SCORE: 8.936 11 x 1 @dodoriazarbon 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 1 - 25 of 210 (8.677) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 42 (@nikkysan @Tigerlily @Vasilios @maverick_79 @tylerc904 @DJHazey @Remyky22 @Cutlery @Suburbia @soratami @relby @Ana Raquel @Andy French @fatyoshi @Up Down Suite @Syzygyz @Fuchsia @Modeblock @Coochi @scottdisick94 @letuinmybackdoor @Robsolete @Sideout @MilesAngel @RetroPhysical @joeee @VeryPSB @DinahLee @Jimmyandroid @Candy Perfume Girl @clowezra @Rogue @wintersleep @KingBruno @Digital Ghost @nametag @Markus1981 @Music Is Life @japanbonustrack @Bangers&Bops @Weslicious @Maki) LOWEST SCORE: 6 x 4 (@Andrew.L @Phonetics Boy @paullypaul @unnameable) MY SCORE: 9.5/10 Well, your Top 25 is a singles show now, as the last album track exits the rate. "Sky Fits Heaven" drops one place from 2015's rate, but has a fairly strong increase in score as it becomes the penultimate 8/10 track in 2020. Are we surprised that it's out? Are we surprised that it once again is the most popular album track? Are you surprised at all? "Sky Fits Heaven" is probably the most... consistently scored song so far too. Not as many 10/10s as we've seen, but when your lowest score is a 6 out of 165 voters, then you're clearly doing something right. "Sky Fits Heaven" has a bit of a weird lyrical conception where... Madonna clearly got her inspiration from a GAP commercial. In 1992, GAP run this ad: Sexy, I'm sure you'll agree. And also maybe a biT familiar. Now, Madonna's no stranger to picking and choosing certain bits of pop culture to absorb into her own mythology and make her own, so she did exactly that. She quietly reached an agreement with the writer of poem, Max Blagg, so his name wasn't anywhere near the credits on the final song, which I find a bit amusing. Madonna's typically not that cagey or withholding when it comes to writing credits as long as her name is somewhere in the mix, so it's a curious thing (especially when Ray Of Light would have bigger credit scandals that were seemingly not cut off at the pass before release) for her to do. Was it just the fact that she hoped no one would remember the 1992 ad? Did she want to disguise the fact that a song all about the sanctity and privacy and freedom of one's personal faith has its creation rooted in a fucking GAP commercial? The fact checkers and haters were out in force even before the Internet sis! They found you out! That said, it doesn't detract from the song's meaning at all for me, which is basically... we're all on the same road down life, and simply reading different signs to get to the same destination. Madonna explained the track by saying she had studied many religions over the years and found threads that connected all of them, leading her to this realisation that they're all a similar kind of nonsense and no one has dominion over the others, so you might as well just exercise your own autonomy and decide your own scripture to follow, even if it means cherry picking bits from several established scriptures to do it. Low-key Madonna's approach to pop music as well to a degree, but Madonna is a religion herself at this point, so. The song is... an exquisite banger. I honestly don't have too much else to add to the above other than that. It's easy to see why it has landed at the top of the album tracks. It's immaculately produced, a fine vocal effort from Madonna on an album that is defined by how powerful her voice was post-Evita, and genuinely stirring and emotive as an overall package too. Even taking the religious readings out of it, I think it's always important that people realise that the path they walk needs to be forged by their own hand. Sure, you can crib notes from other sources, but it's your feet that will be taking the steps in the end. But now, let me pass over to @dodoriazarbon to explain why he awarded this his 11/10, in a story about how sometimes, although some people need to turn off the road a little earlier, you'll always see flashes of them in your rearview mirror. Tuck in, y'all. "I was on the (worlds longest continuous) escalator in Hong Kong, going from meeting to office, when I saw I had a missed call from one of my closest friends back in London. He never called me. I phoned him back, and he told me that R had died, and wanted to tell me because I’d known him a little. I made sure my friend was ok, that he could talk to me, all the usual, before hanging up and telling