What is Madonna's best album?
- Thread starter Suedehead
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Sardonicus
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
There's several choices jostling for TOP POSITION, of course, but I've really come to appreciate the themes, concepts, musical direction of Erotica over the years. The public perception of it was a bit skewed due to the accompanying controversy & I remember I thought it was too long for a very long time but it has aged VERY WELL.
Ellie
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Honestly Music.
Loufoque
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Madonna was obviously utterly essential for two decades, and then sporadically magically thereafter. But nothing comes close to the transcendental genius that is Ray of Light. It was like all her best instincts and abilities turned up to 150.
Debbie Jellinsky
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Ray of Light. I never get tired of it.
POP!
Dress you up
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Tricky but I’d say these four stand out from the rest, for different reasons. True Blue’s singles make it win by default for me, I even like all the album tracks (yes even Jimmy Jimmy) except for Love Makes the World Go Round which falls flat for me.
1. True Blue
2. Erotica
3. Like a Prayer
4. Ray of Light
1. True Blue
2. Erotica
3. Like a Prayer
4. Ray of Light
straightorbroken
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RoL and LaP are her ultra extravagant artistic showcases. The pure pleasure machinery of True Blue eased off for a different kind of pay-off: Like A Prayer may well be the best (blow job) song she ever did, but as a whole it's far more immersed in her own imagination. Oh Father, Till Death Do Us Part and Spanish Eyes are equally magical to me, but we're hardly going to join Express Yourself and Cherish at the top of the hit parade.
Ray of Light exists in its own realm entirely. The absolute height of her creative, judicious and vocal prowess. She was recharged and rejuvenated. There was a time I felt maybe the bleepy bloops would age badly, but the attention to detail makes it her most conceptually elegant album by far.
Music had me moist with excitement. The sound wasn't what i wanted, but flashy, sleazy disco soundscapes worked a charm and the downbeat highlights simply wonderful (Girl, Gone, Perfect).
Like A Virgin is also a big favourite: the vocal is a gorgeous mix of playful and plaintive. Stay is a level of deluxe she's never matched frankly. If you favour the reissue that absorbs Into The Groove then it's nearly unrelenting (Love Don't Live Here Anymore completely unnecessary, but then I adore Shoo Bee Doo so what do I know?)
Erotica is a stark, deceptively tongue and cheek, jazzy document with its own era-unique peaks (Thief of Hearts, Rain, Secret Garden).
Her catalogue is so rich right up until Hard Candy where she now sounded off the pedestal, without the crutch of her once expressive voice, and succumbed to chasing hits she's beyond above having to resort to.
The debut boasts an unflinching execution that really set the standard of what would follow, but my goodness do the full-on disco dolly album tracks reward you if you go back to them and are willing for a throwaway commitment to near solely dancefloor pursuits.
Bedtime Stories is equally impeccable in its fulfilment of its own vibe. I love the understated approach. She described it best herself as the "creamy smooth pop icon goddess". Sanctuary, the title track and even Words from Erotica all sounding like stepping stones to RoL in hindsight. Survival is just gorge: see TLC's Creep or Michelle Gayle's Get off My Back if you want to get off on similar.
Confessions was a volcanic eruption (Hung Up) that conjured her erstwhile knack for cutesy melancholy (Get Together, Forbidden Love), but could have done with the filler being more distinct (something that was at least rectified somewhat when the drab Let It Will Be was tarted up a little on the Paper Faces remix). Nodding to both Donna Summer and Kylie, Future Lovers is a disco drip life support machine. This was the absolute last time Madonna was truly infused in the evidence of her own brilliance indeed.
There are jewels to be found among the rubble in what followed, but MX absolutely proved the worth in striving to make a cohesive album in her former fashion. That being said, MDNA has much higher price tags in there (Love Spent for one) and Rebel Heart rewards best if you make your own track list out of the leaked, planned version.
I'm so excited for this new album, couldn't give a fuck if it generates a hit for her, and yet I feel there is the potential for this collaboration to reposition her as the untouchable queen of pop on an artistic level and she'll truly only get there, ironically, by not giving a crap about having a hit again.
Ray of Light exists in its own realm entirely. The absolute height of her creative, judicious and vocal prowess. She was recharged and rejuvenated. There was a time I felt maybe the bleepy bloops would age badly, but the attention to detail makes it her most conceptually elegant album by far.
Music had me moist with excitement. The sound wasn't what i wanted, but flashy, sleazy disco soundscapes worked a charm and the downbeat highlights simply wonderful (Girl, Gone, Perfect).
Like A Virgin is also a big favourite: the vocal is a gorgeous mix of playful and plaintive. Stay is a level of deluxe she's never matched frankly. If you favour the reissue that absorbs Into The Groove then it's nearly unrelenting (Love Don't Live Here Anymore completely unnecessary, but then I adore Shoo Bee Doo so what do I know?)
Erotica is a stark, deceptively tongue and cheek, jazzy document with its own era-unique peaks (Thief of Hearts, Rain, Secret Garden).
Her catalogue is so rich right up until Hard Candy where she now sounded off the pedestal, without the crutch of her once expressive voice, and succumbed to chasing hits she's beyond above having to resort to.
The debut boasts an unflinching execution that really set the standard of what would follow, but my goodness do the full-on disco dolly album tracks reward you if you go back to them and are willing for a throwaway commitment to near solely dancefloor pursuits.
Bedtime Stories is equally impeccable in its fulfilment of its own vibe. I love the understated approach. She described it best herself as the "creamy smooth pop icon goddess". Sanctuary, the title track and even Words from Erotica all sounding like stepping stones to RoL in hindsight. Survival is just gorge: see TLC's Creep or Michelle Gayle's Get off My Back if you want to get off on similar.
Confessions was a volcanic eruption (Hung Up) that conjured her erstwhile knack for cutesy melancholy (Get Together, Forbidden Love), but could have done with the filler being more distinct (something that was at least rectified somewhat when the drab Let It Will Be was tarted up a little on the Paper Faces remix). Nodding to both Donna Summer and Kylie, Future Lovers is a disco drip life support machine. This was the absolute last time Madonna was truly infused in the evidence of her own brilliance indeed.
There are jewels to be found among the rubble in what followed, but MX absolutely proved the worth in striving to make a cohesive album in her former fashion. That being said, MDNA has much higher price tags in there (Love Spent for one) and Rebel Heart rewards best if you make your own track list out of the leaked, planned version.
I'm so excited for this new album, couldn't give a fuck if it generates a hit for her, and yet I feel there is the potential for this collaboration to reposition her as the untouchable queen of pop on an artistic level and she'll truly only get there, ironically, by not giving a crap about having a hit again.
