Which Madonna album is best? The Queen of Pop’s records go head-to-head
As the world awaits 'Madame X', we pit the Queen of Pop's records against one another.
By Will Stroude
Words: Will Stroude
It’s hard to believe it’s more than four years since Madonna released Rebel Heart, but the Queen of Pop’s latest reinvention is finally upon us with the announcement of her 14th studio album Madame X.
In fact, it looks like the eagerly-anticipated record won’t mark just one reinvention but an entire series of them, with a new teaser describing the the mysterious ‘Madame X’ as a globe-trotting secret agent who is everything from a singer and saint to a whore.
Naturally, we couldn’t enter a new Madonna era without casting our minds back over the superstar’s 35-year career, and this time around we’ve decided upon something akin to choosing between your children: namely pitting her 13 albums against each other in a game that for legal reasons bears no relation to a popular card game you may or may not have played.
From 1983’s Madonna right through to 2015’s Rebel Heart, we’ve scored Madonna’s records in a series of categories: ‘Highest UK Chart Position’, ‘Copies Sold’, ‘Singles Spawned’, ‘Crowning Jewel’, ‘Hidden Treasure’ and a ‘Trump That’ trivia fact, so you can play with your friends during the Madame X listening party you should most definitely be planning.
So with our further ado, here’s the Madonna album ranking game our solicitors advise us we should not explicitly name…
‘Madonna’ (1983)
‘Like a Virgin’ (1984)
‘True Blue’ (1986)
‘Like a Prayer’ (1989)
‘Erotica’ (1992)
‘Bedtime Stories’ (1994)
‘Ray of Light’ (1998)
‘Music’ (2000)
‘American Life’ (2003)
‘Confessions on a Dancefloor’ (2005)
‘Hard Candy’ (2008)
‘MDNA’ (2012)
‘Rebel Heart’ (2015)
If that’s Madonna’s albums taken care of, why not check out our recent round-up of her best deep cuts here.