Madness: Wonderful Madness
It's no news that the original Nutty Boys have reformed - they've been on the road since 1992, playing arenas in the UK and America, and headlining their own Madstock summer shows at Finsbury Park. Now they've decided to go the full Monty and release their first studio album in 14 years (not counting their 1988 incarnation as The Madness, or Suggs's 1998 solo album); and blow me if they haven't gone one extra step beyond and let us have it lock, stock and two smoking barrels. The nutty sound is here in spades, particularly on Lovestruck and Johnny The Horse, Drip Fed Fred. Nice one, my sons.
- Kevin Courtney
Genesis: Turn It On Again The Hits
There are two distinct ages of Genesis: the noodly, prog-rock phase of Peter Gabriel, which spawned such overblown art-school epics as Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, followed by the interminable reign of Phil Collins, which - naturally - hogs much of this greatest hits collection. Invisible Touch, Land Of Confusion and Abacab are synth-triggered throwbacks to the mediocre musical landscape of the 1980s, while I Can't Dance and Jesus He Knows Me suggest that Genesis didn't exactly evolve in recent years. A new version of Carpet Crawlers, produced by Trevor Horn, brings Pete and Phil back together for one last lie down on Broadway, and here, I pray, endeth the tale.
- Kevin Courtney
Tina Turner: Twenty Four Seven (Parlophone)
Tina Turner has long since ceased to be simply a singer. She's a singing icon, which is not the same thing. Tina's someone about whom people say "isn't she great to be still doing it at 60?" But doing what? Looking great, still strutting her stuff. Musically, though, Turner songs are too often little more than Tina-projecting confections, and tracks like All Woman are, by now, tediously predictable. Whatever You Need and When The Heartache Is Over, are synth-soul by numbers; but Tina really shows us how far she has travelled from true Mississippi soul music, in Absolutely Nothing's Changed. Only slow burners like Don't Leave Me This Way and Go Ahead take flight; the rest she has done before, better.
- Joe Jackson
