Who doesn't love "Hanky Panky" ? 😁 Looking forward to the rest of your list Matt. Overall I agree with your choices on this part of the list, although I would swop I'm Breathless & MDNA. The latter was a mess and for me the clearest sign she had become a "has been".
Thank you sir! It was certainly a fun ranking series to write to kick off the year. Breathless was also a mess though, to be fair, just in a different, perhaps less grating way for some.
I genuinely can’t believe you’re ranking Bedtime Stories so low. I mean, lower than MDNA and Hard Candy? To me, Bedtime Stories is a masterpiece from start to finish. I happen to love the producers in question so that might be part of the reason.
As an aside, while we can agree to disagree, the soccer moms comment was quite tasteless and downright offensive, IMHO.
Hey Andres, thanks for the comment and feedback. I definitely didn't mean to offend anyone, and I have removed that statement from the piece. I appreciate you calling it out here. Some thoughts are best left in my skull and not on the page, but unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way.
As far as the ranking goes, agreeing to disagree is part of the fun of these ranking mini-series. :) Cheers!
I know it wasn’t your intention to offend and I appreciate the fact you took down the comment.
I just feel that we can express why we don’t like a record or even why we think it’s overrated/overhyped without denigrating the work itself or using language that could be construed as demeaning.
Even where I disagree with your conclusion on that specific record, I think your write-up was very solid (as is often the case with your write-ups, which you know I enjoy). It was just that comment that, to me, felt unnecessarily sexist.
In any event, I’m very much looking forward to continuining reading your series!
It's all good. I've been doing this long enough to take feedback as a positive, not a negative. It helps me become a better, more mindful creator. Excited to have your continued support! :)
A few of these ARE pretty bad. I'd rank "Bedtime Stories" as the best of these though. It was bit mellower than her previous releases but most of the songs are pretty good. I'd put "Hard Candy" in second. "Give it 2 Me" and "Beat Goes On" were both in my Top Ten that year although the rest of the album didn't do much for me. Those other three albums are not good!
Hey Dan, thanks for the comment. I dig some of the songs on those records, so maybe I come across as a bit harsh tonally. But they did bore me tremendously on a fresh listen. To each their own, as they say.
Thanks for commenting Kevin! One of the reasons I do these discography rankings is to assess the second or third acts of an artist's career on its own creative merits instead of constantly (and mostly abstractly) comparing it to the "good old days." There's some seriously strong material in the back half of her catalog. Rumors that a new album is coming soon, which I'm intrigued by. Cheers :)
I applaud you for tackling this. As a dyed-in-the-wool Madonna fan since 1985, I basically agree with your rank so far. Bedtime Stories seems to be quite revered among the fans which has always baffled me because, apart from "Human Nature" and the sublime "Secret", I've found it to be her most boring album. I'd also probably rank MDNA higher than you have. And your comment about Hard Candy being the album where she was a passenger on her own album is spot on. She seemed to be chasing trends rather than setting them, which was a weird thing to wrap your head around as a fan.
Thanks Dan! I certainly did approach this one with at least a little bit of nervousness, in part because it's Madonna. Her discography is as complicated as it is brilliant in many respects. RE: Bedtime Stories, I've never understood the adoration heaped upon that record, and I'm an out-and-out Babyface fan. Still, it was a miss for me. Appreciate having you along for the ride.
Who doesn't love "Hanky Panky" ? 😁 Looking forward to the rest of your list Matt. Overall I agree with your choices on this part of the list, although I would swop I'm Breathless & MDNA. The latter was a mess and for me the clearest sign she had become a "has been".
Thank you sir! It was certainly a fun ranking series to write to kick off the year. Breathless was also a mess though, to be fair, just in a different, perhaps less grating way for some.
I'm surprised the American Life album scored low like that.
From what I heard, people didn't care for it.
My favorite song from Dick Tracy is "Something to Remember."
Let me say that reading Madonna album reviews is to see some truly wild opinions about her work.
I genuinely can’t believe you’re ranking Bedtime Stories so low. I mean, lower than MDNA and Hard Candy? To me, Bedtime Stories is a masterpiece from start to finish. I happen to love the producers in question so that might be part of the reason.
As an aside, while we can agree to disagree, the soccer moms comment was quite tasteless and downright offensive, IMHO.
Hey Andres, thanks for the comment and feedback. I definitely didn't mean to offend anyone, and I have removed that statement from the piece. I appreciate you calling it out here. Some thoughts are best left in my skull and not on the page, but unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way.
As far as the ranking goes, agreeing to disagree is part of the fun of these ranking mini-series. :) Cheers!
Thanks for your response, Matt.
I know it wasn’t your intention to offend and I appreciate the fact you took down the comment.
I just feel that we can express why we don’t like a record or even why we think it’s overrated/overhyped without denigrating the work itself or using language that could be construed as demeaning.
Even where I disagree with your conclusion on that specific record, I think your write-up was very solid (as is often the case with your write-ups, which you know I enjoy). It was just that comment that, to me, felt unnecessarily sexist.
In any event, I’m very much looking forward to continuining reading your series!
Have a good evening
It's all good. I've been doing this long enough to take feedback as a positive, not a negative. It helps me become a better, more mindful creator. Excited to have your continued support! :)
🤗🙏🏻
A few of these ARE pretty bad. I'd rank "Bedtime Stories" as the best of these though. It was bit mellower than her previous releases but most of the songs are pretty good. I'd put "Hard Candy" in second. "Give it 2 Me" and "Beat Goes On" were both in my Top Ten that year although the rest of the album didn't do much for me. Those other three albums are not good!
Hey Dan, thanks for the comment. I dig some of the songs on those records, so maybe I come across as a bit harsh tonally. But they did bore me tremendously on a fresh listen. To each their own, as they say.
I'd more or less agree with the rankings here, though to be fair, I find most everything after "Music" to be interchangeable.
Thanks for commenting Kevin! One of the reasons I do these discography rankings is to assess the second or third acts of an artist's career on its own creative merits instead of constantly (and mostly abstractly) comparing it to the "good old days." There's some seriously strong material in the back half of her catalog. Rumors that a new album is coming soon, which I'm intrigued by. Cheers :)
I applaud you for tackling this. As a dyed-in-the-wool Madonna fan since 1985, I basically agree with your rank so far. Bedtime Stories seems to be quite revered among the fans which has always baffled me because, apart from "Human Nature" and the sublime "Secret", I've found it to be her most boring album. I'd also probably rank MDNA higher than you have. And your comment about Hard Candy being the album where she was a passenger on her own album is spot on. She seemed to be chasing trends rather than setting them, which was a weird thing to wrap your head around as a fan.
Thanks Dan! I certainly did approach this one with at least a little bit of nervousness, in part because it's Madonna. Her discography is as complicated as it is brilliant in many respects. RE: Bedtime Stories, I've never understood the adoration heaped upon that record, and I'm an out-and-out Babyface fan. Still, it was a miss for me. Appreciate having you along for the ride.