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"Rebel Heart" Reviews [continued] - thread 2


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The funny thing is the production on BIM is better than GT and DP despite what immaturity people seem to take from it.

The SOPHIE collab is boundary pushing, it is artistic.

She doesn't have to sing about not doing drugs or being the only person left alive after the apocalypse for it be deemed "artistic."

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A lot of these reviewers just sound like THEY are getting old and aren't capable of accepting the 2015 version of Madonna. It seems like all critics do these days is talk about her age and criticize her for not acting her age. To some degree, perhaps her "posturing" on songs like BIM (as one critic put it) is a result of that constant scrutiny. As she says in JOA "I'm only human", should we be expecting her to be completed unaffected by all of this? BIM, HW, SEX are all classic Madonna in the sense that they are Madonna saying "fuck you" to her detractors in her typical humorous way. Its all taken so literally by some though. It's like when MG came out and they REALLY thought she was saying she's a gold digger or with Erotica/Sex they TRULY believed she was this nympho that liked to get raped by skinheads in some dingy sex club......this is just critics once again not getting the joke.

Really Kurt? Because I didnt see criticisms about Body Shop which is a sex song. So what's the excuse there?!

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Umm Where Life Begins is fantastic so don't start trashing that song on this thread

Colonel Sanders said it best. Finger licking good.

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Really Kurt? Because I didnt see criticisms about Body Shop which is a sex song. So what's the excuse there?!

But Body Shop is being criticized. EW singles that one out as being one of the worst songs. I agree with Kurt, I think he rocks!

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But Body Shop is being criticized. EW singles that one out as being one of the worst songs. I agree with Kurt, I think he rocks!

Well GlindaISawWickedAndNowKnowTheTruth, US weekly is loving Bitch I'm MaHooHoo and SEX...

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People, Don't worry if some fans don't like some of the songs. As long as they love Madonna, it does not matter plus we all have different favourite songs and different views. We are not all going to love the exact same songs. I don't mind if critics don't like some songs either as long as they don't let their biased personal view of Madonna creep into the reviews. They should be more professional and not make personal insults against Madonna, rather than talking about the music itself.

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Well GlindaISawWickedAndNowKnowTheTruth, US weekly is loving Bitch I'm MaHooHoo and SEX...

What is your problem? I thought I was being nice by sharing what I saw in some magazines about the album. Sorry that offends you.

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What is your problem? I thought I was being nice by sharing what I saw in some magazines about the album. Sorry that offends you.

Me too cookie. :smoochhole:

Where's Bill?!!!

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Billboard review (3.5 out of 5 stars):

http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6487805/album-review-madonna-rebel-heart

In December -- as Madonna rushed out six songs from Rebel Heart after some truly ugly cyber-bullying -- she told Billboard she had recorded so much material that she had considered doing a double album. And indeed, there are at least two albums struggling to come into being amid these 19 tracks.

Oppositions are the animating tension of Rebel Heart: Biting breakup songs like "Heartbreak City" rub up against some of the most absurdly lubricious sex songs of her absurdly lubricious career, like the Kanye West-co-produced "Holy Water," where she compares her bodily fluids to the song's title, then proclaims, "Yeezus loves my pussy best." Declarations of invincibility like "Unapologetic Bitch" are undone by laments over the price of fame and the way that even hearts of steel can break. Her decades-long love affair with house continues alongside her decades-long love affair with singer-songwriter confessions. Religious devotion and earthly love are cross-wired in the Avicii-helmed power ballad "Messiah." And songs with spare, inventive beats battle for dominance against expertly realized maximalist pop.

There's one other tension of note: Her determination to outgrow the past and shed her skin (as she puts it on the title track) tangles with her own back catalog. Three different songs refer to old hits, with "Veni Vidi Vici" stringing together titles like a bad Oscar medley: "I opened up my heart, I learned the power of goodbye/I saw a ray of light, music saved my life." If anyone is entitled to honor herself with her own drag show, it's her. Still, these backward glances are odd, and perhaps tip the hand that Madonna albums are now launching pads for Madonna tours, where the old songs can come out and play (indeed, on March 2, she announced a 35-city global run).

