Madonna appreciation thread!

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I've listened to some of the previews that her team have posted over the past few days, and this is the 1st preview that is actually a full song. 'I Fucked Up' is not that bad, actually.

Her team have also been posting pics from tour rehearsals:

419431_10150743421679402_10584534401_11625546_2080589310_n.jpg


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150730338184402.460112.10584534401&type=3

:hyper:
 
I've listened to those previews of some songs - but I'm gonna wait until I get the album to listen to it - in full.

Setlist rumors for the world tour are starting to spread around - and Madonna's holding a live Q&A through Facebook this Saturday at 6:30 EST. And, it's gonna be moderated by none other than Jimmy Fallon. Interesting. :shifty:

https://www.facebook.com/madonna
 
Slapnutz said:
Album is now online...

:up: Can't wait to listen to it tomorrow. :wink:

Did anyone catch her Facebook chat with Jimmy Fallon yesterday? Can't post the link now, but it's on her Facebook page. It looks like she'll be answering questions on Twitter tomorrow, as well.
 
:up: Can't wait to listen to it tomorrow. :wink:

Did anyone catch her Facebook chat with Jimmy Fallon yesterday? Can't post the link now, but it's on her Facebook page. It looks like she'll be answering questions on Twitter tomorrow, as well.

yeah it was a waste of 30 minutes really- nothing of ininterest other than she'll be playing Gang Bang on the tour

I disliked HC on almost every level- an awful album (and I say that as a fan!)

I'm very happy with MDNA- one true stinker- Barfday Song and the poor GMAYL and ok-ish I Don't Give A (would be better without the rap bit). The rest is pretty much what you'd want from a Madonna album
 
I find the album pretty average.
Madonna has been repeating many times «I hate repeating myself» on recent interviews. But the album is pretty much Madonna repeating herself. Just like U2 tried, over the past decade, to recreate some of the eureka moments, sonically speaking, Madonna did exactly that with MDNA.
But it seems that it's not only musically. The "Girl Gone Wild" video is an orgy of visual/photographic/aesthetic clichés of Madonna's past videos that she mixed up in the minutes, without adding anything relevant but the «me and my gays» and the «gay diva» thing. There's no story, nothing relevant about that video, except some photography work here and there.
The same goes for MDNA. First of all, it's not cohesive at all. I find no connection, for example, between "Gang Bang" and "Masterpiece" or between "I Don't Give A" and "Girl Gone Wild".
Secondly, from my first listen, every single song sounded to me as a revival of another old Madonna song. "Gang Bang" reminded me of the remix used in the music video for "What It Feels Like For A Girl"; "Falling Free" is the son of a threesome between "Mer Girl", "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" and an hypothetical orchestral "Voices"; "Give Me All Your Luvin'" is a "Gambler" and "Burning Up" revival with Tony Basil's "Mickey" touch; "I'm A Sinner" is the second time she tried to write "Beautiful Stranger"... unsuccessfully (the first time she tried it was with "Amazing" on Music, the next year); "I Don't Give A" recalls American Life without Mirwais...
Among other songs, "Turn Up The Radio" is a generic house-pop song that is twins with Solveig's "Hello"; "Superstar" sounds like Madonna covering Muse's "Starlight" (same BPM's, same melody and chord progression, same structure); "Some Girls" sounds like any Lady Gaga song (which are, most of all, equal to each other).
Even lyrically she copy-pasted herself many times. For example, I remember hearing some "Into The Groove" and some "Express Yourself" lines on the new songs.

It's not that most of these songs are bad. They're not. They're just average. Specially compared to those she tried to self-emulate. So, I prefer the original ones.
My favourite track is "Love Spent". Despite some "Hung up" keyboard-riff in the middle, this song is an addiction to me. First, the banjo, then, that first part, I love it. Then, it becomes a different song. It's like two different songs, with different melodies in 3/4 minutes. A bit unconventional. I liked it. That's what I expected Madonna to do.

To me, Madonna always was the artist that went to the underground to pick up some stuff and made it popular on the most mainstream pop, she used to set some trends and standards on pop music. She was the last artist that I expected to repeat and emulate herself.

On the bonus tracks, "Beautiful Killer" is interesting. "B-Day Song" is lyrically poor, but the 1960's vibe is kinda cool. "I Fucked Up" is the ugly and uninteresting attempt to recreate Music's "Nobody's Perfect" and "Best Friend" is uncomprehensible because it sounds like a Beyonce/Destiny's Child 1999's lost outtake.
 
