anton5000

Sharing my "Frozen" video recording from yesterday's show in Toronto, front view from the back section! ( @Neilfeel free to share it on MTribe ^^). What an awesome surprise!! Hope she keeps it for a bit!

From what I've seen so far of the shows, there are many thing that could be improved but my main takes are: Nothing Really Matters wouldn't hurt to have an extra chorus at the end or something rather than finish with repeating sentence, feels short. Human Nature / Crazy for you, i still don't understand that strange mashup lol. "Hung Up", geez... it absolutely NEEDS an extra chorus/outro... the way it hypes people up so much with the breakdown and the "boom boom" bass crescendo just to finish with an abrupt "I don't know what to do" acapella, it's just such a buzz kill. And more so that it transitions to a freaking ballad after lol. You can clearly see people "finally" coming alive and all excited after all these slow songs in that act, just to be left cold again. I would put Hung Up after Bedtime Story and then Ray of Light, I feel it would've fit so much better. The ending... starting to accept it more and more now, it's good that she doesn't sing much Celebration/Music so people realize that it's actually the outro, not another song. BUT, I wish she would've developed more the "sing-along" part when Bob says "Madonnaaa..., Madonna!!". She did it on the second night in Belgium and it was so much better. Madonna! Can't hear you! Madonna! What you say? Madonna!!... with people chanting. Proper closure. (min 4.28)

I went to Barcelona for the MDNA show, from my experience... since it's a standing area, once you're in and locked in your spot, you can't move or leave your place, AT ALL. So eat beforehand and don't drink anything hours before (get some Halls candy if you get thirsty lol), because if you move, nobody will let you back in... people also get very rude and aggressive, understandable if someone tries to sneak in but still. :/

Having watched the Live again today, I must say the show makes more sense now and she's performing much smoother now. I would change just a few things: Add 1 min intro for NRM remix Nothing Really Matters Everybody Into the (Hollywood) Groove Burning Up Open Your Heart Holiday In This Life (intermission) Live to Tell Like a Prayer Oh Father Blond Ambition interlude Erotica/You Thrill Me Rescue Me (or Justify My Love (Orbit Remix)) Fever Hung Up Get Together or Sorry (short 2 minute version, to maintain the "disco" party vibe but also transition into a more mellow mood). Bad Girl Secret Ballroom interlude Vogue (keep but shorten the Ballroom play by a minute or so) Human Nature Rain *** I Want You interlude (with Massive Attack intro beats) Die Another Day Don’t Tell Me Mother and Father Easy Ride (excerpt) La Isla Bonita Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (Miami Remix) You'll See Hold Tight I Don’t Search I Find (intermission) Bedtime Story (with original video backdrop) Ray of Light Frozen Like a Virgin/Billy Jean interlude Angel Gimme All Your Luvin’/Bitch I’m Madonna Celebration / Music Encore: Take a Bow Back that Up to the beat (with elements of Vini Vidi Vici)

that remix of Justify My Love was a total waste, she should've either sing the album/orbit remix or just do Rescue Me. Not sure what TBW was even doing there with recycled RIT backdrops and MDNA Best Friend choreo. And Die Another Day with black capes didn't make any sense either. Remove the "I Will Survive" cover, and transition La Isla Bonita into DCFMA Miami Mix to keep the upbeat mood (not the militar funeral version lol) I would add an ENCORE section after Celebration, and then she would emerge again and sing 2 more songs and in the end do "Take a Bow": the show is over say goodbyeeee. Definitely missing some key songs like Secret, You'll See, Express Yourself...

I was going to go with a friend who is flying from Finland, and I also have plans to see her in Paris 2 weeks later, but because of work/money I had to reduce my trip (flying from Canada), so unfortunately had to give up the Sweden show :'( ... the Rebel Heart Tour videos looked soooo amazing. I saw Sticky & MDNA in a stadium and it was a total different surreal experience! Enjoy!!

After a long research, I got myself a budget but very good quality turntable: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-ca/at-lp120xusb it comes with a Motor-driven plate rather than a belt (so the records are always on correct pitch). It also comes with a built-in amplifier, so you'd just connect it to Powered Speakers. That's it. If you want to upgrade further for better sounding, the needle is the next thing. It comes with a very good one, but if you update it to a Microlinear needle (which goes deeper into the records' groove, hence better read frequency), such as: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-ca/at-vm95ml Then, many audiophiles would recommend to upgrade the internal amplifier to an external one, before connecting to the speakers. This is totally optional but I did it just for fun, the sound was slightly improved, with a better soundstage. I got https://ifi-audio.com/products/zen-phono/ All these items are mid-priced, not too cheap but definitely not thousands of $$$, especially if you want just a good quality for casual listening Hope this helped!

