Keep Moving
	Produced by Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley
	Released on March 1984
	UK CHART POSITION #6 . . . US CHART POSITION #109
	Find it at GEMM
GHS 4022 cover [high resolution photo]

I ’m listening to “Prospects” right now, and it’s a blue sky ahead (“Victoria Gardens”). Blue sky behind it too (“The Sun And The Rain,” “March of the Gherkins”). Keep Moving is the last Madness album to keep its sunny disposition in life’s miserable climate. It’s also the last to feature the original septet all suited up and set to go; Mike Barson left after the album, taking much of the band’s music hall charm with him. Madness’ progression of cuddliness marches on, from the plastic “Wings of a Dove” to the plain filler of “Michael Caine,” but lovers of melody won’t mind. Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley produce with their usual heavy hand, smoothing over the band’s product in the process, often costing an appreciation of all the music this band puts into the final mix. That the arrangement for “One Better Day” sounds like a Burt Bacharach song shouldn’t detract from the fact that Madness is actually playing the song. But you can only explain away so many Burt Bacharach moments, and Keep Moving kept the band from truly capitalizing on the US success of “Our House.” It’s certainly not a bad record, but it’s good only in an “I like Squeeze so I think Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti is good” kind of way. There’s probably a word for that in German. “The Sun And The Rain,” released earlier as a single, is the lone essential contribution to their canon, though if you were looking to flesh out a two-disc set, half of Keep Moving merits consideration for the role of mildly charming escort. However, Madness Present The Rise & Fall has much more personality, so you may want to direct your enquiries there.

GHS 4022 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. KEEP MOVING    (Graham McPherson/Carl Smyth/Chris Foreman)    3:31
2. WINGS OF A DOVE (A CELEBRATORY SONG)    (Carl Smyth/Graham McPherson)    3:00
3. THE SUN AND THE RAIN    (Mike Barson)    3:16
4. BRAND NEW BEAT    (Lee Thompson/Mike Barson)    3:16
5. MARCH OF THE GHERKINS    (Mike Barson/Lee Thompson)    3:29
6. MICHAEL CAINE    (Carl Smyth/Daniel Woodgate)    3:37
7. PROSPECTS    (Graham McPherson/Carl Smyth)    4:13
8. VICTORIA GARDENS    (Carl Smyth/Mike Barson)    4:31
9. SAMANTHA    (Mike Barson/Lee Thompson)    3:13
10. ONE BETTER DAY    (Graham McPherson/Mark Bedford)    4:06
11. GIVE ME A REASON    (Lee Thompson)    3:23
12. TURNING BLUE    (Graham McPherson/Chris Foreman)    3:06

CREDITS

MIKE BARSON -- keyboards
MARK BEDFORD -- bass
CHRIS FOREMAN -- guitars
GRAHAM McPHERSON -- voice
CARL SMYTH -- voice
LEE THOMPSON -- sax's
DANIEL WOODGATE -- drums & triggers
Afrodiziak -- backing vocals (6)
Miguel Barradas -- steel band arrangement
David Bedford -- string arrangements
Michael Caine -- "My name is Michael Caine"
Creighton Steel Sounds -- steel band
The Pentecostal First Born Church of the Living God -- choir (2)
General Public -- backing vocals (8)
Louis Jardim -- percussion
TKO Horns -- horns
Gavin Greenaway, Carb, Steve Churchyard and Matt Butler -- engineers
Jim Russell and Phil Tennant -- mixing engineers
Tony Duffy -- photography

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