Or maybe not. Madonna has never gotten the credit she deserves as a musician, or as an album artist. Her essential interests are unchanging -- dancefloor ecstasy, European balladry, 1960s pop classicism -- but her expression of them finds new articulations. Rebel Heart has 14 producers working in seven different teams and still it sounds exactly like a Madonna album. That includes oddball standouts like "Body Shop," courtesy of beatmakers DJ Dahi (Drake, Kendrick Lamar) and Blood Diamonds (Grimes), which is propelled by a spare, sitar-like guitar figure.

One of the strangest things about Rebel Heart is how subtle it seems by current standards. These songs unfold slowly, building through foreplay-like intros before hooks are displayed over a shifting series of textures, as if the tracks were being remixed while you're listening to them. In a short-attention-span world of hits that relentlessly spotlight mini-hook after mini-hook for club DJs to drop in a few bars at a time, they seem positively luxurious and downright intellectual.

There are times you hope for a little more dumb fun -- enter Diplo, who turns up on five tracks with his air horn and Caribbean beats and would be welcome on more -- and there's at least one moody ballad too many. But then an aqueous bassline bubbles up and a surge of trance-y pulses sweeps you along to Madonnaland, where introspection and abandon engage in erotic acts of self-actualization. After 32 years, it's still a great place to be.

Edited by HavenHigh
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What a wonderful review by Billboard! Finally someone who truly understands music. Do we know who wrote that? Whoever did needs to be credited because they are a wonderful writer.

It's interesting how everyone sees things differently. Instead of wanting to take out the fun dumb songs, he wants more and fewer ballads! Nice to have another view rather than the standard cliched view. I kind of feel the same. I love fun poppy Madonna.

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Really Kurt? Because I didnt see criticisms about Body Shop which is a sex song. So what's the excuse there?!

Because it's a sex song that is "age appropriate" and sweet. It's subtle and the overall sound isn't "busy/trendy"and featuring some rapper......all things she's been criticized for heavily since HC. The implication is that the inclusion of these songs comes from a desperate place.

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Billboard review (3.5 out of 5 stars):

http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6487805/album-review-madonna-rebel-heart

In December -- as Madonna rushed out six songs from Rebel Heart after some truly ugly cyber-bullying -- she told Billboard she had recorded so much material that she had considered doing a double album. And indeed, there are at least two albums struggling to come into being amid these 19 tracks.

Oppositions are the animating tension of Rebel Heart: Biting breakup songs like "Heartbreak City" rub up against some of the most absurdly lubricious sex songs of her absurdly lubricious career, like the Kanye West-co-produced "Holy Water," where she compares her bodily fluids to the song's title, then proclaims, "Yeezus loves my pussy best." Declarations of invincibility like "Unapologetic Bitch" are undone by laments over the price of fame and the way that even hearts of steel can break. Her decades-long love affair with house continues alongside her decades-long love affair with singer-songwriter confessions. Religious devotion and earthly love are cross-wired in the Avicii-helmed power ballad "Messiah." And songs with spare, inventive beats battle for dominance against expertly realized maximalist pop.

There's one other tension of note: Her determination to outgrow the past and shed her skin (as she puts it on the title track) tangles with her own back catalog. Three different songs refer to old hits, with "Veni Vidi Vici" stringing together titles like a bad Oscar medley: "I opened up my heart, I learned the power of goodbye/I saw a ray of light, music saved my life." If anyone is entitled to honor herself with her own drag show, it's her. Still, these backward glances are odd, and perhaps tip the hand that Madonna albums are now launching pads for Madonna tours, where the old songs can come out and play (indeed, on March 2, she announced a 35-city global run).

