Seven months after its initial release, Madness' most recent album - the chart-topping Theater of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie, which was released in November 2023 - is getting an expanded reissue, one which will feature a second disc filled with five previously-unreleased songs and seven live tracks.
The live songs were all recorded on the band's recent "C'est La Vie" tour, with six of the songs being taken from the album that spurred the tour, along with a cover of the Specials' "Friday Night, Saturday Morning."
The new edition of 'Theater of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie' features 5 previously-unreleased songs and 5 live tracks
Theater of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie was the first No. 1 album ever achieved by Madness, a fact which - given how long they've been around and how popular they've always been - seems as just as absurd as the album's titular theater.
"We wrote about 40 songs [for the album]," frontman Suggs told Q in advance of the LP's release. "We got together, we rented this industrial space, which was great, because it just meant we didn't have any time constraints in terms of the recording process. So we recorded 40-odd songs, and then we boiled it down to the songs that resonated during that period of the lockdown. And I know we're all bored of talking about it, but that is the facts of what we were all going through. And everyone had a very different opinion of what was right or wrong during that period, and we had a lot of conversations where we had to agree to disagree. But this is what people felt while they were going through that process, so you've kind of got a beginning, a middle, and hopefully an end, where you're on the other side of it."
The only-just-slightly-revised cover art for the new edition of 'Theater of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie.'
The album was very much a full group effort, according to Suggs, even if the collaborations often varied somewhat from song to song. "The six of us at the moment, we all write," he explained. "On this album, we did tend to write more individually, just because we weren't in proximity of anybody else. I mean, there were a few tracks that were sent over on the Zoom or whatever, but it's really difficult. It's also slightly out of sync when you've got more than two or three people on a Zoom, and our music's already out of time enough! That'd just make it even more bizarre! It changes with every song. Sometimes I'll write a tune and someone else will write the words, or vice versa."
The upcoming expanded edition of Theater of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie is set for a June 7 release, but the band is previewing it a bit with the advance release of one of the previously-unreleased songs, "No Reason," which we've embedded below, just after the full track listing.
CD1
1. Prologue: “Mr Beckett Sir…”
2. Theatre Of The Absurd
3. If I Go Mad
4. Baby Burglar
5. Act One: "Surrounded on all sides..”
6. C'est La Vie
7. What On Earth Is It (You Take Me For?)
8. Hour Of Need
9. Act Two "The damsel in distress..”
10. Round We Go
11. Act Three: "The situation deteriorates..”
12. Lockdown And Frack Off
13. Beginners 101
14. Is There Anybody Out There?
15. The Law According to Dr. Kippah
16. Epilogue: “And so Ladies and Gentlemen..”
17. Run For Your Life
18. Set Me Free (Let Me Be)
19. In My Street
20. Fin.: “Ladies and Gentlemen..”
CD2
1. I'd Do Anything (If I Could)
2. No Reason
3. Hello Sun
4. Long Goodbye
5. Culture Vulture
6. Theatre of the Absurd (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
7. C’est La Vie (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
8. Hour of Need (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
9. Round We Go (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
10. Run For Your Life (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
11. In My Street (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
12. Friday Night, Saturday Morning (Live From The C’est La Vie Tour)
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