MADONNA - MDNA - FIRST LISTEN & THOUGHTS

Ok, downloaded this at 1.04am, here are my groggy first impressions. Only the regular edition by the way, not deluxe. Not made of money.

Girl Gone Wild
Sounds somewhat better on record, maybe it was a grower after all. Although the "forgive me father" spoken word intro is pretentious as hell. Moving on.

Gang Bang
"Impressive instant"? Very gay disco pulse. Could've been on "Music" if it wasn't for the somewhat superfluous dubstep breakdown. The shouting "drive bitch/die bitch" outro is self-indulgent, but actually fits the whole "drug/club" atmosphere.

I'm Addicted
Pretty addictive... a very "Confessions on a Dancefloor" electrodisco number, with a ravey euphoric breakdown. "MDNA" chant at the end is perhaps a bit of a cop out, but this is still better than both the singles combined.

Turn Up The Radio
Ah, we're back to genericity, just when I was beginning to get into the druggy feel. Some nice chord sequences, but this is "Girls Gone Wild"-esque sing-song chart Guetta-dance.

Give Me All Your Luvin' (feat. Nicki Minaj & M.I.A.)
Sounds pretty dull in the context. This isn't classic Madonna.

Some Girls
"Fake tits and a nasty mood?" Ew, Madge. This is similar to "Gang Bang" in it's 70s gay disco feel. "Confessions"-esque again. Vocoder-tastic, but actually kind of quirky and enjoyable.

Superstar
Oh god, another "Give Me All Your Luvin'" style 'Hey Mickey' sugar-sweet pop number. Oh wait no, it's worse. A sing-song yawnfest that sounds a bit all over the place too, unfinished like. Oh and what the hell is this?! A dubstep-lite breakdown?! WHY?! Definately the worst track so far.

I Don't Give A... (feat. Nicki Minaj)
Trust Madonna to have a lyric like "Walk outside, shake my ass, I know how to multitask". Mid-tempo swagger-pop, but something strangely likeable about it... a pretty good hip hop beat. Nicki Minaj sounds much better here, less hysterical, more "gangsta". Has a wiff of "Let Me Blow Your Mind" by Eve. Dramatic choir outro that N-Dubz would've loved.

I'm A Sinner
Typical latter day Madonna thanks to William Orbit. Could almost fit onto "Ray of Light" or "Music" with its crunchy dance beats and dusty guitar loops. Very "Beautiful Stranger" actually. The lyrics cheapen it a bit, but it's nice to hear Orbit use some "RoL" tricks.

Love Spent
Banjo... sharp electro beats and nintendo synths. This is very "American Life" in its melancholy robot ways. Goes a bit Hi-NRG at 1.40. Not bad, but loses it's way a bit towards the end. There have been a lot of 'pleasant' tracks in a row by now, need some wowing here.

Masterpiece
Heard this one too. It's a very soothing ballad with a lovely chorus. Not as good as "Devil Wouldn't Recognise Me" from "Hard Candy", but still heads and shoulders over almost everything else here.

Falling Free
Another ballad, sweeping, subtle yet symphonic. This is actually very elegant sounding and quite beautiful, like most of Madonna's latter day ballads. A great closer, it's hard to believe that "Masterpiece" and "Falling Free" are from the same album as "Girl Gone Wild" and "Give Me All Your Luvin'"

So first impressions are mixed. "MDNA" is a bit inconsistent, unsure of what it really wants to be. You've got the chart-hungry stuff, which is fairly dire, the underground disco stuff, which could've dominated this album successfully, the closing ballads which are rather gorgeous, and then a couple of tracks that don't really know where they stand.

Would've been nice for her just to work with one producer rather than two as different as Martin Solveig and William Orbit. But on the whole, I don't think she's totally shot herself in the foot here, there's the occasional inspired stroke here and there. But truth be told, not enough to really warrant coming back to more than about 4 tracks, 5 tops.

Madonna - Still a "Girl Gone Wild"?

Madonna just insists on being the party queen doesn't she? If only she'd stop TRYING and she might actually manage it for years to come. Hell, Cher managed it didn't she? Here Madonna is in her latest video, "Girls Gone Wild"



This video is no doubt entertaining, and is obviously intended to reference her controversial early 90s period, a popular era of her career amongst fans. But its black and white color scheme, provocative homoerotic imagery and the unashamed vogue-ing in the choreography are less a homage to her earlier work, merely derivative of it. This would probably be forgivable (derivative or not, Madonna, her dancers and the video itself still manage to be captivating regardless) if the song was groundbreaking in any way. Which it isn't.

"Girls Gone Wild" has surely got to go down as one of Madonna's dullest singles. Even "Love Profusion" attempted to be mature, experimental and, y'know, profound. And even "4 Minutes" had a certain bite to it. But "Girls Gone Wild"? It boasts a generic electronic dance backing track that Ke$ha would turn her nose up at, melodically it meanders and never soars, and lyrically, THERE IS NO STATEMENT. What happened to Madonna wanting her music to push boundaries?

Even on the shameless dancefloor-oriented "Confessions on a Dancefloor", Madonna had Stuart Price placing her in a mature disco environment, her words regal and commanding, the melodies elegant and euphoric, even if there wasn't a powerful lyrical message. I fear that the probably-misleadingly-named "MDNA" will be as flaccid and uninteresting as its two lead singles. With a title like "MDNA" and with the reintroduction of "Ray of Light"'s William Orbit, this record could be a mind-fuckingly good tribute to Madonna's underground dance-routes. Alas, this single, and the samples heard thus far, could be tracks Britney Spears turned down for "Femme Fatale".

"Hard Candy" showed Madonna trying to look cool and 'hip' (probably her words), and looked very much like the mid-life crisis, the last embarrassment before Madonna came back strong and prepared to lead the way in pop music again. It seems this is not to be. Ridiculed for her insistence on maintaining a promiscuous image, and her non-musical pursuits, in her personal and professional life, not gaining much critical or commercial approval, a wonderful album could've been her lifeline. If this is her last chance to re-instate herself as the 'Queen of Pop', she may have just blown it.

"MDNA" is out on the 26th. I really hope I'm proved wrong.