Talk:I'm Breathless/GA1

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GA Review[edit]

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Reviewer: XXSNUGGUMSXX (talk · contribs) 00:29, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]


Overview[edit]

Prose: See below Resolved

Sourcing: See below Resolved

Coverage: See below Resolved

Neutrality: See below Resolved

Stability: No issues

GA Result: On hold for seven days. Passed

Details[edit]

Lead
  • "It was released on May 22, 1990, by Sire Records to promote and accompany the film Dick Tracy, in which Madonna starred as Breathless Mahoney; her then-boyfriend Warren Beatty played the title role"..... a rather long sentence. I'd split this into something like "It was released on May 22, 1990 by Sire Records along with the film Dick Tracy. In the film, Madonna starred as Breathless Mahoney, and her then-boyfriend Warren Beatty played Dick Tracy."
    • Actually it is noted time and again that the album was a promotional vehicle for Dick Tracy so I have kept that essence but split the sentence. Along with does not portray the same activity as accompanying a film. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "After Dick Tracy's filming, Madonna started working on a soundrack for the film along with producer Patrick Leonard and engineer Bill Bottrell, including three songs written by Stephen Sondheim"..... I think we can simplify this to something along the lines of "After the filming was complete, Madonna began work on the film's soundtrack along with Stephen Sondheim, producer Patrick Leonard, and engineer Bill Bottrell".
  • The detail on recording "Vogue" is probably better left in its own article rather than here
  • "The tracks reflected Madonna's showgirl personality"..... I don't think everyone reading this is automatically going to know what a "showgirl personality" is supposed to be mean.
  • Be specific on what she smoked (not everyone is automatically going to know whether this is referring to cigars, cigarettes, marijuana, meth, crack, etc.)
  • "in order to completely embrace the vocals of her character Breathless"..... "to accommodate for her character Breathless's vocals"
  • "After it wrapped up" → "After the tour"
Background and development
  • Remove the misplaced comma in "Breathless Mahoney—a new role introduced for her—, with Warren Beatty"
  • "Madonna told in an interview with Premiere magazine" → "Madonna told Premiere magazine"
  • "decided to involve herself volluntarily"..... should be spelled voluntarily
  • "avoid any appearance of nepotism"..... let's keep it simple and just say "favoritism"
  • "In her favor, she would produce the entire album" → "She produced the entire album"
  • "She added that she had to work hard on I'm Breathless, and at the time and place of its creation, the record was important to her"..... Too much detail, just simply say the record was important to her while she was making it
Recording and composition
  • "The harmonic and melodic styles were more complex than the songs which Madonna was accustomed to, hence she found it difficult as well as her most demanding vocals to date"..... "complex" seems POV here. How about simply saying Madonna wasn't used to its styles and found it challenging?
  • "But he kept of encouraging the singer"..... I think you mean he kept on encouraging her
  • See note above on "showgirl personality"
  • "Madonna started to smoke in order to achieve that" → "Madonna started smoking cigarettes to alter her voice".
  • "The songs on I'm Breathless has a coquettish and pandering nature, and was the polar opposite to Madonna's previous release, Like a Prayer, which was introspective, moody and much more serious in its composition"..... they have a nature, and this needs some POV cleaning. It wouldn't hurt to specify who describes the material this way (which seems to be from biographer Lucy O'Brien). Frankly, I'm not sure if the bits on Like a Prayer are even needed. Maybe replace "coquettish" with "flirtatious" and "pandering" with "indulgent".
    • I have directly attributed this and I believe the little bit about Like a Prayer is to give a contrast to Madonna's persona and how it reflected the songs. During Like a Prayer she was miserable, hence moody songs, during I'm Breathless she was romantically involved, hence "coquettish" natured songs. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Madonna's voice sounds light amidst the arrangement of organs, strings, piano, sax and backing vocals"..... more POV, put quotations around "light" to reduce this
  • "a moody, determined song"..... POV again
  • "singing in squeezed vocals"..... what exactly is this supposed to mean?
  • "The singer talks about a guy who is too sensitive and soft"..... more POV
  • "The song ends suddenly"..... how about abruptly?
  • Add "The" right before "Next track 'Something to Remember' deals"
  • "'Back in Business', the eighth track, begins with an unique hook whose ending was described by a writer of Rolling Stone as a 'nagging headache'"..... needs a WP:TNT- the "unique" part is WP:PEACOCK. Let's include the writer's name (Mark Coleman) and have it as something like "Mark Coleman described the beginning of 'Back in Business', the eighth track, as a 'nagging headache'".
  • The "Composed as if for performing onstage" bit simply doesn't belong
  • "The arrangement starts and stops with the singing being fast, requiring proper enunciation by Madonna"..... how about something like "the arrangement switches between fast and slow tempos"?
  • "It is a torch song, with Patinkin supplying the male voice" → "It is a love song where Patinkin supplies the male voice"
    • But torch is making the song specific to what kinda love song it is?
  • "'Now I'm Following You (Part I)' is a duet with Beatty and an old-fashioned song, which leads to 'Now I'm Following You (Part II)', another duet with Beatty and a modern electronic one"..... "old-fashioned" is quite POV, and "modern" is subject to change, let's try "Madonna sings a two-part duet with Beatty titled 'Now I'm Following You'".
