Soon after the release of 'The Immaculate Collection' in 1990, Madonna had found herself as the pope-bothering scourge of civilization whilst having her breasts felt by Vanilla Ice in the rumness that was her Sex book, spent another album saying 'what's wrong with that?', before sliding into a movie-theme ballad hole, reaching that particular zenith with her lead role in the film of Evita.
Had 'GHV2' been released before 1998, it would've been a not much fun bunch of ballads and arsery. Thankfully, for the sake of herself, her fans and mankind in general, Madge had a bit of re-think, met William Orbit and also became a mother, and these elements helped make 'Ray Of Light' her best album ever and soon the world was falling in love with her again.
'GHV2' contains some of the best pop music made by anybody; 'Beautiful Stranger', 'Music', 'Don't Tell Me' and 'Ray Of Light' prove this and of what slowies are on display, 'The Power Of Goodbye', 'Frozen' and 'Take A Bow' (strangely, one of her few non-hits in the UK) have been known to make a grown man cry. There's also a couple of nuggets that'd been tucked away: 'Secret' is a blinder, and even Bill Oddie (sorry, 'Erotica') manages to sound vaguely sexy after a decade and will have you yearning for those happy days of hitch-hiking naked and doing unsavoury things in a harness.
It's still a baffler as to how 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' and the tune-free 'Bedtime Story' made the final cut instead of, perhaps, 'Nothing Really Matters', 'Rain' or even some new stuff, although it would appear that's someone's 'had a word' as (hurrah!) despite being a chart-topper, the dismal 'American Pie' is nowhere to be found.
There's a dizzyingly record breaking amount of Best Ofs and Greatest Hits being released this Christmas, with some having the most tenuous reasons for existing possible. GVH2, however, will outsell and outclass the lot of them. All hail.
by Ian Wade