Keep Moving - Madness

I was quite late to the Madness party. Sure I had 'danced' to them many times at school discos, studiously watching my mate NR doing the Nutty Boy moves. I was a pale immitation by comparison. But then again most of us were.
Apart from a few wacky videos they pretty much passed me by. That was until I heard the single 'Michael Caine'. After all you can't beat a single with a catchphrase. So I bought the album and loved it! Lots!
I don't think NR apprecaited their change of direction. He can't have done because he started selling me his treasured Madness 7" picture discs. One at a time. We had come to an arrangement wherby I would buy one a week with my pocket money, slowly building up a collection of great Madness singles. It took a while but it was worth it. With each transaction I would take them home, carefully clean them and reinstert them into their plastic sleeves. They were definitely not for playing, or so at least I had been instructed!
I'm ashamed to say that, as the digital age moved in, I later sold them and I'm not sure that he has fogiven me for that. Listening to the album again today, I have a nagging feeling that he was right. Apart from 'Michael Caine', the rest of the album is a little...well....dull. Ironically, twenty-six years later, a more mature me prefers the less mature sound of their early music.