Not bad, but hardly immaculate. (The Immaculate Collection: The Best Of Madonna - Madonna)

Member Name: paulhanton

Product:	The Immaculate Collection: The Best Of Madonna - Madonna
Date:	18/01/09 (396 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great memories.

Disadvantages: Some songs have not stood the test of time well.

Madonna

The Immaculate Collection, 1990.

Well now, this album has now come of age being 18 years old.

I was quite a fan of Madonna up until about 1990, then, in my opinion, apart from the odd single (Ray of Light for instance) she has done little of note, other than become a string bean parody of herself.

This 'best of' (up to that point, and probably beyond) charts her rise from soft porn...oops....erotic art model, oh no, sorry she was a waitress and actress, the modelling was just occasional....to a genuine World wide superstar.

I am old enough to remember her two early offerings, 'Like a Virgin' and 'Holiday'.....brilliant and dross (but fun) in that order.

As those of you may well know from reading my reviews, I do like a boot sale bargain and this was one such bargain last summer, though I do not remember how much it was, not likely to be more than a pound, though looking on Amazon today it is still only a couple of quid there.

My music reviews are often track by track, scoring songs. For this review I am going to try a slightly different format. I will still review some specific tracks, but without scoring, and without some of the musical detail I often give.

Why?....well Madonna is pretty much a soloist, of course she has musicians, but unlike many singers, she is the star of the show and the musicians do not feature as much I'm sad to say. Also, the tracks are very spread out in terms of time, so I am not reviewing a 'current' song or songs.....this makes sense to me anyways, lol.

I generally judge an album by how many 'keepers' there are on it, that is, how many I transfer to my ever growing iTunes library. Well of the 17 here I have transferred the following 6:


~~Holiday~~

Mainly for old time's sake, this song has a cute funky beat and guitar work that is probably better than the vocals or lyrics deserve. However, this just has to go on the iPod; it is a bit of pop nonsense that I remember from clubbing, gay bars and Amsterdam coffee shops. It is fun, feel good and no more.


~~Like a Virgin~~

Of course this is a keeper, great song, great video and boy was she hot then. Very 80's in musical composition, and quite tame to hear now, but quite a sensation at the time. A real jukebox player (then) and inevitably now, wedding party song.


~~Material Girl~~

I so loved this at the time, loved the ultra camp video, loved the sentiment which was in its' own 80's way completely ironic, and it is, above all, a catchy little number that for me made me realise for the first time that Madge was gonna be sommat very special, a la Monroe in a way, though perhaps she should have burnt out young too!


~~Papa Don't Preach~~

Really quite a heartfelt piece of song writing, and again a great video to go with it, she really was a clever so and so, that knew how to shock conservative America and appeal to the teenage audience at the same time, great stuff. The song tells a story that many people can relate to and this is perhaps it's charm, probably too twee for some, I still like it.


~~Like A Prayer~~

For me, one of her greatest songs, and certainly her greatest video; iconic is not an understatement. I love the whole video story, love the changes of pace in the song, and the gospel backing is perfection. This caused a huge controversy in America and in various religious circle, great. Even now this song gets me going, brilliance. We are lucky to get the full length version on this CD too which I think is much better than the single version.


~~Vogue~~

Great stuff again, by the time of this song Madonna had sussed her audience and played to them, in fact it seemed that she was a 'Madonna' to some. At the time this song not only encapsulated a dance fashion, it marked a change in direction for her that saw a much more confident (as if that was possible) and self determining Madonna, doing her own thing.


~~~Finally~~~

One of the things that mark this album out for me, having just written the review, is that all the songs I have kept (apart from 'Holiday') had quite striking videos with them. When I listen to these songs now I also picture the vid's....I wonder how they would sound to a new listener that had never seen the video's?

In contrast, and to illustrate the point, I do not seem to remember much about video's for the songs that I have not kep, apart from 'La Isla Bonita' which is not a keeper!

Is it a good album? Oh yes, there a few 'keepers'.

Is it a great album? No.

'lucky Star', 'Live to Tell' and 'Cherish' are not her greatest achievements and 'rescue me' is just a little too self indulgent and narrative for me.

An album worth owning if only to remember what a fresh and exiting talent a young Madonna was.....I was quite dismayed to see her prancing with Justin Trousersnake recently in a video, wearing a horrendous coloured corset thingy, not good. Buy this for old times.


~~~Full Track Listing~~~

1. Holiday

2. Lucky Star

3. Borderline

4. Like a Virgin

5. Material Girl

6. Crazy for You

7. Into the Groove

8. Live to Tell

9. Papa Don't Preach

10. Open Your Heart

11. La Isla Bonita

12. Like a Prayer

13. Express Yourself

14. Cherish

15. Vogue

16. Justify My Love

17. Rescue Me

Summary: Madonna, Immaculate collection.