Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits Vol. 2

5 star:		(147)
4 star:		(79)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

As a teenager in the 1980s, I absolutely loved Madonna; I refused to go a single day without listening to at least one Madonna song. By the time the 1990s rolled around, the obsession had faded and, while I still liked Madonna, I really didn't keep up with her music (or pop music in general, the poor quality of which finally pushed me over to the oldies stations on my radio). For me, GHV2 is a perfect match. My previous exposure to most of these songs ranged from a little to none whatsoever, so I basically rediscovered Madonna when I bought this collection. Madonna has never gotten the respect she deserves for her music; all I heard about her for many years were criticisms of her movies, jokes, etc. Most of the critics seem to dismiss her music altogether, yet she unleashed some huge hits (not to mention impressive albums) during the 1990s, most of the best of which are included in this retrospective collection. Now I know that Madonna is larger than life and that her music is really only a part of her persona. Many people have disapproved of some of her antics over the years, including myself on occasion, but I have always loved and admired her strength, resolve, and undying commitment to be a complete individual and do whatever she wants to do. It's easy to get lost in all the ephemeral nonsense that surrounds the woman, but her very foundation is her music, and this collection shows what an amazing performer she really is.

Madonna has been around quite a long time now, as hard as that is for me to believe. The reason she is still turning out hits while many other artists from the early 80s are gone and forgotten comes down to her unmatched ability to completely recreate herself. Not only does she adapt to changes in the musical scene, she leads the charge for change herself. Over her career, this has allowed her to excel across a wide spectrum of song types. I'm no dance music expert, but Madonna lays down the most infectious dance beats I know of in songs such as Deeper and Deeper (featuring a brilliant bridge into a part of her earlier song Vogue) and the totally funked up Music. Beautiful Stranger is another great dance song (but I'll never be able to hear this song without conjuring up images from the music video featuring Austin Powers). Of course, Madonna has her naughty side, as revealed in the edited versions of Erotica and - depending on your state of mind - Bedtime Stories. Madonna never looks back or has regrets, a trait I greatly admire, and she makes this fact pretty clear in the sexually mischievous song Human Nature. What It Feels Like For a Girl makes the point even more convincingly as it points out the ways in which men and women are judged by different standards.

Madonna is also the voice behind some of the best love songs of the 1990s. Classics such as The Power of Goodbye, Frozen, and Take a Bow are just beautiful, featuring some of the most moving choruses I've ever heard in pop music. The lyrics, for those who stop to listen to them, are really quite poignant and touching - you won't find any bubble gum pop on GHV2. Then there are the great songs I find hard to classify: Ray of Light is almost cosmic in its appeal and manic in its musical expression. Drowned World/Substitute For Love carries a life-affirming beat in support of its unusually touching message. Then there is Don't Tell Me, a song I like more and more each time I hear it. I remember hearing it for the first time on the radio, as the deejay assured the audience that the "skips" we were about to hear in the early moments of the track were actually supposed to be there. In the 1990s, Madonna was still taking chances, still taking music in new directions, and still turning out some of the best music in the business. GHV2 is a great joy for Madonna fans and ample proof to all the disbelievers out there who deny this remarkable woman's musical talent.

The MADONNA GHV2 Limited Edition CD is not much differant than original GHV2. There are no extra songs and the only thing really differant is the special packaging along with the 2 or 3 more pages in the booklet. I do love this MADONNA GHV2 CD very much but do advise you to only get this Limited Edition CD if your a true die hard fan. It is a great collecters item but other than tha I would stick with the original as it is much cheaper and missing very little besides the fancy packaging. I give this CD 5 stars because of the great songs and because it's MADONNA and she can do little wrong.Track Listings1. Deeper And Deeper2. Erotica3. Human Nature4. Secret5. Don't Cry For Me Argentina6. Bedtime Story7. The Power Of Goodbye8. Beautiful Stranger9. Frozen10. Take A Bow11. Ray Of Light12. Don't Tell Me13. What It Feels Like For A Girl14. Drowned World/Substitute For Love15. Music

Ciao! fellow amazon reviewers and shoppers.

