MOMENTS OF MADNESS

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Self-produced, Moments of Madness finds Hugh flexing his musical muscles with a stripped down, offbeat, reverberating sixties vibe ringing with seductive melodies and distinctive lyrics that are indelibly stamped with Hugh’s trademark imagination. Vocally and lyrically, Hugh has never sounded so good. Cornwell has, no doubt, throughout both his solo career and his 16-year tenure within the ranks of the idiosyncratic genre-defying Stranglers encountered such. Thus, it’s rather appropriate that this tour, drawing its naming from Cornwell’s sensational tenth solo album, is entitled ‘Moments of Madness.’

A high watermark and a modern-day masterpiece, Moments of Madnessis being tipped as the most significant album of Hugh’s career. Four years since his previous remarkable solo album Monster, the opener, and first single, Coming Out of the Wilderness surfs an edgy and explosive sixties sound with a heavy Duane Eddy guitar twang as Hugh declares, “I’m coming out of the wilderness, learnt how to throw a bowie knife. Ran into fair-haired maiden’s out there but didn’t take no wife.” Illustrious, multi-talented and a legend, with Moments of Madness, Hugh Cornwell has produced a timely and thought-provoking masterpiece for our times. When was the last time you stopped to stare in a guitar shop window or browse online, and what were you looking at?The song “Moments of Madness” is about pain, but it doesn’t have the humor of Queen’s “I’m Going Slightly Mad.” This is far more within the asylum and born from society’s decline, rather than an attempt to smile at the insanity around us. The mantra of madness becomes a chant, a descent to insanity. Hugh Cornwell announces new album & UK tour - Brighton and Hove News. 19 April 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2022. There’s a sentence in the supporting press documentation that came with this, though, that rather intrigues. It says that Cornwell was “widely regarded as the poet laureate of the punk era” and certainly, the ten songs here are wonderful in their use of language that verges on the unique, but it’s only when you add it together with the truly bewildering kaleidoscope of musical styles that you realise how good “Moments Of Madness” is. The surreal carousel of psychedelic motifs spinning from this sixties stew of sonic moments (of madness) echo down the years as Cornwell delivers his unique humour in the pithy lyrics for a safe port in the storm close relationship on I WannaHideInsideAya.

We were given a trio of other Stranglers tunes; ‘Goodbye Toulouse’, ‘London Lady’ and the rare ‘Turn The Centuries, Turn’ before the one song encore of ‘Skin Deep’ which rounded off the evening’s entertainment. Looking for Youreveals a Jim Morrison inspired vocal over this song’s spooky atmospherics, and the semi-autobiographical and upbeat When I Was a Young Man opens a can of insightful, wistful emotions “As years go by and friends, they die they leave me living slow,” Hugh sombrely sings as he reflects upon his family and friends. Four years since his previous remarkable solo album Monster, the opener, and first single, Coming Out of the Wilderness surfs an edgy and explosive sixties sound with a heavy Duane Eddy guitar twang as Hugh declares, “I’m coming out of the wilderness, learnt how to throw a bowie knife. Ran into fair-haired maiden’s out there but didn’t take no wife.” Looking for You reveals a Jim Morrison-inspired vocal over this song’s spooky atmospherics, and the semi-autobiographical and upbeat When I Was a Young Man opens a can of insightful, wistful emotions “As years go by and friends, they die they leave me living slow,” Hugh sombrely sings as he reflects upon his family and friends. When we talk about punk today, and our magazine does like to talk about punk off and on (!), then there are some great new bands around. Try looking at our recent features on The Last Gang or The Bombpops , for example. Just reading about the current punk scene shows how vibrant it is.I don’t mind different types of jewellery, show it to me, just feel free’, could be I’m missing the artistry” opines Hugh on Red Rose – a song about the bewildering trend for tattoos revealing a record of many gleaming lyrical gems. A high watermark and a modern-day masterpiece, Moments of Madness is being tipped as the most significant album of Hugh’s career. Classical intellectuals Pliny the Elder and Aristotle once hypothesized of the power of the full moon. Its ability to induce madness across the lands upon which it illuminated, a celestial lunacy.