Madonna – Something To

I've never been a Madonna fan during the times she was big, but rediscovered her in later years. This album shows her vocal abilities as well as her ability to express emotion (just listen to Love don't live here anymore, a worthy remix).

If you're looking for the more emotional sides of Madonna, this is the album. Perhaps it could have been released as a double album but I'm not the right person to make this argument since I'm not familiar with all her albums.

Yes Indeed, this one sounds really good through a decent turntable and in my case with a shibata cartridge, perfect match for these kind of pressings.

We all know Madonna. We all know her hits, we all have followed her career, some hate her, some ire her, she still makes gigantic shows at her 50's. And it's maybe ironic that this album, a compilation of ballads, most of them subdued and quiet, is not her best compilation so far but also one of her better albums in that very long career. And that's because it features most of Madonna's better songs - before that surprising jump into full electronica in "Ray of Light" - and her strongest performances.

It starts with a, hm, bit dated trip-hop cover of "I want you" which features the kind of chords (and arpeggios) that Craig Armstrong is so obsessed with. It follows with two excellently produced AOR ballads, moves to an 80's hit which gives you a chance to compare her evolution in singing (and anyway, Crazy For You is great, it has one wonderful structure to highlight the chorus and make it the catchiest), a hit from a movie back then, another highlight from the 80s, and a bunch of songs where "Love don't live here anymore" is re-recorded with many strings and which is a complete success. And, though not all the other songs have the same interest, it's, as a whole, a very gentle, confortable, very well produced, and which has more value seeing how her career seems to be centered in production trickery and inmediate dance while these songs are all centered in very well crafted pop. And, I confess, crafted pop that, though her godzillianly big star image, sounds sincere and beautiful.