Isn't that on the official CD single? hmmm. I wish they'd release all the GHV2 promo megamixes, those are so good to be forgotten :( Along with the original 20 min Thunderpuss version. Oh! and also Peter Rauhofer's "I'm Addicted" remix.

I think it would be amazing if they would dig up unreleased mixes and/or update the old songs with new dancey remixes like the unreleased Thunderpuss megamix that featured hot updates like Erotica, Take a Bow, Deeper and Deeper... But I guess it's like we all think... Probably HoneyDijon is gonna remix/update the 80s hits (cause most of them had just extended and album versions), and from mid-90s onwards use the existing remixes of DJ's and blend them all together in a continuous 1:30 hour megamix, which would be so interesting to hear!

Me and my friends are going! Late and in middle of a week but finally at least some Madonna related activity in Toronto in yearsssssss... Miss the good ol' Madonna all-night parties in Church lol.

Woooow, this looks like it was such an amazing show! "All the people in the trees... sing holiday!" hahaha.

Hmmm, maybe I'm mistaken but I'm pretty sure that those Hi-Res HD Tracks ones were Vinyl rips at 192. But I came across this MQA article that they explain the mastering process of "Like a Virgin" and seems like all their blog posts are from 2017-2018. Perhaps they just posted it on that date, but I definitely hear an improvement on the clear vinyl in comparison with the old pressings...

I remember reading that a newly remaster was done back in 2019 with a scan and re-recording of the old tapes, that's why got the new Hi-Res 192 khz files on Qobuz and Tidal, plus the Crystal Clear vinyl of the first three albums + WTG OST. I think this happens because the record label has the mentality of: "If this sells very well already with a regular edition tracklist/edition, why bother?" - Smaller bands/labels release shitload of box sets, remixes, editions because they need the cash flow... Madonna selling a standard lazy 10-track "Music" album, already does millions. That's why they released "The Holiday Collection" after, as a companion EP of The Immaculate Collection. Of course she's a musician, but above that, she's a business woman first who just happens to be an artist and have passion for music. She will NEVER do anything beyond or extra for the sake of love for the music, if it's not making her money or supposes a future interest. Whereas Bowie or Prince I think breathed music and just sat in their houses to play instruments for free on an afternoon. It's because everybody has a different notion of "what should an upscale be". Interlaced did an amazing job upscaling but he loved to keep all the grain, vhs tape noise and other vintage artifacts faithful to the original tapes. Nasty and other guys did the opposite, they did almost a CGI plastic version of her videos, which pleased many people (myself included in some cases). Personally, I'd be in the middle considering that they should remove all the noise and do a great digital restoration of the image to make it as clean and sharp as possible, but without making her look like a Final Fantasy character, lmao.

Expansive could also mean the "useless" extended, instrumental and dub versions we got on the True Blue and Like a Prayer Spotify edition... I really wish they'll include demos and unreleased material, but also seeing that Madonna herself "will oversee" the releases, she might not want to put enough unreleased material (or at least not all) and hold off on many things, since she didn't put them in the album in the first place (if it were just Warner, they def would include all to make more $$)

well it says "apparently"... while in the official press release it says 17 studio albums, so probably they just don't want to confirm / announce anything yet about new material (which won't happen in a few years anyway).

I'm so excitedddddd!!! I just hope she doesn't get in the way of releasing demos and unreleased stuff...

Thanks for the thorough explanation! My concern is for the music videos shot after the 1990s (when editing software began to appear, rather than manual cut and paste, transition effects, etc)... which yes, could've been shot in film but then if it was scanned at whatever resolution the machine was capable at the time (576p probably), feed that into the video editing program and edit from there, the master would be locked at that resolution (or whatever resolution a master tape would handle, but I doubt 4K or even HD). Unless specifically it was re-exported back into film. So in that case, it would be somewhat of a complicated job as they'd have to scan all the original film footage again in 4K, and have someone to re-edit the music video (or replicate it frame by frame as the original) to have the same result. I think George Michael did that with one of his videos (the director himself was involved in the re-editing process) and it looked amazing. However, I doubt Warner/Madonna would invest that much money, time, and people power into doing something like this... which is very sad considering she has many best videos ever in the pop music history :( Maybe they'll put an effort only with big videos like Vogue.

