Absolutely (Madness album)


Absolutely is the 1980 second album from the British ska band Madness. The album reached number 2 in the UK album charts.
Absolutely spawned some of the band's biggest hits, most notably "Baggy Trousers", which peaked at number 3 in the UK and spent more than four months in the singles chart. "Embarrassment" reached number 4, and the instrumental "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" climbed to number 7. Although the album reviews were generally less enthusiastic than those of One Step Beyond..., they were mostly positive. Robert Christgau gave the album a favourable B- grade, but Rolling Stone awarded the album just one out of five stars. Rolling Stone was particularly scathing of the ska revival in general, stating that "The Specials wasn't very good" and Madness were simply "the Blues Brothers with English accents".
In 2009 and 2010, Madness re-released their back-catalogue of studio albums up to and including 1999's Wonderful with a bonus CD and extra tracks. The re-release of Absolutely has seven bonus tracks plus an additional CD featuring a 1980 concert recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Album title

The album is named after one of the oft-said expressions of the band's then tour manager and sound man Tony Duffield.

Cover

The front cover sees the band standing in front of Chalk Farm tube station in Camden. When the original vinyl was released the first, more sombre, cover photograph was changed to a more animated pose after around 10,000 albums were pressed. The two sleeves can be distinguished by Mike Barson's holding of the umbrella: in the earlier pressing he holds it up to his chin while in the later, and subsequently used, releases the umbrella is on the ground.
The inner sleeve features a London Underground-style roundel for a railway station called "Cairo East" on one side and a history of the group on the other.

Track listing

Personnel

;Madness
;Production