“And the next time you want pussy, baby...just look in a mirror” is an amazing kiss-off. Queen of emasculation
I love everything about Waiting. Every gloriously sleazy second of it. And that Everlast remix slaps, too. = every gay man who's ever fallen in love with a "curious" guy, who is then later ashamed of/denies said curiosity.
Waiting is so bloody good (I say that alot lately) It exudes sultryness and slight exasperation, I always relisten whenever it comes on, it's five minutes of greatness.
Where Life Begins should still be in just so it could be #69 for the gag. (It should have stayed longer than it did anyway.)
No one who has posted their top 20 has included my 11 in it ddd. I'm pretty sure only @dodoriazarbon included it but that was a top 40 list.
Oh, "Waiting" leaving at this point is unexpected - I thought it was safe for another ~10 eliminations. I didn't score it too highly, though there are certainly moments that deserve praise (the middle-8/post-chorus is glorious). I always see it as the centerpiece of the album, in a sense that it combines all of the ingredients found throughout the album (the talking parts, singing parts, rapped parts, double entendre lyrics etc.) and therefore the most valuable non-single from "Erotica". It's actually my third favourite song from the album. For comparison, this is the final ranking of "Erotica" album tracks in this rate: 1. Thief of Hearts 2. Waiting 3. Words And this is my own ranking: 1. Waiting 2. Why's It So Hard 3. Thief of Hearts Not too far apart, although it reminds me of how underrated "Why's It So Hard" is. "Waiting" (or basically any other more suggestive "Erotica" track) leaving at #69 would've been iconic. It still isn't ruled out, actually.
69 SCORE: 8.085 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 23 - 46 of 210 (8.162) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 19 (@nikkysan @Andreas @No hay banda @P'NutButter @eatyourself @Dangerous Maknae @tylerc904 @sfmartin @Andrew.L @elear @scottdisick94 @Drew @unnameable @RetroPhysical @citoig @aaronhansome @Remorque @Music Is Life @Weslicious) LOWEST SCORE: 4 x 2 (@rdp @Pop Life) MY SCORE: 8/10 And in what should surprise absolutely no one, history repeats itself and "Ghosttown" is the last remaining track from Rebel Heart in the rate. "Devil Pray" might have fallen overall, but it has at least vaulted over "Living For Love" to take the silver position on the album. So many albums now down to a scant amount of tracks... Like A Virgin, Hard Candy, Rebel Heart, and Madame X. Which will be the first to go? Let me maybe just come up to bat for this one a lil bit since I feel like y'all have been coming for it just a biT too much recently. This is a great Madonna song. No asterisk or caveat required; it's a great, contemporary pop song done by the queen of contemporary pop songs. She sounds like warm caramel throughout after a couple albums of poor mixing and mastering, the production is dynamic and twisting and intriguing (back when BloodPop had talent) and... it's not anymore hokey in subject matter than most Madonna songs regarding religion and faith and piety and sin. If this was on American Life and she was talking about making the devil a Kabbalah bracelet y'all would be wiping a single tear from your cheek at how moved you were and be giving it full marks, so I'm not entirely sure what it did recently to be worth of such sneering derision recently. I don't even think it's done badly, or that it should be going much further than this, but it's felt like a weirdly easy target in the thread recently. Anyway. The song is basically about how we're all striving to touch a little bit of divinity and all the different ways we attempt to do that, with some only bringing us down rather than raising us up. It's... hard to know if it's being irresponsible, judgemental, neither, or both? Madonna's gone on record saying that she's tried pretty much everything but never got the appeal, but she's also said that people getting high are only looking to get closer to God when... some people just want to unwind after a stressful Tuesday, sis. Plus, weren't you stunting on Instagram with a bowl just last week for your birthday? Sit down. But still: a bop. The song was performed as part of Rebel Heart's mostly blasphemous opening salvo, and it even received a promo outing on Italian television. I'm surprised it generally wasn't utilised more; it's overall very strong and would have probably ended itself to a great video if the tour performance is anything to go by.
Waiting was one of my biggest rate discoveries, and I’m sad to see it go now. The song is an edge, it edges, edging is its field.
