Madonna [Remaster] - Madonna (CD 2001)

I know it's hard, but to begin this review, I'd like to ask you to use your imagination. It's 1983. Music is a tricky business. Disco is dead, but nothing else has exploded yet. Here's the tricky part: Madonna isn't a cultural icon. She is just a girl elbow-deep in bangles, with a decent singing voice, rabid determination, a beauty mark, and an unconventinal gap, trying to make her way in the music industry. And as you can tell from the cover of her self-titled debut, she isn't happy about that.

Now back to reality. It's hard for a girl like me to take that perspective on this album. To me, Madonna is a cultural icon. And as for 1983, I wasn't even alive. So it's hardly fair to delve into the cultural impact this album had. All I can do is listen to it years later and tell you what I think. So here I go.

From the first, synthesized twinkles on this album, you know you are in for a sugary 80s treat. A heavy, danceable beat kicks in that will have even the stiffest of us trying to dance. And then there's Madge. Her voice is high, kind of nasally, oozing with a budding sexuality and a sense of trying her damndest to make this song work. And it does. Lucky Star is one of those songs that hasn't really aged. It's timeframe is obvious, but regardless, it's still a good groove, and hearing that sexy vocal of "Shine your heavily body tonight" on the breakdown is irressistable.

A soft synthesizer brings us into the lovably cheesy melody of Borderline, one of the better tracks on this album. It keeps the same vibe as the previous track, but has a much softer approach, without being a ballad. Something about the melody is just a guilty pleasure, the way Madonna's young voice sails over the heavy beat of the era and the soft synth chords works all too well. "You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline!", Madge and a slew of back-up singers coo. It all pieces together into terrific 80s fluff.

Lady M can't keep her sexuality down for long though. She's Burning Up! This track comes in with the same heavy bass, with an intense guitar strum thrown in for effect. Her vocals are much huskier on this one, more like the Madonna we now know. The chorus is pure 80s greatness. "I'm burning up, burning up for your love! I'm burning up, burning up for for your love!" she sings to the high-energy melody. I love this song because it's so simple. On the verses, all you've got is Maddy and that beat, and it works well to just hear the bare minimum. Another great track.

Things get a bit cheesy on the next track, I Know It. In the beginning, that now-familiar bass comes in with a MIDI big band, which just feels old. Madonna is a trooper though, and she goes through the chorus giving it her all. And it works. It's a good melody. But the rest just feels like bubblegum, especially that arrangement. This one is in the most simple terms, filler.

Maddy gets back to her single worthy tracks on her first single Holiday. This is classic Madge. With the island-esque beat and the synth gently oozing from the speakers, you can't help but move unless you're a soulless entity (...with a computer). Her airy vocals couldn't be more perfect on this track, either. Madge isn't the most talented vocalist, but she knows how to work her vocals the right way at the right time, and she excercises that on this sexless, fun, laid-back track. At a long 6 minutes, it does seem to drag a bit, but it somehow works anyway, being a relaxed dance track.

The heavy beat makes its return on Think Of Me. At first it sounds like nothing but early 80s fodder, but it gets grand at the chorus, when Maddy demands "You'd better think of me!" Don't worry, I do. Anyway, the chorus is great, but the verses sound a bit contrived, like I've heard them on the CD previously. But like I said, the chorus is great and really makes the song what it is, which is a pretty decent song. The breakdown thing towards the end is pretty cool too, even if it sounds like it's coming in way too late. Better late than never.

Virtually the same beat brings us into a warm welcome from our good friend the synthesizer on Physical Attraction. As you can see, Maddy had her hormones in full swing long before she reached her climax (if you will) on Erotica. Her voice reeks of sex, but still sounds innocent enough to make it all the more appealing. Even the production in this one sounds a bit like a porno set in the 80s. All that's good, but the melody isn't very memorable, which turns this into somewhat filler. But it's worth a listen as it's really the foreplay leading up to the sex... book. Sex Book.

There's a new sound thrown into the mix at the beginning of Everybody, but it's still our favorite 80s staple, the synthesizer. Hot of the heels of the previous track, Maddy's spoken word intro almost has me having an eargasm (copyright caffienatedyak). Her determination shines throughout the track, as she tries her hardest to make this work, but the production is a little too lazy. It seems like a drum machine and a synthesizer are the only thing they thought they needed, and the bare minimum deal doesn't work as well here. It still has a pretty catchy chorus though, and it just may have everybody getting up and doing their thing.

Unfortunately, in the 80s albums weren't as long, so there are only 8 tracks on this album. The remaster, however, gave us two new remixes. The first is Burning Up (12" Version), which sounds pretty much the same with somewhat busier production. It adds some different, but not very special, synth sounds into the mix, and adds another two and a half minutes to the song. Nothing particularly special. The story's the same on Lucky Star (New Mix). Why they call it that, I'll never know, because the only thing new is the two minutes they added to it. Apart from that, it's the exact same song. Still a good song, but not exactly a bonus on this disc.

Overall, Madonna made a pretty good debut record, although it does have it's pitfalls. Some of it sounds really alike, and with an album of only 8 tracks, you can't really afford to have filler like I Know It and Physical Attraction. There's also no real creative attempts here. It's understandable that with a debut, you would just make the songs that work, but a ballad or two would have been a nice inclusion.

But, if you're a Madonna fan, this one's mandatory. While I didn't experience it firsthand, this did have quite an impact on pop music, and we all know that the Queen Of Pop knows how to work it. She doesn't work it as well as she does on some later efforts, but she still reigns supreme.

Other Reviews In This Series
The Formulaic Sophomore Explosion
The Radio Friendly Lovey Dovey Stuff
The Controversial Masterpiece
The Hormonal Backlash
The Cozy R&B Comeback
The Electronic Maternal Masterpiece
The Foray Into Folktronica
The Directionless Acoustic Experiment