Pre-Madonna - Composition

Composition

"These tracks carve the dance sound of a generation and chronicle Madonna's first musical self-definition phase."

When Bray decided to release the demo tracks in an album, he remixed some of them for a more contemporary appeal. "Ain't No Big Deal" was re-recorded and released as the B-side to her singles "True Blue" and "Papa Don't Preach". The track features Madonna's typical high-pitched vocal timbre of that time, and talks about a carefree woman proclaiming her love. "Stay" and "Don't You Know" were combined into one song, "Stay", which was included on the Like a Virgin album. The songs use triple-rhythms and double-tracked vocals and includes a noise resembling someone slapping a microphone and a spoken sequence which fades away in the end. The 1981 versions of "Everybody", "Burning Up" and "Ain't No Big Deal" are the pure demo versions of officially released songs whose titles are tagged with the year in which they were recorded to differentiate them from the officially-released versions. According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, "Everybody" demo version is more or less same as the single version, without the synth grooves added in it. Similarly, the demo "Burning Up" does not contain the guitar riffs of the single version. Larry Flick from Billboard described "Crimes of Passion" as "disco-spiced". The song talks about how infidelity can actually set one free from a doomed relationship. Madonna's voice sounds fuller in the verses and chorus, but takes a higher pitch in the bridge. "Laugh to Keep from Crying" has a rock edge in it, where Madonna's voice sounds drunk according to Rooksby, and the drum machine backs her voice in the chorus.