Madonna has done it again with this thrilling and different collection of hits. I am very happy to learn that Beautiful stranger made it to the track list!

Out of all the songs, I personally think that Madonna's MUSIC, THE POWER OF GOODBYE, BEAUTIFUL STRANGER AND BEDTIME STORY ARE my favorites.

If you don't know the track list, it is as goes:
1) Deeper and deeper 7" edit 2) Erotica radio edit 3) Human nature clean radio version 4) Secret 5) Don't cry for me Argentina original non dance version 6) Bedtime Story 7 The power of goodbye 8) Beautiful stranger 9) Frozen 10) Take a bow 11) Ray of light 12) Don't tell me 13) What it feels like for a girl non dance mix version 14) Drowned world/Substitute for 15) Music

The photos inside the booklet are amazing and they show her in all imaginable poses and styles. Actually, the whole concept of the artwork is Madonna's different looks from the start up to the present. Even the graphics on the cd itself are cool and offer a bold and new look to the incredible Queen of Pop's journey of success.
There is a song for everyone. If you like serene and serious stuff, "Don't cry..." is for you. If you like moving, unearthing trancelike music, Bedtime story is for you. I liked the idea of Madonna continuing right from where she left off with the "Immaculate Collection.

Unfortunately there are no remixes on this compilation. It would have been fun to find the remixes from her new singles here. Oh weeeeellllll. It's okay because whatever the Queen of Pop does suits me fine.
Upon reading the writeup inside the booklet, I first thought it cool that Madonna wrote something for her fans, but instead, it was written by Dan Cadan. The writeup was interesting because I learned a little more about Madonna than I knew already.
I think you will appreciate her a whole lot more after reading it.

The cd cover is an unusual for Madonna. Usually we see her whole face or her whole body. Here, she is close up and dramatically made up, and I find her expression both seductive and shy.
This woman knows what music is and knows how to make it. 5 big huge gold stars for this collection.

Sing on Madonna, and hope you will come up with another collection some time in the future.

Enjoy the cd and hope my review helped you.

Madonna has been known to release her work as specially packaged editions. I have this one and it's really nice. The cover is the same as the original, but inside, more pictures are included and the CD itself is a beautiful picture disc made to look like a phonograph record. The track listing is great, but it would have been much better if the songs were in chronological order. Because they aren't, this CD doesn't flow as easily as The Immaculate Collection. Madonna has been interviewd about this CD and she said that these are the songs she enjoys listening to, so it's not really a Greatest Hits album, it's a "Madonna's Favorite Songs From The Last 10 Years" album! All in all, this limited edition is a great collector's item, but if you're not a Madonna collector, the original is just as good and cheaper!

Released in 2001, Greatest Hits Volume 2 established that Madonna's musical career had survived the turbulent nineties. A look at the track list of the album displays an impressive amount of superb pop songs, showcasing that Madonna had been quite productive during the nineties. However, the nineties did not always treat the pop chameleon kindly. The earlier nineties saw the release of her sexbook and her daring album Erotica which caused massive controversy. Madonna's popularity seemed to plummet and as a result her Erotica and Bedtime Stories albums suffered from lower sales than her previous records. Though her 1998 album, Ray Of Light, rocketed Madonna back to the top of the chart, selling over an impressive 14 million copies. Her 2000-release Music cemented that Madonna had no intention of disappearing from the music scene just yet.

Greatest Hits Volume 2 is a collection of Madonna's biggest hits from 1992 to 2000. While some tend to dispute whether Madonna was better during the eighties or the nineties, GHV2 showcases a quantity of Madonna's finest moments in her musical career. From the audacious Erotica to the lingering ballad of Take A Bow, Madonna expresses her bold and sensitive side on the two tunes. The disco-fabulous Deeper And Deeper supposedly deals with homosexuality, while the intrepid Human Nature sees Madonna, attacking her critics `Did I say something wrong?/Oops, I didn't know/I could talk about sex(I must have been crazy)'. The 1994 Bedtime Stories album also saw Madonna tackling a R'n'B-inspired sound with Secret, which works quite well unlike other tracks on the Bedtime Stories. Yet the one of the most enthralling tunes on GHV2 is the murky Bedtime Stories, its sound is quite different from anything else on the Bedtime Stories album. In fact, the song would have been more suitable for Ray Of Light.

