Don't go for second best, baby. Put your ILM ARTIST POLL #31: MADONNA to the test.

Bet there's a split between those who most love the quintessential Madonna songs most and those who most love her songs that step outside her usual conventions ("Beautiful Stranger" and "Human Nature", say).

I doubt it's that binary, I mean here are the songs that have placed so far that I have voted for:

The Power of Goodbye
White Heat
La Isla Bonita
What It Feels Like For A Girl
Frozen
Angel
Express Yourself
Human Nature
Dress You Up

I'm pretty sure that's not THAT far removed from the way most people picked their ballots aside from the ppl who put the entirety of Erotica on theirs

appalled at the low placing for "Express Yourself," what the hell people

the secret best Madonna/William Orbit song is "Amazing" off Music imo

http://i.imgur.com/osD7X7V.jpg

15. "JUSTIFY MY LOVE" from The Immaculate Collection (1990) [26 votes, 567 points]

gosh

weak song, fake prince by lenny kravitz, who the fuck needs it

Going to be an awful lot of sugar and not much vinegar in the top 10.

No.15 is a disgrace, what is wrong with you people?

Agreed

i just hope the beast within mix places in the remixes poll

madonna's sugar >>>>>>>>>>>>> her vinegar

calling "Justify My Love" a fake Prince song shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Prince, who spent a good chunk of his 90s career confusing hip-hop and new jack swing in the most endearingly embarrassing way

I blame Tim F: his assertion that all ballots shd have two tracks from Erotica vs a number of ppl who have only heard two tracks from Erotica xxp

The track does evince a fundamental misunderstanding of Public Enemy and sex.

there's a lot of endearingly embarrassing 90s Prince that i'd listen to before "Justify My Zzzz"

yeah i'm not sure how you'd throw 'fake prince' at 'justify my love' and not mention ingrid chavez (even then...) unless you're just completely ignorant but o right

As opposed to Human Nature where the two are perfectly reconciled xxp

Is there a story of how the hell Lenny Kravitz produced this?

Whoa, Justify was my #2; I thought it'd place much higher than that. "Human Nature" is surprisingly low too IMO

unfortunately only now able to follow this...some random thoughts:

Die Another Day - forgot about this one, would have considered voting for it. Choppy and weird but it has aged well.
Physical Attraction - WOW, very low
Bedtime Stories tracks - hearing this album at Tower Records and trying to make sense of the cover were some of my first Madonna memories - as a pop punker 11 year old I thought she was easy listening. Not really into it.

That said, Take A Bow is very memorable and still an enjoyable listen.

Get Together - worthy entrant
Don't Tell Me - seriously awkward song but I voted for it.
Material Girl - I threw this one of the last votes. Amazing hook that has been blunted with overplays and general cheese
Music - instantly recognizable track, should be higher
Like a Virgin - too low, probably done in by acquired cheesiness
Everybody - much better when Annie did it
La Isla Bonita - sounds very dated, works anyway
What It Feels Like For A Girl - ? not familiar with this one
Frozen - zzzzz
Beautiful Stranger - in my top 10, and if you're not feeling the track it can still remind you of Austin Powers
Cherish - maybe the best of the chintzy Madonna songs
Express Yourself - TOO LOW
Dress You Up - not familiar with this one, nice groove, missing something
Justify My Love - not much of a song here, iconic anyway

The song is so sparse and is so vehemently un-pop (it's like a drum loop and some ambient textures and breathy vocals and nothing else) and I think it's v fascinating but also GOOD

was convinced Justify My Love would be an ILX Top 5 Madonna track.

there are songs that ppl roll their eyes over being called "sexy" because of either obvious signifiers that make people think the song is trying to hard or gross overplaying and overidentification with being a "sexy" song; "Justify My Love" is one of these songs and I fucking love it to death

madonna's sugar >>>>>>>>>>>>> her vinegar

In your long career of being wrong, this remains a benchmark.

some dude's ballot:

1. Cherish
2. True Blue
3. Dear Jessie

I thought "Justify My Love" was pretentious swill at the time, but it sounds better now; still not a favorite.

I think my favorite thing about "Justify My Love" is the Wayne's World dream sequence.

Ditto!

what actual prince produced 'justify my love' sounds like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4J1FlgukgA

"Cherish" was in my top 3 :)

http://i.imgur.com/UxmQkDw.jpg

14. "HUNG UP" from Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) [26 votes, 600 points, 1 first place vote]

madonna's sugar >>>>>>>>>>>>> her vinegar

In your long career of being wrong, this remains a benchmark.

― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Monday, March 11, 2013 11:21 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

couldn't agree more, well put
i didn't vote in this poll and i am not a doctor or even a student of madonna studies, but she is marvelous because she is all of the things, not just sugar.

man i feel like i'm being taken a little too seriously with my tossed off hyperbole here, jeez guys sorry

Another TOO LOW, but at least I can begin to understand why.

there's some pretty strong vinegar on my ballot in any event

xpost Needed a few dozen more arrow marks to read.

frankly relieved "Hung Up" didn't make the top 10

"hung up" is such an undeniable monster

I always wondered how big of a hit this would have been if a younger performer had done it. In discussions with friends and watching how people reacted when the hook hit versus when she started singing it felt like Madonna was too old and had too much baggage to make it really drive people crazy.

Ended up voting for two other Confessions tracks in the end, but "Hung Up" is immense.

Speaking as someone who regards Confessions and most all the tracks on it among his favorites, I'd say that my love of it has 80% to do with Madonna singing the tracks and 20% to do with Stuart Price being an awesome soundcrafter.

then again if a younger singer had done this track they probably would have sped it up even more and made it way worse.

i don't know about your history or career of wrong tbh, you seem like a nice person, i just bristle at sugar being more highly valued than vinegar in virtually any context!

I really can't see mainstream US radio giving "Hung Up" a chance if it wasn't a Madonna single

yeah i'd come to think of myself as preferring 'sorry' and thinking 'hung up' a lesser cousin of jlc's 'what you waiting for' remix but listening to confessions last week it really did strike me what a monster it is, maybe the last great gasp of that french filter - that later fade when you hear it turn the corner and the abba hook coming in, my god.

lol La Lachera thank you for qualifying that, i was worried you had some secret long-running issue w/ m

xpost - yeah i'd also thought of 'hung up' sort of precursing the pop edm era but sonically there's not alot of similarities to my ears.

confessions works despite madonna in one sense - you can already hear the stiffness in her voice that wrecks all her work since, and lyrically she really doesn't say much of interest - even "hung up" is just a standard scenario lyrically. JLC is the reason it's a monster, and the reason the rest of the album is worth much at all.

on the other hand i can't really imagine anyone else singing those songs, or how i'd have preferred them to be performed.

Hung Up and JML were my #2 and #4 choices. Looks like the Top 10 is going to be more about obvious 80s hits than I'd hoped. And no Sorry in the rundown at all.

my favorite part of "Hung Up" is the part from "Gimme Gimme Gimme" and imo every other part of the Abba song is better than every other part of the Madonna song

i just bristle at sugar being more highly valued than vinegar in virtually any context!

Your loyalty to Grant Hart has no place in this thread, LL.