I'm burning up, burning up for your VOTES! — ILM Artist Poll #31 is Madonna

I blame some dude, he introduced me to it

I don't know if this counts as a remix but I love love her version of Erotica on the Confessions Tour, based on Erotica's original demo You Thrill Me (almost wish she'd never changed the lyrics in the final version, they fit the album so well):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRvgtVaJMAc

okay so I went to the used cd store and bought a copy of Confessions (as I lol'd at the sheer number of copies of MDNA in the racks)

this is happening this afternoon

I figured spotify was too 'optional'. i've committed now. i'm all in.

GOOD DAY!

Sometimes, Confessions is my favorite Madonna album (and it's never not in the top 3).

I also snagged a $3 copy of Erotica. such is my level of commitment

(those three, kind of like a carousel of favorites, are True Blue, Ray of Light and Confessions)

she's kindof hardened into a set of signifiers

fantastic post, plax.

it's always seemed to me that she was pretty much born as a set of signifiers. as a celebrity, i can't stand her. every word she's every uttered in public sounds scripted, calculated and pre-cleared. and forced. and almost intentionally irritating. and she's one of my three or four favorite artists of the last 30 years. i fell in love with her the first time i heard her sing "it would be/it would be so nice," which remains one of my favorite moments in all of pop. the melodic lift, the spiritual lift, the physical release and the welcoming arms of those eight syllables is just so impossibly beautiful and heartbreaking and happy. the artist she most reminds me of in her strange balance of charmlessness and musical grace is paul mccartney. and i really really do love her. i'm currently shuffling a spotify playlist of her entire catalog and am newly amazed at both the depth and the breadth of it.

xp Don't worry. I got S/T, I'm Breathless and Erotica covered.

one of my all-time fave mashups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgjRNpie9y0

man, "Oh Father" is not her best performance

it's always irked me how abruptly it jumps into the chorus

the transition from "dear jessie" to "oh father" tho >>>>>>>

speaking of "Dear Jessie", I really want to shake this song and make it less precious-sounding

*calls child services*

i keep thinking of things i want to rep for in this thread and songs i want to talk about but every time i'm just like there's TOO MUCH of it! circa american life, i remember thinking, it doesn't matter in the slightest what embarrassing or cringey things M does now, she just has way too much stacked on the credit side to ever be a net bad thing. post hard candy and mdna, i still feel that's true.

the first time i heard "dear jessie" i assumed it was parodying the kind of girly-girl fluff madonna, as a young female pop star, might have been ~expected~ to sing about, lol

i still kind of do, the fact that it transitions into the kinda raw & complex "oh father" is evidence i think

ok a couple of remixes

JUSTIFY MY LOVE (THE BEAST WITHIN): madonna recites verses from the book of revelation over the JML beat in the same sultry voice. it is fucking terrifying in certain situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWNu3Un7_5Y

SORRY (MAN WITH GUITAR MIX): jacques lu cont turns it UP. i think that snaking riff throughout this remix is one of the greatest ever penned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up6TOv8y7nA

also, i think my three favourite madonna songs are "burning up", "deeper and deeper" and "die another day", all separated by roughly a decade. that's kinda incredible.

i think a really good thing is that madonna constantly changed so much, every era was so different - different look, music style, voice even (the way she adapted her voice to suit her material is mad underrated) - that I just don't associate the madonna we have now and who she was then, it's just another version of many madonnas. she can release shit forever (and I think she probably only has one great album in her left tops) and it won't ever infect any of her old material.

playing the Spotify playlist of her singles that I put together, the first song I hit that wasn't amazing was "The Look of Love" (#9 in the UK)

of course since then I've hit "Spotlight", "Cherish", "Oh Father" and "Dear Jessie"; I am really not on team Like a Prayer at all

her performance of "Spanish Eyes" bothers me more than "Oh Father," in part because the latter's a better song.

I still can't believe "Hanky Panky" actually happened

I really like "Oh Father" ;_;

"Gang Bang" is a terrible song but weirdly compelling, I feel like gangbanging for it just to be perverse

Cherish is v cloying. I kinda like it though? I don't think it'll be in my 20 though

i appreciate "gang bang" for being a latter-day madonna song that makes me go huhhhhh? rather than siiiiigh

Def voting for both those remixes, lex.

"cherish" sounds so perfect in summer. sometimes "romeo and juliet, they never felt this way i bet" sounds the most romantic line ever to me

for being a latter-day madonna song that makes me go huhhhhh? rather than siiiiigh

^ valid point

"cherish" sounds so perfect in summer. sometimes "romeo and juliet, they never felt this way i bet" sounds the most romantic line ever to me

every time I hear or read that line I want to go on a kitten-stomping spree

okay Johnny Fever I concede that Confessions is good. Surprisingly good! I haven't facepalmed not even one time.

prolego otm about the romeo & juliet line

xp not even when she sings "dork"?

oh VegGrrl wait till you get to "Let It Will Be/Forbidden Love."

I need to be very dim for a moment and ask a clarification question re plax's post upthread.
re: Vogue = cultural imperialism.
can someone or plax explain this to me more? I'm not sure I really get what the argument against it is.

smart ppl, elaborate plz!

"I Love New York" is so full of terrible throwaway lyrics, but I think that makes me like it more.

xp: I believe plax is talking about the co-opting and mainstreaming of an underground gay dance scene into an ubiquitous pop culture dance that you wouldn't be surprised to see someone's grandmother do at a wedding

oh yeah I forgot that -- I did facepalm over the whole effing off thing

Self-titled, True Blue, Ray of Light and Confessions are her best start to finish listens, from memory - when Confessions came out, I pretty much listened to it every day for a couple of weeks - but I do really need to listen to "Bedtime Stories" again.

Lyrics of "I Love New York" >>> "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down."

xpost DJP: ah! thank you. I thought that was probably what it was but I wasn't sure if I was missing something

"I Love New York" is so full of terrible throwaway lyrics, but I think that makes me like it more.

JUST GO TO TEXAS
ISN'T THAT WHERE THEY...GOLF

still dunno how I feel about "Jimmy Jimmy" and "Love Makes the World Go Round" but it's closer to "let me stomp on babies."

Lyrics of "I Love New York" >>> "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down."

otfm

btw any consideration of Madonna albums has to rank You Can Dance high.

Is that the 12" collection?

yep

it's certainly her best compilation album.

my fav confessions on a dancefloor deep cuts are push which flips like a prayer's melody and let it will be because "JUST WATCH ME BURN!"

man, Madonna listened to a lot of Soul II Soul before recording the song "Erotica"

"JUST WATCH ME BURN" is such an incredible moment yeah

Cosign the Confessions Tour version of "Erotica" and the Man With Guitar remix of "Sorry" - some of JLC's finest work.

Erotica deep cut no 1 is "Waiting", unbelievably sultry and unexpectedly heavy. But "Thief of Hearts" and "Secret Garden" and even "Fever" are all amazing too.

I'd also like to rep for "Something to Remember" from the Dick Tracy album, one of her most convincing straight ballads.