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Celebration (album) reviews


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Rolling Stone: 4 Stars

“What? No ‘Hanky Panky’? Is this some kind of joke? Given how obsessive her fans are, it’s a thankless task for Madonna to assemble a two-CD hit collection. But from the opening one-two of ‘Hung Up’ and ‘Music,’ two of her best ever, Celebration kicks off with pure bliss and never lets up. It’s a dizzying, nonchronological spin through the Madonna years, years it makes you feel lucky to be living through. Her hitmaking genius is unmatched and—with the new Eurocheese blast ‘Celebration’ and the Lil Wayne duet ‘Revolver’—undiminished. It’s almost enough to make you forget that they left off ‘Angel,’ which is just plain crazypants.” —Rob Sheffield

damn i was expecting 5 stars or at least 4.5

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Guest Pud Whacker

Rolling Stone: 4 Stars

"What? No 'Hanky Panky'? Is this some kind of joke? Given how obsessive her fans are, it's a thankless task for Madonna to assemble a two-CD hit collection. But from the opening one-two of 'Hung Up' and 'Music,' two of her best ever, Celebration kicks off with pure bliss and never lets up. It's a dizzying, nonchronological spin through the Madonna years, years it makes you feel lucky to be living through. Her hitmaking genius is unmatched and—with the new Eurocheese blast 'Celebration' and the Lil Wayne duet 'Revolver'—undiminished. It's almost enough to make you forget that they left off 'Angel,' which is just plain crazypants." —Rob Sheffield

:rotfl: boy, he hit the nail on the head!!!!

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Just got my copy at JB in Melbourne, its a nice little package. They had a stand full of them but l still cannot believe the lack of any promotion. The artwork is great and does stand out in store.

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Mirror review

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/the-ticket/2009/09/album-review-celebration---mad.html

This 36-track, double disc, definitive career- encompassing compilation conveniently follows Madge's recent expensive divorce. The stark reality though is that, as a cultural force, she peaked in 1989 with the superb Like A Prayer. Thereafter it's her image manipulation and media savvy that impress - far more than retro confections such as Hung Up.

3/5

OUCH

This doesn´t even qualify as a review. It´s sheer ignoranace. The truth is: This compilation reflects a little part of her catalogue. A catalogue almost every musician alive would kill for. End of story.

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The Irish Times

4 out of 5

For some, the time when Madonna had something halfway interesting to say has long since gone, but when it comes to her back catalogue (almost 40 Top 10 UK and US chart smashes), it’s hard to argue with the quality and status. Or, indeed, the impact and influence she has had on contemporary music over the past 25 years. So if the albums of the last decade ( Ray of Light, Music, American Life, Confessions on a Dance Floor) haven’t done it for you, then bask, surely, in the remastered glory of Material Girl, Into the Groove, Justify My Love, You’ll See :lol:, Express Yourself, Ray of Light and Hollywood . In a nutshell: top pop tunes from the world’s most successful female chart act. www.madonna.com

Download tracks: Material Girl, Ray of Light

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2009/0918/1224254763743.html

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CD - Madonna - Celebration

http://www.samesame.com.au/reviews/4545/CD--Madonna--Celebration.htm

Reviews, By kozi_kozi_kozi, 21st September, 2009

Back in March, it was announced that Madonna would be releasing a definitive greatest hits collection as her final work with Warner Music. As the promotional tagline for the album suggests, Warner have compiled 34 songs that have changed the world, along with two new tracks. Contrary to the unrealistic expectation of most fans myself included Celebration is aimed at a general music audience. As a result, requests for obscure tracks to be included, like Gambler, Hanky Panky, the Re-Invention Tour mix of Nobody Knows Me or the re-working of Erotica from the Confessions Tour are nowhere to be seen. In the end, the album compiles Madonnas finest moments of her career with some small surprises thrown in.

The promotional campaign for the CD prides itself on the fact that the older material has been completely remastered, and as a result, some of the tracks have never sounded better. Open Your Heart and Into The Groove now have a freshness they have never had. Also, the stereo landscape in many of the older tracks has been expanded. Hearing Madonna ask at the beginning of Vogue, What are you looking at? and now having it pan from the left to the right channel adds a little something extra to the track after almost twenty years.

