For the casual music listener, Madonna's The Immaculate Collection, a greatest hits album released at the end of 1990, is the best way to hear her early hits. Madonna is primarily a singles artist, and this 73 minute CD contains 15 of her top hits recorded during the '80s, up to and including her 1990 smash "Vogue." For this compilation, Madonna recorded an extra pair of songs that were later spun off as hits, "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me." In other words, The Immaculate Collection is Madge at her creative peak.

The addition of the two new songs is the standard practice of including bonus material to sweeten the pot for fans who might have all of the other hits. Releasing them as singles guaranteed that the CD would be an all-greatest hits compilation, even though the songs were unknown when the record hit the stands. On their own they don't add much to Madonna's artistry, save for the racy video to "Justify My Love," but they do help point the way toward themes Madonna would explore on her next studio album, Erotica.

The music on this CD is great and I cannot deny the overall impact of hearing Madonna's classic pop hits in chronological order. Her progression both as a singer and as an artist is apparent, as the tracks move from the early dance grooves like "Lucky Star" to feeling at ease with her image ("Material Girl") to the psychological depth of "Live to Tell." With "Vogue" she comes full circle in the pop world, as an innovator whose songs popularize trendy club dances.

However, I was slightly disappointed by the song selection. For example, only two of four hits from her breakthrough album, Like a Virgin, are included, which does not make the collection definitive. The movie Who's That Girl might be one that Madonna and her fans want to forget, but it did spawn two of her biggest hits from that decade, "Who's That Girl" and "Causing a Commotion," both of which are absent here. And I would have preferred True Blue's title track over "La Isla Bonita" from the same album.

More importantly, most of the tracks are different than their album versions. Many have been remixed, most notably "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself." Other tracks appear to be the radio edited versions and fade out early. Thus, "Holiday" ends just as it is building to its sweaty, rump shaking climax. It can be a frustrating listen if you are very familiar with the original songs.

On the other hand, it is nice to have "Crazy for You," "Into the Groove," and "Vogue" under one roof instead of having to go out and purchase three inferior soundtrack albums ( Vision Quest, Desperately Seeking Susan, and I'm Breathless - Music From and Inspired By the Motion Picture Dick Tracy, respectively).

So The Immaculate Collection is a mixed treasure for me. As much as I want to give this album a top mark for the fantastic music, I didn't care for the way it was presented, an obvious attempt to update Madonna's dance and pop blockbusters as new mixes and on a single CD. Not that I am opposed to remixes, but it would have been nice had the album been advertised that way.

Recommended: Yes