Published on Nov 16, 1999
After catching the movie
Dogma, I was inspired to put on another work by an artist
who has been known to piss off the Catholic church: Madonna. With
the possible exception of
True Blue… wait, scratch even that exception. Madonna was
known for creating some great pop songs in the ’80s, but she never
quite mastered making an album that fully captured all of her
talents.
However, like all artists with this deficiency, a “greatest
hits” collection is a wonderful thing. And
The Immaculate Collection is a damn near flawless greatest
hits collection. The ’80s and early ’90s Madonna is immortalized in
17 classic songs. Beginning with “Holiday,” you can hear Madonna
start to take more musical risks as she got more successful.
“La Isla Bonita” stands as one of the more experimental pop hits
that Madonna had in the ’80s. But a casual listener can tell that
Madonna could make both dance hits as well as believable ballads.
The diva certainly shines on tracks like “Express Yourself” and
“Vogue.” But songs like “Crazy For You” show a more vulnerable side
to Madonna.
With 17 tracks of her best songs, listeners will no doubt side
with either the beginning, middle or end of this collection. For
me, “Material Girl” represents Madonna at her campy best. Her
courage to express her religous convictions with the song “Like A
Prayer” also cannot be denied.
Those who bought
Ray Of Light already know that Madonna has a certain knack
for incorporating popular styles of music into her own. The growing
popularity (then) of rap caught Madonna’s attention with the song,
“Justify My Love.” Thankfully, she doesn’t rap, but she does
incorporate a bass-heavy, stark, throbbing beat as the underlying
beat to the song.
It’s hard not to give this album an “A,” but there’re some songs
that I naturally skip over. But the songs I don’t particularly
like, I know still are standard bearers in the world of pop and
dance. And
The Immaculate Collection does a great job at showing all of
Madonna’s strengths and few of her weaknesses.
To totally dismiss Madonna is both ignorant and short-sighted.
Her incorporation of up-and coming sounds (rap, techno) have made
countless people pick up music in a genre where they may not picked
up before. And
The Immaculate Collection is a great starter CD for any
die-hard or casual Madonna fan.