After a good week at least without having done a music review, I was beginning to feel withdrawal symptoms, so I thought that it was high time that I redressed the balance of interests by going back to writing about the thing I love most.

I spent a long time going through my CD collection this morning, deciding which album that it would be that I chose to dissect. I originally set out to review something bizarre like Lamb or the sabres of Paradise, but as neither of them were actually featured on Ciao and I couldn't be bothered to wait about a fortnight for them to be added, I decided to go a little more mainstream. So what would it be … Bob Marley perhaps? No thought I, as I don't think that I would be able to do the great man justice; but then whilst in the M section, I came across this gem …

Now Madonna has probably been one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 80s, and 20 years later, she is still changing with the times and belting out good music. Love her or hate her, and I know that people are always bitterly divided in opinion over the poor lass, there's bound to be at least 1 song from her career that is bound to get your foot tapping - and if you've not got a bit of misty eyed nostalgia to share over a Madonna song, then where have you been throughout the 80s?

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a big advocate of cheese, and although I will say now that I can't stand boy bands and the like, I will also quite unashamedly say that I am a self confessed Madonna fan. We all need a bit of cheesy happiness in our collection, and this is mine.

So, the immaculate collection, what is it? Well basically, the album itself takes us on a journey through Madonna's early career from 1984 up until 1990. It is arranged in chronological order and all the tracks are bunched together, according to the album that they were originally released on. It contains all the well known tracks that you would hope to find, as well as a host of others that you won't (I'll discuss later), and the great thing that I enjoyed about reviewing this album is the amount of facts and info that I learnt about Miss Siccone whilst reading up on her.

The truth is, Madonna had been going for quite a long time before her first huge hit in the summer of 1983 (Holiday), and had played in a number of bands (including being a drummer!), before realising her vocal talent. Her troubled upbringing and unhappy teenage years lead to a marked change in lifestyle as Madonna travelled to New York and then to Paris, in a bid to become a pop star or a dancer. As her circle of contacts grew wider and wider, it was only a matter of time before she was picked up by a big name, and after being signed by Sire records, she began an illustrious solo career.

Note: The <- I have used denotes "Taken from the album" :)

-- Holiday <- Madonna --

Yep, I know, time to cringe. This song is so well known yet so happy that it is arguably almost a parody of itself these days. Don't forget that this song was released at the tail end of the disco era, and so the happy go lucky feel still remains. I'm sure it doesn't need much describing, and despite all the percussion, it's got quite a minimalist chord progression along with some synth guitar work. This is the song that produced the awful Dutch cover by DJ Mikey (we're gonna ringa dang dong for a holiday?!) and also more recently, the hybrid of Holiday and Stardust's The Music Sound Better With You (not bad actually it wasn't). It's awfully cheesy and happy, and was Madonna's first top 40 hit. (Contrary to popular belief, this wasn't her first number 1)

-- Star light <- Madonna --

The second track taken from her debut self titled album, it reached number 4 in the US charts. It has a more sophisticated and clubby (for the time!) sound to it, but the high pitched vocals and synths are still here. This one isn't so well known admittedly, but is actually quite a funky little number if you're in the mood. The subject matter of this song is one that sparks off a whole reel of hits about dancing, love and feeling good. This song, like many from her debut LP was co-written by Jellybean Benitez, and although the latiny carefree vibe of Holiday isn't quite so obvious in this one, it's still lerking in the background in a more Gloria Estefanish kinda way.

-- Borderline <- Madonna --

The final track taken from her first album and although I never actually heard the entire album (I was only 4 at the time!), I'm sure that this would have been the finest single from it. It is one of my favourite Madonna songs of the time and even this early on in the album you can tell that the maturity and complexity of the tracks is beginning to build. The lyrics are much more well thought out: "Stop playing with my heart, finish what you start, when you make my love come down". As with many of her songs, this has got quite a prominent introduction and the catchy riffs and vocals are back in numbers. This is one of the better displays of Madonna's vocal range and her voice is beginning to sound a little less strained.

-- Like a virgin <- Like a virgin --

Welcome to Madonna's second album that quite surprisingly was released only just over a year after her first. I have to say that this song really isn't one of my favourites and again, I hope that I don't have to go into great detail describing it due to it being so well known. On the good side, it reminds me of my youth, sitting in the taxi for the half hour journey to school, singing along with the Madonna obsessed driver whom I attained a few tapes from at a later date (God! he must have got some stick ;)). On the downside, the song is just so clichéd it's untrue - it's the song that you're guaranteed to hear a group of hammered women singing on their hen night and is one of those girlie anthems. I spose that it isn't all that bad really, and I sang it quite happily for years and years (as I'm sure many of my age group did) without even knowing or thinking about what a virgin actually was! Not the finest example of her work but it did give her the first number 1 she was hankering after.

