Lopez Blogs: Flashback: Madonna Retrospecticus Part Two

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Flashback: Madonna Retrospecticus Part Two

Posted by ai at 2:14 PM

Erotica:

Ah Madonna. You've just finished with your brilliantly titled, if incomplete greatest hits album. You've just showed the world every crevice and cranny in Justify My Love. What's next? A big ol' torch ballad in the form of This Used To Be My Playground, which i found incredibly dull at the time but has grown on me over the years as I have matured. Yes, Madonna was back and with a sound that was SO not representative of the album that was to follow! Yikes. So while gentle baseball playing Madonna was ok for a few months, it was soon time for the Sex book and the highly underrated Erotica. Was this too much Madonna for the world? For the first time in her career, people seemed tired of her shock tactics - she'd bared her bits for all to see in Justify, and done big booming house anthems in Rescue Me. Was a book of her lady garden really necessary? Probably not but the album Erotica was a sheer delight. Erotica was a sparse groove which introduced us to Dita, which was probably Madonna saying "hey. don't be fooled by my Playground. I still like whips and ball gags you know. I'm kinky!" but it kinda worked. And Deeper and Deeper was that ace house sound that was so popular at the time (with a nice segue into Vogue at the end). As an album it lacked the pop prettiness of Like A Prayer and returned her to her club roots. Bye Bye Baby (a european single one believes) was a cheeky kiss off to that errant lover, while Where Life Begins took hints from Janet Jackson in filthiness (Janet would one up it a year later with the BRILIANT If) Rain bought back the softer side of Madonna with a lovely power ballad and In This Life tackled losing friends to Aids. The Madonna backlash had started but it was unfair that it was here....

Bedtime Stories:

So many people disappointed with Hard Candy maybe forget that it wasn't Madonna's first foray into r'n'b stylings - and certainly not the first time she took the style of others instead of forging a new sound herself. And i'm sure lots of people disappointed with Hard Candy do remember Bedtime Stories. But prior to that there was another lovely soundtrack song in I'll Remember. I think it's one of D'luv's fave tracks but i'm too lazy to find his link :P Whatever - it was one of those tunes that if it soundtracked a particular moment in your life (end of school, college, love affair) then it worked perfectly on an emotional level and stuck with you. It's certainly one of my fave Madonna tunes. The lead off single proper for this album was a slightly muted affair for Madonna. She actually sounds quite thoughtful and pensive on this. All this was overshadowed by my second fave Madonna track ever (slightly ahead of Vogue but way way behind Like A Prayer) in Take A Bow. Sure it could have easily been the latest Pebbles/Karyn White release, but i do enjoy when Maddy taps into her lower register as she does so beautifully on this babyface ballad. And note, fact fans, i can sing the entire song perfectly en francais! I never warmed to the title track, possibly because I'm not a huge Bjork fan and it seemed to be a bit bjork-y to me! Don't Stop totally stole the beat from Martika's coloured kisses, but was a decent if silly pop tune and naughtiness abounded (again somewhat muted) in Human Nature. Not Madonna's best effort, but some real gems in there if only TAB...

Sigh. The Ballads and playing herself:

If BS was madonna reigning it in a little after all the sex, (her lady garden must have been well chaffed) then she was certainly shouting "look i'm nice too" with a ballads collection. A few new songs perforated the collection of mainly album tracks. You'll See is a great tune with some lovely vocals and a powerful baseline that all comes together perfectly in a still restrained chorus. I'm not really a fan of the Massive Attack collab I Want You (I prefer Sophie B Hawkin's interpretation) but the acoustic One More Chance is nice and i'm shocked to this day it hasn't been covered by Westlife for a Christmas single... And then came the role she had beg stole and borrowed for, and the role that is still her finest cinematic achievement. With all the gravitas of Whitney Houston shouting "he's my Bodyguard" in "The Bodyguard" Madonna was born to play Evita. And i adored the soundtrack, because well it was a musical and she did a disco remix of Don't Cry For Me Argentina, which worked so so much better than the long drawn out balcony scene in the film. The new song You Must Love Me was a gentle pleading ballad that summed up Madonna's need for adulation, but the highlight was Goodnight and Thankyou about slutty Evita's past. How perfect for Madonna and she sang it so very well!

Ray of Flight?:

I think I was suffering Madonna fatigue when this album came out because although it received high critical acclaim, I barely paid it a second glance and rightly or wrongly it's probably the only Madonna album (bar Music) that i don't know the lyrics of songs to. Frozen was all solemn and electronic as Madonna tried to go more modern - it's still largely rooted in her dance club roots and William Orbit kept it pretty much age appropriate for the 40 year old pop queen. It's art cried the fans. I put on the latest pop cd from Deborah. I'm not sure why this cd doesn't appeal to me, because the fans certainly love it (as a whole). I can barely think of anything decent to write about it! Actually that's not true, i can barely think of anything to write about it. Power of Goodbye, though, I paid attention to as the producers of Felicity cleverly used it in some of their first season finale promos and although i cared more whether Flick chose Ben or Noel (pick Ben!) the song fitted nicely. And Nothing Really Matters (Madonna's pat on the back at her new found spiritulism) is Darren's fave Madonna tune. Who knew! Oh! And To Have and Not To Hold is such a sad song, that actually the recently leaked Like An Angel Passing Through My Room would've fit perfectly with it...

Music:

Again with preceding an album with a soundtrack song! Enough already! Beautiful Stranger is a nice enough 60s inspired song that shows Madonna should really not do 60s inpired songs. Especially when that song is a dreadful rendering of American Pie. Shame on you. Especially when Time Stood Still (the other track from the goddawful Next Best Thing movie) would've made a much better single as it is one of her more beautiful tracks. Sigh. silly madonna. Luckily Music was leaking all over the then illegal Napster and one of the first tracks to appear was the weird and wonderful Paradise - it's vocoder ahoy as Madonna recalls her youth and remembers how it wasn't perhaps as perfect as she'd hoped. It's a striking song, so I was a bit taken aback when I heard Music (the single). Borrowing heavily from the Ab Fab wardrobe, it's ghetto fabulous ahoy in the video as a swirling pop song invades the airwaves. With a similar theme to Holiday, it's an anthem for letting go and having fun. Don't Tell Me is a great midtempo track while Runaway Lover and Amazing are just brilliant typical Madonna pop tunes. Going a bit acoustic guitar (i'm pretty sure she said she learned so she could play in concerts) on I Deserve It she sang of her love for Guy though if Christopher Bitchone is to be believed, Guy deserves a bit of a slap for his allegedly non gay loving ways...

Greatest Hits Volume Two, Disc One: