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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
It is, without a doubt, Madness’s best and most consistent album since the 1980s. Time and more prolonged listening will tell whether it might be one of their best of all.
90
This is, obviously, not an album that they expect will resonate with the under-30s market, but that is not their goal. They set out to create a stunning piece of art, and an album that requires the listener to sit and listen. Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie is magnificent.
80
This is breathless in its intensity, an hour-long triumph up there with anything they’ve ever done, tales of the world today united amid the brooding shadows of a Victorian musical hall stage. That’s life, that’s madness… and it truly is the Madness we know and love.
80
Overall, this is a good album. It is the sort of LP you want to listen to a few times to get the feel of it. There are a few tracks that initially jump out at you and a few that slowly grow on you.
70
C’est La Vie is a welcome return for Madness, an outfit most wouldn’t have expected to deliver a project so musically or lyrically complex, and enjoyable, this late in their career.
60
With the actor as compere, Suggs and co’s first album since 2017 is a fairly sedate mix of uplift and melancholy.
60
While the calibre of the songs and arrangements dips slightly in the closing stages, there’s more than enough to thrill long-term devotees of the Nutty Boys. Madness won’t be a spent force any time soon.
Hackney Diamonds vs Camden Crumbs
If you weren't impressed with the Stones this year bringing it in their eighties then listen to these prize plums failing miserably in their sixties.
Theatre of the Absurd? Theatre of the Ripe Turd.
The album cover was already a warning for how awful this album was going to be.
This album directly reminds me of Angelic 2 The Core, not because it sounds like it, but because I felt the exact same way I felt listening to this album, the way I felt listening to Angelic 2 The Core.
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Track List
| 1 | Prologue: "Mr Beckett Sir..." 0:11 | 61 |
| 2 | Theatre of the Absurd 4:13 | 63 |
| 3 | If I Go Mad 4:36 | 68 |
| 4 | Baby Burglar 4:05 | 65 |
| 5 | Act One: "Surrounded on All Sides.." 0:10 | 55 |
| 6 | C'est la Vie 3:10 | 80 |
| 7 | What on Earth Is It (You Take Me For?) 3:07 | 85 |
| 8 | Hour of Need 4:07 | 73 |
| 9 | Act Two "The Damsel in Distress.." 0:12 | 56 |
| 10 | Round We Go 4:18 | 67 |
| 11 | Act Three: "The Situation Deteriorates.." 0:20 | 53 |
| 12 | Lockdown and Frack Off 3:12 | 58 |
| 13 | Beginners 101 4:21 | 70 |
| 14 | Is There Anybody Out There? 3:22 | 74 |
| 15 | The Law According to Dr. Kippah 5:35 | 54 |
| 16 | Epilogue: "And So Ladies and Gentlemen.." 0:17 | 48 |
| 17 | Run for Your Life 4:00 | 66 |
| 18 | Set Me Free (Let Me Be) 3:39 | 68 |
| 19 | In My Street 3:38 | 73 |
| 20 | Fin.: "Ladies and Gentlemen.." 0:13 | 54 |
Total Length: 56 minutes
Year End Lists
| #18 | / | Record Collector |
Added on: September 28, 2023