Which Madonna albums do you consider the most essential and which ones the least. You can say why if you like. For Me

Essential Albums for anyone who likes music

True Blue

Like a Prayer

Ray of Light

Very well worth getting for anyone who likes pop music

Like a Virgin

Erotica

Bedtime Stories

Music

Hard Candy

Average, necessary for Madonna fans though

Madonna (The first album)

Confessions on a dance floor

MDNA

I'm Breathless (For Vogue alone)

Evita Soundtrack, 1 cd version only, the better highlights of a patchy musical score.

Meh! only if you really like Madonna

American Life

You can dance remixes

Whose that girl soundtrack

Evita soundtrack 2cd version, less essential songs included here, could cause ear rot.

Nah! You would have to be married to Madonna to get these

No albums thank God, every Madonna album has at least a few decent songs, But I nominate the SEX book, I mean really, the photos of Vanilla Ice doing her!!!!

Essential Hits collection

The Immaculate collection, still the greatest hits collection ever issued, great songs and Justify my love is worth the price alone, plus you get the hilarious look she was doing at the time.

Less essential hits collections, remixes (Still okay, but not Immaculate)

GHV2

Celebration (Both 1cd and 2cd versions)

Something to remember (Better than others, Madges best ballads) Rain without all the sex if you are not a fan of Erotica - but I am

[Edited 4/21/13 2:56am]

For people getting into Madonna:

Tier 1:

Like A Virgin

True Blue

Like A Prayer

Ray Of Light

Music

Tier 2:

Madonna

Erotica

Confessions On A Dance Floor

Tier 3:

I'm Breathless

Bedtime Stories

Evita

Tier 4:

American Life

MDNA

Tier 5:

Hard Candy

Personal Preference:

Tier 1:

Like A Prayer

Ray Of Light

Music

Tier 2:

Erotica

Confessions On A Dance Floor

Tier 3:

MDNA

Tier 4:

Madonna

Bedtime Stories

American Life

Tier 5:

Like A Virgin

True Blue

I'm Breathless

Evita

Tier 6:

Hard Candy

[Edited 4/21/13 5:38am]

Confessions is hardly average

All you need is Celebration and Something to Remember. Madonna's really more of a singles artist than an album artist.

[Edited 4/21/13 9:03am]

Tough call being a huge fan but I'd say the following are essential:

True Blue

Like A Prayer

Ray of Light

Confessions On A Dancefloor

These are generally regarded as her best, and if pushed I'd have to say are my faves as well. That having been said Erotica is her most underrated, in my opinion, and an argument could be made that its her best piece of work.

Most fans would say that Like A Prayer or Ray Of Light is her best album,but Erotica is my favorite Madonna album.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Confessions is hardly average

Confessions On A Dancefloor is one of her strongest,most cohesive albums.Every song "fits" perfectly.

Erotica

Bedtime Stories

Ray Of Light..

Thats all..

"Ray of Light" is a religious experience of the highest order, "American Life," a musical lesson in Current Events and "Like A Prayer," the very best of her earlier years. "Confessions" is pretty bangin', as are "Hard Candy" and "MDNA."

Essential

Madonna

Like A Virgin

True Blue

Like A Prayer

Something To Remember

Ray of Light

Music

American Life

Confessions On A Dance Floor

The Immaculate Collection

Celebration

Great if you program to skip a few tracks

Hard Candy

Erotica

Half Great/Half Filler

Bedtime Stories

MDNA

Never heard I'm Breathless

My favorites, after years of listening:

1. Erotica

2. American Life

3. Confessions on a Dance Floor

4. Music

5. True Blue

SoulAlive said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Confessions is hardly average

Confessions On A Dancefloor is one of her strongest,most cohesive albums.Every song "fits" perfectly.

yep

She worked that album

the promo of it was exciting

The original project behind the music seemed interesting

Not so sure about Confessions, Hung Up is a super track and so is Isaac, but the rest is patchy and songs like I love New York is snores ville to me. Jump, How High and Push are just a repetitive beat over weak singing, the rest is alright not great.

Whereas Hard Candy is very tight, it is packed with tighter hip hoppery beats and there's stronger vocals and grooves. Pharell is an awesome producer and even Timberlakes song 4 minutes is enjoyable. the best track is Dance2 Tonite, that is a real tight groove with a super catchy beat, you can really dance to it. I love Candy Shop too, the hilarious Missy Elliot style singing (Seat, feet in the husky voice) of Madonna and the very suggestive lyrics, that remind me of the playing sexual grooves of Erotica.

Also some of my favourite grooves are the ones on Erotica and Bedtime Stories, 2 albums that still sound very tight after 20 years.

I have always really liked the techno sound on Music with songs like Runaway Lover and Nobody's perfect. Each album has its own unique sound in that period. Ray of Light is a very good album, but you still need to be in the right mood to listen to all of it, but songs like Shanti/Ashtangi and Swim are by far the most adventurous she's ever done.

I think CoAD is a masterpiece even though I think Future Lovers takes too long to start. It took several listens before I was able to like the songs, but I haven't really liked an album on first listen since I was a teenager.

The Videos were good too except Get Together deserved better.

