Purchased at Fopp, Edinburgh, Spring 2003
As nobody who runs the big record companies seems to realise, there’s a big difference between a “best of” and a “greatest hits”: if we’re sticking to the trade standards definitions, the former is different from the latter in that it is under no obligation to contain the hits, merely a subjective selection of a band or singer’s most finger-snappin’ tunes. By its very nature, a true “best of” would be an impossible conceit- and if you don’t believe me, check out the death threats on Beatles fan forums: they’re priceless.
In any case, I doubt many would complain of any real disparity between the best songs Madonna recorded in the 1980s and her Greatest Hits, which might be why she called this album The Immaculate Collection. Or maybe that was just because it is… well, Immaculate. Except for Borderline, obviously.
God it’s good. Hearing the hits in chronological order (1982-1990), it’s remarkable how each song builds on the successes of its predecessor: Holiday, which opens the set, is a top pop single in itself, but it’s blasted into irrelevance by the colossal twang of Lucky Star. This in turn is eclipsed by Like a Virgin, which makes way for Material Girl and so on ad infinitum. The singles off Like a Prayer haven’t aged as well as their friends here, but even the none-more-cheesy production can’t obscure the brilliance of, say, Express Yourself.
My favourite is Get into the Groove: to my ears, it is the perfect pop song. A bassline as punchy as Sonny Liston ducks and dives out of a jackhammer beat as Madonna- in the most committed vocal performance of her career to date- tells of a damascene conversion to Dance music. In any other circustance, the lyrics would sound like the ramblings of a lunatic: on Get into the Groove, though, hearing is believing- it’s a song so joyously self-reflexive that it’s a wonder it doesn’t have its own following as a critical theory text. Actually, forget that- it’s a wonder it doesn’t have its own religion…
I’m not sure I could be friends with someone who didn’t like Get into the Groove- and I live with a Queen fan. Pah. Anyway, in spite of everything- the bad press, the Guy Ritchie, the fact she hasn’t made a good record since Confessions seven years ago, Madonna can rest on her laurels: go on, name a better pop star- and DON’T say Lady Gaga.
The Daily Record 