The Rise & Fall

The Rise & Fall is the fourth studio album by English ska/pop band Madness. It was originally released on the 5th of November, 1982, on the label Stiff. This album saw Madness at their most experimental, exhibiting a range of musical styles including jazz, English music hall, and Eastern influences. NME described it at the time of its release as "The best Madness record". It has often been retrospectively described as a concept album.

The Rise & Fall
Studio album by
Madness
Released5 November 1982 (1982-11-05)
Recorded1982
StudioAir Studios, London
Genre
Length43:04
LabelStiff
Producer
Madness chronology
Complete Madness
(1982)		 The Rise & Fall
(1982)		 Madness
(1983)
Singles from The Rise & Fall
  1. "Our House"
    Released: 12 November 1982
  2. "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" / "Madness (Is All in the Mind)"
    Released: 1 February 1983

Though the album was never released in the US, several tracks were later placed on the compilation Madness, including "Our House", the band's only top 10 hit in America.[1]

Content

Initially conceived as a concept album about nostalgia for childhood, the concept was eventually dropped, though the original theme is still evident particularly in the title track and the album's major hit "Our House". This theme was also mentioned recently when interviewed as part of T in The Park highlights, where their lead vocalist Suggs claimed that all the band members were told to write about their childhood memories for The Rise & Fall (although he did say that their keyboardist Mike Barson got the wrong idea, and went off and wrote about New Delhi).

Although the band had previously been avowedly apolitical, the track "Blue Skinned Beast" was an overt satire on the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her handling of the Falklands War, paving the way for more political comment on subsequent Madness albums.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four and a half out of five stars and wrote that "The Rise & Fall is recognizably Madness in sound and sensibility; faint echoes of their breakneck nutty beginnings can be heard on "Blue Skinned Beast" and "Mr. Speaker Gets the Word," the melodies are outgrowths of such early masterpieces as "My Girl," there’s a charming, open-hearted humo[u]r and carnival[-]esque swirl that ties everything together." also noting that "The rest of the record contains the same wit, effervescence, and joy, capturing what British pop life was all about in 1982, just as The Kinks Village Green Preservation Society did in 1968 or Blur's Parklife would do in 1994."[2]

In an interview with Popular 1 Magazine, guitarist Kavus Torabi of Cardiacs named The Rise & Fall as one of his favourite albums.[4]

Track listing
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Rise and Fall"
3:16
2."Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)"
3:10
3."Blue Skinned Beast"Lee Thompson3:22
4."Primrose Hill"
  • McPherson
  • Foreman
3:36
5."Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word)"
  • McPherson
  • Barson
2:59
6."Sunday Morning"Daniel Woodgate4:01
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
7."Our House"
  • Foreman
  • Smyth
3:23
8."Tiptoes"
  • McPherson
  • Barson
3:29
9."New Delhi"Barson3:40
10."That Face"
  • McPherson
  • Foreman
3:39
11."Calling Cards"
  • Thompson
  • Foreman
2:19
12."Are You Coming (With Me)"
  • Thompson
  • Barson
3:17
13."Madness (Is All in the Mind)"Foreman2:53
Total length:43:04

Personnel

Madness

Additional personnel

Production

Chart performance
Chart (1982) Peak
position
New Zealand Albums Chart[5] 29
German Albums Chart[6] 15
Norwegian Albums Chart[7] 34
Swedish Albums Chart[8] 1
UK Albums Chart[9] 10
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See also

References
  1. "CLASSIC TRACKS: 'Our House' by Madness".
  2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Madness Presents the Rise & Fall – Madness". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. Considine, J. D. (2004). "Madness". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 508. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  4. Diaz, Alberto (10 January 2005). "Interview: Tim Smith and Kavus Torabi". Popular 1 Magazine. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  5. Steffen Hung. "New Zealand charts portal". charts.nz. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  6. Steffen Hung. "Madness - The Rise & Fall". austriancharts.at. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  7. Steffen Hung (15 June 2006). "Norwegian charts portal". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  8. Steffen Hung (24 February 2012). "Swedish Charts Portal". swedishcharts.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  9. "UK Singles & Albums Official Charts Company". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
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