A Little Madness to Be Free by The Saints

A Little Madness to Be Free, the Saints' sixth album, came out on Mushroom in 1984 with Chris Bailey steering the ship, and it's a long way from the buzzsaw racket the Brisbane band once kicked up. Bailey coaxed two originals, bassist Kym Bradshaw and drummer Ivor Hay, back into the fold, and borrowed his title from a Kazantzakis line about needing a touch of madness to break loose.

The madness here is in the ambition. Bailey dresses the songs in horns and strings, and he later said he wanted the orchestra to hit as hard as a Les Paul through a Marshall stack. It mostly works: the arrangements swell and sway, and his weathered croon sits at the heart of it like a sailor spinning yarns. "Ghost Ships" is the haunting centerpiece, drifting and melancholy. On the road, former Birthday Party bassist Tracy Pew filled in on bass.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.