Other noteworthy tunes include the poignant The Power Of Goodbye, the mystifying Frozen, the racy Ray Of Light and the haunting Drowned World/Substitute For Love, distinctly displaying that Madonna's 1998 release Ray Of Light is well-represented. While I am not a fan of the song Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Madonna has never sounded better than she does on the Evita soundtrack. The cheerful Beautiful Stranger, taken from the The Spy Who Shagged Me, shows a fun and bubbly Madonna. The Madonna/William Orbit-produced Beautiful Stranger displays the chemistry between the pair at its finest. Despite their excellent collaborations on Ray Of Light, the Music album seems for the most part to suffer from their work together. While I think What If Feels Like For A Girl and Music are among the weaker songs on GHV2, Don't Tell Me is, however, a testimony that Madonna is excellent at incorporating different styles into her music.

GHV2 is a collection of a number of Madonna's greatest songs and would surely be a welcome addition to your pop music collection. Although I think that some songs are missing on the album or should have replaced other, there is little doubt that GHV2 is a superb collection. A minus is, however, that many of the songs are edited versions, which ruins the overall enjoyment of several of the songs. Yet GHV2 is recommendable to everyone who likes the 1990s and Millennium Madonna.

It's not often that a recording artist can actually stay true to the title of "Greatest Hits", while actually including all hits. See recent Hits packages by Hilary Duff, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey, where remixes, b-sides, flopped singles alternate cuts, and even non-singles must be added to fill up the disc. It's even more rare for an artist to be able to fill a SECOND greatest hits package, without any overlap, and STILL have certifiable hits left off.

GHV2 starts out where The Immaculate Collection left off, 1992.
Deeper & Deeper hit #7 on the charts (#1 in Dance) and was the second single off of Erotica. It was a disco flavored house / pop hybrid.

Erotica, the controversial, dark lead off single from the album of the same name, hit #3 (#1 in Dance). Human Nature hit #46, but was #2 in sales and in huge rotation on MTV & VH-1.
Secret, the lead off single from Bedtime Stories, hit #3 (#1 Dance) is up next. Don't Cry For Me Argentina hit #8 (#1 Dance), is included in ballad form, not the Miami Dance Remix that was also very popular in the clubs.

GHV2 then dips back to Bedtime Stories again with the way ahead of its time "Bedtime Story", the 3rd single from the album. It hit #42 (#1 Dance). We then skip to the 3rd US single from Ray Of Light, the hyperballad "Power Of Goodbye". It peaked at #11.

"Beautiful Stranger" the glouriously delicious throwback to the 70's, hit #16 (#1 Dance, #1 Sales), follows. "Frozen" is up next. The lead of single from Ray Of Light hit #2 (#1 Dance, #1 Sales).

We go back to the Bedtime Story album with "Take A Bow", which spent 11 weeks at #1, as well as 9 weeks at the top Sales spot. "Ray Of Light" (#5, #1 Dance, #1 Sales) follows.

The stuttering "Don't Tell Me" comes up next and hit #4 (#1 Dance, #1 Sales). "What It Feels Like For A Girl" is next. It hit #23 (#1 Dance, #1 Sales). Drowned World wasn't released in the US, but this set was also intended for international release and it hit #10 in the UK. It's ashame this wasn't released in the US, as it is one of the most touching, heartfelt songs in her catalouge. "Music" the biggest hit in her 2nd decade in music finishes off the collection. It hit #1 (#1 Dance, #1 Sales, #1 Airplay) and stayed there for 4 weeks.

With so many huge hits filling the disc, again, as with the first Hits set, legitimate hits had to be left off. These include "This Used To Be My Playground" (#1), Bad Girl (#36), I'll Remember (#1), You'll See (#6), You Must Love Me (#18), and American Pie (#29).

