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Describe Your First Listens


Shane

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One specific memory I have from the ROL album is while listening to Drowned World.

During the verse that begins No one stand, no far off land, no fire that I can spark, I remember almost being brought to tears I was so proud. No only from the lyrics, which I loved, but how her voice sounded. I was so impressed how the vocal lessons she had taken for Evita were paying off in her own songs. It was magic.

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One specific memory I have from the ROL album is while listening to Drowned World.

During the verse that begins No one stand, no far off land, no fire that I can spark, I remember almost being brought to tears I was so proud. No only from the lyrics, which I loved, but how her voice sounded. I was so impressed how the vocal lessons she had taken for Evita were paying off in her own songs. It was magic.

Yes, I remember that bridge floored me the first time as well!
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I remember listening to a LQ snippet of "Frozen" back in February 1998 (I believe there was a Madonna Singapore webpage at the time that was streaming it), and even though the song was hard to make out, I could tell that it was going to be something glorious and beautiful. I just felt a wave of awe and excitement .

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I still buy all my music as physical copies.. downloading from iTunes just doesn't feel right...

I like adding cds to my music and even more so to my Madonna collections

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Honestly, my memories of hearing lead singles is much stronger than my memories of listening to albums for the first time. I think I've told some of these stories before, but...

LIKE A PRAYER: This was my first Madonna album. I got the tape for my 10th birthday. I remember the patchouli smell, listening to it and thinking it was much more "adult" and "religious" than I expected. I had to ask my mother what some of the songs meant ("Oh Father") and I remember her saying something about Madonna had finally figured out the meaning of her name. It really changed the way I thought about pop music, which is why it's my favorite M album, and maybe my favorite pop album ever.

I'M BREATHLESS: My father picked this up in a record store for me when he was away on business. I remember thinking it hadn't come out yet, so he either stumbled upon a shop selling it early or I was mistaken (I was 11, after all, and there was no internet), so who knows. I don't recall much about listening to this for the first time, but I'm sure I was surprised more of it didn't sound like "Vogue." But I also think I'd probably learned to expect the unexpected from Madonna.

EROTICA: I had to wait a day or two until after the release date to get this one. I remember the long CD box, but that's about it. I know I was excited to be hearing it!

BEDTIME STORIES: I remember thinking the melody of "Take a Bow" was beautiful and that it could be a hit.

RAY OF LIGHT: I had just started college and picked the limited edition up from Tower Records in NYC after class. I brought it back to my dorm, very excited (it felt like forever since there'd been a new M studio album), but my stupid roommate was napping (in the middle of the afternoon!). I had to go into my suite-mate's room to listen on his stereo. The two songs that stood out to me right away were NRM and TPOG. I thought the melodies were gorgeous. I got chills listening to them. The spiritual themes she was exploring coincided really well with what I was going through in my life, so it was perfect. We were on the same page at that time.

MUSIC: Don't really have memories of LISTENING to this for the first time, but I do remember buying the limited edition the day it was released at Virgin Megastore in Times Square. When you walked in the store there was a huge rack filled with the standard CD, limited editions (all two or three colors - I got the pink one), vinyl, CD maxis, etc. They even gave you a free Music belt buckle with the limited edition. It was truly a great time to be a fan. She was back on top and everyone knew she had a new album out. The quality of the limited edition is crappy though, and I'll probably have to replace it with the standard at some point down the line.

AMERICAN LIFE: I believe this is when albums started to leak in their entirety early, right? I don't remember listening to this for the first time. I'm sure I thought it sounded too similar to Music and was disappointed.

CONFESSIONS: Funny, you'd think my memory would be stronger for these more recent albums, but I don't remember hearing this for the first time. I imagine it was online in dribs and drabs, which might be why. I'm sure I liked it.

I'm just going to stop here.

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Yeah, my mom has always loved Madonna. She's sort of lost interest since COADF since it's all too uptempo for her and she prefers the slower, less aggressive stuff. She even likes "Paradise (Not for Me)." I'll probably end up making her a mix of some of the new stuff once it's out officially, since I think she'll like it.

