This collection of latter day hits takes Our Lady past the lace and crucifixes stage and right through to PVC, kimono and stetson territory.

Starting with 1992’s Erotica album, when Madonna was ‘shocking’ the media by flaunting her S & M flirtations, the single itself is not as interesting as the video that accompanied it and has by now entered the realms of kitsch, but happily the much classier ‘Deeper And Deeper’ from the same album is also included here.

The patchy esoterica of 1994’s Bedtime Story is evidenced in the inclusion of the tranced-out title track, but there are also couple of winning singles, with the blatant yet controlled sexuality of ‘Human Nature’ and ‘Secret’ showing us Madonna at her sassiest and slinkiest.

Slapped unhappily in the middle of the album is the tiresome ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ from the Evita soundtrack, but you could forgive her even that, bearing in mind that we’re en route to the manic pulsations of ‘Ray of Light,’ bound to sound as breathtakingly euphoric as ever. Thankfully the dreaded ‘American Pie’ is off the menu, and the ever-welcome ‘Beautiful Stranger’ bounces up like a big sequinned beacon amid the lacklustre William Orbit produced balladry of ‘Frozen’ and ‘The Power of Goodbye.’

We’re brought bang up to date with the prime movers from Madge’s recent triumphant Mirwais-collaboration, the dusty grace of ‘Don’t Tell Me,’ the deceptive sweetness of ‘What It Feels Like For a Girl’ and rounding up the lot to great effect is the unearthly brilliance of ‘Music.’

All together it’s like a musical flick book through the myriad of Madonna’s incarnations from the early ‘90s to the present day, but the majority of the singles here are classic stand-alone songs in their own right. A very impressive, if not an entirely immaculate, collection.

Fiona Reid 0