MOOPY ALBUM SYNC LISTENS - #1: MADONNA - RAY OF LIGHT - 8PM TUESDAY 14/04

Ag said:
Yeah I could dabble with Bowie on Thursday. I'm not a fan at all. It's a case of SHOW ME OTHERWISE.
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I love Bowie but Aladdin Sane is not one of my favourites. I'd quite like to revisit it as I feel I've never really given it a proper chance...
 
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Bowie's a tricky one...we might be better with Hunky Dory or Scary Monsters...
 
octophone said:
Bowie's a tricky one...we might be better with Hunky Dory or Scary Monsters...
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I would prefer both of those over Aladdin Sane to be honest. All of these three are amongst his more accessible albums though my favourites tend to be the more leftfield ones (Berlin trilogy, Station to Station etc.)

That being said there's tonnes I love on Aladdin Sane but for some reason I don't play it as much most of my other Bowie albums... Hmmm...
 
Oh and, before I forget:

“There’s nothing left to lose.
There’s no more heart to bruise...”

is perhaps one of my favourite Madonna lyrics ever and I think would be number one if she’d been brave enough to leave out the second “there’s”.
 
Also don’t get me started on how annoying it is that despite being a big radio hit, TPOG peaked at US #11 because they didn’t bother releasing any of the remixes over there.
 
Sheena said:
Also don’t get me started on how annoying it is that despite being a big radio hit, TPOG peaked at US #11 because they didn’t bother releasing any of the remixes over there.
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I think there was also something slightly unfortunate with that peak. It may have been the week that 'airplay only' songs were allowed to chart on the Hot 100. Or something.

THAT No. 11 peak, and not releasing 'Beautiful Stranger' as a single to maximise the sales of The Next Best Thing Soundtrack (would've been another top 10 single for her) are my two most annoying US Madonna CHART STATS...
 
Not that it matters anymore because it looks like Drake will break her record for most US top 10 singles with his next album track or something (probably due in a week..)
 
Suedey said:
THAT No. 11 peak, and not releasing 'Beautiful Stranger' as a single to maximise the sales of The Next Best Thing Soundtrack (would've been another top 10 single for her) are my two most annoying US Madonna CHART STATS...
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but that was an Austin Powers soundtrack!
 
To be fair American Pie made #29 on airplay alone - given her fan base if it had come out as a physical it would’ve easily flown into the top five despite being derided.
 
We should have listened to the b-sides and additional songs from this era:

Has to Be - never really got into it, I know it’s a favourite here.

Be Careful - The Ricky Martin duet, produced by William Orbit and has that rich layers of sounds like the rest of RoL and combined with a latino vibe makes it a warm and stunning little lullaby. 10/10
 
Also, let's not forget that noted 80s curio "Into the Groove" did not chart in America because they did not release it here :rolleyes:

The funny thing is that it wasn't even included on the Like a Virgin album here or Desperately Seeking Susan soundtrack, so there really is no excuse that it was an attempt to boost album sales or something. I think it was the American b-side to "Angel" :D
 
Yeah, but album sales were basically all that mattered in the US, so they put Into The Groove on the 12” of Angel (not even the 7”!) just to boost the chart position of that in order to boost sales of Like A Virgin. Also, the US charts were a lot slower moving and releasing Into The Groove so soon after Crazy For You had already deflected from the album campaign was considered detrimental. Sire felt the release of Crazy For You had clogged the schedules and stopped Material Girl being a number one. (Probably the same reason Sire didn’t allow the release of Gambler there.) It also did actually prove to be a problem for Angel- despite being one of the biggest selling 12”s of all time, Into The Groove took a lot of Angel’s airplay away which didn’t count towards its chart position, as at the time Billboard would only rank the lead track of a double a-side. They also only included songs eligible for the Hot 100 on their overall airplay chart- so even though ITG was a huge hit on radio and the video on tv, it doesn’t actually appear anywhere. (Weirdly, it’s biggest success chart wise other than the dance chart is that it did really well on black radio and was a big hit on that chart).

In the UK Into The Groove, once they saw how it had taken off in the US, it was rush released as a single in between other scheduled releases- the earliest copies didn’t even come in a picture sleeve, just in a plain black one. It became the highest debuting single by a woman ever in its first week and hit #1 in its second.

As for the other songs mentioned, it was really common practice not to release a single in the US to force people to buy the album. Loads of massive US singles never made the charts- Lovefool, You Oughta Know two big examples I remember- or chatted much lower because they never had singles- Torn, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Those two led to their two artists having much bigger albums than you could ever have predicted.
 
Oh completely, especially around the turn of the millennium it was such a common trend. The fact Britney had one top 8 single prior to Gimme More is rather shocking given she collected around 33 million album certifications during that time.
 