Or maybe not. Madonna has never gotten the credit she deserves as a musician, or as an album artist. Her essential interests are unchanging -- dancefloor ecstasy, European balladry, 1960s pop classicism -- but her expression of them finds new articulations. Rebel Heart has 14 producers working in seven different teams and still it sounds exactly like a Madonna album. That includes oddball standouts like "Body Shop," courtesy of beatmakers DJ Dahi (Drake, Kendrick Lamar) and Blood Diamonds (Grimes), which is propelled by a spare, sitar-like guitar figure.

One of the strangest things about Rebel Heart is how subtle it seems by current standards. These songs unfold slowly, building through foreplay-like intros before hooks are displayed over a shifting series of textures, as if the tracks were being remixed while you're listening to them. In a short-attention-span world of hits that relentlessly spotlight mini-hook after mini-hook for club DJs to drop in a few bars at a time, they seem positively luxurious and downright intellectual.

There are times you hope for a little more dumb fun -- enter Diplo, who turns up on five tracks with his air horn and Caribbean beats and would be welcome on more -- and there's at least one moody ballad too many. But then an aqueous bassline bubbles up and a surge of trance-y pulses sweeps you along to Madonnaland, where introspection and abandon engage in erotic acts of self-actualization. After 32 years, it's still a great place to be.

.

I love Joe! Glad to see him still about.

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Billboard review (3.5 out of 5 stars):

http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6487805/album-review-madonna-rebel-heart

In December -- as Madonna rushed out six songs from Rebel Heart after some truly ugly cyber-bullying -- she told Billboard she had recorded so much material that she had considered doing a double album. And indeed, there are at least two albums struggling to come into being amid these 19 tracks.

Oppositions are the animating tension of Rebel Heart: Biting breakup songs like "Heartbreak City" rub up against some of the most absurdly lubricious sex songs of her absurdly lubricious career, like the Kanye West-co-produced "Holy Water," where she compares her bodily fluids to the song's title, then proclaims, "Yeezus loves my pussy best." Declarations of invincibility like "Unapologetic Bitch" are undone by laments over the price of fame and the way that even hearts of steel can break. Her decades-long love affair with house continues alongside her decades-long love affair with singer-songwriter confessions. Religious devotion and earthly love are cross-wired in the Avicii-helmed power ballad "Messiah." And songs with spare, inventive beats battle for dominance against expertly realized maximalist pop.

There's one other tension of note: Her determination to outgrow the past and shed her skin (as she puts it on the title track) tangles with her own back catalog. Three different songs refer to old hits, with "Veni Vidi Vici" stringing together titles like a bad Oscar medley: "I opened up my heart, I learned the power of goodbye/I saw a ray of light, music saved my life." If anyone is entitled to honor herself with her own drag show, it's her. Still, these backward glances are odd, and perhaps tip the hand that Madonna albums are now launching pads for Madonna tours, where the old songs can come out and play (indeed, on March 2, she announced a 35-city global run).

Or maybe not. Madonna has never gotten the credit she deserves as a musician, or as an album artist. Her essential interests are unchanging -- dancefloor ecstasy, European balladry, 1960s pop classicism -- but her expression of them finds new articulations. Rebel Heart has 14 producers working in seven different teams and still it sounds exactly like a Madonna album. That includes oddball standouts like "Body Shop," courtesy of beatmakers DJ Dahi (Drake, Kendrick Lamar) and Blood Diamonds (Grimes), which is propelled by a spare, sitar-like guitar figure.

One of the strangest things about Rebel Heart is how subtle it seems by current standards. These songs unfold slowly, building through foreplay-like intros before hooks are displayed over a shifting series of textures, as if the tracks were being remixed while you're listening to them. In a short-attention-span world of hits that relentlessly spotlight mini-hook after mini-hook for club DJs to drop in a few bars at a time, they seem positively luxurious and downright intellectual.