What sometimes glooms me is that "what if" one dies before Madonna and just the thought of knowing she'll make more new music (or unreleased stuff surfaces) and one won't be alive to hear that... daunts me, lol. Or not be able to witness a Blond Ambition Paris 8K remaster made from long lost tapes found in the Paris' catacombs... xD

or they'll just release another CD-DVD combo with previously released material and standard DVD in a cardboard box set xDDDDD

I remember reading somewhere that after the Confessions massive success, Madonna was already lining up with the Pet Shop Boys to create a second dance album, like Confessions 2.0; but Warner for some reason (maybe so she won't sounded repeated) thought it would be cool if she went to the RnB/Urban direction and they convinced her to go that route... Big mistake. However, listening this album nowadays, I still enjoy it and find it at least somewhat more coherent than the mess that was Rebel Heart or Madame Mess, MDNA is another generic EDM mess but I really enjoy that album lol.

I don't know why are you that surprised, almost everywhere in the USA it was like this and there were soooo many reports (especially by fans) about this issue: her coming off extremely late, people pissed and leaving in the middle of the show. I went to 4 shows: two in New York and two in Miami (she cancelled my 3rd show there 1 hour before!), and there was exact the same reaction of the audience... then a few friends went to different cities and while in some cases there was less of this, it wasn't the traditional Madonna concert where everybody was glued to the show and enjoying every second of it. In Las Vegas she came out at 12:30 am!!! Perhaps you saw her in Europe where people are usually more excited about everything and they indeed appreciate Madonna more, plus she had way fewer dates over there than in USA which might have had effect, still, another friends went to the Paris show and got disappointed with the cut down show (just because she couldn't start the show earlier). While in London she was forced to start early because of the strict curfew hour of the theatre (which I agree, has to be respected), yet she started rambling about how they were "censoring her freedom of speech" and all that victimhood attitude was just cringe. I agree, MDNA & SS would never work because they were planned as stadium/arena shows, and I was really looking forward to a more intimate setting show, see her up close and personal... singing her lesser known hits (perhaps throw some ballads and b-sides), give a unique warm settings to her sets that wouldn't be possible on a giant arena, etc... And it would've worked amazingly had she done a proper organized structure and production, not the disaster we got (as I described before)... of course her injuries affected even more the whole touring era, but even without it, the show lacks of many elements that would really leave you amazed. You say we got 3D projections, we did not. We got a regular video projected on the white stairs and part of it on the structures of the actual theatre. When I mean that she could've done amazing work with 3D stuff is this: a fully visual immersive experience with the Madame X world (fado clubs, nighttime streets, whatever) (especially with the 700$ I paid for a 4th row ticket - side note: at least in US, the tickets were sold for 1/3 price on the day of the show! I assume the sale wasn't great for it either). Plus it'd have given an amazing visual twist for her classic songs. Anyway, everyone's entitled for their opinion and I'm happy for you that you enjoyed this show at the same level as with her previous shows, but I think I can safely say that most of the fans didn't had the same experience. And of course Madonna won't ever please everyone, an artist just can't... but there were so many hits and misses in this era that are hard to ignore.

Well, I gotta admit that after last night's Time Square 1 minute loop video I was disappointed when they "promised us" a short film and it was nothing like it, and I thought that private event was gonna be just her, the DJs and a few people in it considering the Covid situation. But this morning I woke up to all these videos and wow, didn't know it was gonna be a packed venue full with fans and press, that was very amazing to see (still wondering about the health issue, fully vaxed people can still get sick and be contagious). Anyway, she finally remembered Hung Up! Was so happy with that and IDSIF performance. Not a big fan of the boobs out looking sideways, but the outfit and the blue wig was very cool and she looked happy. You could see she was really enjoying herself and seems like she really missed being in touch with the audience! Hope this gives her strength and motivation to release a dance record! <3 A cool surprise for the fans with this casual appearance :D

...Introducing: MDNA Pride Skin, be proud of your skin whoever you are.

If this is all that it was... Then why did she posted a video with all those DJs names (making us think there will be some sort of release), then hyping up with mysterious photos... then the whole Boom Boom Room event, then Ricardo saying "Yall not ready"... of course this is going to create big expectations... And now, not even the event that she's in is right now is being streamed.

This is just like the Olympia show... people thinking it'd be a full MDNA intimate show hahaha. But seriously... all this hype about a short film and stuff, just to get 2 minute video repeated on loop without audio??? She looked hot though! But it reminds me so much of the Xstatic Process photoshoot / Vogue RIT backdrop... I guess she could've at least put a speaker and say a message, since she already gathered all these people in one place, better take advantage xD