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The Liberty Of Norton Folgate Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

  • Summary: Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley return to produce the band's first album of new music since 1999.

Top Track

Nw5
Ooh, I watched you grow up Only to despise I seen the madness stack up Through tarpaulin eyes I have heard you come up Believing your own... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. The Liberty Of Norton Folgate may just be the best thing they have ever recorded.
  2. Older, wiser and with nothing to lose other than hair, Madness has gone and released an album that’s virtually flawless.
  3. The true testament to the value of that craft is that The Liberty of Norton Folgate is as rich and rewarding in its deluxe double-disc incarnation as it is in its simpler, single-disc set, something that speaks volumes to the extent of the band's unexpected revitalization here.
  4. 80
    It all looks backward unabashedly--fitting for a band formed 30-plus years ago--but no less resonant.
  5. 80
    The Liberty Of Norton Folgate--a title which makes sense in context but is otherwise unlikely to be jamming up the ringtone sites--is Madness in both their pomp and their prime.
  6. The songs are wordy and disappointingly light on the knock 'em dead catchiness that was once their forte, but what The Liberty of Norton Folgate lacks in hit singles it makes up for in glorious ska/reggae arrangements and Suggs's perpetual chirpiness.
  7. Musically, Madness still trade in pub singalongs powered by ska rhythms and music-hall jollity--but the jollity feels forced, and Suggs’ tired vocals suggest a man going through the motions.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of