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

Surprised that "Confessions" sold as much as it did, given that was well within the download era.

i mostly focused on '80s and early-'90s madonna in my already submitted ballot but let me say how much i regret not voting for "sky fits heaven" or something deeper off american life or confessions don't make my mistake

i was listening to ray of light last night and i was like "ughhhhh so much of this is ethereal and indistinct" and then BOOM out of nowhere "nothing really matters" and "sky fits heaven"

I don't really see how "Skin" is ethereal and indistinct, personally

i never remember that one

ultimately I think that's my favorite ROL song

"I wonder had Madonna continued in the path of using relatively unknown electronic producers who she could have used after Orbit, Mirwais, and JLC ?"

JLC could have made "Celebration" sound cool. he's good at making things sound cool. oakenfold blah!

With 7 ballots, there are still 2 unanimous tracks in the results. I wish I could say what they are.

Water-wiggle overlays aside, "Nothing Really Matters" is just good '90s chug-house. It's Crystal Waters in neon blue.

oh i guess i never realized before now how garbage-y "candy perfume girl" is

The verse melodies she sings on "Nothing Really Matters" brings out the opera-lesson hater in me.

The live version of "Candy Perfume Girl" fro 2001 is amazing for her two-note guitar solo and the power chord freakout at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf5Xzzeoz4w

xp All comes back to that.

Drove to work listening to Erotica today. I am really quite infatuated with this now that so much time has passed.
I was still in high school when it came and truth be told, a bit of a prude w/r/t ~all of that~ so I think however good it was got drowned out by all the sensationalism surrounding it. For me, anyway.

Confessions I do definitely like now that I've had a chance to hear it but I'm not really hearing anything that I'm in love with - above the tracks I've already selected for my ballot, that is. I mean, I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy listening to it but I'm not really feeling any of the distinguished tracks as far as voting goes, aside from Hung Up which I was going to vote for anyway.

oh now i remember "skin"! the chorus just kind of meanders and i'm not a fan

I re-listened to the Let It Will Be-Forbidden Love-Jump sequence and it blew me away anew.

I love the chorus in "Skin"! So melodic after the manic and erratic verse.

Also "Candy Perfume Girl" was totally Garbage-y. (x-post)

the blooms of percussion in "frozen" still sound totally awesome imo

there are literally a zillion remixes of "frozen" on youtube. many of them from 2011/2012. people really love to mess with that song. and rightfully so.

The video's color scheme matches the song's mood.

i love that video

me too. i didn't see it until years after the ROL era had passed and remember being totally confused by her goth hair. ROL the album seemed to have such a strong visual identity and colour scheme and for the video of the lead single to go so totally against that...

Yeah I was psyched about the black hair and that, i dunno, stillness that she has in that video. Plus it felt like at any moment Trent Reznor would appear and it would be the most normal thing in the world

It peaked at #2 in the United States. It became her sixth number-two single in the United States, making Madonna the artist with most number-two hits in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The others:

Material Girl
Causing a Commotion
Express Yourself
Cherish
I'll Remember

I feel like there is a line where Madonna went from "singer with flawed technique" to "sound effect with vocal training" and the main reason ROL works so well as an album is because it lies directly in the center of that transition.

i always forget how many incredible sonic details there are in ROL's big dancefloor moments - they're almost designed to be like the tracky, immersive bits of the set rather than the peak-time anthemic bits (which is what confessions was shooting for)

the incredible percussion on "skin" >>>>
the dual vocal lines at the end of "nothing really matters" >>>>>>

Surprised that "Confessions" sold as much as it did, given that was well within the download era.

"worldwide" album sales figures tend to be a little bit made up.

William Orbit was really a fantastic producer pre-"American Pie"; I also highly recommend the remix he did of The Cure's "Inbetween Days" which first put me on the Orbit bandwagon back in 1990

also his remix of The Shamen's "Hyperreal" which went on to subsume and overshadow the original mix

also his stuff for ALL SAINTS

"pure shores" is a classic and "black coffee" is even better

burn what he did to barber's adagio for strings tho obv

I don't actually mind that tbh, it's no "American Pie"

omfg i forgot about the moment when "sky fits heaven" brings ALL THE BEATS BACK at once including a DRILL SOUND

Used to really like this album:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/Strange_Cargo_III.jpg/220px-Strange_Cargo_III.jpg

I'd never heard this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8wCCwGUSg

Must find room for "The People Behind These Masks" on my ballot.

http://video.adultswim.com/childrens-hospital/the-big-dance.html

probably orbit's biggest pop work outside madonna?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJxG2wBmqLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2WP1yNypHo

How high did his Blur stuff chart?

Quite well in the Yoo Kay.

THIEF OF HEARTS

this poll is impossible though

i mean deeper and deeper is even better than thief of hearts, but everybody better be voting for deeper and deeper already

YOU SCREW IT
YOU FAKE IT

Stop bitch! Now sit your ass down!

I'm not in charge, but it would be nice to see this as a two-part poll, with a second poll excluding all the songs that place in this poll.

ooh that would be interesting

Listening Bedtime Stories again. "Survival" and "I'd Rather Be Your Lover" and "Don't Stop" are so inane but still so pretty.

I remember when "Secret" came out with its black and white video clip and replaced Kylie's "Confide In Me" at the top of the charts here and I was like "woah the ladies of pop are taking it ~deep~..."

btw "Human Nature" still pwns

― This beat is TWEENCHRONIC (DJP), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 10:36 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Madonna in 'not as good as Gary Clail' non-shockah.