In reality, MDNA is not that bad of an album. Some strong tracks, but the weaker tracks are dominating my opinion. Track-by-track review below

Girl Gone Wild - Great intro to the album, I see this opening her shows on the World Tour. Very upbeat tune, though maybe a bit generic.
Gang Bang - Like a bitch out of water, Madonna? Interesting track with a pretty nice beat, but full of 'bitch'. Maybe a bit too long. Bang bang, shot you dead, shot my lover in the head!
I'm Addicted - Nice tune, though at one point it sounded like 'Jump' from Confessions on a Dance Floor. Mixed feelings about that 'MDNA' lyric repeating at the end.
Turn Up The Radio - The synth used sounds like a mix of David Guetta & Usher's 'Without You' and Martin Solveig's 'Hello', with some random lyrics. It's not bad, though. Pretty good.
Give Me All Your Luvin' - I ended up really liking this song since it was released in February. Not much to say about it.
Some Girls - Meh. Nice tune, but just not that interesting after a while.
Superstar - Another meh from me. Lyrics are crappy, but it has a nice beat.
I Don't Give A - Madonna trying to rap? I like this song, though I'm gonna have to get used to Nicki Minaj's part. Not sure about that ending, but it's pretty good.
I'm A Sinner - Good tune, pretty chilling compared to the other, heavier tunes.
Love Spent - Hello, banjo! I love this song. Seriously, it's so great.
Masterpiece - I've been waiting a while to hear this song. This has to be my favorite on the album. So damn beautiful from start to finish. Props to William Orbit :love:
Falling Free - Beautiful song, reminds me of a ballad version of 'Devil Wouldn't Recognize You' for some reason. Nice way to end the album, in my opinion.

Beautiful Killer - Nice tune, though it reminds me of another Madonna tune.
I Fucked Up - I seem to like this song. Nice, mellow tune with a cool beat. Some of the lyrics are just odd, though.
B-Day Song - Is she really trying to be a young girl from the 1960's in this song? Either way, it's not bad. The ending is kinda cheesy, though. Happy Birthday!
Best Friend - Reminds me of 'Heartbeat' from Hard Candy. Nice tune, but I'm glad it didn't make the cut.
 
My free-with-ticket copy arrived today. I'm scared to listen to it. I'll save it for tomorrow morning for the drive to work. I'll take the long route.
 
Okay, track by track:

Girl Gone Wild: Clearly reminds the remix that Benassi made for "Celebration" used in the musicvideo of that song. The difference is that is uses a chord progression similar to "Get Together". The album itself opens with self-plagiarism (something that will happen untl track 12 finishes) when Madonna decides to bring back Like A Prayer's closer "Act Of Contrition" and sort of incorporate it in the beggining of this track. It's worthy for the groove it brings with it. 6,5/10

Gang Bang: It instantly reminded me of Above & Beyond remix of "What It Feels Like For a Girl" used for the music video (as well as the spirit of the video). It sounds interesting. It's one of my Top3 of the whole album. Madonna revealed that it'll be the show opener, included in a first segment called Transgression. I'm curious to see the dimension and potential of this song performed live. 8,2/10

I'm Addicted: It would be more interesting if it didn't sound to me like a 2000's outtake that she took and reworked. Some parts of the song seem interesting, but not the whole song. Then, some of the tracks of this song seem to have lots of production and others sound very raw, it's very stange. Madonna's voice melodic line is pretty lame in the verses and only gets some power when the orgy of electronic effects enter over it. 6,8/10

Turn Up The Radio: How many songs exactly like this have I heard on the radio over the past 3/4 years? Too much. That's why I turn off the radio when I listen to one. It seems like Solveig took his "Hello", removed the vocals, changed some elements here and there and Madonna sang some clichéd lyrics over it. It's just a very generic pop-house tune. Big yawn. 5,8/10

Give Me All Your Luvin': Another revival. It has the same structure and a very similar melody/tempo to 1985's "Gambler" (and some hints from 1982'a "Burning Up"). Madonna just modernized it, added some cheerleading touches, wrote some silly non-sense lyrics and came up with this. I think the song is very well produced, I like those organs and keyboards, and in the end it becomes kind of pleasing. It grows as time and listens go by. That's what it saves the song. 6,6/10

Some Girls: Madge's clearly tying to compete with the youngest competitors. That's why she decided to record a song that sounds like a Lady Gaga (which are all pretty equal) song when Lady Gaga is emulating Madonna. It could be a sister-song of "Poker Face/Bad Romance/Judas" (which are all the exact same song, yes, Gaga, composed the same song 3 times), for example. Madonna just added the vocal effects Mirwais brought to her to differenciate it. It has some "Express Yourself" lyrics in between. Not impressing. 5,6/10

Superstar: She tried to recreate the formula of the sweet pop song like "Cherish" in 2012's mood, but she ended doing her cover version of Muse's "Starlight" with some sweet but basic and silly lyrics over it. However, I think it can work, specially live. I think this is gonna be the song that Madonna will perform on stage doing her "guitar wearing". 6,7/10

