Review of Madonna: The Ultimate Collection Box Set

Introduction

Madonna: The Ultimate Collection is a 2-disc set comprising of The Immaculate Collection and The Video Collection 93-99. Interestingly, each disc is marked for all regions bar 1, so should play in almost every territory bar the US and Canada.

I wouldn`t say I`ve ever been much of a Madonna fan, although recently she`s certainly become worth listening too. I only own two albums, Like a Prayer and Ray of Light, but even outside these albums her stuff will get the ears waggling.

Having grown up with the gal, not literally you understand I merely mean her music, these discs were for me a good nostalgic look back in time. I`ve only ever really liked a few of her videos, namely Ray of Light, Frozen and Material Girl, would a repeat viewing change me ageing mind?

Video

Nothing outstanding here, as you might expect everything has the soft "I`ve been transferred from NTSC" look about it, although its quite good considering. The early videos on The Immaculate collection suffer from rather a lot of poor source materials, I guess they were recorded on video which doesn`t make things easy later on when you attempt to them clean up.

As for visual appeal, things pretty much follow the quality stakes. The mid 80`s stuff is really dull and relies on the song to hold interest, but the moment we get to Material Girl, the videos become more story oriented and certainly less cheap looking.

The Video Collection is much better looks wise, probably just as well considering how dull the songs start off. For me though, its once we hit Frozen that repeat viewing becomes essential. The videos for this, Ray of Light, Drowned World, Nothing Really Matters and Beautiful Stranger are excellent, worth buying the discs for these alone.

Audio

Don`t expect any 5.1 Dolby Digital stuff, this is Linear PCM Stereo all the way, exactly as it would be on the albums.

Songs wise, there are a number of classic tracks, with Like a Virgin, Express Yourself, Like a Prayer and Oh Father standing out amongst the rest on the first disc. Unfortunately others such as Live to Tell are missing from this collection, surely worth dumping Lucky Star for?

The later videos begin to sound rather shallow, but things do pick up again when Frozen, Ray of Light and Beautiful Stranger arrive. Listening back to a lot of her earlier stuff, she doesn`t sound hip in retrospect, definitely a pop gal and proud of it. But with her new recent makeover courtesy of Mr Orbit, this is going to be the Madonna we will look back on and remember fondly in 10 years time.

Features

Well, erm, none. Simple chapter selection and no more I`m afraid. Possibly in the running for dullest menus ever too. Lets just leave it at that eh?

Conclusion

Madonna addicts should definitely have this in their collection, you get a lot of videos for your money which is rare in this day and age. In fact, even those who merely enjoy some of her work may find this of interest, the later videos are very well produced and its nice to get the absolutely classic Beautiful Stranger on there too.

With a career spanning over 15 years, this is a good overall look at the Queen of Pop`s career. Almost all of the highlights are present, showing her rise from cocky teenager, through cocky professional nymphomaniac, right up to present ultra-cool Madge.

Okay, so watching all of these again out of context did nothing to change my opinion of the woman. I never liked her much until Ray of Light, where suddenly she got truly sexy. But its interesting to look at the early almost niave performances, through the controlling sexual videos, then see her now as the Queen of cool.

If you`ve ever considered buying an album of hers, but not quite got around to it, then you can do far worse than buy this instead. Yeah a 5.1 track would have been nice, and some extras wouldn`t have gone a miss, but its certainly value for money none-the-less.