Mad Not Mad

Mad Not Mad
Studio album by
Madness
Released30 September 1985 (1985-09-30)[1]
RecordedMarch–April 1985
Studio
Genre
Length42:19
LabelZarjazz (UK)
Geffen (US)
Producer
Madness chronology
Keep Moving
(1984) 		Mad Not Mad
(1985) 		The Peel Sessions
(1986)
Madness studio album chronology
Keep Moving
(1984) 		Mad Not Mad
(1985) 		Wonderful
(1999)
Singles from Mad Not Mad
  1. "Yesterday's Men"
    Released: 19 August 1985
  2. "Uncle Sam"
    Released: 14 October 1985
  3. "The Sweetest Girl"
    Released: 10 February 1986

Mad Not Mad is the sixth studio album by the English ska and pop band Madness. It was released on 30 September 1985, their first release on their own label Zarjazz, a sub-label of Virgin Records.[2] The album was recorded over a period of two months in 1985 at Westside Studios and at AIR Studios, both in London. The album was their last recording of original material until they officially reformed in 1992.

The album peaked at No. 16 in the UK charts, and achieved silver status from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). However, Mad Not Mad remains the band's poorest-selling studio album to date.

On its release the album was received favourably by the majority of music critics, although opinions have become much more negative in subsequent decades. After only a few weeks of its initial release, the writers of NME listed this album at number 55 on their list of the "100 Best Albums of All Time".[3] The band themselves have been quite vocal that they were less satisfied with the album. In a BBC Radio 1 interview in 1993, their lead singer Suggs described Mad Not Mad as "a polished turd", referring to its distinctively glossy mid-1980s production by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who had both produced all of Madness' work since the group's debut. In a 2009 interview Suggs said that with keyboardist Mike Barson gone they "slightly over-compensated, arrangement-wise and musician-wise" but there were "some great songs on that album, for sure".[4] However, NME's view of the album is still favourable, including it in its 2015 list of "50 Albums Released in 1985 That Still Sound Great Today".[5]

  1. ^ Strickland, Andy (28 September 1985). "Index: Not Mad". Record Mirror. p. 6. ISSN 0144-5804.
  2. ^ [1] Archived 14 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "NME Writers All Time Albums". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2007.
  4. ^ "The Magnificent 7 - Recordcollectormag.com". Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  5. ^ "50 Albums Released in 1985 That Still Sound Great Today | NME.COM". NME. Archived from the original on 12 December 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2020.