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

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.

I find that incredibly difficult to believe, mostly because it comes from the Dick Tracy album

"waiting" is filled with so much great real talk and it rhymes together so well too

i'll forever read it as a song to a closeted lover - "what happened? what do I remind you of? your past, your dreams, or some part of yourself that you just can't love?". it's so easy to queer erotica's text, but i guess that's part of the reason it's so dear to my heart. i will never not have a million ~feelings~ about "deeper and deeper".

I don't know if it was even in the film, so it may be an inclusion on the order of "Vogue".

I might sing "Bye Bye Baby" at karaoke tonight.

Have never understood 'Open Your Heart'. I thought it kind of mediocre as a kid and since I found out that discerning adults rate it have listened intently with no joy. Something like 'Causing a Commotion' sounds the same to me but much much better. I should be excluded from this poll for this I realise.

I feel that way about "Papa Don't Preach."

"Open Your Heart" is just a perfectly arranged song, a pure, if perhaps sentimental, expression of joy.

Wrote this years ago about her two diamond-certified albums: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/diamond/madonna-like-a-virgin-the-immaculate-collection.htm

Another great angle in the Nile Rodgers book was how hard he pushed, and Madonna agreed to, a live band sound for "Like a Virgin," which set it apart from programmed stuff and put it more in line with (at the time) black music (enough so that the label pushed back a little). But I think "True Blue" is really live band plays top 40 pop perfection. It's all put together so well it might as well be programmed, but there's a real groove to the stuff that machines, in this instance, might not have provided.

oh yeah -- it's Chic backing her on that track.

i.e. "Virgin"

Chic is all over the album, no?

Yeah, it's mostly all Rodgers, Edwards, Thompson and Sabino on that disc, with a few other ringers involved. The Chic guys were so far down the cocaine line that Nile was the most in control of the bunch. He apparently struggled to keep Thompson and Edwards involved despite their self destruction.

One of the best things about Madonna ballads like "Live to Tell" and "Oh Father" is how the drums have a little bit of a swing to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYc2jR5yGDs

VOTED, went w/ first thought best thought, didn't think about it, could submit another ballot of twenty different songs very very easily

s/t - 2
lav - 2
tb - 3 (! i usually regard this as her weakest album til american life)
lap - 3
ib - 1
e - 2
bs - 1
e - 0
rol - 0 (!)
m - 1
al - 0
coadf - 2
hc - 0
mdna - 0
multi-artist soundtracks, standalone singles, compilation add-ons, etc - 3

didn't vote for this vid (went w/ a mix of faves now plus 'historic' faves ie the ones that provoked the most discussion in jr high and hs) but do want this noted somewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iloMBY5cjAk
the winner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPxKtdRRVI

would like to go back to the "greatest collective body of singles" discussion. who is in her league? Elvis, James Brown, the Stones, Prince.

Is that it?

Chuck Berry, Al Green...

michael jackson...