Lucky Star Borderline Burning Up Holiday Material Girl Like A Virgin Dress You Up Papa Don't Preach Open Your Heart Live To Tell La Isla Bonita Like A Prayer Express Yourself Till Death Do Us Part Cherish Oh Father Vogue Erotica Deeper And Deeper Bad Girl Thief Of Hearts Rain Secret Human Nature Bedtime Story Take A Bow Drowned World/Substitute For Love Swim Ray Of Light Skin Nothing Really Matters Sky Fits Heaven Frozen The Power Of Goodbye To Have And Not To Hold Mer Girl Music Impressive Instant Don't Tell Me What It Feels Like For A Girl Paradise (Not For Me) Gone American Life Hollywood Love Profusion Nothing Fails Intervention X-Static Process Die Another Day Easy Ride Hung Up Get Together Sorry Future Lovers Forbidden Love Jump Isaac Give It 2 Me Miles Away Ghosttown Medellín (Feat. Maluma) God Control Crave (Feat. Swae Lee) Into The Groove Crazy For You Justify My Love Rescue Me Beautiful Stranger
Oh, and just for old time's sake, the leaderboard. Look at how many songs we've eliminated! 69. Devil Pray - 8.085 70. Waiting - 8.048 71. Sanctuary - 8.033 72. I Don't Search I Find - 8.012 73. True Blue - 7.994 74. I Deserve It - 7.988 75. Nobody Knows Me - 7.985 76. Living For Love - 7.976 77. You'll See - 7.973 78. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You - 7.952 79. Promise To Try - 7.945 80. Rebel Heart - 7.942 81. Words - 7.93 82. Bitch I'm Madonna (Feat. Nicki Minaj) - 7.912 83. I Want You (With Massive Attack) - 7.906 84. Mother And Father - 7.903 85. Let It Will Be - 7.894 86. Spanish Eyes - 7.888 87. Who's That Girl - 7.86 88. I'll Remember - 7.833 89. Time Stood Still - 7.785 90. Celebration - 7.748 91. Has To Be - 7.727 92. Causing A Commotion - 7.715 93. Joan Of Arc - 7.685 94. Keep It Together - 7.661 95. Inside Of Me - 7.636 96. Angel - 7.63 96. Like It Or Not - 7.63 98. Survival - 7.597 99. Amazing - 7.579 100. White Heat - 7.567 101. Secret Garden - 7.555 102. In This Life - 7.542 103. Love Spent - 7.521 104. Bye Bye Baby - 7.515 105. Runaway Lover - 7.512 106. Where Life Begins - 7.494 107. How High - 7.47 108. Fever - 7.464 109. Love Tried To Welcome Me - 7.455 110. Candy Perfume Girl - 7.452 111. Forbidden Love (1994) - 7.427 111. Faz Gostoso (Feat. Anitta) - 7.427 113. Little Star - 7.421 113. Come Alive - 7.421 115. Everybody - 7.406 116. Dark Ballet - 7.394 117. Don't Cry For Me Argentina - 7.382 118. I Rise - 7.367 119. 4 Minutes (Feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland) - 7.345 120. She's Not Me - 7.315 121. Physical Attraction - 7.309 121. Why's It So Hard - 7.309 121. This Used To Be My Playground - 7.309 124. Dear Jessie - 7.3 125. Heartbeat - 7.285 126. Inside Out - 7.239 127. Where's The Party - 7.188 128. Falling Free - 7.179 129. Crazy - 7.173 130. Nobody's Perfect - 7.139 131. I'm So Stupid - 7.127 132. Push - 7.112 132. I'm Addicted - 7.112 134. Masterpiece - 7.091 135. American Pie - 7.085 136. Body Shop - 7.061 137. Unapologetic Bitch - 7.058 137. Extreme Occident - 7.058 139. Looking For Mercy - 7.042 140. You Must Love Me - 7.024 141. Goodbye To Innocence - 7.009 142. Gang Bang - 6.939 143. Holy Water - 6.915 144. Gambler - 6.912 145. Think Of Me - 6.906 146. Beat Goes On (Feat. Kanye West) - 6.894 147. Beautiful Killer - 6.884 148. Hold Tight - 6.873 149. The Look Of Love - 6.824 150. Future (Feat. Quavo) - 6.8 151. Batuka - 6.791 152. Voices - 6.785 153. Best Night - 6.755 154. Veni Vidi Vici (Feat. Nas) - 6.752 154. Broken (I'm Sorry) - 6.752 156. Shanti / Ashtangi - 6.73 157. Addicted - 6.712 158. Iconic (Feat. Chance The Rapper & Mike Tyson) - 6.702 158. Ciao Bella - 6.702 160. Spotlight - 6.694 161. I Love New York - 6.652 162. Messiah - 6.639 163. Love Song - 6.621 163. I'd Rather Be Your Lover - 6.621 165. Supernatural - 6.615 166. Candy Shop - 6.588 167. Wash All Over Me - 6.561 168. HeartBreakCity - 6.558 169. Bitch I'm Loca (Feat. Maluma) - 6.548 170. Your Honesty - 6.524 171. Beautiful Scars - 6.461 172. Something To Remember - 6.458 173. Love Don't Live Here Anymore - 6.448 174. Over And Over - 6.433 175. Another Suitcase In Another Hall - 6.409 176. Stay - 6.367 177. Don't Stop - 6.339 178. Girl Gone Wild - 6.324 179. I Know It - 6.267 180. Act Of Contrition - 6.245 181. Fighting Spirit - 6.227 182. I Don't Give A (Feat. Nicki Minaj) - 6.203 183. It's So Cool - 6.191 184. Illuminati - 6.167 185. Funana - 6.161 186. Dance 2Night - 6.152 187. Borrowed Time - 6.118 187. History - 6.118 189. Sooner Or Later - 6.109 189. One More Chance - 6.109 191. Back That Up To The Beat - 6.076 192. Let Down Your Guard - 6.036 193. Killers Who Are Partying - 6.015 194. I'm A Sinner - 6.012 195. I Fucked Up - 5.964 196 - Some Girls - 5.933 197. He's A Man - 5.924 198. Give Me All Your Luvin' (Feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.) - 5.921 199. Buenos Aires - 5.894 200. Super Pop - 5.848 201. Revolver (Feat. Lil Wayne) - 5.827 202. Can't Stop - 5.776 203. Ain't No Big Deal - 5.736 204. Turn Up The Radio - 5.727 205. Best Friend - 5.721 206. Graffiti Heart - 5.697 207. Hanky Panky - 5.691 208. Love Makes The World Go Round - 5.679 209. Back In Business - 5.67 210. Pretender - 5.661 211. Lament - 5.615 212. Cyber-Raga - 5.603 213. Incredible - 5.545 214. Jimmy Jimmy - 5.521 215. Now I'm Following You - 5.497 216. Ring My Bell - 5.424 217. S.E.X. - 5.373 218. Spanish Lesson - 4.997 219. Shoo-Bee-Doo - 4.948 220. More - 4.852 221. What Can You Lose - 4.436 222. Superstar - 4.391 223. Auto-Tune Baby - 4.121 224. Cry Baby - 3.367 225. I'm Going Bananas - 3.327 226. B-Day Song (Feat. M.I.A.) - 3.000 227. Hey You - 2.976
I don't think Devil Pray is bad by any means; everything @RJF says about it is generally correct. But I'm just kind of surprised it's the penultimate Rebel Heart track to fall? Ghosttown remaining, however, is 110% correct. The hit that should have been.
I like Devil Pray but there's plenty of better songs on Rebel Heart. Even looking at it completely objectively, I'm surprised it came second.
Well none of these last three eliminations was ideal. Some of y'all did way too much over Devil's Pray, which has one of the most interesting production treatments she's done over the past decade (maybe ever tbh). Still, most of my remaining scores are 8+, so this is bound to get a little painful. Plus, a lot of my lower remaining scores are pretty popular, so it might be awhile until I see them go.
My 90’s 11 (Waiting) doing so well is always nice but Thief Of Hearts beating it... it’s getting weird. Fuck a Devil Pray. Bye beast. Have you... listened to her discography? It’s a decent song and I’m being harsh because of where we are in the rate but really.
Was sad to see Waiting go. One of my favourites from Madonna’s masterpiece. Then, I went to a thrift shop and saw a gentleman buying Erotica - as we all should. Even when she loses, Madonna wins. The universe is - and should be - in favour of the Queen of Pop.