  • "With beats atop a riff, Madonna reveals that 'Dick' is an interesting name"..... put quotation marks around "interesting"
  • "Madonna names numerous 'golden era' Hollywood celebrities"..... various celebrities would be a better word choice
Promotion
  • "The concert's sexual content and religious imagery proved controversial"..... a more NPOV statement would be something like "The concert was criticized for its sexual content and religious imagery"
  • "After the tour wrapped up"..... concluded would be more encyclopedic
  • "At one point the singer flipped open her large skirt, allowing one of her dancers to crawl inside"..... what happens while the dancer is inside?
    • You know what happens, lol. :D Actually the dancer crawled out the other side.
  • "a set resembling classic Hollywood"..... "classic" is WP:PEACOCK, try instead giving a decade of this so-called "classic" era
    • linked it.
      • Better, but after giving some thought it might be best just to scrap the "resembling classic Hollywood" bit altogether Snuggums (talk • contributions) 08:06, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Singles
  • Why not just use MTV itself for ref#53? I'm not too sure how I feel about "Rock on the Net".....
  • Ref#47 (NineMSN) is dead
  • Ref#54 (MTV News) is dead
  • "met with appreciation ever since its release"..... how about "has continuously been acclaimed"?
  • Put quotation marks around "funky" and "catchy" to prevent potential POV
  • If there are two paragraphs on "Vogue", how come only one for "Hanky Panky"? Try to balance this out by either expanding on "Hanky Panky" or removing some detail on "Vogue"
    • That is how the importance of "Vogue" is. It is actually balanced seeing that "Hanky Panky" was nothing compared to "Vogue". Fleshing out the Hanky Panky section would be WP:UNDUE, same for removing some of it from "Vogue". —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Critical reception
  • The "M" for AllMusic needs to be capitalized
  • "J. Randy Taraborrelli, in his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography, gave the album a favorable review" → "Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli gave the album a positive review in Madonna: An Intimate Biography"
  • Last I checked, People writers are more of celebrity news reporters than media critics. Probably best to use a source more commonly noted for music/film reviews.
    • People was a reputed source in those days, a much higher held organization. Its status has gradually decreased to celebrity news reports nowadays, but that does not negate a review from 1990, by Novak, who himself is authoritative on film and music reviews. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
      • Perhaps I should've phrased this differently- it was more of a topic question than it was reliability, as I've quite often seen People used for "personal life" sections of BLP's but not for media reviews. Looking into the ref, though, Novak isn't the only reviewer (there are four others). Snuggums (talk • contributions) 08:06, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "that the album was a good departure for Madonna"..... specify what she "departed" from
  • "Writing for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Liz Smith gave another positive review" → "Liz Smith of Sarasota Herald-Tribune also gave a positive review"
    • No, Liz Smith is not from Sarasota publication. She wrote for them. We cannot always use the "XX from YY newspaper said ZZ" format. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "claiming that when it came to campiness"..... how about "humor" or "lightheartedness" for simplicity sake?
    • camp is a specific genre of humor, so substituting it would be to remove that specialization and make it generic, that's not what we would go for. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • "The critic listed"..... since the previous sentence indicates this is Robert Christgau's review, replace "The critic" with "He" or "Christgau".
  • "where Madonna's input is the most evident"..... simply doesn't belong
  • "Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine also gave the album a favorable review, as well as four out of five stars"..... the bit on him giving a "favorable review" is not needed when you have his rating.
  • "A review in the New Straits Times by Tan Gim Ean" → "Tan Gim Ean from New Straits Times"
    • See before
  • "Although her vocals were called 'competent', the reviewer felt that the songs" → "Ean called Madonna's vocals 'competent' though felt the songs"
Chart performance
  • "After nineteen weeks charting within the country"..... mention "the country" by name
Track listing
  • The credits in this section needs to be cited
References
Onto it XX. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 03:40, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I have replaced and rewrote most of the points. Explained some of the points which I did not address in the article. Please take a look now. —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 08:05, 14 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
(Applauds) very nice revising so far. Looking much better, though some bits were unaddressed without explanation. Maybe 11JORN (the original nominator before this article's temporary GAN withdrawal for stability) could have a go as well for this. Snuggums (talk • contributions) 08:06, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, 11JORN corrected some of the others like the track list and I addressed the others as well including removing People. Check it now @XXSNUGGUMSXX: —Indian:BIO · [ ChitChat ] 13:13, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You gentlemen have both earned yourselves another GA. Congrats! Snuggums (talk • contributions) 16:09, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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