Prayer

Keep the "True Blue" surprises coming! It's "Cherish" anniversary these days, right? Guess we won't have a digital single, since the Extended and "Supernatural" are already on the "Like A Prayer" 30th release (sadly this release is streaming only, not available for purchase, wish that would change).

It's easy to say now cause we know what happened but in the end, "American Life" followed the sound of the previous album and that was huge for Madonna, and also the "Die Another Day" single, another International hit for her. After "Music", getting Mirwais on board again seemed a safe bet for Warner, I guess. I remember at the time, "Die Another Day" and "American Life" (the single) seemed just the logical evolution after the "Music" album. Of course then the war video happened and everything went to hell.

WELL. The "Extended Version" of "Open Your Heart", sent to Release Radar playlists, debuts with 108.000 streams on its first day on Spotify. Not bad for a 1986 10-minute remix!

Anything after "Confessions" and "The Confessions Tour" was going to be a hard one. How do you follow two monster hits like those? I like "Hard Candy". It's not the R&B, urban album that lots of fans like to say it is. It's a pop album and in part it reminds me of the debut album, actually. But it's also a very mid 00s pop album, so she was a little bit late to that sound. She was clearly super inspired by Gwen Stefani solo albums but of course she would never admit that. Even the opening of the "Sticky & Sweet Tour" is the same opening as Gwen's first solo tour. Fair enough, Gwen Stefani was super inspired by Madonna, so I guess Madonna was just borrowing back? And then life happened too. The marriage was ending, a new phase with Live Nation about to begin for her... when you know you're quitting your job the last weeks are always a little bit "meh". And her promotion of the album was a little bit like that. Also, "Hard Candy" lacked a stronger visual direction. The album cover was amazing (I still remember the shock haha) but the rest? I still think this amazing first official teaser should have been the direction for the album, visually: Sexy retro was the way to go. Are you getting hard... candy? That was PERFECT.

New banner promoting the release on madonna.com http://cdn.ontourmedia.io/madonna/non_secure/images/20210730/true_blue_351627652607/true_blue_351627652607.jpg

Money

Qobuz: https://www.qobuz.com/es-es/album/true-blue-35th-anniversary-edition-madonna/q469m9rszzwla

Yes They're quite noticeable, at least with headphones. (For the fans, general public won't notice/care).

Should we post it here? (2 - the only file - is the 35th Release I think! Anyway, if the Japanese 2015 release is the 2001 remaster, it's fucked up anyway haha).

This one is from TIDAL:

It’s everywhere, Spotify & Apple Music too. They’ve updated the 9 album tracks + the 2 bonus remixes on the “True Blue” reissue with all these “new” versions.

And the track they sent for Release Radar is... The f****g 10-minute Extended Version of "Open Your Heart". The rest was already on Spotify, so they only had that or the "Remix/Edit" of "True Blue", apart from the instrumentals.

From the iTunes previews I would say it's a 2021 "remaster"... it's super loud but not as bright as the 2001 remaster? The remixes and instrumentals sound similar and loud so those have been definitely pumped up from the originals.

I'm very grateful that they're doing this but it's very frustrating that they botch two songs from one her most iconic albums in the process. Why that should be OK and acepted? We can't expect a certain level of quality control from Warner/Rhino? I think we should. Don't go for second best, baby...

I try to find a reason for that happening and I can't find one. WHY? Also, they've updated the other "True Blue" release so basically those two songs on streaming are now mutilated, on the original release and now on the 35th Anniversary Version, too. Why??