Music / One Step Beyond Album

"HEY, YOU! DON'T WATCH THAT, WATCH THIS! THIS IS THE HEAVY, HEAVY MONSTER SOUND, THE NUTSIEST SOUND AROUND! SO IF YOU'VE COME IN OFF THE STREET, AND YOU'RE BEGINNING TO FEEL THE HEAT, WELL, LISTEN BUSTER, YOU BETTER START TO MOVE YOUR FEET! TO THE ROCKINEST, ROCKSTEADY BEAT OF MADNESS! ONE...STEP...BEYOOOOOOOND!!!"

One Step Beyond... is the 1979 debut album by British Ska band Madness, best known for their hits "One Step Beyond", "The Prince" and "Nightboat To Cairo". Together with The Rise & Fall (1984) it is seen as one of their best. In a case of First Installment Wins, One Step Beyond is still the one that usually represents the group in "best album" polls and even has a book written about it. This is perhaps a little strange, since although there's certainly an almost-universal affection for the LP, few fans or critics actually consider it their best.

Tracklist

Side One

1. "One Step Beyond" (2:18)
2. "My Girl" (2:44)
3. "Night Boat To Cairo" (3:31)
4. "Believe Me" (2:28)
5. "Land Of Hope And Glory" (2:57)
6. "The Prince" (3:18)
7. "Tarzan's Nuts" (2:24)

Side Two

1. "In The Middle Of The Night" (3:01)
2. "Bed & Breakfast Man" (2:33)
3. "Razor Blade Alley" (2:42)
4. "Swan Lake" (2:36)
5. "Rockin' in A♭" (2:29)
6. "Mummy's Boy" (2:23)
7. "Madness" (2:38)
8. "Chipmunks Are Go!" (0:51)

ONE TROPE BEYOND...!

• Adventurer Outfit: In the music video of "Nightboat To Cairo" the band wears jungle uniforms.
• Album Title Drop: In the speech introducing the otherwise instrumental Title Track, as quoted above.
• A Cappella: "Chipmunks Are Go" is all vocals, no music.
• Bilingual Bonus: "One Step Beyond" was also recorded in a Spanish ("Un Paso Adelante") and Italian version ("Un Passo Avanti"), but these were not collected on the album.
• Break Up Song: "My Girl".
• Broken Record:
  One... Step... Beyond!
• Cool Shades: Suggs wears them in the music video of "One Step Beyond".
• Cover Version: "One Step Beyond" and "Madness" are covers of the songs by Prince Buster. "Swan Lake" is a cover of the most famous Standard Snippet from Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover is in black-and-white.
• Face on the Cover: The band is featured on the cover in the center of the image.
• Follow the Bouncing Ball: Done in the music video of "Night Boat To Cairo".
• Instrumentals: "Swan Lake".
• In the Style of: "Chipmunks Are Go!" is sung in the style of a military call-and-response Sound Off.
• Large Ham: The grunting heard during "Land Of Hope & Glory" is very silly.
• Limited Lyrics Song: The album has two in this vein.
  • "One Step Beyond" has only a lengthy spoken-word speech with no music at the beginning, and then intermittent shouts of the title.
  • "Night Boat To Cairo" has one verse in the middle of the song; the rest is basically instrumental apart from random interjections of the the title and "all aboard!".
• Miniscule Rocking: "Chipmunks Are Go" hardly takes up a minute.
• Momma's Boy: "Mummy's Boy", about someone who still lives with his parents at adult age.
• National Stereotypes: An Egyptian atmosphere is evoked during the song "Nightboat To Cairo". In the music video all the band members wear fezzes.
• One-Man Song: "Bed & Breakfast Man", "The Prince".
• One-Woman Song: "My Girl".
• One-Word Title: "Madness".
• Panty Thief: Character in "In The Middle Of The Night".
• The Pollyanna: The boatsman in "Night Boat To Cairo" stays optimistic despite riding a sinking boat.
  The oar snaps in his hand before he reaches dry land,
  But the sound doesn't deafen his smile.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  ONE...STEP...BEYOOOOOOOOOOOND!
• Sarcastic Title: "Land Of Hope And Glory" is a cynical song about a young man imprisoned in a Borstal institution.
• Shout-Out:
  • The spoken line "Don't watch that, watch this" at the start of "One Step Beyond" references Prince Buster's song "The Scorcher". The song itself is a cover of Prince Buster's song of the same name. The track "The Prince" is another Homage.
  • "Tarzan's Nuts" is a shout-out to Tarzan.
  • Tracey Ullman covered "My Girl" in 1984 as "My Guy's Mad At Me".
  • The album title (and the Title Track) may refer to One Step Beyond (1959), a 1959-61 Genre Anthology TV series about psychic phenomena.
• Silly Walk: The band members on the album cover, where they walk directly behind each other. They also mimic this in the music video of "One Step Beyond".
• Singer Namedrop: Both "One Step Beyond" and "Madness" namedrop the band.
  You'd better start to move your feet, to the rockingest, rocksteady beat of Madness!
• Spoken Word in Music: "One Step Beyond" starts off with a speech.
• Stock Sound Effects: At the start of "Night Boat To Cairo" a steamboat whistle is heard. Near the end of "Land Of Hope & Glory" foot steps can be heard. We also hear jungle noises at the start of "Tarzan's Nuts" and street traffic when "In The Middle Of The Night".
• Titled After the Song: The group are named after Prince Buster's song "Madness", which they cover on the album.
• White Void Room: The band walks in it on the album cover.

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