One Step Beyond... (Deluxe Version)

Album Review

Salvo's 30th Anniversary edition of "One Step Beyond" is greatly expanded, with the first CD enhanced with five promo videos — "The Prince," "One Step Beyond...," "Bed and Breakfast Man," "My Girl," "Night Boat to Cairo," all available as Mpegs — and a whole second CD of rarities including a four-disc Peel Session, the Work Rest & Play EP, single versions, B-sides, demos, live cuts, and versions of "One Step Beyond" in both Spanish and Italian. It's an embarrassment of riches given an excellent introduction by Irvine Welsh, whose liner notes do a brilliant job of describing what Madness meant in 1979, and what they continue to mean in 2009. Welsh captures the excitement and joy of Madness, which would only be words if the accompanying music didn't deliver, and it resoundingly does: the original album remains exuberant and deceptively deep, balancing the group's love of ska with a thoroughly British sense of pop style, while the bonus tracks retain that high standard, sometimes emphasizing their raw energy (as on the Peel sessions and live cuts), sometimes their nutty sense of humor (Work Rest & Play), and always sounding infectious, irresistible, and timeless. [A bonus CD version was also released.]