Madonna
Dress You Up (The 12″ Formal Mix)
Dress You Up (The Casual Instrumental Mix)
Papa Don’t Preach [Extended Version]
Look, writing about Madonna is easy and makes me happy.

I posted these eons ago but those were vinyl rips. These are shiny CD rips that sound better.

I was going to feature more Madonna in this post. I picked up a CD single for “Cherish” that has an extended mix, but I’m not posting that. Apparently some digital only Like A Prayer 30th anniversary edition was made available last year? It’s on Spotify, YouTube Music and a few other digital outlets. The artwork is terrible. I thought it was a bootleg at first, but it appears to be legit, and it has the extended mix of “Cherish” on it, as well as a few other out-of-print remixes.

As a whole though, it’s an underwhelming release. Only a scattering of remixes, a couple of B-sides, and no unreleased tracks. There was word that a physical release of this was coming at some point, but that still hasn’t materialized. No word why. The delay goes back a bit, well before COVID, so it’s one thing we can’t blame on that.

I hope that if a physical edition of this anniversary release ever does see the light of day, it’s more substantial than this digital one. A deluxe edition of Like A Prayer could be three to four CDs easy. A remastered disc, two discs of B-sides and remixes, and then an extra disc of unreleased/demo material. None of it would be extraneous or feel tacked on either, it’s all good stuff. I’m sure there’s a market for it. If the ongoing Prince re-issue campaign has taught me anything, it’s that people are still more than down for over-the-top massive box sets of 80s masterpieces.

“Dress You Up” isn’t the best song ever, but it’s really good. It’s my second-favorite single from the Like A Virgin album, behind “Material Girl,” but ahead of “Into The Groove” and “Angel” (I don’t like the title track, if you’re curious – never was a fan of it). I love the simplicity of it. What the hell does it even mean? Does it need to mean anything? It’s like “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” It sounds vaguely romantic, a little sexy, fuck the details, who cares?

Of course, the exact opposite is true for “Papa Don’t Preach,” it is about one thing, very specifically. It is a story song. That’s not something Madonna does very often with her singles. This, “Take a Bow,” and “Bad Girl” are the most notable. Maybe “Bitch I’m Madonna” too, the story of that song being, well, “Bitch, I’m Madonna.”

I’ve love the strings of “Papa Don’t Preach.” In a time where synths were king, it makes the track unique. The strings give it gravitas. If the hook was just keyboards and synth bass it wouldn’t hold the same weight. The strings almost make the song cinematic. Especially that opening. Fuck. That shit’s good.

I was depressed, drunk, and staring at Discogs earlier this week and may have bought…let’s just say…several…more Madonna CD singles this week. I know that some of you get sick of the Madonna, but I’m in self-care mode right now. Expect more Madonna and random Japanese shit that’s easy to write about at least until the election.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Madonna, remixes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.