This collection brings you what someone considered to be the best of the British Ska group Madness.
First off, every song on this CD is good, great even. The major draw back is, as if with every "best of" album, it's only worth buying if you're not a huge fan. If you are a fan than you should already own every Madness CD in which case there is no reason to buy this CD.
If you're new to Madness, or you just want their major US hits like Our House, It Must Be Love, House of Fun, and One Step Beyond than this will be great for you.
The other draw back to this album is that it features nothing from "Wonderful," which is a 'wonderful' album but never realesed here in the states.
All that said it's still a great album featuring many great songs.

This really is a pretty decent dose of Madness, and it was good to see they picked a generous selection from the first two albums.

The only downer is: the first two Madness albums were fantastic, and, in my opinion, they lost much of their pizazz on future releases. It's hard to picture a Madness "Best of" without tunes like "Bed and Breakfast Man," "Middle of the Night," "You Said" and "E.R.N.I.E," especially when they include mediocre songs like "Michael Caine."

This is a good ---but not great--- Madness collection. But if you want an excellent selection of Madness tunes, search for their first album and "Absolutely."

well, being an ex-skin (but still young at heart!!) you just cant beat them!!!...all their songs have relavancy, and still love listening to them all these years later (even converted my late father to their music....so they must have been good!!)

In the late '70s and early '80s - Ska-revival was in the group from Camden - "Madness" - humorous, rollicking, fun, quirky, whimsical and good-natured. This British phenomenon, influenced future bands and was fast becoming the countries most beloved groups.

Hip-O records, Pat Lawrence (producer), Dana Smart (compilation producer), Jim Phillips (mastering) and Ilene Weingard (art direction) have given the music enthusiast the ride of their life...entire album is awesome, outstanding and complete. Each selection of this 19-track compilation stands on its own infectious merit!

Total Time: 71:33 on 19 Tracks...Hip-O Records 699...(2000)

I defy you to listen to track 4 ("Baggy Trousers") without doing that ridiculous SKA dance; you know, the one where you lose all flexibility in the knees and your head bobs back and forth like a chicken! This fab compilation successfully manages to maintain a sense of chronology without reverting to the 'this is all we've done with our lives' sense of decline which other 80s bands have resorted to in their "Best Of" albums. It's hardly up to the standard of Duran's "Decade", and is noticably lacking one excellent Nutty track "Cardiac Arrest" (perhaps this track wasn't released in the USA?) but other gems are there, notably the glorious scalic piano introduction in "Shut Up", the inimitable 'Michael Caine", everybody's fave "Our House", and the ultimate sing-a-long finale in "Wings of Dove". Well worth its exceptional bargain price.