Review:

on 2011-07-19 CharlesMartel Said:

Quite why this typically British song should have been Madness's sole US hit remains something of a mystery. Surely, if this could become a hit then so could a hell of a lot more of the band's output. Of course, the danger always is that whenever one track becomes so closely associated with a band, the marketing men and the advertising executives are going to get hold of it as well. More often than not, these days, you will hear it advertising fish fingers and giving some gainful employment to Suggs in his old age.

But Madness were great at painting little vignettes of British life and holding them up for us all to see and to see ourselves in as well. "Our House" represents probably the apogee of that technique. In many ways, the Madness could be said, in terms of their outlook if not their style, to have been the 1980s version of the Kinks. Perhaps that is why it never did so well across the pond. But enough of the sociology, there is a solid reason why this remains one of the band's best loved tracks - it is so damn good.
Rating: 7/10