Music Arcades: Madonna: Something to Remember

"So much controversy has swirled around my career this past decade that very little attention ever gets paid to my music. The songs are all but forgotten." There are two ways you could read that statement from Madonna on the sleeve note. The more obvious one is to give it an award, like the Queen's Order of Disingenousness, or similar. As though it were an annoying accident that people paid attention to the pointy bra, the masturbating with a crucifix and that book.

The other way to read it is — like Material Girl — as a simple, direct and honest statement of career intent. As in, I stir up controversy in the hope that no one will notice how insubstantial the music is.

The only problem with that interpretation is that the release of this album undermines the tactic, because there's no getting away with how relatively slight these songs are — given how much energy, money and attention went into them.

M bought me this for Christmas 1995. I was genuinely pleased to receive it: I think M must have noticed me expressing interest when it was advertised on TV. (Getting a CD on the basis of TV advertising? That must be a first for me.) Then I played it and realised my mistake.