. I think an inconsistent criteria of judgement is actually common among critics. I struggle to believe glowing review of the latest Rolling Stones album is truly suggesting that it is better one of their 1960s the same critic writes less kindly about. This is an important point to make as context for this review.

And now, just to add confusion....... despite what I’ve said above, Mad.2 albums have, for the most part, been fairly decent. ‘Wonderful’ (1999) only fell slightly short of Mad.1 magic, ‘The Dangermen’ (2005) was a covers album which are always difficult judge, and ‘The Liberty of Norton Folgate’ (2009) was very good although a bit long. ‘Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da’ (2012) was a curious one for me because at first I was very underwhelmed, but over time it’s grown on me and is now contender for my favorite Mad.2 album. Admittedly, ‘Cant Touch Us Now’ (2016) was, and remains, a disappointment. There are a few good tracks but is largely a collection of mediocre songs that lack spark. I guess because that was the most recent record, come 2023, I approached a new Madness record with serious scepticism and low expectations.

Actually, thats not quite right (are you following this?). The release of ‘The Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie’ (2023) was preceeded by a single......... A single.......... Of 3 songs. I’m obviously getting old. In my day, this would have been a triple A-sided single. That made no sense then and makes even less sense now. Anyway. I listened and was immediately pleasantly surprised. No disappointment. No time needed to grow on me. Just an immediate ‘thumbs up’. Although it did not penetrate the UK singles chart, it did achieve number 9 on the ‘Single Sales Chart’ and number 1 on the ‘Physical Sales Chart’..........  I have no idea what either of those things actually are.

The album is presented as sort of concept album-like. Although I’ve mixed feelings about concept albums I actually like this presentation simply because I’ve found over the last 10-20 years the ‘album’ (not necessarily concept album) as an art-form has been lost. Downloading and streaming has changed listening. I’d say this has lead to a shift that means every song must stand alone outside of any other context. Therefore an ‘album’ doesn’t really hold any significance other than simply a means to release multiple tracks simultaneously. It’s not necessarily a ‘work’ to be listened to from start to finish in a particular order. Again, it may just be age – but for me, the loss of that takes away so much from popular music that I’m barely even interested anymore. So, I welcome this.

Madness have always done the ‘album’ and arguably even ‘concept album’ (Norton Folgate) but we've never had a Prologue, 3 Acts, an Epilogue and a Fin all broken up by spoken words (enter guest star Martin Freeman) before. That said, it’s definitely ‘Madness’ – all the recognisable traits are there, from the Sax, to the keyboard figures, to the off-beat drum patterns, to the random vocal noises and sound effects, to the ‘one liners’ in the lyrics, to the juxtaposition of humour and pathos, to Suggs’ somehow talking at exact singing pitch style of vocal delivery. Madness have always had a ‘Music Hall’ feel to much of their music but they probably lean on this trait more than ever here. The cover-photo is great and summarises the lyrical content of the album. Woody looks in horror at a newspaper, Bedders looks shocked by an explosion behind him, Barso looks concerned by an approaching drone, Kix appears to fight off some sort of robot and Chrissy looks overwhelmed by the chaos. In front of all this madness (get it? God, I’m good), Suggs ‘Cheers’ the camera with a cup of tea and his foot perched on a toilet roll, the cause of the pandemic shopping riots. With that, let’s go inside the album.

In honesty, the album doesn’t grab me right from the start. The spoken word ‘Prologue’ is interesting and the lyrics of the opening track ‘Theatre Of The Absurd’ – “The lights go down on some dark theatre in London, ooh for the cruellest comedy the audience hold their breaths” – sets up the album well, but the track itself is just ‘OK’. However, my disappointment is immediately rectified and does not return more than momentarily for the remainder of the album. There are a few tracks I could take or leave (no pun intended (one for Madness aficionados)) like ‘Round We Go’ and ‘Beginners 101’ and I feel it could end with a bit more of a ‘bang’, especially given the ‘presentation’ I’ve been talking about.

