FORTY ONE

 

 

Rain

 

It's more mid-90s balladry up next in the form of Rain. Out of all the albums I've listened to in the past week, it's Erotica that seemed particularly barren of moments and this is one of only two tracks to make the countdown from that album. It's another case of being smitten with the Something to Remember album in the mid 90s that ensures a placing however... and I feel I actually should know better even now as I'm typing all of this... I mean, it rhymes RAIN with PAIN for christ's sake. Oh and god there's a key change at the end. I shouldn't like it but I kinda just do.

Rain is amazing, one of her very best ballads and she's had so many brilliant ballads over the years. I like that it offered a different side to 'Erotica' whilst still being thematically similar.

Some wonderful tracks already. 'Joan of Arc' has recently hit me off the latest album and 'Nothing Fails' is a clear highlight off 'American Life' - the final minute or so especially.

 

'Rain' is glorious and one of my favourite music videos from her too. Sensational stuff <3

I never really got into Erotica unfortunately but glad there's no mocking at the inclusion of Rain here - most of the rest of the album just wasn't for me at the time as I wasn't in the right place to appreciate the lyrics at all, they just felt a little too smutty for my christian raised 12 year old ears to relate to - gosh I was so sheltered back in those days!

 

FORTY

 

 

Get Together

 

This one is a bit of a fan favourite isn't it? Well I never really got it at the time the Confessions album was released, it sort of acted as a comparatively lackluster track spoiling the potentially great flow between Hung Up and Sorry on the album. However as the years have passed I've found myself warming to this more and more, the comparatively subtle trance influences shining through the high disco approach of much of the rest of the album. This is one of the few tracks from this era that is currently on it's way up in my affections as I wouldn't have even considered including it a few years back - I still feel it kinda needs to have it's moment with me though, something that's preventing it from getting that bit higher...

THIRTY NINE

 

 

Sorry

 

...and as if to prove my turnaround on Get Together, here's the track that I always used to skip it to get to. God I used to adore this when the album was released, Mr D* and I used to listen to the album almost non-stop in the car for literally months on the way to work and back and we just never got tired of it. This was the instant stand out and I remember being blown away in a state of *.*tastic bliss, it was the moment I knew the era was going to be huge and not just one brilliant lead single. Sorry was of course correctly chosen as the follow up single and it duly became another #1 for her, I believe the first time since the mid 80s or something that she'd achieved a post album #1. The only down side with it now for me is something that I loved at the time, the video and imagery around the single... It seemed like a wonderful continuation of a wave of success but now in retrospect it looks like a not quite as good version of the Hung Up campaign. But small niggles etc, it remains a fabulous moment from her.

I never realised before how much they're mocking that fat guy they drag into the van during the second chorus in the 'Sorry' video. How cruel!

 

Thoroughly enjoying this so far btw. :D

I never really got into Erotica unfortunately but glad there's no mocking at the inclusion of Rain here - most of the rest of the album just wasn't for me at the time as I wasn't in the right place to appreciate the lyrics at all, they just felt a little too smutty for my christian raised 12 year old ears to relate to - gosh I was so sheltered back in those days!

 

Erotica does seem to still be her most divisive album, those who love it properly LOVE IT but the rest is just a 'meh' kind of reaction. I don't really know anyone who outright hates it though (cue several people saying they do). It took a few years to grow on me too, when I first started listening to her back back catalogue in 2006 it was down there with Bedtime Stories for me as her absolute nadir, but as I got older it definitely worked its CHARMS on me. Or maybe because I was busy slutting it up back in 2007-2010 it STRUCK A CHORD.

THIRTY EIGHT

 

 

Isaac

 

So rounding off an entirely Confessions based start to the top 40 is Isaac, the all out chanting rabbis offending six minute masterpiece. The song marks the last truly great moment on the Confessions album for me and forged a perfect fusion between the more 'mystic' side to Madonna's output and the dance structures that Stuart Price was bring to the production, Hung Up was the only track on the album that managed to exploit the typical dance song structure better for me. I think this could so easily have been a single (along with pretty much every track before it on the album) and I sort of wish it had been in retrospect, it would have stood out as something quite unique among her back catalogue of hits.

