Après avoir sauvé l'honneur britanique bafoué à Rock en Seine par les f...... frères Gallagher détruisant Oasis à coup de guitare Gretsch dans la G....., annulant leur prestation au mépris de leurs fans. Après avoir grimpé sur le toit de Buckingham Palace pour un concert de Jubilé jubilatoire (où Sir Macca faisait son age). Après avoir relevé le gant et bien porté les couleurs du "rock" anglais aux JO (là où Muse....). Après que les Rolling Stones qui bougent encore (un peu) nous aient balancé un album avec seulement 2 titres inédits, pâles copies d'AC DC sous antidépresseurs... Madness sort un album de Madness, ceux qui n'aiment pas Madness n'aimeront pas Madness.... Alors, oui, "Never new your name", nostalgique au possible, bien comme Madness sait le faire (NW5, Tomorrow's just another day"...) ressemble à Embarassment, façon slow. Il y a toujours, au milieu du style bien particulier de Madness, les inspirations "exotiques", qui nous rappellent que l'Empire Britanique, c'est aussi les Indes, et pas seulement la jamaïque, plus rockenrollement musicale et inspiratrice de Madness en particulier. Ceux qui n'aiment que le Madness qui bouge seront un peu déçu (moi-même, j'aurais aimé un ou deux titres à la "Tarzan's Nuts" ou "Night Boat to Cairo".... My Girl 2 ne relève pas My Girl.... C'est moins rigolo que du temps de "In the middle of the night"... ça "bouge moins", aussi. Mais bon, nous aussi, nous bougeons moins, et je ne suis pas certain de mimer encore Suggs et Chas Smash comme je le faisais en 1979 dans les couloirs du Lycée!
Madness
We french are quite late as far as Rock’n Roll is concerned. Partly because, a little bit like Italy, our popular music is stucked in a “text song/text song” format, tunes made not to dance but to contest or to declame feelings to the beloved. As a result, the popular culture is (full) filled with singers, not by groups, even in the 50’s, the 60’s and… well, things have changed. For a long time, the nearly only one exception to this was our Rock’n Roll “gloire” Johnny Halliday, who maanged to escape this fatality..
But let me go back to Madness.
This to introduce the fact that the frenchies, after too many years of lazyness or ignorance, are now quite good at organizing big rock’n roll shows and “festivals”. Among which counts “Rock en Seine”, close enough to Paris.
And that’s where this story starts, with Madness, ever so popular 80’s ska group, which you might, as far as you keep on reading this blog (and as far as I go on re-wtriting pages in English “my own way”), which you might realize I am pretty fond of.
Well again, Madness, on their appearance in Rock en Seine in 2013, had an epic and everso respectfull attitude to the public: As Noel and Liam Gallagher ended up refusing to play that night after a fight between them, Madness, ending their show, decided to come back for a very long encore, not to leave the audience soundless..
Well the very same Madness, after some years of “who are we and what are we gonna pla”, and many tries at going back to the roots (Dangermen), issue a new record, with an odd title ‘Oui Oui Si Si…” At first feel, it sounds Madness and we are pleased of this. “Never New Your Name”, is pure Madness (kind of ‘Embarassment’, slower), and many titles have this peculiar sound, exotic taste, Indian, Jamaïca (of course:)….
If you like Madness when they play big and loud, when they give quick tempo and last dance music, this one might be decieving… But if you like Madness, this one will enjoy yourself…
