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

"Deeper and Deeper" is massively overrated

I think we've found your blind spot.

Considering how many of my rooting interests are falling short, you can at least throw me this one bone, bud.

repeating myself in a way but: vocal on "live to tell" is exquisite, vocal on "oh father" is just terrible murder

basically my default position about 80% of the time is "fuck Shep Pettibone"

Solid credo! I agree (though I do prefer the single version of "Express Yourself" to its album counterpart).

What the hell is "Introspective"?

pet shop boys record

Pet Shop Boys album.

ayyyy

o_O

a mostly terrible Pet Shop Boys album

along came DJP to take a shit on the golden era when pop songs boasted house inflections.

i prefer "oh father" to "live to tell" as well - "oh father" is pretty fucking raw tbh

whereas the thing with "live to tell" is that as grandiose as it is, as admirable as it is, there's a kind of vagueness at its heart - these BIG sentiments kind of get handwaved around and it doesn't feel specific

it is beautiful and you are a monster

well she never tells the tale! That is its mystery and genius.

*listens to "live to tell" 100 times today, receives its power*

it's vague like people are vague. xp.

I am increasingly hopeful that my #1 will be the actual #1.

"love tried to welcome me" is better than "live to tell"

and hardly anyone voted for it :(

The second in our "agreeing with Rolling Stone readers/voters" disgrace...

http://i.imgur.com/hFwyU9S.jpg

04. "BORDERLINE" from Madonna (1983) [33 votes, 1,009 points, 7 first place votes]

"Borderline" is my least favorite of the first album singles *straightens back proudly*

I just realized I somehow forgot to include "Into The Groove" on my ballot??? plz mentally adjust its point value accordingly.

"love tried to welcome me" is better than "live to tell"

and hardly anyone voted for it :(

― prolego, Monday, March 11, 2013 7:55 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is, and i did!!!

yessss

this top 3. THIS MOTHERFUCKING TOP 3

best top 3 in any rate ever

Alfred otm

i like "borderline" fine but it can fuck off out of the top 10 let alone top 4

aw man my number 2

"love tried to welcome me" is better than "live to tell"

and hardly anyone voted for it :(

― prolego, Monday, March 11, 2013 7:55 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is, and i did!!!

― r&b morcilla (lex pretend), Monday, March 11, 2013 7:56 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:D

my heart is not a lonely hunter voter then

you people have carpet on your hearts

'Oh Father': better instrumentation, better kids choir, better lyrics, fewer synths, MUCH better video.

Will listen to 'Love tried...' now.

"love tried to welcome me, but my soul drew back" is a far more affecting sentiment than anything in "live to tell"

idng how this is better than Lucky Star or Holiday or Burning Up or Everybody...okay, it might be better than Everybody.

fewer synths is a good thing?

"Borderline" is my second favorite from S/T. Which doesn't mean I want it in the top 10 or 20, but still, better that than "Holiday" or "Burning Up."

i think my friend dan voted in this bc we had a conversation before ballots were due and he talked about how hard the early jellybean madonna songs are to perform at karaoke, especially "borderline"

very much a time, a place, the status of a particular voice. i always get ridiculously happy when i hear it. the chorus is so simple but its drama is incredible

"love tried to welcome me, but my soul drew back" is a far more affecting sentiment than anything in "live to tell"

when George Herbert wrote it.

I mean, it has a little bit of an easy listening vibe now like a lot of '80s Madonna straight-up pop. But it's cute.

i always mentally linked 'borderline' and 'lucky star' and loved them both as much. but i now know 'lucky star' is better

"love tried to welcome me, but my soul drew back" is a far more affecting sentiment than anything in "live to tell"

well, George Herbert is a better wordsmith than Madonna so I'm not particularly surprised you would think that

lol xp with Alfred

Madonna should put those voice lessons to work and record the solo sections of "Five Mystical Songs"

I mean, it has a little bit of an easy listening vibe now like a lot of '80s Madonna straight-up pop. But it's cute.

i love that vibe! it sounds so alien from everything else when i put it on a jukebox!

I didn't vote for this... worse than Lucky Star, Burning Up, Holiday, Physical Attraction, and maybe even Everybody. I hate the way she doesn't quite get to the note in "Best of me" and the backing vocals in "keep on pushing my love over the Borderline". Top 30 track but not top 5.

i think i singlehandedly kept like a prayer out of the top 5. i only voted to vote live to tell #1. if my math is correct.

if I hadn't been a fuckin idiot I would have knocked "Like A Prayer" off my ballot & put "Into The Groove" somewhere in the top 5. I demand a re-poll.

xp Was the rest of your ballot American Life and Hard Candy?

I think the little bloop-bloop-bleep-bleep riff on "Borderline" is one of the most evocative bits of sound in '80s pop. You can play just that bit anytime, anywhere and conjure a whole era.

^^^^^ otm otm otm

Poor Hard Candy and MDNA, wonder what the highest ranked tracks from those albums was.

I would assume "4 Minutes" and "Gang Bang"

i love how madonna quotes literature all over bedtime stories, the whole album is like an extended discourse on the power of words (whether secrets or lines or sentences or taboo etc.)

it's like she took the spoken word bit on "words" and ran with a whole album on it

You'll be eating crow when 4 Minutes wins this.