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Ray of Light - Back when I was a teenager: Meh. Boring. I only liked the singles. Rediscovers the album decades later: OMG! This is so beautiful! Why did I fail to realise this before? :rotfl:

Ray of Light was my first Madonna record - I was 10 back then. I always liked "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", "Candy Perfume Girl", "Shanti/Ashtangi" and "Frozen", but it took me ages to 'discover' the other songs.

:dead:

:janetflop:

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My first ever Madonna album was True Blue on cassette. Remember listeninf to it for hours and hours.

the first ever record was the 12" maxi of Who's That Girl. Being my first-ever maxi single I bought I thought it would play 33pm (like LPs), so I was

quite surprised to hear a "male opera singer".

Luckily i quickly figured out it had to be played on 45rpm :)

the most cherished memory is touching smelling and listening to Like A Prayer album for the first time. After having had to endure more than a year without new Madonna music...

Ran off to the record store after school to buy the LP. At home, unpacking the record, the scent of Patchuli came in my nose.

Still when I listen to this abum today the music takes me on a jorney.

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I remember listening to the Like A Virgin album on vinyl and playing Material Girl on repeat, because I loved the video and the song (I was young). I also remember in my teens MTV and VH1 dedicating weekends whenever a new album was released. A new album was always an event!

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I remember as I was getting into M, I was going for a new album every two weeks or so, and watching the videos and things, so it was a lot of a blur. Sticking out most clearly was the first time I watched the Who's that Girl tour, and the Look Of Love really stunned me, it was so quiet but so powerful and I hadn't heard the song yet. Still one of my favourite performances.

But most clear is the recent batch of songs. When the six songs were officially released, I liked Living for Love but it was very similar to the demo. And then, Devil Pray came on. I had liked the demo, and I was loving the new production on it but then the post chorus break happened and it was a legitimately transcendent experience, I fell back, I was writhing and my jaw was dropped. that she could do something that powerful in such a small way really is a real testament to M's art in a way I haven't seen her do on a studio album in a very long time.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I tend to have an open ear to that special song that will hook me to the entire project, the song that will make me have goosebumps and send shivers all oer my body, the one that will just rewire my brain in the correct way an open me up to the new music. With Madonna, you never now what you are getting, so I like to listen with an open mind, and let the music speak, sort of. It doesn´t have to be my favorite of the album, nor the one i will listen to death, but it just has to click with me in the right way.

With ROL that song was Drowned World, and it still makes me feel like I am floating out of this world up to this day. In Music, it was Don´t Tell Me and particularly the ending of the song, with that great orchestration/strings. Then for AL it was Nothing Fails, a song that literally made me cry at first listen.

For COAD, it was Let It Will Be. Again, the strings, I dunno... I guess I´m a sucker for strings LOL. Hard Candy is a toss between 4 Minutes and Voices. The epicness of 4 Minutes, with its beat building up to a climax and those horns that seemed to be announcing the apocalypse, got me at first listen. Then a good part of rest of the album wasn´t much my cup of tea (I do not like funk), but at the end Voices comes up and it just clicks with me in the right way.

With both MDNA and RH the experience has been different because I haven´t listened to the whole album all at once, but rather in chunks (4-5 songs first, then another batch, and so on). No song from MDNA clicked with me in a special way, but I remember loving the acoustic version of Love Spent a lot. Then now, with RH, it is undoubtedly Living For Love. That last section after the "up, up, up" part, when she sings "living for love" with the chorus, it is just out of this world.

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First time I heard Madonna was Power of Goodbye. I thought the song was super euphoric, ethereal, and enigmatic. Her voice was so soothing. The melody so magical!! I was hooked immediately! Then I saw Frozen on MTV and fell in love with it. I also saw You'll See video and Take a Bow. But had no idea it was all one singer! Lol

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