Devil said:
Oh completely, especially around the turn of the millennium it was such a common trend. The fact Britney had one top 8 single prior to Gimme More is rather shocking given she collected around 33 million album certifications during that time.
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That was also because of a distinct lack of airplay, though, wasn't it? I thought US radio weren't very pro-Britney for a long time after her debut.
 
Sheena said:
As for the other songs mentioned, it was really common practice not to release a single in the US to force people to buy the album. Loads of massive US singles never made the charts- Lovefool, You Oughta Know two big examples I remember- or chatted much lower because they never had singles- Torn, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Those two led to their two artists having much bigger albums than you could ever have predicted.
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Yes, they started doing this in the mid 90s to push album sales, in the 80s it was very unusual a hit radio song was never released as a single in USA. Things started changing slowly in the 90s. In 1991 they didn't bother releasing an eighth single from Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation, but State of the world still peaked at #5 in the airplay chart. Only one of the 100 most played songs on the radio in 1992 wasn't released as a single, Michael Bolton's Steel bars (a fifth single from his album). In 1994-95 this starts to be more and more common.
 
Into The Groove is better than LIFE ITSELF it has to be said
what a mammoth of a song
 
Alla said:
Yes, they started doing this in the mid 90s to push album sales, in the 80s it was very unusual a hit radio song was never released as a single in USA. Things started changing slowly in the 90s.
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I loved we got the best of both worlds; sometimes if a single wasn't issued in the USA they would have a domestic release here (which used to be a rare thing to do anyway) for example American Pie eventually received a mexican release, record stores here would carry US imports even if they were a bit pricey but collectors didn't care so I was plased when they did this along with other releases at the time, especially with dance music. you could find some ridiculous releases containing up to 12 remixes :disco:
 
Sheena said:
That was also because of a distinct lack of airplay, though, wasn't it? I thought US radio weren't very pro-Britney for a long time after her debut.
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Her airplay was pretty solid until the third album - Baby, Crazy and Oops all went top ten on the airplay chart.
 
Devil said:
Her airplay was pretty solid until the third album - Baby, Crazy and Oops all went top ten on the airplay chart.
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Isn’t that basically just her first album then (plus the comeback single which was always going to get attention) - as I said :D
 
Devil said:
Her airplay was pretty solid until the third album - Baby, Crazy and Oops all went top ten on the airplay chart.
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They always went balls out with her leading singles anyway innit? Lucky kind of flopped and since Stronger wasn't gonna do any better they did releas ea US single for it.

During the third album campaign something happened with a supposed Clear Channel deal (CC basically woned radio = payola) so airplay was kind of nonexistant.
 
I could be tempted to say this still SLAPS or whatever gay internet lingo we are using these days, but that would be disrespectful to the absolute apogée of the former QoP's canon. She didn't just come to slay here; she ripped our intestines out and used them as elastic bands for a home workout. QUEEN.
 
Alla said:
Oh yes! What the hell was that?
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I think they never made it onto an agreement regarding her tour during that time??

yep here it is:

Last month, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) urged the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission to probe reports that Clear Channel punished stars, such as Britney Spears, by refusing to play their songs on Clear Channel radio stations because the musicians declined to hire the company as their tour promoter.
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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-25-fi-clear25-story.html
 
13 Drowned World / Substitute for Love
09 Swim
10 Ray of Light
07 Candy Perfume Girl
10 Skin - "I'm not like this all the time..." :disco:
10 Nothing Really Matters
09 Sky Fits Heaven
06 Shanti Astangi
11 Frozen
10 The Power of Goodbye
08 Little Star
08 To Have And Not To Hold
09 Mer Girl
09 Has To Be
09 Be Careful
 
I didn't rank Be Careful because it's too DIFFICULT. It's an 11 on Ricky's album, but only a 9.5 here, so I'll go with a 10 overall.
 
And actually, if we're going down that route:

08 Has To Be
10 Be Careful
10 Like A Flower
07 Gone Gone Gone
09 Revenge
 
Loufoque said:
I could be tempted to say this still SLAPS or whatever gay internet lingo we are using these days, but that would be disrespectful to the absolute apogée of the former QoP's canon. She didn't just come to slay here; she ripped our intestines out and used them as elastic bands for a home workout. QUEEN.
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That's nice dear but I clocked the shade and no, it ain't pretty.
 
OutSynk said:
I was a bit :D @ these. I mean, that's just simply his SOUND. It was like this before and after Ray of Light. Look it up!
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Yes but his work with Madonna propelled his sound into the mainstream. Most mass consumers of music were not necessarily aware of the 'William Orbit signature sound' - but they were aware of Ray of Light, hence the reference point.
 
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