-- Material girl <- Like a virgin --

This is the only other track that I'm not overly keen on from the album, and again quite ironically is one of her most well known. If I remember rightly, this was the first track on the original album and is high tempo and jumpy. It's basically a piss take of the 80s world where what you looked like and how you acted were the key to how you were treated and judged. It still brings back those memories but I tend to find it a bit dull and leaves me a little bit untouched I'm afraid - still a classic though on a global scale and a number 2 for the queen of pop.

-- Crazy for you <- Like a virgin --

This is one of the few famous ballads that the pop icon produced and boy is it superb. Quite rightly so, it gained Madonna her second number 1 of her career and remained there for a number of weeks. It's slow and sultry and one of those songs that you could pick a quote from every line. Maj does her best to sound sexy and yearning to her innocent teenage audience and the heavy tone of the song along with its melody certainly fit the mood that it sets out to create. In a similar way to Careless Whisper and True, this song is timeless and no doubt gave many 80s guys and gals of the time their first snog. Shweet.

-- Get into the groove <- Like a virgin --

The final track of the quartet taken from her second album, the flighty up-paced dance style returns. I remember being asked in a quiz what Madonna's first number 1 was, and I actually put this down as the answer .. lol my team mates were most disappointed when it turned out that it wasn't and that to my knowledge it never actually got to number 1. At this point, the raunchy videos and outfits had begun to emerge onto our TV screens and the first time I heard this one was on a video of some of her hits that my dad had taped off telly. The lyrics again are quite standard really, and as many great pop songs of the time will illustrate, it is the melody and charisma of this song that sells it as a hit. The structural building of Madonna's songs is stretching yet further with funky piano and guitar solos beginning to push aside some of the synthetic members.

-- Live to tell <- True blue --

This is the first album of Madonna's that I can actually remember coming out. It shows a marked change in her approach to music and song writing, mainly due to her changing her co-writer to the talented Patrick Leonard. Madonna has never been known for her ground shattering lyrics, but I reckon that this is probably the most thought provoking song she has ever produced. It's slow and deliberate yet with a dreamy and distant overtone - the meaning of the song itself I am still trying to work out; its obviously about secrets, lies and life, "Hope I live to tell the secret I have learnt, till then, it will burn inside of me", but it is one of those songs where you know there's obviously much more to it than that. It's an understated track in a way and not one that tends to get mentioned much but is a fantastic sample of my favourite 80s album of Madonna's (and arguably her best anyway), True Blue. The eerie breakdown in the middle only further goes to enhance the presence of the song and illustrates time after time how Madonna has managed to stay one step ahead of her audience and the music of the generation by being able to produce something subtly new and different, whilst still providing the trademark sound that her fans love.

-- Papa don't preach <- True blue --

Ok Vauxhall owners, I'm talking to you! I'm not sure if the string quartet intro was taken from a classical piece or not (if you know, do leave me a message), but its fame speaks for itself. An all time classic summer tune, it's light and breezy but at the same time deals with some heart hitting truths like teenage pregnancy. Somehow you don't really notice this until your older, and with a lot of Maj songs there's a tendency to sort of sing the lyrics without thinking about them - shame really because her co-writers were certainly helping her develop as a writer. If you didn't know better, you would swear that Madonna was only about 16 when she sang some of her earlier material, and it is only on True Blue (the album) that she begins to sound like a mature adult female singer. A cracking track and a deserved number 1 - we are now truly beginning to enter the lady's golden era…

-- Open your heart to me <- True blue --

Yet again we have a catchy and pacey number here, but without the cheesy venire of her early releases. It's pretty standard for the mid 80s pop of the time but in her own special way Madonna adds something that makes it sound entirely different. Quite a lot of electronic brass in this song but in a similar way to Phil Collins, it has been well used and doesn't sound overly toneless. "I follow you around but you can't see, you're too rapped up in yourself to notice": as the lyrics would suggest, the song chases around from verse to chorus with a lonely feel that contradicts the tempo and cheerful brass. Another number 1 - from the intelligent pop wardrobe - woo!