Essential

1. Ray of Light

2. Confessions on a Dance Floor

3. Celebration (2 discs)

The first two are her best and most cohesive albums in my opinion and the latter covers most of her best singles. Madonna and Like a Prayer just missed the cut.

Wonderful:

1. Like a Prayer

2. Ray of Light

3. Madonna

4. Confessions on a Dance Floor

5. Erotica

Quite Good:

6. American Life

7. Bedtime Stories

8. True Blue

Good:

9. MDNA

10. Like a Virgin

Meh:

11. Music

12. I'm Breathless

13. Evita

Dear God No:

14. Hard Candy

By the way, I've never understood the hate for Hard Candy. It's a strong album. "Candy Shop", "Miles Away", "She's Not Me", "Heartbeat", "Give It 2 Me", these are all strongs, with good vocal performances and kicking production.

I liked MDNA, but wished Madonna had given a vocal perfromance as good as on Hard Candy. Her voice is too processed and thin on MDNA despite the better songwriting.

True Blue

Like a Prayer

Ray of Light

I agree the THOSE^ 3 albums as essentials. But I would also add Music to the list because it's a strong follow up to Ray Of Light, not the mention the sound is more stripped down and still electronic.

madonna

like a prayer

the immaculate collection

erotica

bedtime stories

something to remember

ray of light

confessions

WatchThemFall said:

By the way, I've never understood the hate for Hard Candy. It's a strong album. "Candy Shop", "Miles Away", "She's Not Me", "Heartbeat", "Give It 2 Me", these are all strongs, with good vocal performances and kicking production.

No hate here I love that album.It's a fun,non-stop,unapologetic groovefest."She's Not Me","Heartbeat","Miles Away","Give It To Me" and "Beat Goes On" are some of the best tunes she ever recorded.I think the Pharrell tracks,in particular,are a great fit for Madonna.She should work with him again.

SoulAlive said:

WatchThemFall said:

By the way, I've never understood the hate for Hard Candy. It's a strong album. "Candy Shop", "Miles Away", "She's Not Me", "Heartbeat", "Give It 2 Me", these are all strongs, with good vocal performances and kicking production.

No hate here I love that album.It's a fun,non-stop,unapologetic groovefest."She's Not Me","Heartbeat","Miles Away","Give It To Me" and "Beat Goes On" are some of the best tunes she ever recorded.I think the Pharrell tracks,in particular,are a great fit for Madonna.She should work with him again.

I'm also a Hard Candy fan. I think it's better than most of the albums in her catalog. I certainly find it a more consistent and enjoyable listen than all of her '90s albums outside of her masterpiece ROL.

I'm not a huge Madonna fan, but I like "Like A Virgin", "Like A Prayer", "Erotica" and "Ray Of Light" a lot. I don't know the 00's albums, I wonder if there's any that can compete with the ones I mentioned.

Essential

1. Ray Of Light

Good

2. Music

3. Erotica

4. Like A Virgin

5. American Life

Mediocre (most with a few strong songs, but boring as a whole)

6. Bedtime Stories

7. True Blue

8. Like A Prayer

9. Confessions On A Dance Floor

10. Madonna

11. MDNA

12. Hard Candy

Edit - bumped "American Life" from #6 after being reminded by this thread how much I liked it.

[Edited 4/23/13 6:25am]

SoulAlive said:

Most fans would say that Like A Prayer or Ray Of Light is her best album,but Erotica is my favorite Madonna album.

Pure Pop:

Madonna

Like A Virgin

True Blue

MDNA

The Immaculate Collection

Experimental:

Erotica

Music

American Life

GHV2

Essential/Classic:

Like A Prayer

Ray Of Light

Confessions On A Dance Floor

Celebration

Approach with caution/Not for everyone:

I'm Breathless

Bedtime Stories

Hard Candy

You Can Dance

Something To Remember

Who's That Girl

Like A Virgin

Bedtime Stories

Like A Prayer

True Blue

Do I dare?

AlexdeParis said:

SoulAlive said:

No hate here I love that album.It's a fun,non-stop,unapologetic groovefest."She's Not Me","Heartbeat","Miles Away","Give It To Me" and "Beat Goes On" are some of the best tunes she ever recorded.I think the Pharrell tracks,in particular,are a great fit for Madonna.She should work with him again.

I'm also a Hard Candy fan. I think it's better than most of the albums in her catalog. I certainly find it a more consistent and enjoyable listen than all of her '90s albums outside of her masterpiece ROL.

I totally agree with you, I love the album and played it for a long time, and it finally marked the era where I saw her in concert, cause none of the other eras were working out for me with timing. She could do no wrong from American Life to Hard Candy IMO I just wish Beat Goes On became a single, she and Kanye would have topped the charts, I've gotten people hooked on that song. I also don't understand the Bedtime Stories comparison I kept hearing about, I don't hear it at all, it's way better and reminds me of her first album so much more.

To me, Hard Candy doesn't feel like a Madonna album. It feels like a Timbaland/Kanye/Timberlake album featuring Madonna. And a half-assed Madonna at that - she's never sounded so distant and removed from the whole process.