Joy of Madness

2017 collection from the British merry music makers. Madness continue to cement their position as the UK's favorite band, with their House Of Common and House Of Fun events becoming annual fixtures in every fan's calendar. Madness are national treasures, with a huge following. Their shows consistently sell out and sales of their current album confirm that, after nearly 40 years, they are still as relevant as they ever were. The last Madness best-of, Total Madness, was released in 2012 and comprised 23 singles. Since then the band have released two more studio albums: Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da and their current record, Can't Touch Us Now, each spawning three or four singles. Full House is a best-of and then some, featuring 42 of the band's very best songs, including the hit singles from all of their records (including the above), plus a few of the band's favorite album tracks. It is a joy to listen to; in mostly chronological order, the set charts the highlights of their career, from 1979's 'The Prince' to 2017's 'Another Version Of Me', with smash hit singles like 'Our House' and 'It Must Be Love' nestling in between.

It’s very easy to come away from listening to a lot of technical metal feeling a little empty. Beneath the showmanship and undeniable talent, the genre is often guilty of failing to invoke any real feeling: when surgical precision takes centre stage a certain energy almost invariably paves the way. Animals as Leaders are no exceptions to this – where their 3 previous full-lengths have all in their own right been extremely impressive, stellar pieces of work, they are not without their shortcomings: a truly inventive and well-realised debut was somewhat clouded by muddy production and slightly blunted guitar tones, Weightless was at times cold, and is massively top-heavy in this reviewer’s opinion, and The Joy of Motion percussion was a little overpowered and detracted from a lot of the new-found warmth the tracks brought…