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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2003)
MUSIC ▼ Why Buy a Valor Gas Fireplace Insert? Icon game Keeping score with Ms. Ciccone and Ms. LaPierre • Incredible Value, Features, Price by • Steady, even heat with no electricity J im R a d o s t a • Efficient, effective heater • Programmable remote control NEW G3 INSERT Madonna • Maverick/Wamer Bros. Records Homestead Stove Company o wonder the gays love Madonna. T he 44-year-old, who’s got image manipulation down to a science, has taken on many faces that are familiar to queers: social outcast (“Papa Don’t Preach”), religious heretic (the “Like a Prayer” video), kinky deviant (the Sex htxik) and musical diva ( Evita). So, will we he able to relate to her latest incarnation— exhausted expatriate celebrity searching for the meaning of life.7 Let’s get to the bottom o f this. American Life finds Madonna in a conflict ed, introspective it k x x L questioning religion in the gospel-tinged “Nothing Fails” hut, just two tracks later, tenderly begging, “Jesus Christ will you lcx)k at me" in the acoustic “X -Static Process." T h e instant dance flixtr classic “HollywtxxJ” bemoans commercialism (“Music stations always play the same sting”), while the gritty “I’m So Stupid” blasts conformity (“I used to live in a tiny bubble, and 1 wanted to he like all the pretty people"). In “M other and Father” she even analyzes her daddy issues. (O ne track seems particularly out of place amid all this inner exploration: “Die Another Day," the title song to last year’s Pierce Brosnan/Halle Berry film. As far as James Bond themes go, the icy experiment falls somewhere between Sheryl Crow’s forgetful “Tomorrow Never Dies" and Lulu’s annoying “T h e Man with the Golden G un.”) Madonna opeas and closes the album with blunt confessions alxxjt the emptiness of fame, which might seem like a frivolous topic in the post-9/11 world hut, for as noncelebs, could rep resent society’s growing discontent with the rat race. In the rap-fueled title track Mo’ admits she’s become disenchanted by the American dream: “Somehow I forgot just what I did it for and why I wanted more.” She closes on a mellow note with “Easy Ride,” singing, “I want the good life hut.. .what I want is to work for it.” This is pretty intimate stuff coming from somebcxJy who con stantly iasists to interviewers, “I have no regrets.” So let’s recap: interested in self-improvement, wants to leave the United States, attracted to Guy Ritchie. Yeah, I can still relate. 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Buying your first home can be as nervew racking as it is exciting. At Rose City you'll find a com fortable, gay-friendly, non-judgm ental atm osphere. W e do everything w e can to make the loan process less stressful for all buyers. Rose City Mortgage Specialists free consultations | SO-down loans | all credit/loan types rowitvmlg.com 5fl1.7hS.424H ake a good look at the Billboard albums chart because, if you keep your eyes peeled, you might observe, “O ne o f these things is not like the other.” T hat thing would he C her— hack on top with yet another hits collection— lost among Kelly Clarkson and T Lizzie Maguire music marketed to kids young enough to be her granddaughter. O h, and a few notches away you’ll spot C eline Dion, fresh from her much-ballyhix>ed “retirement” at age 31. Some broads are made o f tougher material, and C her is one of them. (T h e precise chemical makeup of that material, however, remains uncertain.) 1 must admit I’m not old enough to have experienced the early part of her 38 years (!) in the spotlight, so I lack any firsthand apprecia tion of her “Gypsies, Tramps &. Thieves" phase. (A phase in which, as far as I can tell, she con verted to Native Am erican.) 1 didn’t become familiar with the former Mrs. Bono until the late 1980s, when she staged an impressive comeback after a nine-year hiatus. (To jog your memory, this is when she used dental floss for panties and performed a duet with that Chicago singer who has a strange underbite.) Cher again disappeared from the airwaves for most of the 1990s but inexplicably experienced a career high four years ago with the No. 1 single “Believe,” uttering inane, computer-altered vocals like “Maybe I’m too gixxJ for you!” You go, girl. This is when she adopted her current per sona as an ageless disco queen who, apparently, is bald. (1 noticed most of her ever-present wigs are platinum blond, perhaps to remind her of gtxxl record sales.) Unfortunately, C h er’s output since 1999 has been as nonpliant as the plastic product she calls skin. Mostly overproduced remixes, her latest tunes have been unchallenging and unremarkable. As a result, this collection is a hit o f a disap pointment, concentrating 13 of its 21 tracks on material recorded since 1987. Missing in action are two Top 10 hits— 1967’s “You Better Sit Down Kids” and 1972’s “Way of Love”— as well as most of the Sonny & C her classics, only two o f which make the cut. Also absent are oddball rarities. For exam ple, did you know she beat Dionne Warwick to the punch in recording the title song to the Michael C aine film A lfie! Hey, I did my research: C her’s version hit the charts in August 1966, nine months before her future infomercial competitor did. It sure is easy to pick on Chastity’s mom, but I must give credit where it’s due. T he Very Best contains some singles that belong in every collection: the disco-flavored “Take Me Home," the shamelessly bombastic “I Found Som eone” and the blissful “T h e Shtxip Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss).” J H
