Favorite Madonna Album (No Comps)

Actually it's the only full-length of hers I have. But at one time or another I owned 'em all up through that one. I never did get Erotica. Maybe I'll check it out based on Jody's rec...

Let me edit this:

The unexcellent and fairly maligned Erotica.

Ah, perfect! (I will forever fight against the Nicole/Tim/Ally/whoever else cabal that insists this album is somehow worthwhile -- and that includes any of their NEW RECRUITS. ;-))

To answer the question -- honestly don't have one. In fact I'll go so far as to say that based on what I've heard over time Madonna, creator of the best string of singles of the eighties from the States and since then a mostly horrifying example of coasting, has never had a truly great album as such. I doubt she ever will.

In brief, because I think there's either been filler or just...eh, really. Hard to put a finger on it except to say that I think a lot of her material seems so secondary to the singles (and considering I haven't been a fan of the recent singles, give a guess as to what I think of recent album tracks). Whereas I could go for broke naming Prince album tracks that just defy description, for instance.

Honestly, I don't think her best album would be a comp, or even an album -- it would have to be a video collection not only of the videos but all the high-profile TV appearances and performances, the MTV Video Music Awards turns and the like. That may be the Camille Paglia approved answer or the like, I have no idea, but I think it situates her in time and place as an artist playing to her strengths more than just a record does.

I dislike many of Madonna's videos - real commercials where the songs don't go quite that far. Or maybe I have a higher tolerance for bad taste in audio vs. visuals. Vogue is an exception. And Don't Tell Me is one of my favorite videos ever.

Essential albums: _S/T_, _True Blue_, _Ray Of Light_
Great singles, horrible filler: _Like A Virgin_, _Like A Prayer_, _Music_
Only know the singles: _Bedtime Stories_, _Erotica_
Destroy immediately: _I'm Breathless_

Based on singles, her best album would be _Bedtime Stories_. Of the albums I know all the way through, I have a hard time choosing between them because all three are great. (Flip a three-sided coin, ha hah)

_I'm Breathless_ is an abomination that needs to be forgotten. It's really criminal that "Vogue" got stuck on it.

dunno quite 'bout "best" (mayhaps 2nd-best), anyhoo i did the 'Erotica' encore this afternoon and, yeh, James certainly has a point there;
"Fever" is just so much waffle, coupla others too, but when those few are taken away, there's a real good albumful of songs left

...'Erotica' being no.6 in The Wire Critics Poll that time
(between Kronos Quartet and Sonic Youth),
i wonder how much exactly mark s had to do with that

===> Erotica = best album evah!

Did Andre Betts (producer of "Waiting", "Go Down" and "Secret Garden") ever do much else of note? He does some stuff on that first Me'Shell N'degeocello album, doesn't he? "Waiting" has one of the best grooves imaginable.

"Deeper and Deeper" may very well be my favorite. The music is so desperate-sounding -- not flirtatious or exotic in any way, just the randy mumblings of a drunk, aging club-kid throwing her arms at a piece of boy-meat while the room spins around her and the disco song thumps on.

Which is to say not in a cute, coy way.

I'm not a great fan of the squeaky-voiced one myself so I'm afraid I can't comment on which of her various albums is the best.

Trying to understand the appeal of something I should theoretically like but don't is always a useful approach (see also: Belle and Sebastian). And Vic certainly argues his corner -- I stand by my Janet statement, though, sorry. ;-)

Ultimately I am on the one hand gratified it has turned out to be such an honestly important album for people but on the other still can't see it as anything more than, well, not much. A relisten probably couldn't hurt, but I'm noting a lot of the commentary seems to be grounded in a very specific time/place sense, that it was a question of being there as it happened or calling to mind very specific moments in the past. So is the appeal less one of the music and more one of the psychological statement made?

If you'd like a comparison that may or may not make sense, consider the Smashing Pumpkins' Adore, very much the black sheep of their albums and somehow seen as the weird dank failure. A lot of fans I talk to consider that their favorite these days, they find it the most accomplished, adventurous and personal. All of which might be my way of saying that everyone should reconsider that in turn. ;-)

As for "Erotica", the title song is fantastic, "Deeper and Deeper" is great, "Fever" is fun, and "Rain" is really nice, but "Bad Girl" does absolutely NOTHING for me and I can't remember any of the other songs on the album. Furthermore, none of those songs are as good as "Justify My Love", "Bedtime Story", "Human Nature", "Take A Bow", "Live To Tell", "Secret", "Keep It Together", "Take A Bow", "Burning Up", "Borderline", "Lucky Star", "Dress You Up", "Into The Groove", "Crazy For You", "Frozen", "Ray Of Light", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like For A Girl", "Die Another Day", "Holiday", "Open Your Heart", "Papa Don't Preach", or "I Want You".

No, I haven't. It is clearly a better song, melodically, arrangement-wise, structurally, and lyrically. Plus, the Oakenfold remix is better dance track.

Surely there's been an OPO...or not?

In pondering this and some other things this morning, I've realized that maybe the trick for my understanding of Erotica is that it is in her way an attempt at a Marc Almond album -- not specifically or consciously, but in terms of this mood or air or theme everyone's identifying -- but it just doesn't work me as well as he can do it. Ultimately I think he's the better performer there, and while you can turn that around to say that Madonna can do more on a broader front than Marc Almond can (true enough in the public profile sense, but not in the artistic -- they both have their multiple musical interests and pursue them in their own ways, which is why Marc A is following up the Soft Cell reunion album with a solo effort exploring classic Russian songs, f'r instance), I'd have to say that in what is being identified here Marc shines more for me.

