Madness - One Step Beyond '1979 [2009]

Tracks list

Digitally remastered and expanded deluxe two CD edition of the 1979 debut album
from the British Pop/Ska band containing the original album plus four enhanced
videos on Disc One plus a 16 rare non-album tracks and Peel sessions on Disc
Two.

While One Step Beyond may have been one of the biggest selling albums released
during the Ska/2-Tone craze of 1979-1980, the album still sounds fresh and
exciting three decades after its original release. There are many Ska influences
on the album, but the band dabbles in all sorts of musical genres on One Step
Beyond, creating their own unique brand of Pop
History will rightly remember Madness as one of Britain’s greatest ever
singles groups, but it’s on their albums that the Nutty Boys fully
displayed their kaleidoscopic mastery of pop.

Their first – reissued to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and including a
second disc of B sides, Peel Sessions, videos and rarities – One Step
Beyond… saw Madness commit to tape a raucous live show that had already
won them a committed following across the pubs of their native north London.

Their debut single The Prince, originally released on Two-Tone (and rerecorded
here, with an excellent dubby coda and extended sax solo from Lee
‘Kix’ Thompson), placed the septet firmly alongside kindred
ska-revival spirits like The Specials. But Madness had other strings to their
bow, their sound a Doc Marten-ed hybrid of soul, rockabilly, music hall, 60s
pop, British sitcom and whatever else the group’s seven
performer/songwriters had happened upon up ‘til that point. Indeed,
Madness’s eclecticism soon became their trademark, along with their
wildly exuberant personalities, Mike Barson’s thunderous piano chords,
Thompson’s squawking sax, Chris Foreman’s genre-hopping guitar
heroics (twanging like Dick Dale in Trenchtown on The Prince, chiming like The
Byrds on Bed & Breakfast Man), and the droll delivery of frontman Suggs.


At times, One Step Beyond… seems so wild a jamboree of song that the whole
shebang should just collapse into chaos. But thanks to the able and whip-smart
work of production duo Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley – collectively,
the George Martin to the Maddies’ Beatles – and the abundant
energy and charisma of the group in their early prime, its chaotic carnival
proved a triumph. And while later albums saw the group’s songwriting
skills further blossom and mature, the vaudevillian nuttiness of their debut set
hasn’t diminished over the decades.


Tracks:

Disc 1:
01. One Step Beyond
02. My Girl
03. Night Boat To Cairo
04. Believe Me
05. Land Of Hope & Glory
06. The Prince
07. Tarzan's Nuts
08. In The Middle Of The Night
09. Bed And Breakfast Man
10. Razor Blade Alley
11. Swan Lake
12. Rockin' In Ab
13. Mummy's Boy
14. Madness
15. Chipmunks Are Go!


Disc 2:
THE JOHN PEEL SESSION
01. The Prince*
02. Bed And Breakfast Man*
03. Land Of Hope & Glory*
04. Stepping Into Line*

THE BONUS TRACKS
05. One Step Beyond (7" Single Version)
06. My Girl (Mike Barson / Demo Version)
07. Mistakes (B-Side 'One Step Beyond' )
08. Un Paso Adelante ( 'One Step Beyond' Spanish version)
09. Nutty Theme (B-Side 'One Step Beyond' 12" )
10. My Girl (Ballad Version - From Flexipop)
11. Stepping Into Line (B-Side 'My Girl' )
12. Un Passo Avanti ( 'One Step Beyond' Italian version)
13. Deceives The Eye ( 'Work Rest & Play' EP)
14. The Young And The Old ( 'Work Rest & Play' EP)
15. Don't Quote Me On That ( 'Work Rest & Play' EP)
16. Razor Blade Alley (Live - 'Dance Craze' )
17. Night Boat To Cairo (Live - 'Dance Craze' )
18. One Step Beyond (Live - 'Dance Craze' )

* BBC Session Recordings

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