No more hesitation, it's a celebration, bitches! Alas, I've received my Madonna, 'Celebration' 2CD and DVD from Amazon at a very decent deal I might add (CD $15.99/DVD $18.99). Oh, the excitement! Here comes my rant...
Well, what can I say? A collection spanning 25 years of hits from the Queen Of Pop. What's there even to say? A lot... The remastering for the older (and not so old) tracks are decent enough. I dig the sequencing and the art direction by Mr. Brainwash oozes old school Madge from the block but I won't lie, this feels very hastily put together. There are a noticeable amount of key singles from Madonna's career that are missing such as 'Causing a Commotion' (which was #2 on the US charts), 'This Used to Be My Playground' (which was #1 on the US charts), my personal favorite, 'Oh Father', 'I'll Remember' (#2 in the US), 'The Power Of Goodbye' (!!!!!) I could go on. The comp is heavy on the 80's hits. In my opinion, a disc of the best 80's stuff and a disc of the best 90's and 00's stuff would have been perfect. Favorites would still be missing of course, but the the album wouldn't feel as uneven.
There are a number VERY sloppy editing jobs for songs that went too long for the discs, I reckon. I'm actually quite shocked Warner let some of these edits go by. Specifically, the intro to 'Express Yourself', An attempt to duplicate the already gross video edit, they failed HARD. Was it so difficult to go in and mix the intro in properly? Also and I cannot let this pass. 'Hollywood' still has the last 3 seconds of 'American Life' in the beginning horribly mixed down. Why just mix the fade down when you have access to the original masters? Even the single edit for 'Hollywood' removes the remaining bits properly. It seems like I'm nitpicking minor details but any fan could have put this together as a playlist in their iTunes, which is what this plays as for me, sadly. I guess it goes along with the "whatev" generation she's selling this to. 'Cus it damn sure isn't for her fans.
The new tracks; 'Celebration', produced by Paul Oakenfold, the first single, "described as ‘the sound of tomorrow’, it is nonetheless very reminiscent of the early 1990s Ibiza sound." 'Revolver' featuring Lil Wayne and produced by Frank E (Flo Rida, T-Pain) and Madonna, breaks no new ground itself, but rather follows the typical Urban/Pop/Dance track formula of the late 00's, 808's and synths. Even though the tracks aren't groundbreaking, they are refreshing and fit in nicely with the collection. Personally, I prefer 'Revolver' to '4 Minutes'. It at least feels like a real, modern day Madonna song and not a leftover, JT and Timbo track from a Nelly Furdado record.
As for the DVD, which purports to being "digitally remastered"... my ass! These videos look exactly as they did on the previous video collections. It is nice to have them all together, even if she is missing quite a few (understatement).
All picky fan-boy shit aside, nothing gives me more pleasure than celebrating the Queen, Madonna. The biggest selling artist in the world. One of the very few who can legitimately call herself a living legend (That ain't you Brit!) I'm pleased to be alive while Madonna is at her peak and doesn't show any signs of slowing down.