my boss that I was fine and we could go back to the office. I didn’t really know R. But through my friend, we’d interacted online and talked occasionally. Connected the way young queers often do online over shared interests. I’d see pictures of him and my friend in their group together in Oxford and then London and then who knows where else, having what looked like extremely glamorous, extremely creative, extremely queer lives together. They all seemed to know they were queer so much sooner than I did, and embraced it long before I did. R was impossibly handsome, like an artist had painted the likeness of somebody else, but exaggerated choice features for more impact. Where there was colour in his cheeks, there was more than anyone else. Where his hair was blonde, it seemed gold. He took knowing, wry selfies and his social media content was all through this lens. He was surreal, hilarious. I gained insight into ways of expressing queerness (and later, desperation) though making the space I inhabit queer - real or online. And yet we only spoke every so often, almost in code. Memes. Mutual acknowledgement of same tastes. The Hours. Florence + The Machine. Anohni. Madonna. Bjork. Every so often I buckle over laughing, and have to go to a video he put on his (still live) Instagram. The spoken intro to Bjork’s Bachelorette video plays; ‘One day I found a big book, buried deep in the ground..’ as R unearths an unauthorised biography of Madonna from the earth. I can’t explain why this tickled me, but it always did. My friends who knew him in reality attended what looked like a beautiful memorial. The lyrics to Bjork’s Black Lake were printed on the orders of service. I am a glowing shiny rocket Returning home As I enter the atmosphere I burn off layer by layer Before that though, I remember walking home from the office in Hong Kong, and my friend telling me that he was listening to Ray of Light because it was R’s favourite album, and that Sky Fits Heaven was making him cry. I remember R miming along to it in one drunken social media post or another. Isn’t everyone just travelling down their own road watching the signs as they go? I remember stopping 5 minutes from where I live, looking out from Mount Davis onto the winding roads and jungle below, the sea in the distance. In a place that has had more impact on me than most people back home know. I remember deciding that it doesn’t matter how ‘well’ we know someone, that a chance meeting, interaction/s online, fleeting as they may seem, can be impactful. He’ll never know, my friends who knew him on a deeper level will never know, but in some small but significant way, my development and appreciation of the world around me and my place in it, the way in which I choose to love music, art and creativity - it felt somehow validated by this person. Sometimes how we feel about the world is nebulous until something or someone holds up a mirror in which you can see it all a bit clearer. Sometimes a song, a text, a piece of art takes on new meaning for you when you consider it’s place in the lives of others. I think I’ll follow my heart, it’s a very good place to start. As queer people (and assuming most of the voters will fall into this camp), we exist close to the idea of death. We grew up in the shadow of AIDS. Where we are ‘liberated’, we continue to experience crippling mental health issues or fear of violence and bigotry still. We battle disproportionate levels of addiction. We are disparate individuals with different hopes and dreams, but with ties that bind us. Sometimes these are scary, claustrophobic shackles that feel like weights the community will never shake off. Sometimes these are life-affirming. How many queers before us found each other through shared interest in the same thing? In art, in creation, in dance, in music, in shared hope and a willingness to fight to exist? Going to a Madonna concert, with the different generations all present, is like being forcibly sat down and faced with a history lesson. They’re all there, all the stereotypes, all shapes and sizes and ages. Those who fought and those who have never felt like they’ve had to. But there are so many who aren’t present now. We all have demons. We all live with pain. Sometimes these can be too much. We live in hope that they aren't. It’s all we can do. Sky fits Heaven so fly it. That’s what a wise man said to me." "Sky Fits Heaven" was performed during Drowned World, and nowhere else.
