The greatest hits record worked in Madonna’s favor in the late ’80s when she was an immaculate singles artist who created immaculate singles and in turn compiled “The Immaculate Collection.” Since then, Madonna’s music has had so many highs, lows, and of course reinventions that painting an entire portrait of her 26-year musical career so far is bound to have moments that aren’t very immaculate.
But even the “Queen of Pop” has contractual obligations to fulfill, and thus we have “Celebration,” a two-disc collection of what Madonna.com calls “The Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection: 34 Songs That Changed the World,” plus two new tracks.
The album cover is appropriate: a “Vogue”-era portrait that suggests Monroe iconography and Warhol artistry; it’s a reminder that Madonna created songs that can’t be separated from their images, contexts and time stamps.
But “Celebration” attempts to do just that: present solely her music without any narrative or chronology. The album opener, 2006’s ABBA-sampling “Hung Up,” is a slice of disco bliss and a fantastically bold and fresh reminder that Madonna can still rule the dance floor (and the Billboard charts) well into her late 40s better than any dancing queens she’s paved the road for along the way. It’s retro enough to be her first hit but fresh enough to be her latest. The four following feel-good dance floor anthems, “Music,” “Vogue,” “4 Minutes” and “Holiday” span from three different decades. While each has its own identity, their messages are the same and their lyrics interchangeable. The sequence is a showcase of Madonna’s ability to find innovative ways to call for dance-floor unity and earnestly equate dancing with global togetherness. The album boasts a number of similar series. “Like A Prayer” and “Ray of Light” provide a mini-block of cathartic dance-floor spirituality and feels-like-home religious imagery. Placing two tracks that are a decade apart side-by-side highlights their musical parallels, not to mention that they both stand at the highest peaks in Madonna’s career.
The first half of the second disc is an excellent lineup of memorable ’80s classics that showcase an era when even Madonna’s second-rate material was critical and commercial gold. Afterward “Frozen” and “Take A Bow” provide an enjoyable sequence of heartbreak ballads that might have otherwise been lost among the series of dance hits.
What’s missing is mostly ’90s stuff. “Deeper and Deeper,” “Rescue Me” and “Bedtime Story” would have highlighted her pre-Kabbalah ventures into house and electronica and better rounded out Madonna’s early ’90s “Erotica” era, one of her most provocative and relevant.
What’s overkill are the pop ditties “Hollywood” and “Miles Away,” token because they add empty weight to Madonna’s later career. The album’s two new songs also do nothing to enhance the discs’ quality. The lead single, “Celebration,” is an enjoyable yet disposable tribute to herself, lyrically nodding “Holiday,” “Into the Groove” and “Who’s That Girl” over Paul Oakenfold’s so-so house beat. The second new track, “Revolver,” is a less enjoyable and rather embarrassing Lil Wayne collaboration that is more suited to be a 2007 Britney b-side.
Despite its flaws, the album boasts remastered versions of some of the greatest music created in the last 25 years.
In all, “Celebration” is a testament to two things: one, that no two-disc set could ever properly capture the entire career of the biggest pop icon ever; two, that for the past 26 years, Madonna has made a lot of brilliant music, and that is something to celebrate.
““ Alexander Wolf
E-mail Wolf at awolf@media.ucla.edu