Madonna – Ghosttown

“That’s just wonderful, isn’t it?”

Tim: Madonna’s great, isn’t she? At least when she’s on the top of her game and not putting out uninspired tracks or total rackets like she has been recently.

Tom: Or covering “American Pie”. Fifteen years and it still haunts her.

Tim: I’m gonna put it out there: I was not offended by that as much as seems to be expected by society in general. Admittedly it doesn’t sound great now, as its dance-pop style was very much of its time, but I don’t think it’s all that terrible.

Fortunately, this here is at the top of her game.

Tim: And to top it all off it comes with a damn good video. It’s not quite examining stigmata on her hands good, but we have properly high production values, telling an actual story working out with the lyrics (Moa, please pay attention), and a distinctive visual tone matching that of the music.

Tom: Yes, yes, I’ll grant you, it’s all very arty and well-directed.

Tim: But back to that music – that’s just wonderful, isn’t it?

Tom: What? Er, no, it’s all a bit long, drawn-out and unimpressive. Why do you think it’s good?

Tim: The verses start out great, with the downbeat vocals that stay there in tone but only take until the second half of the first verse to start the lyrical journey upwards. From there, it just keeps going up, with the continuous reminders that YES, Madonna will BE THERE FOR US, however mad, mad this world may be and even if we did start out trying to shoot her in a post-apocalyptic world (seriously, what a video).

Tom: I can’t help but feel you’ve been drawn in by that video. I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s an album track at best, surely?

Tim: Oh, no. I’m listening to it several days later, and I still think it’s great, especially that “when it all falls down” melody in the chorus.

It’s really not often I can say this, but I genuinely don’t think I can fault this. Even by her standards, it’s brilliant.