Madonna – GHV2

It is about a decade since Madonna‘s GHV1 – better known as The Immaculate Collection – was released. Greatest Hits Volume 2 picks up where that left off, starting with the Erotica album and finishing up with Music – or, rather, it would if it wasn’t backwards.

Just like the album Music, the first track here is Music. It is followed by what I’d hoped was the souped-up Drowned World tour version of Frozen but is instead the original floaty William Orbit mix, from which someone stole the bassline and never did give it back.

Then we gradually go back in time, bizarrely via Deeper & Deeper from Erotica (I don’t remember that being a hit, even in pole-dancing clubs?) and Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from Evita and Beautiful Stranger from the Austin Powers sequel The Spy Who Shagged Me are worthy inclusions for they were never on any of her proper studio albums, but it must be admitted that they are not new tracks per se, like Rescue Me and Justify My Love were on GHV1. In fact, with GHV2, Her Madgesty doesn’t even deign to tempt us with anything new. And she’ll probably still have the number one Christmas album to make her even richer.

For those who’ve only recently discovered Madge (all those billboards and column inches just weren’t obvious enough before, perhaps), who’ve bought into her Music and Ray Of Light phase, the latter half of this album will be novel but nowhere near as immediate as what they’re used to. For older fans who’ve been there since she was a wee girlie, GHV2 offers a pleasant chance to rediscover some of her older material from 1993 onwards.

Overall, the choice tracks from the last five albums are included here and, while compiling this collection didn’t require much imagination, the end result does the job – the CD is exactly what it says on the tin.