I Don't Give A: American Life is my fav Madonna album. With this song she tried to evoque its spirit. Specially in the title-track of that 2003 not-well-received-and-not-understood album. It's one of the best of this MDNA, IMO, but it's far from that album's standards from which it's inspired from because American Life without Mirwais is not the same. I like Minaj's rap, in fact. But that «there's only one queen... and that's Madonna» throws it all down. Madonna didn't need to sound so desperately obvious with lines like this. Everybody knows she's the "queen". It doesn't suit her well that need of having a younger pop princess saying that. Positive note for the lyrics and for Madonna's rap-style-singing (I like it) and it suits that instrumental well. 7,8/10

I'm A Sinner: This is the third time that Madonna and Orbit compose 1999's "Beautiful Stranger". The second time was in Music when they tried to recriate it with "Amazing", which is good, but not as good as the original. That's what happens with "I'm A Sinner": the comparisons with the original are inevitable, and even if the track is not bad, the fact that it reminds myself that "Beautiful Stranger" is miles better, it makes "I'm A Sinner" sound pale, or paler than the seed-song. Madonna emulating herself for the hundredth time in this album and I'm getting tired of it by the end of track 9. 7,1/10

Love Spent: My favourite so far, and by far. I can't stop listening to this song! I totally forget that it has the ABBA's/"Hung Up" riff speeded up somewhere in the middle. Starting on the banjo (congrats to the one who has the idea of playing it in such song like this), going through that beat in the first half with those electronic heavy (and yet clean) textures and ending in lyrical likes «You had married me if I were poor?». Then... Suddenly it becomes another song, with another melody, but somehow, still connected to the first half. This is the kind of pop tracks Madonna should be writting at 53, with a conquered status, all the time. 9,1/10

Masterpiece: I like this song. I do. I even like the lyrics, specially knowing that lyrics is not one of Madonna's strongest skills. But, only to start, the transition between "Love Spent" and "Masterpiece" is atrocious. It seems like different world, songs from different realities. And there are several reasons for that fact. The first is that "Masterpiece" doesn't match the rest of the album sonically. The main reason is that, unlike the rest of the album which is overproduced (like any other Madonna album - which makes it okay), on the other hand, this specific track (designed by Madonna's movie) is underproduced. When it leaked a few months ago, I was convinced that it was a demo. I really was. Why? This song desperately needs: an intro, a proper outro, and it feels that it's lacking some texture provided by one or two extra instruments (maybe another guitar? maybe a stronger bass?). This could've been one of Madonna's best songs of the last years but, in the end, "Masterpiece" is just a draft of a potencial great ballad that doesn't match the rest of the album. 7,1/10

Falling Free: What if "Voices" (the last track from 2008's Hard Candy) didn't have drums and was mostly orchestral? There's a fan-made version that shows how it would've been like. Now: what if Orbit took that orchestral-stripped "Voices" and mixed it up with Ray Of Light's "Mer Girl"'s vibe and with "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" keyboards and very subtle guitars? That's what "Falling Free" is: a very good track, a nice closer, that doesn't match the rest of MDNA too (but since "Masterpiece" flows well into this song, it disguises that sonic difference) and, in the end, another Madonna revival with beautiful lyrics and overall feeling. 7,5/10

now, the outtakes/bonus tracks...

Beautiful Killer: Once again, is a Madonna+Orbit clichéd song. It sounds like a reworked outtake from the old Orbit sessions... But I liked it. It's very pleasing to listen to and it's catchy enough. I would've choose this one instead of, for instance, "Some Girls" or "Turn Up The Radio", even if MDNA would still not sound cohesive. 7,6/10

I Fucked Up: Boring. It never grows, it never leads you somewhere. Basically, Madonna tried to rewrite Music's "Nobody's Perfect", lyrically and musically, but she failed. "Nobody's Perfect" is a great Mirwais product, which is the opposite of this b-side material. 5,3/10

B-Day Song: Silly and it has no sense at all. But it's a guilty pleasure to me. Don't know if it's the raw 1960's vibe, but I end up listening to this one, even if I know that it's not worthy enough to enter the strandard tracklist. Honestly, I thought it'd be worse when I heard the first preview. It's not that bad at all. 6.3/10

Best Friend: WTF was Madonna thinking when she went to Destiny's Child closet and pick up a lost and forgotten 1999's outtake from Beyonce's girlsband? Because that's what this song sounds to me. I don't get it. It doesn't even has nothing to do with any of the other songs of the album... 3,8/10

