flood

Thank you (even though I could have definitely done this better)... I don’t write many because it takes up too much of my time (I don’t find it an easy and immediate thing), and many of the (few) albums I know really well enough to review have already been covered in a more than exhaustive manner on this site, that’s all!

I like this review much more than the other one, if nothing else because it analyzes the album well and not its predictable and widely discussed "presuppositions"... however, I don't agree about Miles Away; in my opinion, it's one of the less successful tracks; it's very catchy but I find it a bit too easy and excessively mushy, de gustibus...
P.S.: I wonder why many people are waiting for a more "serious" return of Madonna. There are already many serious, refined, cultured singers who do their job excellently... in the more "entertained" and frivolous pop scene, there aren’t that many options, but she remains the best and now that she has collaborated with the same producers as many younger colleagues, I would say the qualitative difference is evident. In short, thank goodness she still takes care of the pop songs for the radio...

But what has Pharrell done to you!? I think he's good, much better than the overrated Timbaland, and he's the main producer of the album... even Candy Shop is produced by him, not Timbaland (and I’d say you can really tell, confused about the names?). The review is well done and also objective (disliking the collaborators aside), although the "Madonna who no longer previews but follows" is a bit of a paradox (she has never really invented or anticipated anything) and it’s starting to sound a bit too "automatic" and overused in reviews about this album; however, I completely disagree about the previous album, it’s definitely one of the best!

Not all to be discarded (the first three tracks and the title track are enjoyable, and the closing piece is beautiful), but overall it's just a mediocre album; I hope Bowie breaks his silence soon because the thought of this little disc being his last work for 5 years saddens me, it's absolutely not up to par.

oops, I swapped the votes...

For me, it's her best album since Homogenic (Vespertine and Medulla, while beautiful and interesting, have always seemed to me more "packaging" than content, in terms of songs)... the review is nice but I absolutely disagree on Pneumonia, which I find to be a great track and probably her best vocal performance ever.

A truly beautiful review! In '88 I was young, but I remember her and her songs well, and later I got both this album and other things of hers... She may not be an essential and indispensable artist, but I always hope for a return to her best form, that of this album which is truly beautiful. And how can one not agree with the words you use to describe her (magnificent for me) voice?

Last year was a very pleasant surprise for me; I really enjoyed the album and listened to it a lot, almost like a more pop version of Evil Heat by Primal Scream. It's a shame that especially here they have been viewed with some suspicion due to the hype generated by the English press... but maybe this time they were right. Let's see what they will come up with for the next CD; it seems it will be produced by Tony Visconti (and indeed in tracks like As Above So Belove and Isle Of Her there’s really something "berlinese").

It's beautiful, of course; I didn't mean to diminish it... I was more trying to make a point about the "texture" of the arrangements of the two groups, and overall I find (a very subjective opinion, of course) that those of the early Talk Talk, while still very '80s, sound a bit less dated and warmer compared to those of many peers when listened to now!

Beautiful review that I almost completely agree with! The best was to come with the subsequent albums (but "Such A Shame" remains their most beautiful single for me, Hollis's voice there is a masterpiece), yet this beautiful album (and the previous one) still showed how Talk Talk truly had an edge over many other synth-pop bands of that time. Just listen to the beautiful electronic arrangements flawlessly mixed with piano or acoustic guitar; I find their sound decidedly less aged compared to the almost contemporary records of Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Tears For Fears (the first). A band to be discovered in any of their incarnations.