My Amazon Reviews: Madonna "Celebration"

A Not So Immaculate Collection
4 Out Of 5 Stars 

If you want to look at a history or road map to the pop landscape of the 80's and 90's, Madonna's "Celebration" is a perfect place to go. Madonna was the first 80's female star to take control over her image and fashion her career accordingly, something that often overshadows her accomplishments. However, has it just been a voice and a hook, everyone from Stacy Q to EG Daily would still be stars. Madonna was savvy enough to feed on the trends in music but somehow always manage to be about a half-step ahead of everyone else. It's a skill that evaded almost every other star of the period and makes Madonna one of the most influential female singers outside of Dianna Ross.

"Celebration" (I'm speaking mainly of the 2-Disc edition) compiles all these trends and moments with varying degrees of sucess, and I will leave it to better minds to argue over things like what was or wasn't included, whose mixes should have been here or what LP Vs Single edits were dissed by their inclusion or not. But the music overall silences these discussions. Madonna's evolution from such fluffy dance fare like "Everybody" and "Burning Up" to the sex-charged "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl" to the maturation of "Like A Prayer" and "Papa Don't Preach" show a talent that never stood on past laurels. She embraced pop, club, new wave, techno and showtunes while finding the producer to best suit her and her desires of the moment. Some of the collaborations were as fearless as they were over the top; she was writing with Bjork and William Orbit when most folks had no idea what these artists were doing.

Maybe my only gripe is the sequencing; hearing the thickness of Timbaland's work on "Four Minutes" makes the thin 80's dance pop of "Hoilday" too much of a clash for me. Putting the songs in chronological order would have made this more interesting. The number of songs not here could have gone to a super-deluxe three disc set and still left off significant hits. So when's the singles box set going to arrive? Don't be surprised, as this album wraps up Madonna's contract with the WB. Comprehensive as "Celebration" may be, I'll guess there's more to come.