The changes arent all for the best though. Express Yourself sounds terribly tinny, and should immediately be replaced with The Immaculate Collection version on anyones mp3 player. The compilation also includes some forgotten Madonna classics. Once ignored tracks like Everybody, Dress You Up and Whos That Girl make reappearances, and its great to hear them again completely remastered.

It must be said that although this is more a compilation marketed for a general audience, some of the choices and omissions on the track listing are still rather strange. The inclusion of Miles Away over Give It 2 Me from Hard Candy perplexes me. And not including True Blue, Bedtime Story, Get Together, Jump or even American Life seem like rather large omissions when every track included on The Immaculate Collection, bar Rescue Me, makes an appearance here. There also isnt much consistency in regards to what versions of songs are used on the two discs. Some tracks are the original album versions, which can run up to six minutes long, some are radio edits, and others are completely new cuts. It would have been nice if some of the longer tracks like Frozen, which runs at over six minutes, were cut down a bit to make room for some of the songs that were left out.

Madonna has entertained us all for decades, and Celebration is a great way to wrap up her career so far. Listening from start to finish, the listener is reminded just how great her work is. Yes, some of her newer stuff pales in comparison to her classic 80s material, and this becomes very obvious when it is mixed together, but the woman still produces music that is leagues ahead of her contemporaries. The two new tracks, Revolver and Celebration are also both great songs that are worthy of their place in Madonnas cannon. Celebration wholeheartedly deserves its place in any pop music lovers collection, and it is a great way to celebrate Madonnas career so far.

Celebration is available through Warner Music September 28.

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Madonna to Release Final Record -- "Celebration" -- on Warner Bros.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2197125/madonna_to_release_final_record_celebration.html?cat=33

September 21, 2009 by C. Chaning

Madonna is releasing her final record with the record company Warner Bros. Records that she has been with since 1982. The new record Celebration is her third greatest hits album with the label before she leaves and moves on to Live Nation, a company that combines touring, album releases.

The latest effort is a solid way to end her contract and has included new material on the album to go out with a "celebration." Celebration can be found in a single disc or double disc edition on September 29th.

Madonna's career has spanned over two decades, giving us songs that are unique and fun, heartbreaking and melancholy, and each possess something that makes the song stick in our heads. From "Like A Virgin" to "Vogue," which are included, Madonna has a way of appealing to everyone regardless of her sexual charge in the past. She's had a career filled diversity that seems to go with the flow of mainstream music.

Celebration is filled with all her best songs and then some. From "Open Your Heart" to "Express Yourself" to more recent "Ray of Light," "Frozen," "Beautiful Stranger," and "Hung Up," the record chronicles her entire career. Included on the compilation also is her captivating songs "Secret," "Like A Prayer," and earlier hits such as "Material Girl" and "Lucky Star." The record will also include her hit song with Justin Timberlake "4 Minutes" as well as "Die Another Day" and "Take A Bow."

Aside all the hits, Madonna has included some new material including the song "Revolver" which features rapper Lil Wayne. The song proves Madonna's ability to keep up with the ever changing face of mainstream music, filled with hard electronic beats and synth sounds layering her voice with a vocoder ala Britney. However, she adds the Madonna flavor, getting sexual talking about her love being a "Revolver" and her sex is killer. She's asking if the guy wants to die happy, he needs to be with Madonna in order to find out what that means.

Madonna also teamed up with Paul Oakenfold, who has been opening for her during her Sticky & Sweet Tour for the song "Celebration," the closer to the collection of 36 songs. "Celebration" is a fun dance song that combines Madonna's sounds throughout her entire career with her traditional singing style and a beat that is reminiscent of the early 90's. "Celebration" merely is an invitation to come and party and dance the night away. She's still bringing her sexual charge to the table with the line "I guess I didn't recognize you with your clothes on/ What are you waiting for!" before giggling into the chorus. Working with Paul Oakenfold shows Madonna's willingness to try something new and still keep her signature sound.

The Celebration collection will also have a separate DVD released with 30 videos from her career that has lasted 27 years. The entire collection released by Warner Bros. is a solid and profitable way for them to close our their contract with the star that has been with them from the start.

