Stay
No John Mellencamp, no credibility. But Madonna? Strange as it may seem, we’re still living in a time when there are people who get truly, deeply, flaming-the-listserv- with-bile-dripping-down-their- fingertips upset about the fact that a bona fide superstar like the Material Girl will soon be inducted into the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame. Other inductions, or the by-now old-hat irony of an institution set up to enshrine music that was sold to generations as anti-establishment, are, like the Doobies’ Jesus, just all right with these detractors. Most likely some of the haters have never heard Madonna deep cuts like “Stay“, from the flipside of 1984 sophomore LP Like a Virgin, but although her albums have long been uneven, you’d think the many confident, girl-powered, pleasure-seeking, and yes, sometimes knowingly cheesy hits scattered across Madonna‘s singles collections would’ve been enough to win them over.
Shortly after the latest indie-oriented Madonna tribute album, former Arab Strap half Malcolm Middleton is set to release a cover of “Stay” on his follow-up to last year’s A Brighter Beat, the forthcoming Sleight of Heart. The Scottish songsmith apparently initially conceived the new LP as an acoustic album, and his “Stay” is very much in that mode, emphasizing the melancholy in the original composition by Madonna and Stephen Bray. Middleton‘s weary burr brushes up the torment in lines like, “I’d think of dying instead,” and his backing of resigned acoustic strums, piano, and strings offers little consolation. This version doesn’t work quite as well as the uptempo original, which masks its depression behind synth sparkle, but it does sound a lot more like what the title of Middleton’s 2007 single “We’re All Going to Die” seemed to promise. If we’re all gonna die, might be time for the anti-Madonna camp to remember life is short, and pop discographies with as many memorable songs as Madonna‘s – even if her true art is her persona- are rare indeed.
Source: www.pitchforkmedia.com.
Back in January 2008 MadonnaTribe had a chance to get in touch and chat with Malcolm Middleton about this new release and asked him how did he came up with the idea of turning “Stay” into an awesome acoustic ballad…
To read MadonnaTribe’s exclusive chat with Malcom Middleton
please click here.