I didn’t expect it, but of the 14 tracks, every one aside from the few I’ve mentioned are ‘good’ at worst and ‘brilliant’ at best. ‘If I Go Mad’ has a great Tom-based drum groove and Madness prove themselves masters of the art in the sense that although there are so many song-writing clichés present their performance is such that none of it comes across as cliché at all. I’m talking about ‘call and answer’ vocals (you know, the lead singer sings something and then a chorus of voices sings it back) a lot of ‘Yea Yea Yea’-ing and that thing after a second chorus/refrain where everything stops and then steadily builds back up again to an explosive crescendo. Yes, we’ve heard it a million time but Madness nail it like no other. ‘Baby Burglar’ had another great drum-groove (Woodgate excels himself on this album, I’d say) and has a very interesting phrasing going on in the chorus. Lee ‘Kix’ Thompson takes (some of) the lead vocals in ‘What On Earth Is It (You Take Me For?)’ in his usual mono-tone style of singing. It’s somewhat reminiscent of his ‘Razor Blade Alley’ from the band’s debut album but, I don’t want to say this but I think it’s true........., its better. Its just a better song-writing and a better performance (and maybe it should be from a band that has 45 years worth of experience now). It also contains the most awful but best version of the phrase ‘bending over and taking up the arse’ I’ve ever come across – “I’m down on all fours, the money box is open for the takings”.

‘Lockdown And Frack Off’, clearly about the affects (apart from the virus itself) of Covid, is just a ‘fun little number’ really but it’s superbly done. I kinda sounds like ‘comedy horror’ with its chromatic keyboard ostinato figure, fast tempo and low vocals – and spot-on lyrical observations of how bizarrely everyone behaved during lockdown. Definitely a recommended listen for anyone. ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ features a very common chord progression (1-5-4-1) but with a rich-chord 3^rd- 5^th- 6^th -8^th beat (quavers (not the pub-snack)) syncopated rhythm from the keyboard against a melodic sax-riff. In short, it just sounds bloody good.  

‘Run For Your Life’ is as urgent as the title suggests..... it actually make me feel anxious. I’m unclear exactly what it’s about. In parts there’s suggestion of media fear-mongering but some of the things mentioned seems too serious to be that....... so maybe its both. Its a very busy track with lots of drums, additional percussion, multiple keyboards, guitar and bass, clarinet, sax, trumpet and a brass section – all playing fast. I dont think it’s intentional but the fact that that the very regular ‘run for your life’ refrain is similar to PJ and Duncan’s ‘Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’ adds a little amusement for me. Interestingly, this track is one that actually doesn’t sound very much like Madness (to be clear – not a criticism) and, even as a die-hard fan, I doubt I’d have immediately realised it was them if I’d first heard it without knowing.

This brings me to a curious point. Curious – because I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what the point is. Although, as I’ve already mentioned, this is clearly Madness – everything ‘Madness’ is there and there definitely isn’t a leap into new territory  – there IS something different. I’ve not worked out what it is yet and I’m not going to try and put this feeling into words until I work it out. But something feels different. I don’t think I’m wrong because, while critics have been kind to Madness in the last decade or so (even when they’ve not been that good) they have largely responded very positively to this album. I don’t recall hearing the same level of radio time dedicated to this album compared to previous ones or seen the level of interest from radio shows, TV shows, music mags, media outlets and social media.

Finally, the result has been their 1^st ever number 1 studio album.  Something. Is. Different.

I feel like I’ve gone on far too long now so I’ll summarise. In short, I’m pleasantly surprised and think this is a great album. I’m now a little confused about my whole Mad.1 vs Mad.2 categories as I genuinely think I may prefer this album to a couple of the Mad.1 albums in a direct sense........ perhaps this is Mad.3! Although a big part if me is baffled and not sure I understand life anymore, I’m thrilled for them that they are currently at the top of the album chart for the 1^st time (to reiterate, this excludes ‘best ofs’). There’s a lot of interesting things I’ve touched upon here such as changes in audience listening habits, the album as an art-form, different critical criteria etc., and some I haven’t mentioned, like ‘nostalgia’, that may have contributed to the album’s success and warrant wider analysis outside this context. I may think deeper and research some of this a bit more and write further. But for now............

Big round of applause guys

My score: 7/10

Stand Out Tracks:

If I Go Mad

Lockdown And Frack Off

Is There Anybody Out There?

Run For Your Life

Marking key (in a nutshell)

10 – Perfect (only 3 albums in history)

9 – Basically 10/10 (I just don’t quite view them in the same way as the 3 albums)

8 – Outstanding (possible nit-picking criticisms)

7 – Brilliant

6 – Good

5 – Average

4 – Has potential but below average

3 – Some good points but not very good overall

2 – Poor (possibly a few good points)

1 – Abysmal