REVIEW: MADONNA - STICKY AND SWEET TOUR CD/DVD

How much you like Madonna's Sticky and Sweet Tour CD/DVD set is very much dependent on how much you liked her Hard Candy album.  I didn't particularly find the 2008 album memorable, hence the thirteen track audio disc in this set didn't leave much of an impression on me even after seeing the show live.  Although musically is it interesting to hear some of the more sparse album edits amped-up with a full band, it's still not enough to save the weaker material.  

Madonna has a few interesting tricks up her sleeve here though including the not-often performed enough Human Nature where she randomly blurts out statements like "Fuck the rain!!!" and "I'm so not sorry!!!", seeming a little out of context without the visual pairing.  She takes her 1990 classic Vogue and skilfully mashes it together with more recent 4 Minutes, which proves very entertaining.  She's Not Me not-so-subtly targets a woman whom Madonna expresses feelings of being threatened by, asking the audience "Ladies, have you ever had a best friend that wanted to do everything you wanted to do?  Including fuck your boyfriend?!?".  God bless Her Madgesty.  How embarassing.

REVIEW: MADONNA - CELEBRATION THE VIDEO COLLECTION

Although I have my reservations on the necessity of yet another Greatest Hits CD from Madonna, I have no hesitations in saying that a Greatest Hits Video Collection is long overdue. Celebration The Video Collection recaps her massively successful years under Warner Bros. Records from 1983 to 2009. The two-disc DVD set features 47 of Madonna's best videos with a few crucial omissions including Holiday, Bad Girl, This Used To Be My Playground, Me Against The Music, You Must Love Me and Dress You Up.

It cannot be disputed that Madonna has revolutionized and shaped the art form of the Music Video as we know it today. She remarkably has remained relevant as one of the key forces of the MTV era, which saw many stars rise quickly and fade just as quickly. In her earlier videos like Burning Up and Borderline, one sees very simplistic plot lines and a focus on vanity. Like a Virgin and 1985's MTV Best Female Pop Video Material Girl still retain a classic quality thanks to masterful direction from Mary Lambert. This timelessness clause however, does not apply so much to videos like Crazy For You, Live To Tell and Into The Groove. These videos feature vignettes of the films from which they were theme songs, a telltale sign that dramatic advancements have been made since the mid '80s in terms of video editing.

I must admit that as a child, I never fully grasped the magnitude of Papa Don't Preach. This is Madonna's first video to really deliver a real social message. Watching it today as an adult, I can appreciate Madonna and director Peter Percher's bravado in tackling the issue of abortion and the song's pro-choice leanings through popular culture. The video also has an emotionally resonant father-daughter storyline which is as poignant today as it was in 1986. Percher truly brought out the best in Madonna.