Madonna's double-disc edition of Celebration can be purchased here on September 29th: Celebration at BestBuy.com.

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Anyone know if Q, NME, Uncut or the broadsheets (Observer, Guardian etc) have published reviews yet? RESPECTED publications rather than a 6/6 from Norway?

And you couldn't ask that without the bashing because...?

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NME haven't reviewed it. I didn't think they would. There's a small possibility it'll be in next week, but I doubt it. They did love The Immaculate Collection, however, it was their number 1 Greatest Hits album of all time.

You'll have to wait for the monthlies next week with Mojo, Uncut et al.

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I'm sure we can be quietly confident of 5/5 from Attitude

Is Matthew Todd still editor? He's one creepy cunt. Still lurks around G-A-Y Late.

His COAD interview was one of her best interviews ever though.

NME should review it, but it's be a small blurb. They completely shit all over Hard Candy if I recall, giving it a 5.

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Don't know - the last time I flicked through Attitude was when she included them in the COAD promo.

I used to like looking at the nice pics of Philip Olivier from it on famousmales until they banned them

Oh, they're all cunts over there. Even worse than Digital Spy. I wanted to purve at some pictures of Jamie Dornan that someone had uploaded in a thread but they were removed them all because he's "not famous enough" apparently. :lmao: :lmao:

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Oh, they're all cunts over there. Even worse than Digital Spy. I wanted to purve at some pictures of Jamie Dornan that someone had uploaded in a thread but they were removed them all because he's "not famous enough" apparently. :lmao::lmao:

He went out with Knightley. :wow: Fittest couple eva. :dramatic:

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EW's review:

By Leah Greenblatt

Madonna, of course, is less about the Voice than the zeitgeist. At 51, she remains 
 as strenuously au courant as ever; on the glitched-out dance-floor stomper ''Revolver,'' one of two new tracks from her mammoth greatest-hits collection Celebration, she enlists raspy-voiced hip-hop scamp Lil Wayne, and delivers lyrical come-ons like ''My love's a revolver/My sex is a killer/Do you wanna die happy?'' Superfans may well die happy with this much concentrated Madge-estry: 36 tracks covering nearly every phase of her 
 25-year career. It all holds up surprisingly well. B

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http://slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=1858

4 stars (out of 5)

Madonna

Celebration

by Eric Henderson

Posted: September 23, 2009

Confession from my own private dance floor: I've never been a fan of The Immaculate Collection, despite the canonization accorded it in the absence of any competing career compilation up until its companion volume GHV2 in 2001. In almost every case, I found Immaculate's QSound makeovers by Shep Pettibone (at the time, Madonna's go-to guy thanks to his revelatory work on "Express Yourself" and "Vogue") to be earsores, if not total desecrations, of the original works. The winningly tremulous qualities of her earliest hits were all but obliterated by Pettibone's glossy remixes, and don't even get me started on the deadening house beats he used to kamikaze "Like a Prayer," a song which, like no other song from her first decade, did not exactly want for urgency. The upside of the album was and remains this unique feat: how its obligatory new tracks, the simmering "Rescue Me" and the aromatic "Justify My Love," are considered by most fans to be among the singer's best work.

Unfortunately, only one of those two songs survived the transition to Celebration, the "best of" reboot I've been wanting, needing, waiting for since 1990. Representing Madonna's first post-iPod compilation, the full two-disc version of Celebration promises more bang for your buck than her previous hits collections and, in the bargain, reverts many (but not all) tracks previously assembled on Immaculate to their original mixes, essentially making Celebration her most retro retrospective to date. The backward compatibility is born out in the album's cover art by Mr. Brainwash, which features a True Blue/"Vogue"-eras composite shot tarted up a la Andy Warhol. As she herself sang on the soundtrack to A League of Their Own, "Don't hold on to the past/Well, that's too much to ask." (Unless the past in question is "This Used to Be My Playground," which is the sole #1 not included here.)