There certainly does seem to be a visceral and perfectly understanding thrill of contrast, though -- what happens when the towering superstar sidesteps into doubt and desperation and darker shades (thus Adore again, on a less prominent public level), whereas Marc's instead made those series of obsessions part (though by no means all) of his core appeal that's always been present. And perhaps the most generous thing I can think of to say about "Deeper and Deeper" looking at what appeals to many here is this -- it reminds me of my feelings about Soft Cell's "Youth," in that you hear it first at ten years remove from now, twenty, and it seems engagingly decadent and moody and romantic, and then you listen to it now with all the years that have gone by and you think, "ARGGH...now I REALLY know what he meant!"

I seem to remember one thing about "Deeper and Deeper" when it came out was the print ad campaign that had her smoking that cigar (at least I think it was that single, maybe I'm wrong!). VERY unflattering look.

I like "D&D" better than "Vogue" myself for many of the same reasons I lauded Erotica as a whole above: lustier (haha, but really), more heedless, messier and more passionate.

Not to piss-off the anti-cabal cabal, but even Jimbo agrees with us. Last year, when she toured, he re-rated all of M's a;bums, giving LAP, BS and Mus. all 3 stars, ROL 2&a half (for "dippy lyrics"), and E 3 and a half saying he undervalued it at the time of release and that as its 12 or so variations on "Justify My Love," (a lazy interpretation), its her best studio album. For Jimbo, this was high praiise re: Madge.

I just love how she stole words from Sound of Music and her own songs for D&D, and the opening violin. It's really a gem of a dark pop song, all about the nefarious aspects of club-culture, or messy things about the gay underground, as discussed above. What it Feels Like For a Girl is such a toothless, airless non-event by comparison (even though she attempted to hype it up with a "banned video!") - not really inspiring at all, despite the "I-really tried-with-these-lyrics!" effort. It's called trying too hard...

All held together by Nile Rogers, immaculately fragile and strange production. . She doesn't sound complacent, like she does on her recent stuff there's a real desire to prove herself. Despite the cozying up to the latest name producers that has gone. Plus she was always best with a bit of puppy fat.

When its attached to warmed over shlock-beats in a schmaltzy style that goes nowhere, yes! The opening dialogue sample from that film (forget which) is the only non-dud part. Sorry, I can't stand the studio version, it sounds so anemic and just, lifeless - I only like the remix featured in the video. Was it even supposed to be a "dance" song, or is it in that nebulous category of diva songs wherein they can start out as ballads and then be remixed into "thumping club anthems" (here's looking at you, Ms. Blige) ?

Although I like a lot of the ray of light.music stuff too, never heard the entire albums.

like a prayer was her last great album. bedtime stories was good though. i liked parts of ray of light but shes been shit since she got rid of patrick leonard. although saying that i didnt really like that much of ray of light - i think candy perfume girl was my favourite song on there but i never wanted to hear madonna get maudlin like she did on a lot of the 'personal' lyrics. but its DEFINITELY been downhill since the music album.

Confessions... is mostly great and easily her 00s best

i dont like her 00s cold, 'european' sound for the most part.

Confessions... is mostly great and easily her 00s best

above such strong competition!!

the ans. to this will always and 4eva be erotica

lol.

I know everyone hates American Life but I think it's kind of cute in its meandering silliness.

These days I would definitively say True Blue is her best.

i feel like true blue is sometimes forgotten even tho it has some huge singles on it

I jus started a poll on that album, Surm.

oh yeah?? well that's an easy one :)

i love love love Like A Virgin too.

I'll Make You Love Me: The Madonna "True Blue" Poll

Well, everyone looks to Erotica and Like A Prayer because they are the "important" Madonna albums; they happened to be game-changers when they came out (E as sexed-up dance porn and LAP as pop controversy) that IMO overshadowed the actual quality of the songs; they both have great singles on them but I only own one (which I never listen to) and have no desire to own the other. True Blue, OTOH, was Madonna at the height of her pop days and is pretty much crafted start to finish to be an inescapable juggernaut; so many of the songs on here work so well that you can hear echoes of them interpolated into many of her later songs (most of her ballads lean heavily on "Live To Tell"; she constructs most of her "serious" songs along similar melodic lines to "Papa Don't Preach"; her exuberant songs echo "Where's The Party?"; she liked "True Blue" so much she rerecorded it with a new bridge and called it "Cherish"; "Who's That Girl?" pays an obvious debt to "La Isla Bonita" even though I often feel "WTG?" is the better song; etc etc etc).

Has she had other songs that I like more than some if not all of the songs on True Blue? Yes, of course; the existence "Jimmy Jimmy" basically guarantees that! I maintain that TB is easily her most enjoyable album; the only other ones that flow as well as this are the two I mentioned in my original post on the thread (Madonna, Ray of Light) and American Life (which goes to show that you can create a whole bunch of songs consistent in sonic quality and flow and still come up with something faintly embarrassing; this is one of the few albums I own that I would consider a guilty pleasure).

A re-listen just confirmed: Bedtime Stories is definitely the best Madonna album that I just don't personally care for.

s/t, ROL, props to Music esp "Don't Tell Me".