All in all, GHV2 is a true testament to the power of Madonna. There are only 2 other artists who have had more Top 10's & Top 40's than her, Elvis & The Beatles. GHV2 will take you back to wherever you were when they were released, and you'll love every minute of it.

You say that all the songs are written by other people. Uh, check the liner notes. The only song NOT written by Madonna is "Bedtime Story".

Madonna delivers to us a second compilation of her greatest hits in GHV2. The tracks included here tend to lean towards the electronic side thanks to her collaborations with Bjork and William Orbit.

The only tracks I don't care for are Don't Cry For Me Argentina and Drowned World. The rest are very, very entertaining and prove why Madonna is one of the biggest, smartest, craftiest, and most controversial entertainers of all time.

Throughout the 1990's, Madonna's The Immaculate Collection sold more than 22 million copies worldwide and gained a reputation as one of the most complete and essential greatest hits collection ever - Madonna was going to have a job on her hands to repeat the success of that with her follow up, Greatest Hits: Volume 2 (GHV2) which was released worldwide on November 12th 2001. Basically, it doesn't take a genius to realise that GHV2 doesn't quite live up to the "immaculate" (no pun intended) quality that The Immaculate Collection so proudly displays. Firstly, GHV2 contains no new material from Madonna, whereas The Immaculate Collection contained two new songs - Justify My Love and Rescue Me. Secondly, every song on The Immaculate Collection was a massive hit worldwide, which is probably the reason it did so well. GHV2 on the other hand, has a few songs that are less recognisable - Bedtime Stories, Take A Bow and Secret are an example of this. Despite these few mishaps, GHV2 is saved by songs from the albums Ray Of Light and Music. It's the sheer quality in terms of lyrics and vocal ability on songs such as Frozen, The Power Of Goodbye, Ray Of Light and Music that made GHV2 the must-have, essential album of 2001...even if it was beaten to No.1 by Westlife - we'll see who's still around in 10 years time!

The album opens with Deeper And Deeper and Erotica. Both songs were taken from her controversial 1992 album Erotica. The former is a fantastic dance party track - the true definition of Madonna at her most up-beat and camp; ironically, the song was supposedly about a young gay coming to terms with his homosexuality. Erotica, on the other hand, dealed with the pure raunch factor that had family groups up in arms. The song is pure fun, but with all the kinky, soft-core sex thrown in for good measure. The song is superb, yet the image of a dominatrix-clad Madonna always pops into my head everytime I hear it! After this, we move onto Human Nature and Secret - both tracks of which were taken from Madonna's 1994's album, Bedtime Stories. Both songs are average at best; not the type of music I like and love Madonna for. Track 5 is Don't Cry For Me Argentina. The song was taken from the film Evita in which Madonna starred as Eva Peron alongside Antonio Banderas. Track 6 is Bedtime Story - the third song on GHV2 to be taken from the album Bedtime Stories. The song is fantastic to say the least and has beautiful, yet strange lyrics with a catchy dance beat produced by Bjork. The album chugs on with The Power Of Goodbye and Beautiful Stranger. Both songs are examples of some of Madonna's greatest 1990's work. The Power Of Goodbye was taken from Madonna's superb and critically acclaimed 1998 No.1 album Ray Of Light. The song has a superb instrument arrangement with some beautiful, almost royal, vocals from Madonna. Beautiful Stranger is pure pop fun and was the soundtrack to the hit film, Austin Powers II. "If I'm smart then I'll run away, but I'm not so I guess I'll stay," sings Madonna. The lyrics are total silliness (in a good way) and shows Madonna in a totally different light from the dark and moody phase of the mother-Earth era (Ray Of Light). We're dragged back to the mother-Earth era with Frozen, a superb and hauntingly poetic power-ballad that shot straight to No.1 in February 1998 - Madonna's first UK No.1 since 1990's Vogue. Take A Bow from Bedtime Stories is Track 10. This is one of Madonna's best ballads to date, peaking at No.1 in the US for seven consecutive weeks in 1994. Tracks 11 and 12 are Ray Of Light and Don't Tell Me, taken from the albums Ray Of Light and Music respectively. The former saw Madonna back on the dancefloor as it proudly portrays funky dance beats and loud party vocals. Madonna admits that the song's about celebration and living life to the full. Don't Tell Me is a wonderful country pop song with same jerky beats and brilliant vocals - the video featured Madonna dancing around in cowboy gear! Not surprisingly for the Queen of Pop, it set off another fashion craze - a trend that would've been unthinkable as well as laughable a year previously. GHV2 continues with What It Feels Like For A Girl and Drowned World/Substitute For Love, taken from the albums Music and Ray Of Light respectively. I like both songs, but I think they should've included the Dance Remix of What It Feels Like For A Girl, as the version that features is so-so. The final song on GHV2 is Music, which was Madonna's most recent No.1 in August 2000. The song is one of Madonna's most popular of her entire career and is a great way to close such a superb album.