Speaking of things that are too hard to hold on to, Celebration's other major deviation from the Immaculate template is primarily structural. Maybe the compilation represents Madonna acquiescing to the death of the album and the rise of the mp3, but the overall effect of the song sequence is that of a frenzied shopping spree, not a careful retrospective. I'm not necessarily in the camp that insists compilations follow chronological order, but segues should at least make some sense of a career path. Celebration isn't totally random—the first disc seems to focus more often than not on the dance-floor burners while the second spreads its attention across a broader definition of pop—but it seems tailor-made to purchase song-by-song to fill the gaps in your collection. Maybe Madonna is, 40 #1 dance hits into her career, making the sloppiness the point itself. Maybe she's trying to suggest that her career can no longer be summarized. But if that's the case, why bother collecting representative tracks in the first place?

I'm aware that every Madonna fan has his or her own favorite moments, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who will find the placement of "Vogue" sandwiched between "Music" and her Justin Timberlake duet "4 Minutes" obfuscatory to the point of offensiveness. "Vogue" is the lynchpin of her greatest, gayest period, and as such has a rightful place in Madonna's narrative, one that does not nestle comfortably aside the hijinks of a toy boy. "Vogue" falls in line with a startling arc of growth and self-consciousness of which "Express Yourself" was the warning shot, an unmistakably feminist missive that explicitly excluded straight males from its directive and then commanded they respond to its demands. From telling straight women and gay men their love has every potential to be real, Madonna then submitted her persona within the gay identity with "Vogue." If some found her cultural appropriation presumptuous, the reward was in the music you could let your body move to, hey, hey, hey. At least so far as pop music is concerned, "Vogue" was instrumental in allowing disco revivalism to emerge, allowing the denigrated gay genre to soar once again within the context of house music, the genre disco became in its second life. The queer-celebratory "Vogue" became, with a dash of ACT UP rage, Erotica, her darkest and most politically rewarding album and one that revealed a full understanding of the bipolarity of the gay experience circa AIDS, the self-actualizing highs and the then-tragically pervasive lows. If Silence = Death, Erotica's aggressively gay house beats intended to make a whole goddamned lot of noise.

I use "Vogue" as merely one example of the benefit of chronological representation. On a song-to-song basis, the inclusion of recent misfires such as "Miles Away" and "Hollywood" (the latter marking an embarrassing moment in Madonna's career no matter how you slice it, being her first single in two decades to completely miss Billboard's Hot 100) would read as forgivable tokenism if the album were merely presented in chronological order. But to have them pop up unannounced among some of the unassailable classics of pop is flatly disruptive. The arrival of the commercially successful but creatively stagnant "Die Another Day," for instance, in such close proximity to her Austin Powers ditty "Beautiful Stranger" (stupid, cute) only calls to attention Celebration's most glaring soundtrack omission: the long-legged 1994 hit "I'll Remember," which, much like "Vogue," represents one of the most important gear-changes in Madonna's entire career. An underwater indigo dirge featuring a remarkable below-the-root bassline and supple, husky vocals, "I'll Remember" settles up the score following the widely (and wrongly) derided Sex era and finds Madonna switching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf roles mid-performance from "hump the hostess" Martha to "I wanna have a baaay-bee" Honey. It's the key to understanding how both Lourdes and Ray of Light came into being. And it gets the shaft in favor of "Sigmund Freud, analyze this!"

Okay, so the legitimacy of the song selection can, in this Cuisinart iteration, only be appraised on a case-by-case basis. How do the songs sound? And are the mixes definitive? Great and mostly, respectively. The oldest and newest tracks have been given the most attention. Almost everything from her first two albums shimmer with virginal moisture (especially "Dress You Up" and "Holiday"), and all of her tracks from the neo-aughts boast robust EQ credentials (though the claustrophobia of the production on "Music" almost seems overripe compared to the open warmth of the comp's kickoff, "Hung Up"). Between "Like a Prayer" (thankfully, the album version) and "Sorry," "Ray of Light" sounds strangely weak and muffled. I was hoping for a deeper bass sound on "Everybody," but "Lucky Star" (which, best I can tell, seems to be a smartly remastered hybrid of the original track and the Pettibone remix) emerges as an absolute monster, a Larry Levan-worthy concoction of clanging rhythm guitars, synth atmospherics, and chugging bass.