MDNA is the album of a 53 yr-old divorcée diva and of the biggest name of the pop music/showbusiness, who doesn't accept her age (even if she claims the opposite), but doesn't accept the idea that she's the "queen" and that's guaranteed status and so, she needs to compete with the younger... Even if the price is to release an non-cohesive album full of songs that merely try to sonically recreate the eureka-moments of her music career (even if Madonna has been saying «I hate repeating myself» many times on her latest interviews). Maybe the album will end up growing on me. But unfortunately, for diametral different reasons, by now, I put it (only) on the same level I did put its predecessor, Hard Candy. 6,7/10
 
Rolling Stone gives MDNA 3.5 stars, but the Community reviews are mixed. Some say she is trying hard to stay relevant (I partially agree with that), some think MDNA's garbage, but some think that it's better than Hard Candy (one person mentioned that it was better than Music & Confessions on a Dance Floor) :doh:

It might take a while for MDNA to grow on me.

MDNA | Album Reviews | Rolling Stone
 
More tour dates have been announced for the MDNA World Tour (according to Madonna, that's the official name):

Thursday, July 19th - Birmingham, United Kingdom - National Indoor Arena (NIA)
Saturday, August 4th - Kiev, Ukraine - Olimpiskiy National Sports Complex
Monday, November 12th - New York City, NY - Madison Square Garden

http://madonna.com/tour/

That's three shows for New York City already. :crack:
 
About to listen to this. I promise to be more open-minded this time: I listened to Hard Candy once and couldn't actually hear it because I was too busy shouting WHY MADONNA WHYYYYYY?? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING
 
Superstar might be the worst song I've heard all year. I cringed for the entirety of the song and for several minutes afterward. Just abominable in almost every respect. The the guitar-driven beat sounds like R-list Cut Copy, and the lyrics sound like something a 9 year old wisely hid in her diary. My jaw kept dropping further and further until it was through the floor. I can't grade it because I don't hate any letter in the alphabet enough to associate it with this song.

I don't mind the album itself, but it makes her present place as follower instead of trend-setter all the more obvious. These dubstep beats are going to sound absolutely horrendous in 5 or 6 years, and I already dislike US dubstep. A few bright spots here and there, more so than Hard Candy (the last few tracks are, in general, way better than everything else), but it's not some excellent return to form. There's nothing particularly refreshing or interesting here...I hear songs like Girl Gone Wild on the radio every day.

I need to listen to Hung Up/Sorry/Get Together now, for about an hour straight.
 
I cringed through the entirety of it. I don't know if I can bring myself to listen to it a second time.
 
What I love: Love Spent, Masterpiece, Falling Free, I'm Addicted, Some Girls

What I like: Gang Bang, I'm a Sinner, I Don't Give A, Give Me All Your Luvin' (seems to work as an album track)

What I despise: Superstar (every bit as bad as LM says), Girl Gone Wild, Turn Up the Radio. (All three tracks are generic radio crap.)

I never once expected the album to be on the cutting edge. Madonna is fifty-plus now and is probably only exposed to new music through her teenage daughter and whatever toy boy she's shagging this week. There's nothing new in pop music anymore anyway. It's all been before, mostly by her. If she's going to reference anyone, it might as well be herself.

Falling Free is the kind of strange drifting ballad she excels at. It reminds me of Paradise (Not for Me) and To Have and Not to Hold. I wish she'd do more of this and embrace maturity.
 
It really frustrates me that the last three songs are good (got that William Orbit ballad magic going, a la Substitute For Love) while everything else is mediocre.

Gang Bang is really that point where Madonna becomes aware and palpably insecure of Lady Gaga. The monologue at the end with the race car samples is so stupid.
 
My favorites:
- Masterpiece
- Love Spent
- Girl Gone Wild
- Give Me All Your Luvin'
- I Fucked Up (Bonus track)

Songs that are growing on me:
- Beautiful Killer (Bonus track)
- Falling Free
- Gang Bang
- I'm A Sinner
- I'm Addicted

Cringe-worthy:
- I Don't Give A
- Superstar
- Some Girls
- Turn Up The Radio
- Best Friend (Bonus track)
- B-day Song (Bonus track)

The album's not bad, but like Hard Candy, I expected better. I mean, it is Madonna. :wink:
 
Gang Bang is really that point where Madonna becomes aware and palpably insecure of Lady Gaga. The monologue at the end with the race car samples is so stupid.

SO stupid.

This record reeks of desperation.

I'll have to listen to the last 3 songs again. None of it made any lasting impression on me at all. I just wanted the pain to stop.
 
Listening now ....

Damn, you guys weren't kidding about the end of Gang Bang. Shame. I was liking the song quite a bit up until the ending.
 
Yoouu areee perrfectt just the waay youu arree
You're my Jordan, youuu'reee my superrstarrr

You can have thee keeeyss to my caarrrr
I'll play you a songgg on my guitaaarrr
 
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