There are times you hope for a little more dumb fun -- enter Diplo, who turns up on five tracks with his air horn and Caribbean beats and would be welcome on more -- and there's at least one moody ballad too many. But then an aqueous bassline bubbles up and a surge of trance-y pulses sweeps you along to Madonnaland, where introspection and abandon engage in erotic acts of self-actualization. After 32 years, it's still a great place to be.

wow! never expected...

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Because it's a sex song that is "age appropriate" and sweet. It's subtle and the overall sound isn't "busy/trendy"and featuring some rapper......all things she's been criticized for heavily since HC. The implication is that the inclusion of these songs comes from a desperate place.

The lyrics on SEX are a bit questionable, I understand the reviews even though I like the song!

I think the lyrics on Body Shop are more interesting than

OMG you're so hot, pull my hair and let's rock the cot. :rotfl:

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Amazing how all these positive reviews seem to underevaluate the album on purpose. Anywho, expecting a 64-67 final score which is on par with MDNA and Hard Candy... Depressing.

I just noticed the Billboard is only 3.5 out of 5. That's odd. With some other artists it seems like they make criticisms of them but still given them a much higher score.

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Amazing how all these positive reviews seem to underevaluate the album on purpose. Anywho, expecting a 64-67 final score which is on par with MDNA and Hard Candy... Depressing.

I just noticed the Billboard is only 3.5 out of 5. That's odd. With some other artists it seems like they make criticisms of them but still given them a much higher score.

I'm getting the feeling all of these critics are just going with the crowd mentality and regardless of what they actually write or think about the music, since people are mostly giving 3.5/5 at best, no one's going to jump on it and give 4 or 4.5.

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As with everything Madonna has ever created, this album will require context and hindsight to be appreciated. No one can see objectively from behind the barrage of current pop that this album may end up being commercially and critically eclipsed by. I listened to Kelly Clarkson's latest, and aside from some occasional catchy hooks, the production is truly a hodgepodge of current production trends that sound out of place and lend nothing to the songs or the identity of the vocalist. That really cannot be said on the whole of the tracks on Rebel Heart. These songs have layers, subtleties and twists that flow with a fluidity Madonna has tapped into on most of her better received albums. There is a consistency without sacrificing diversity, and this allows for nods to so many different facets of her musical career that it might not be as accessible to the casual listener and critic.

To most people, I imagine they will hear a collection of single-worthy tracks and a few duds bordering on the verge of camp. That makes sense given the swing from endearing vulnerability to icy "ironic" self-celebration, but again, anyone who isn't understanding that Madonna cannot be decontextualized both musically and as a performer isn't going to appreciate that aspect of the release, nor will they make the effort to. All this said, musical critics, pompous and arrogant or meek and combative alike, are entitled and obligated to find a voice beyond personal taste that fits into the Zeitgeist. What is being critiqued is more a reflection of how society feels about an ostensibly older woman making a spectacle of herself. Some people cringe, some roar and some revel. That's fucking life, and it is what proves how alive Madonna's music truly remains.

To all the original wannabes and whatever the fuck this newer generation of "fans" call themselves, stop partaking in this ugly Lady Goober/Little Monsters paradigm. Not everyone likes Madonna's music, and it isn't only because they are stupid or less evolved than you, or out to get you. It might simply be because they don't have the dedication that you have to one particular artist. Now go enjoy what you enjoy and quit giving yourselves hemorrhoids over every word iterated that doesn't put M on a golden pedestal. NME has always had an indie identity. That Madonna even manages to be reviewed by them 33 years after releasing her first commercial single is testament to the power of her music.

We are not fascist wolves. We are not Little Monsters. Repeat and rinse.

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It seems everyone here who's heard the entire album love all the songs the same and they're all a 10 on the ratings scale.

Interesting.

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The lyrics on SEX are a bit questionable, I understand the reviews even though I like the song!