OVERALL GRADE: 9/10

All in all, GHV2 is an essential album for every Madonna fan in the world. The album had record pre-advance orders of 800,000 in the UK and has sold 10 million copies worldwide. Whilst GHV2 is a superb album with the songs it has to offer, I think it could've been so much better by adding hits such as the US No.1 This Used To Be My Playground and other hits such as Rain, Bad Girl, Nothing Really Matters and her 2000 UK No.1, American Pie. If these excellent songs had been included on GHV2 along with two or three new songs, it would've been the perfect greatest hits album - definitely surpassing The Immaculate Collection. If it had some new material, it would've sold twice as much as a lot of die-hard Madonna fans did not buy this through the lack of new material. Anyway - I'm waffling...GHV2 is superb, Madonna is superb and so are you if you buy this from Amazon now!

The second greatest hits from the most significant female artist of our time! Undoubtedly so, for Madonna has sold over 150 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide. Not only a commercial success, Madonna has managed to come off as a talented musician and performer while juggling the roles of a mother and a wife.

This greatest hits is the companion to 1990's 22-million selling The Immaculate collection, something everyone should have known by now. It spans the years from 1991-2001. At the very first glance, the lack of a new song but yet a massive promo campaign might have seem like an attempt at lame commercialism by Warner Bros. In fact, reports said that Madonna didn't want this release so soon. Whichever the case, this 15-track collection stacks up quite nicely with The Immaculate Collection. Obviously, Madonna has enough hits to fill another CD, and these hits were left off to prevent the cannibalization of past catalog album sales. The ommission of new tracks or unreleases songs has again touched the nerves of some fans, nbut no one is ever happy with any tracklist, so these 15 songs are what you'll ever get.

The limited edition offers no extras but does come with another lavish paackage this time with more pictures than the standard edition and a nice layout by Grammy-winning art director Kevin Regan who seems to be Madonna's staple creative personnel.

Though The Immaculate Collection was largely energetic and truly a milestone in Madonna's career, GHV2 represents a different era for Madonna altogether. It's Madonna constantly rediscovering herself in the 90's with the earlier hits Erotica and Deeper and Deeper. Though excellent songs, they really suffered at the Sex backlash. Erotica, for one, still evokes the kind of mystism and sensuality today. Human Nature, in its clean form (...), shows the world that Madonna had no regrets for what she had done, with a ooh-so-hot video to accompany. When Madonna was hot and sexy, where were those Jennifers and Britneys? Don't Cry For Me Argentina may seem like a sore thumb sticking out of nowhere, but it is really to show the evolution of Madonna into the next stage and paving for her second milestone with Ray Of Light. 4 tracks from the Grammy-winning album show up here including the incredible song Drowned World/Substitute For Love where Madonna lamented about the price of fame over love. This song and Ray Of Light, are some of the highlights here. From her Music album, there's of course the huge title track and the two splendid follow-ups Don't Tell Me and What It Feels Like For A Girl.

Once you pop this CD into your player, you are unlikely to stop cos the 15 tracks here, believe it or not, capture the true essence of Madonna in the last decade. From kink to art to spirituality and funk. No one can beat Madonna and no one ever will, in artistry and craft.

Long live, the Queen!!!!