Madonna – Madonna

γιατι ασπρομαυρο εξωφυλλο δε το καταλαβαινω πολυ φτωχο καθολου λαμπερο εξωφυλλο

Easily Madonna's best album; no song needs a skip, and her high Soprano voice shines best here.

Like Depeche Mode's "Speak & Spell" for example, very little could have been foreseen in of stylistic shift on "Madonna" - hungry for success from day one, though, she knew where to go, who to ask and use for her own ends.

Madonna's debut is as predictable as it is adorable, and while her talents aren't as questionable, the will to plagiarise is - this early image was undeniably borrowing from a certain Cyndi Lauper (the vocal "goo-goo-ga-ga's" included), while on the other hand "Holiday", her kickstarter megahit, turns out to be a downright re-write of ABC's "The Look Of Love".

However, the charm of the lot cannot be underestimated - a number of killer tracks tapping in with stripped down linndrums save the day; "Lucky Star", "Borderline", "Burning Up", "Everybody", "Physical Attraction" (Olivia Newton-John was either proud or pissed) and especially "Think Of Me", the latter standing out as the album's finest number. There is a tiny ditty called "I Know It", easily mistaken for a "Dick Tracy" leftover missing the right time capsule, ending up in 1983 instead of 1990. While it could have been left off from the final playlist (in recent times a number of demos from that era appeared online - most notably "Crimes Of ion" which could have been included instead), the song doesn't harm the overall impression of a fine pop album - a bit of "this and that" but fun and catchy, heading for the carefree underground rather than cheese.

I just love music from this period - analog recording and analog synths. You can really hear the difference.