I think the lyrics on Body Shop are more interesting than

OMG you're so hot, pull my hair and let's rock the cot. :rotfl:

When I first heard the SEX demo, my first thought was that it definitely would not make the album because the lyrics were so straightforward, almost silly. Then i heard the final version with the dramatic production and her "rap" clearly with the grillz and it all came together.....she is actually being silly. I suppose its up to the listener to decide whether that works or not. I just don't agree these songs are coming from this desperate to stay young and relevant place some critics are claiming.

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I like Joe Levy, and kudos to him for managing the seemingly difficult task of referring to Kanye as a CO-producer rather than producer. Because you know, Madonna.

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As with everything Madonna has ever created, this album will require context and hindsight to be appreciated. No one can see objectively from behind the barrage of current pop that this album may end up being commercially and critically eclipsed by. I listened to Kelly Clarkson's latest, and aside from some occasional catchy hooks, the production is truly a hodgepodge of current production trends that sound out of place and lend nothing to the songs or the identity of the vocalist. That really cannot be said on the whole of the tracks on Rebel Heart. These songs have layers, subtleties and twists that flow with a fluidity Madonna has tapped into on most of her better received albums. There is a consistency without sacrificing diversity, and this allows for nods to so many different facets of her musical career that it might not be as accessible to the casual listener and critic.

To most people, I imagine they will hear a collection of single-worthy tracks and a few duds bordering on the verge of camp. That makes sense given the swing from endearing vulnerability to icy "ironic" self-celebration, but again, anyone who isn't understanding that Madonna cannot be decontextualized both musically and as a performer isn't going to appreciate that aspect of the release, nor will they make the effort to. All this said, musical critics, pompous and arrogant or meek and combative alike, are entitled and obligated to find a voice beyond personal taste that fits into the Zeitgeist. What is being critiqued is more a reflection of how society feels about an ostensibly older woman making a spectacle of herself. Some people cringe, some roar and some revel. That's fucking life, and it is what proves how alive Madonna's music truly remains.

To all the original wannabes and whatever the fuck this newer generation of "fans" call themselves, stop partaking in this ugly Lady Goober/Little Monsters paradigm. Not everyone likes Madonna's music, and it isn't only because they are stupid or less evolved than you, or out to get you. It might simply be because they don't have the dedication that you have to one particular artist. Now go enjoy what you enjoy and quit giving yourselves hemorrhoids over every word iterated that doesn't put M on a golden pedestal. NME has always had an indie identity. That Madonna even manages to be reviewed by them 33 years after releasing her first commercial single is testament to the power of her music.

We are not fascist wolves. We are not Little Monsters. Repeat and rinse.

Have you visited the 10 least favorite songs in the Madonna section?

Because it seems these people would have nothing to contribute from this album. Which is interesting because it holds the most variety and songs.

The songs selected in that thread seem unanimously disliked. The way critics are unanimously disliking...

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I agree critics are entitled to their opinion. But why aren't we as fans allowed to say we absolutely love the album? It seems that's frowned on even on this forum. That it somehow makes you a Little (or a Big) Monster. I'm not against valid well thought out criticism but some of the reviews like NME are so filled with factual errors and just ridiculous misconceptions. Why can't we object to those things?

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I agree critics are entitled to their opinion. But why aren't we as fans allowed to say we absolutely love the album? It seems that's frowned on even on this forum. That it somehow makes you a Little (or a Big) Monster. I'm not against valid well thought out criticism but some of the reviews like NME are so filled with factual errors and just ridiculous misconceptions. Why can't we object to those things?

Oh you are totally right. Never would I personally imply or think that a fan shouldn't be able to give the album a five star review. I give it 6/5!!! But to respond to every review that questions any of M's artistic choices or flat out calls her out on something that is valid and specific to the review and its writer with a knee-jerk response akin to defending oneself after a kick in the teeth is just immature and not very worthwhile in my opinion. It's great to have a forum for discussion. It's not great when it verges on becoming evangelical.

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