-- La isla bonita <- True blue --

If my Spanish serves me correctly (and forgive me if it doesn't because I'm only used to asking for beer), this song is about "The beautiful island". This is one of those nostalgic moments for me as it was the first time that I had gone abroad (Majorca) and at that point, Madonna was absolutely everywhere! This was on the radio in every shop that you went in and it's well meaning yet pseudo Spanishy sound is really refreshing and chilled "And when the samba played, the sun would set so high, ring through my ears and sting my eyes, your Spanish lullaby". It's an archetypal Spanish love story with plenty of choppy flamenco style guitars and lashings of castanets. A great holiday track.

-- Like a prayer <- Like a prayer --

I'll always remember this track for a number of reasons. My dad had just bought a CD player which was a revelation at the time, and this was the first album that our family actually owned on CD. It's also the track that won me a regional award in a keyboard competition and so I always remember it fondly lol. Madonna really does begin to come into her own as an artist now and Like a prayer was the perfect LP to answer all the critics who were pointing fingers at her public separation from actor Sean Penn. After the (alleged) violence and unhappiness, Maj has reached from within and pulled out a classic album and a classic song. It combines rock and dance in a super blend with the gospel singers adding that little bit of extra spice. The frequent change between calm and frenzied is the main selling point of this song and the haunting "Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone" melodic strains are quite haunting for a dancy pop song. This 1989 LP was her biggest selling work and was a great exit from her most successful decade as a pop star.

(I will shorten critiques now as we're approaching mammoth length)

-- Express yourself <- Like a prayer --

Many people that I know say that this isn't a great song - I'm not sure I agree. I would agree that the version on The Immaculate Collection is not great (it is a remix) and the electronica drums epitomised in the late 80s don't really help it establish itself. It is ultimately uplifting though and stands out as one of the pacier and well known tracks from Like a prayer.

-- Cherish <- Like a prayer --

This is a nice jolly bouncy song with plenty of pink girlie sentiment I'm afraid. It is however, nowhere near as girlie as Dear Jessie and is on the whole a pretty decent pop song. Probably one of the better songs from Madonna's later career with plenty of chord progressions and electric pianos to lay your hands on. The breakdown in the middle has a kind of 60s gospel folk feel to it; making it a nice squishy kind of song to sing along to.

-- Vogue --

As far as I know, this was never actually featured on an album but this is a real shame as it is such an anthem! In the days of acid house and old school, this rose to the top as one of the all time greats of the period. Despite it being 11 years old, it's still guaranteed to fill dance floors even now with its infectious and euphoric grooves. It's about so much more than dancing, more about freedom, racial equality and being happy with who you are: "If all else fails and you long to be something better than you are today, I know a place where you can get away…". Everyone remembers the "Greta Garbo, and Monroe" talky bit in the middle and I've even heard Pete Tongue play this in the past so you can't really argue can you?!

-- Justify my love --

The first of the 2 new tracks that Madonna decided to put on the end of the album. Highly sexually explicit for it's time, this song raised eye brows and a few temperatures with its sensual sound and video. If Madonna talking breathily about making love in a train over seductive strings and drum loops then this is the one for you - it's not as good as French Kiss by Little Louie Vega (of Masters at Work) in this department, and it does seem quite tame now but it was fun when you were about 11 ;). This is the track that was the start of Madonna's raunchy sex obsessed period with the release of the Erotica album and the tour where she is rumoured to have masturbated live on stage.

-- Rescue me --

The farewell from Maj and not one that lives in the memory. We've definitely entered the heavy breathing and lusty vocals epoch of her career now and it doesn't really suit the song - the verses are low key and thought provoking, yet the choruses are quite 60s souly in their approach and the any power that the song could have had is lost. Not crap by any means but a little disappointing to end the album on.

Conclusion:

Anyway LOL maybe I should have made this a track by track … but still, I haven't listened to it in ages and ages anyway ;). What we have here is a fine collection of mildly cheesy pop songs with a few thought provoking pieces thrown in. It might be verging on the bubble gum pop front but I reckon that many people all over the world will own this one. Madonna has a best of volume 2 coming out next month but it looks nowhere near as good as this one - her role as a persona and role model sometimes overshadow her music but this album is still a good purchase and is crammed full of memories for many of us.

Oh and the songs that Should have been on there that weren't?
True blue <-True blue
Dress you up in my love <- Like a virgin
Who's that girl? <- True blue
Love don't live here anymore <- Like a virgin