Madonna’s 8 best album tracks revisited as Queen of Pop turns 64

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Maverick/Warner Bros.

Where does the time go? 2022 marks the 40-year anniversary of Madonna’s career in music!

What’s more, her majesty turns 64 today (16 August 2022) – so we’re celebrating the pop icon’s legacy with a deep dive into her extensive discography.

Which is no mean feat, by the way… with 14 studio albums, three soundtrack albums, six live albums, seven compilation albums, 37 other limited releases, plus well over 200 songs recorded, the below list was never going to be comprehensive. But we did our best!

1. ‘I Don’t Search I Find’ – from Madame X (2019)

A polished, triumphant dance number – to quote the song, it’s platinum gold – ‘I Don’t Search’ is perhaps misplaced on the experimental, globe-trotting Madame X; we prefer to think of it, with its retro, disco-tinged euphoria, as a lost Confessions track.

The affirmative opening statement (“finally enough love…”) takes you to another plane, and inspired the name of Madge’s recently-released remix album Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones.

 

2. ‘Sky Fits Heaven’ – from Ray of Light (1998)
 
You can take your pick of awesome album tracks from Madonna’s magnum opus Ray of Light, but ‘Sky Fits Heaven’ is one of its shiniest: an ambient, mystical echo of the album’s sonically unshackled title track. (Think three-parts ‘Ray of Light’, one-part ‘The Power of Good-Bye’.)

William Orbit’s production, as ever, is a joyous, otherworldly headfuck, and the song’s lofty lyrics about life choices and moral coding (“sky fits heaven so fly it”; “hand fits giving so do it”) are beyond compelling.

3. ‘Rebel Heart’ – from Rebel Heart (2015)

Self-referential shout-outs are prone to slapstick egotism – remember Fergie’s ‘Fergalicious’? – but this warm, unaffected number stands in stark contrast to the bluster of ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’. In it, M celebrates decades of disobediance, but through an intriguingly soft, almost motherly vocal, as if singing with affection to her former selves.

“I’ve spent some time as a narcissist,” a self-aware Madge admits in diary-like lyrics, letting go of all pretence, remembering (with what sounds like a smile) “all things I did just to be seen […] letting it go and I’ll start again.” 

 
4 ‘I’m Addicted’ – from MDMA (2012)

Opening with a mischievous electronic sequence that sounds sentient, Madonna is more robotic on ‘I’m Addicted’ than Blackout-era Britney… but it suits the atmosphere perfectly. It’s clinically rapturous and video game-like – like a rave in The Matrix, we imagine.

5. ‘Gone’ – from Music (2000)

A moody, meditative LP closer on which Madonna’s voice is as rich as the lashings of acoustic guitar backing it, Gone sees the star reflect on her knack for self-preservation, as she warns of “[turning] to stone, [losing] my faith – I’ll be gone before it happens.”

The simplicity of the lyrics leaves them open to interpretation: who’s dimming her natural light, exactly? Her lover? Or interfering record label execs who, one assumes, tacked American Pie on the end of the international version of Music?

 
6. ‘Physical Attraction’ – from Madonna (1983)

‘Physical Attraction’ possesses the same youthful, lightning-in-a-bottle energy of Madonna’s early hits, sung in that same trademark kittenish delivery. Synths dominate – they sound somewhere between squelchy and tinny – as they later would on ‘Into the Groove’ and more. 

 
7. ‘Push’ – from Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005)

Is the most driven women in pop in fact addressing herself when she trills “you push me when it’s time for me to try” on this inspiring ode to encouragement?

The mechanical repetition of the lyrics and motorised beats make this the perfect workout song, but the unlikely interpolation of Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ might make you lose your footing. And to think, this wasn’t even the most famous sample on Confessions: that accolade goes to ABBA’s ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’, which turbocharged victory lap hit ‘Hung Up’. 

 
8. ‘Devil Wouldn’t Recognise You’ – Hard Candy (2008)

“I’ve seen behind your eyes,” Madonna tells a charming sociopath – we dare say she’s a good judge of character – on the funkily foreboding ‘Devil’.

As a Justin Timberlake co-write, it’s fitting that this dark jam is hefty in length, with the same whirring, almost beatboxy rhythms of ‘Cry Me a River’, ‘What Goes Around…Comes Around’ and the like.

A special mention for ‘Nothing Fails’ – American Life (2003)
 
It’s not an album track – rather, a single that barely charted, and without a music video, from American Life – but we’re going to shine a light on it anyway. Because ‘Nothing Fails’ is among Madonna’s best work.

It features a restrained, crystal clear vocal that later soars to strange, ethereal heights with the help of a gospel choir and an electronic pulse. A gushing tribute to a loved one, the lyrics (“I’m not religions, but I feel so moved – makes me want to pray, pray you’ll always be here”) are earnest and beautiful. It’s co-written by forgotten UK singer-songwriter Jem, and while her version is sweet and sugary, Madonna’s is grandiose and bold.