Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This very set makes me thank the high heavens that Madonna left Warner Bros. From the very tacky, uninspired cover all the way down to the CD's themselves, this set has zero to no appeal to any longtime Madonna fan. With that said, this set is not the complete studio set as it is missing Madonna's 1990 studio album I'm Breathless, containing one of the biggest worldwide hits of her career, Vogue. Some will argue that this is a soundtrack release but ultimately only includes four songs from Dick Tracy while the rest were inspired by the Breathless Mahoney character. How can you have a "Complete Studio Albums" box-set and leave out an album that contains, arguably, the biggest hit of her career? That's not the only hit that's missing for you casual fans that are considering this purchase. You will also not get: Justify My Love Into The Groove Who's That Girl Causing a Commotion You Must Love Me I'll Remember This Used To Be My Playground amongst many more glaring hits. I am aware that many of these songs mentioned were soundtrack songs or greatest hits songs, etc, but this goes to show that Warner had an opportunity to include a bonus disc or an extra DVD/Blu-Ray for that matter to make this a complete collection. I know that's asking for too much here so I am going to pull back and just discuss what IS included. So what you do get are 11 Madonna albums in their original form except her first three albums. The first three Madonna albums, Madonna, Like A Virgin and True Blue went through a remastering process in 2000 which was impeccable from a sound perspective. As part of the remaster process, bonus tracks were added to all three albums along with artwork that was reminiscent of the original vinyl version of these albums. All of these components came together to give us Madonna fans a reason to go back out and buy an album we already had. Those three remastered versions are part of this collection. The remaining eight albums are untouched and in their original form. Like A Prayer, Erotica and Bedtime Stories are in desperate need of a remaster, while Ray of Light could use some freshening up as well. Please be advised that these CD's DO NOT come with their booklets or in standard CD jewel cases but are actually housed in card sleeves which WB/Rhino is using as an opportunity to sell as a collector's item. This is not a value as far as I am concerned. Most of these physical CD's can be purchased at any used record store for under $5. I see American Life and Bedtime Stories in the dollar bin at my local record store quite often. Honestly, WB/Rhino, I am feeling "love spent." Why do you keep putting out sub-par Madonna product? We want to buy quality Madonna material. Most of us fans have all these albums and not only that but we've managed (no thanks to you WB!) to get our hands on all the rare stuff too, including the b-sides, the unreleased material, the unreleased remixes, the unreleased instrumentals. Why can't you package what we really want? You're in it to make money and we're in it to shell out money BUT we're not a bunch of idiots who are going to run around and buy everything that comes out with the name "Madonna" plastered on it. We want quality! Lets not focus on the missed opportunity for a second. Forget the unreleased material because god forbid someone, somewhere has to do a little bit of work and dig or get some papers signed (or whatever it takes to get rare material released) so that a dying record label can make some more money. For this very release, I think every single Madonna fan would have run out and bought this set in the exact physical form you are offering with minimal complaints IF you had only remastered ALL 11 albums. Major missed opportunity. ***************Update*********August 2012************** So my original review above from a few months ago was based on the Amazon price of $80 or so. Today the price sits at $39.99. It's not a bad value anymore. That's $3.63 an album. I still stand behind my review above about the overall bad quality of this product but it doesn't make me as angry when the price actually reflects the quality. This could be a great gift for a newbie fan.