Lopez Blogs

American Life:
Oh look. It's Madonna preceding her album with a soundtrack song. She must get paid a fortune for these random tunes. Die Another Day probably fitted better as a coda to Music rather than an opening gambit for American Life, but is a groovy electro pop track with an appalling video. Around about the same time, Madonna was jotting down Justin's number as she duetted on Me Against The Music with Bertney Spears. Again a decent enough pop tune but neither's finest moment. And then came the unforgettable "i'm drinking a soy latte" song that a whole team meeting at work once turned into helping me learn the lyrical rap for no reason at all. Not only did the title track of the album have a cheeky little rap about material possessions perhaps not being worth a jot if people are dying at war (take that Material Girl madonna!) but the video was rapidly changed so as not to be too controversial. Oh. My. Days. The album was full of luxurious disco beats, electro beeps, and tender love songs - the best being Nothing Fails with it's slow crescendo into strings and a gospel choir. Love Profusion is a whirling dervish of a pop song, though a little restrained, and Mother and Father despite it's deep lyrical content is probably the closest thing to disco on the entire album. Rubbished by critics for being too serious (and now she's trying to be too youthful? She can't win!) it remains my favourite Madonna album released since Erotica...

Confessions on a Dancefloor:

Madonna is going to burn this disco down! She's calling 1-555-Confide! I may be getting my long running popstars confused... Basically Madonna decided to don a purple yoga, write to Benny and Bjorn and create one of the most enduring Madonna hits of the decade. Hung Up was a brilliant return to pop for her royal horseness, even if she had to sample Abba to do so. Sorry was gorgeous dance-pop even before the Pet Shop Boys provided a rather phantasmagorical remix of it. Plus I always like songs with a little bit of foreign language in them. It does feel like she might have borrowed and manipulated the bassline from the Jackson's Can You Feel It? but this is an album where she isn't particularly groundbreaking, but does a marvelous job of channeling disco sounds and sensations into modern pop tunes. Jump is another great tune where Madonna urges the listener to embrace the changes and therefore, it fitted perfectly into the final moments of the last season 2 episode of Ugly Betty. I do get a bit annoyed when, during Future Lovers, Madonna tells us all to forget about our problems and bills. Easy to do when you are Madonna, and you are lowballing your brother on some gaudy decorating. Some of us still have 5 years of mortgage to pay! Oh and way to alienate the listeners with I Love New York - not for slamming every other city but the new york/dork couplet. It's almost unforgiveable! Overall though, it's a solid album, not perfect. Not trailblazing, but frankly who cares?

Hard Mandy:

Let's get this out there. I like Hard Candy. I know a lot of people whose opinions I respect and who are much bigger Madonna fans than I (xo, danusa, yuri) aren't particularly enamoured of the album. Others feel Madonna is following not leading, though if you have read this far, you'll probably be aware that my view is that Madonna hasn't particularly been a leader for some years now. And she's probably just enjoying being the biggest female singer in the world and wanted work with some of the biggest hip hop stimuli in the world. And why shouldn't she indulge once in a while? So bizarrely and for the first time ever, I find myself wanting to defend Madonna. Grife! The horns and dance beats of 4 Minutes are intoxicating and i STILL maintain that Justin looked great in the video and that i STILL want to dance/walk on the conveyor belt at the supermarket. Give It To Me and Beat Goes On (instrumentation!) are top notch pop tunes, while Heartbeat and Miles Away in particular have deep grooves, beautiful guitar and some poetic lyrics. And don't forget the sheer genius of Devil Wouldn't Recognise You, a rather endearing ballad that gets better with each listen. Here are my original thoughts on Hard Candy from when it came out...

So that brings the flashback bang up to date. It's not the most comprehensive, but then I'm not the most dedicated of fans. I'm sure people like XO and DanUSA could fill in the gaps with rare and unreleased tracks for a 6th cd for this imaginary boxset :)

Greatest Hits Volume Three:

1. Me Against The Music
2. Die Another Day
3. American Life
4. Hollywood
5. Nothing Fails
6. Love Profusion
7. Mother Father
8. Hung Up
9. Sorry
10. Jump
11. Get Together
12. 4 Minutes
13. Give It 2 Me
14. The Beat Goes On
15. Miles Away