THIRTY SEVEN

 

 

Now I'm Following You

 

So naturally this is the only thing to follow on from three Confessions era tracks! Obviously I realise that this is in fact a terrible song BUT it's a terrible song that is just so infectious and has so many good memories attached to it for me that there was just no way I couldn't include it. Imagine the scene, Erotica has just been released and everyone is up in arms about the raunchiness of the album's imagery and lyrics... everyone except a couple of pre-teenage sweethearts who were far more interested in having fun making up dance moves to one of Madonna's worst albums. You could say we were the original Diversity tbh. We used to learn the traditional swing and tap elements to the first half of the track before exploding into a more radical and oh so cool set of moves for the second half, including the much envied backwards slow rotation to the section at 2:37, the sped up talking mimed at 3:50 before the clib halfway up the bunk bed steps to pose for the finish. Just don't ask what we did for the section at 4:17. Mock all you like if you were in the Erotica camp, we knew this was where all the truly cool kids were at *.*

I'm now picturing a young Dandy (as a young dandy perhaps) engaging in simulated ANAL INTERCOURSE. Thank you for that delightful image.

 

I shamelessly LOVE Now I'm Following You as well, it's a non-song but it's just so much fun and super catchy. I guess it's like the UK Eurovision entry this year done RIGHT. Also I have a huge soft spot for I'm Breathless in general, especially He's A Man and her ridiculously shonky vocals.

 

Also, despite my intermittent negativity I am loving this countdown.

Never heard Now I'm Following You before, not too shabby.

'Sorry' just above 'Get Together' is about where i'd place them too. 'Isaac' is absolutely brilliant and bonkers. Hoping my favourite 'Confessions...' track is still to come but i'm not sure if it will now after reading your commentary for 'Isaac' </3

Really enjoying the commentaries; nice to read about your personal experiences with the songs. I've had pretty much the same journey with 'Get Together' as you - the two tracks it's sandwiched between are so fantastic that they really overshadowed it, but with time, it's one that has climbed the ranks and works not only as a great transition between 'Hung Up' and 'Sorry' but as a super stand-alone track too .

 

After listening just now, I too am a fan of 'Now I'm Following You'. Liking the Caro Emerald-vibes.

Glad NIFY didn't get a complete mauling - even more so if people are only hearing it for the first time. The whole I'm Breathless soundtrack is ridiculously naff but fun - give me that over the painfully dull Evita soundtrack any day!

Glad NIFY didn't get a complete mauling - even more so if people are only hearing it for the first time. The whole I'm Breathless soundtrack is ridiculously naff but fun - give me that over the painfully dull Evita soundtrack any day!

I'd agree that I'm Breathless is generally better than Evita (although 'You Must Love Me' and 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' are both impressive vocal pieces). 'He's a Man' and 'Sooner and Later' are particularly great, more so the Oscars version of the latter which is one of her greatest live vocals.

THIRTY SIX

 

 

Cherish

 

I think there may have been a time as a child when this was my favourite song ever. Like a Prayer was such a strong album (Love Song aside) and this was one of my two favourites as it completely appealed to me as a child. Happy happy. Clappy clappy. Etc etc. There was a bit of an attempt with the video to make the track slightly controversial and I recall it being banned at the time (oh the things that used to be classed as banworthy back in the late 80s, your Michael faves could never)... but alas, it's joy may have lived on but it's joys have slightly dimmed with (my) age and I've had to let this one slide a bit. The build up again after the breakdown is still fabulous though.

Yeah, 'Cherish' can do no wrong really. Happy, catchy, fun to sing a long to. Perhaps a little cheesy/sickly sweet but not more so than 'True Blue'.

 

Lol at the video being banned. It's one of Madonna least controversial videos ever so, if they deemed this inappropriate, they may as well have banned all Madonna's videos!

THIRTY FIVE

 

 

I'll Remember

 

So Madge has a thing for making ballads for movies and this is yet another of them... I'll Remember wasn't an instant favourite of mine, in fact it took its time to grow on me as the subtle production and I guess quite basic lyrics gradually worked their way into my affections. It probably stands the test of time best as an early indication of how William Orbit would come to influence her music (his version of the single is in the youtube clip above) and I can definitely hear tones of what was to come on Ray of Light in the production. Career wise, I remember a teenage dandy being quite worried that a new Madonna single that wasn't already available on an album could only limp up to number 7 in the charts, it was an early 90s version of iloons panicking as to whether the pre-orders have been counted or, in those days, surely there must have been sales from Woolworths missing?!!! And it sort of was an indicator of her success levels for the next few years, things just about scraping 'hit' status... until of course William Orbit came to tamper with her a second time...

'Cherish' is my number one favourite, such feelgood joy.