I'm sure some of y'all will be like, "Um, actually, *kisses teeth* "Push" was a cassette single in Macedonia?" but here is your Top 100 alboom tracks. I cut it off there because... well, the back of the leaderboard doesn't really have a lot of singles. TOP 100 ALBUM TRACKS 1. Sky Fits Heaven - 8.936 2. Skin - 8.788 3. Till Death Do Us Part - 8.782 4. X-Static Process - 8.558 5. Easy Ride - 8.533 6. Intervention - 8.521 7. Impressive Instant - 8.464 8. Future Lovers - 8.452 9. Paradise (Not For Me) - 8.358 10. Forbidden Love - 8.355 11. Swim - 8.336 12. Thief Of Hearts - 8.276 13. To Have And Not To Hold - 8.248 13. Isaac - 8.248 15. Gone - 8.23 16. Mer Girl - 8.148 17. Devil Pray - 8.085 18. Waiting - 8.048 19. Sanctuary - 8.033 20. I Deserve It - 7.988 21. Nobody Knows Me - 7.985 22. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You - 7.952 23. Promise To Try - 7.945 24. Rebel Heart - 7.942 25. Words - 7.93 26. Mother And Father - 7.903 27. Let It Will Be - 7.894 28. Spanish Eyes - 7.888 29. Time Stood Still - 7.785 30. Has To Be - 7.727 31. Joan Of Arc - 7.685 32. Keep It Together - 7.661 33. Inside Of Me - 7.636 34. Like It Or Not - 7.63 35. Survival - 7.597 36. Amazing - 7.579 37. White Heat - 7.567 38. Secret Garden - 7.555 39. In This Life - 7.542 40. Love Spent - 7.521 41. Runaway Lover - 7.512 42. Where Life Begins - 7.494 43. How High - 7.47 44. Love Tried To Welcome Me - 7.455 45. Candy Perfume Girl - 7.452 46. Forbidden Love (1994) - 7.427 46. Faz Gostoso (Feat. Anitta) - 7.427 48. Little Star - 7.421 48. Come Alive - 7.421 50. Dark Ballet - 7.394 51. She's Not Me - 7.315 52. Physical Attraction - 7.309 52. Why's It So Hard - 7.309 54. Heartbeat - 7.285 55. Inside Out - 7.239 56. Where's The Party - 7.188 57. Falling Free - 7.179 58. Crazy - 7.173 59. Nobody's Perfect - 7.139 60. I'm So Stupid - 7.127 61. Push - 7.112 61. I'm Addicted - 7.112 63. Masterpiece - 7.091 64. Body Shop - 7.061 65. Unapologetic Bitch - 7.058 65. Extreme Occident - 7.058 67. Looking For Mercy - 7.042 68. Goodbye To Innocence - 7.009 69. Gang Bang - 6.939 70. Holy Water - 6.915 71. Gambler - 6.912 72. Think Of Me - 6.906 73. Beat Goes On (Feat. Kanye West) - 6.894 74. Beautiful Killer - 6.884 75. Hold Tight - 6.873 76. The Look Of Love - 6.824 77. Future (Feat. Quavo) - 6.8 78. Batuka - 6.791 79. Voices - 6.785 80. Best Night - 6.755 81. Veni Vidi Vici (Feat. Nas) - 6.752 81. Broken (I'm Sorry) - 6.752 83. Shanti / Ashtangi - 6.73 84. Addicted - 6.712 85. Iconic (Feat. Chance The Rapper & Mike Tyson) - 6.702 85. Ciao Bella - 6.702 87. I Love New York - 6.652 88. Messiah - 6.639 89. Love Song - 6.621 89. I'd Rather Be Your Lover - 6.621 91. Supernatural - 6.615 92. Candy Shop - 6.588 93. Wash All Over Me - 6.561 94. HeartBreakCity - 6.558 95. Bitch I'm Loca (Feat. Maluma) - 6.548 96. Your Honesty - 6.524 97. Beautiful Scars - 6.461 98. Something To Remember - 6.458 99. Over And Over - 6.433 100. Stay - 6.367
Sky Fits Heaven likely would’ve been my 11 if I wasn’t so enamoured with American Life’s ballad suite. And I formed a connection with the song similar to how @dodoriazarbon describes it, far better than I ever could. An amazing song and definitely deserving of retaining its title of Madonna’s best album track.
There are some artists out there that would kill to have a greatest hits as good as that album track Top 20.
Sky Fits Heaven was possibly my lowest score out of the entire Top 100, I don't get it, I'm happy it's pissed off.
No... "Sky Fits Heaven" is mesmerizing and should've been top 10 out of the remaining songs. That production is insane and should've secured its lowest score to be an 8. It definitely belongs to my top 5 Madonna album tracks, so it's very pleasing to see it get an accolade for the highest rated one (for the second time). And with this elimination, I'm down to only seven perfect scores (i.e. six 10's and one 11). They better all stay until the top 15.
Give Japan Devil Wouldn't Recognize You and I will be importing this! Also the beauty of only singles in the top 25 really makes it a nice little playlist. Literally the HITS.
"Justify My Love" or "Rain" (please), but it's more likely to be "Music" or "God Control". Also, that's the most 10's a song has received so far, right?
The way Music is probably perched on the top 20 since everything in the album climbed a gazillion spots.