The album is missing songs, doesn't always include the right ones, seems to have been sequenced by a not particularly intuitive Genius playlist, and the two new tracks aren't fit to kiss the feet of "Justify My Love": The title track is a zero-traction dance track that's as shallow lyrically ("If it makes you feel good then I say do it, I don't know what you’re waiting for") as it is musically, and the less said about her clumsy collaboration with Lil Wayne, "Revolver," the better. But functionally, what Madonna and fans are really celebrating with the release of Celebration is the hard proof that Madonna's back catalogue is now so immense and so varied that she can release a behemoth, two-disc greatest hits package that shoehorns in 36 songs and still manages to significantly short-change the singer's legacy.

Edited by Hector
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EW's review:

By Leah Greenblatt

Madonna, of course, is less about the Voice than the zeitgeist. At 51, she remains 
 as strenuously au courant as ever; on the glitched-out dance-floor stomper ''Revolver,'' one of two new tracks from her mammoth greatest-hits collection Celebration, she enlists raspy-voiced hip-hop scamp Lil Wayne, and delivers lyrical come-ons like ''My love's a revolver/My sex is a killer/Do you wanna die happy?'' Superfans may well die happy with this much concentrated Madge-estry: 36 tracks covering nearly every phase of her 
 25-year career. It all holds up surprisingly well. B

Thanks for posting... I was super disappointed that last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly did not give Madonna even ONE DROP of ink -- not about the VMAs, not in their Fall Music Preview (okay, I know it's only a GH collection, but still there are TWO new songs on it, and they definitely put the spotlight on a Michael Jackson remix album -- and a HUGE full-page photo of Mariah -- so I think they could have at least listed Celebration as a forthcoming release). Oh and they failed to mention Madonna in their "Summer Winners & Losers" a few weeks back -- Britney was a winner, U2 was a loser, etc. You'd think Madonna coming in just behind the Rolling Stones on the all-time tour list would have warranted her a mention as a "winner" this summer.

Whatever. I don't live and breathe by it, but I forgot how irritating EW can be about Madonna. It's like they're willing her not to exist by ignoring her.

And I think a "B" for that many #1 hits is pretty harsh. Nothing less than an "A-" would do. (If it was MJ, would they have the nerve to do that? They gave a cover to the Beatles two weeks ago for goodness' sake -- why? Because there was a video game tie-in?! Please.)

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http://www.examiner.com/x-15033-Memphis-Celebrity-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m9d23-Madonna-New-Celebration-album-leaks-and-gets-an-A

Madonna certainly hasn't been at her creative peak lately. Hard Candy wasn't a bad album, but it just didn't have that "Madonna quality" to it. Fortunately, her new greatest hits album Celebration has leaked and it will remind people of what she does best: make enjoyable (and sometimes thoughtful) pop songs.

Madonna's artistry is so easy to forget when seeing her thrust her crotch at us or jumping on stage with muscles and veins bulging from every part of her body. When listening to "Live to Tell," however, the technically lacking but emotionally riveting voice grabs your attention. "Like a Prayer" reminds us that Madonna can even be a good songwriter once in a while.

For people in their thirties or older, the music definitely takes you on a journey. Madonna - whether we like it or not - has been part of our lives since 1984. Listening to these songs will remind you of your first date, your high school prom, your first day of college, losing your virginity, getting married, getting divorced, and other major life events.

Many of the songs, such as "Like a Prayer" and "Vogue" are remastered and sound stronger. Some of the songs, such as "Dress You Up" are chopped off in order to make room for more songs on the album. Listening to the early hits such as "Material Girl" and "Holiday" proves that Madonna really couldn't sing. However, listening to more recent songs such as "Miles Away" and "Beautiful Stranger" show that even though she's still not technically perfect, Madonna has come a long way as a vocalist.

Madonna included two new songs: the spectacular "Celebration" and the unspectacular "Revolver," which sounds like it was recorded in Britney Spears' bathroom. Still, you can always skip the latter song. This album may not be great for die-hard fans who already own Madonna's non-edited material. For casual fans, and even haters, Celebration is a fun - and sometimes thoughtful - trip down memory lane that you won't regret.

Randy Aaron's Rating: A-

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