A Swing For Legitimacy Has It's Moments

The album "I'm Breathless" may be the one and only instant when, musically speaking, Madonna
literally did whatever the heck she wanted without giving the slightest regard to what was
marketable. Surely no one is going to purport that 40's style campy jazz tracks and ballad
were the height of chart success in the year 1990.

"I'm Breathless" purports to be music "From and Inspired by the Film "Dick Tracy"". In point
of fact, only three tracks are actually from the film, and they are by far the best tracks
on the album. All three of the tracks were written for the picture by Broadway legend
"Stephen Sondheim," and in fact one of them, "Sooner or Later," was nominated for an
Academy Award.

What flows between them are hit-and-miss numbers influenced by the music of the era and
crafted by Madonna and some of her co-horts over the first 10 years of her career. These
include Patrick Leonard and Shep Pettibone, the creators of some of her biggest dance
hits. The result is mixed.

First, covering the gems:

"Sooner or Later" is undoubtedly a Sondheim classic, and has even been included on tribute
albums to his masterworks in lieu of some of his actual Broadway hits. A sultry and slinky
big-band ballad, it's gangster's moll perfection as Madonna (as Breathless Mahoney) coos
"Sooner or Later I always get my man..." The genius of casting Madonna as a performer in
a mob lounge is that those brassy broads were rarely hired because they were fabulous singers,
so Madonna manages fine on a tune that has since been done by virtuosos like Bernadette Peters
and Chita Rivera.

"More" sounds like something straight of "Guys and Dolls"; a clever song that follows Sondheim's
"conversational" style of lyric writing, it's a tribute to the joys of excess bleated over a
bouncy piano hop (complete with intentionally slightly-off-key background chorus girls.)
"Once upon a time I had plenty of nothing..." the song stars, only to quickly switch to...
"Then time went by, and now I have plenty of plenty.../I've still got love, I've still got
rhythm/but look at what I've got to go with 'em!"

"What Can You Lose" is a jazz ballad that is brief (barely 2 minutes,) but occurs in a pivotal
moment in the film. Co-sung by stage star Mandy Patinkin (currently of "Dead Like Me,") it's
a lament of a woman who realizes she must confess her love for someone who probably don't
love her back. "What can you lose? Only the blues!" But in the end she decides NOT to tell
him, because the pleasure of the secret feelings are too vital to risk in the face of
rejection. "Leave it alone? Hold it on in?...with so much to win, there's too much to lose."

Some of the Madonna-penned tracks hold their own amidst these Sondheim classics. "Hanky
Panky," the only single released (excluding "Vogue,") would have sounded like a sister
to "More" had it not been so heavily doused in synth-keyboard instead of an acoustic
sound. Still, it's a witty ode to the naughty pleasures of a little rough handling
in the bedroom. "Don't smother me with kisses/I can get that from my sisters..."
Rather astonishingly, background vocals are provided by Ndea Davenport (who appears
on other tracks as well.) She would go on to become an underground folk-music phenom,
dueting on a hit single with Natalie Merchant.

"Back in Business" is the best of the non-Sondheim numbers. A big-band explosion of criminal
intent, one could imagine Breathless Mahoney secretly penning this song in her head every time
her mob boss-boyfriend smacks her around. Equally impressive is "Now I'm Following You
(Part I)." A duet with Madonna's at-the-time boyfriend Warren Beatty, it's classic 40's style
of nifty harmless pop-goodness is actually quite fun to listen to.

Unfortunately it morphs into "Now I'm Following You (Part II,)" in which the original ditty is
sped up over a cheezy synth beat and sort of free-styles it's way through sound byte samples
of the movie and samples of other songs on the album. Where as in "Hanky Panky" the lyric
"What about Dick Tracy?/Dick..that's an interesting name" sounds cornily naughty fun, here
it just sounds skanky. (It doesn't help that the word "dick" is then sampled, run through a
pitch adjuster, and repeated in the same rhythm/note pattern as the first verse of the song.)

Other tracks like "Cry Baby" and "I'm Going Bananas" are cornball and neither good or bad; they
sort of sound like they belonged in the mouth of Madonna's "Who's That Girl" character, as
they're sung with a sort of Jersey-nymphette tone. And finally, for absolutely no apparent
reason, the hit smash single "Vogue" is inserted as a final track. It's hard to imagine this
admittedly well-deserved smash hit dance song was "Inspired by the film Dick Tracy," but
then, she does list a bunch of 40's starlets on the track, so, there you go.

In all "I'm Breathless" may have actually been Madonna's bravest effort simply because it went
against the grain of what would be a definite big-seller. It does contain some musical gems,
but it also sports some of the biggest flops of her career. (I'm sorry, but even as I write
this I hear in my head "Dick-dick, dick-duh-dick-duh-dick-da-dick dick...") The big issue
at hand is: is the music relevant to current music listeners? The answer: not really. This is
not an album a current fan of pop music would want to pick up, nor is it a memorable addition
to the Madonna catalogue. Still, fans of music of the era of the film may enjoy it's better
moments, and for that it deserves credit.