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Geiger83

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    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, alcermag said:

    NME: Bold, bizarre, self-referential, and unlike anything Madonna has ever done before
    Score: 4/5 stars

     

    Madonna’s latest persona ‘Madame X’ borrows her name from the historical figure Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau: a socialite and occasional muse who scandalised genteel French society when she bared naked flesh – her entire shoulder, would you believe it – in a portrait. And while Madge’s own eye-patch wearing interpretation prefers taking a more enterprising approach to the current job market (Madame X is a mother, a child, a teacher, a nun, a singer, and a saint many among other things) it’s a fitting moniker for a record that restlessly explores all sides of contemporary pop at full divisive pelt: visiting Latin pop, all-out Eurotrash, gloomily percussive trap, NYC disco, house, and reggaeton.
     

    During its most reckless moments, ‘Madame X’ is bold, bizarre, and unlike anything Madonna has ever done before. The frantic ‘Dark Ballet’ harnesses gloomily spun strings and robotic overlord vocals; it’s as villainous and foreboding as ‘Ray of Light’s darkest moments, or her ‘Die Another Day’ Bond theme. Then, quite out of nowhere, an extended piano interlude morphs into a mangled, glitching excerpt of ‘Dance of the Reed Pipes’ from Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ – it’s brilliant, overblown ridiculousness. “I want to tell you about love…. and loneliness,” Madonna husks dramatically.

    Touching heavily on both these things, ‘Madame X’ explores the state of the world (spoiler: it’s not doing great) at large – as well as Madonna’s place within it – from her new base in Lisbon.  ‘Madame X’ isn’t flawless in its vision: at times, Madonna’s attempts to lead the future revolution can come off as ham-fisted. ‘Killers Who Are Partying’ features some absolute clanging missteps: booming lines like “I’ll be Islam if Islam is hated” and “I’ll be Native Indian if the Indian has been taken” seem like tone-deaf expressions of solidarity, especially from a wealthy white woman who seems to be planting herself at the centre of multiple minority narratives. And moments like ‘I Rise’s rehashed quote from the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre – “Freedom’s what you choose to do with what’s been done to you” – can border on inspirational fridge magnet territory, too broad to establish real connection.

    ‘Madame X’ is a far more interesting prospect when the focus moves back onto Madonna herself. ‘Crazy’ – produced by Jason Evigan and Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean – is a self-referential accordion bop: “I bend my knees for you like a prayer,” she sings, pointedly name-checking her 1989 album, and flipping from the original’s religious innuendo, towards doomed, dead-end infatuation  “oh god, look at me now”. Elsewhere, the rhythmic whisper of “cha cha cha” on opener and lead single ‘Medellín’ recalls ‘Hard Candy’s ‘Give It 2 Me’.

    ‘Bitch I’m Loca’, meanwhile, is the sort of swaggering anthem that campy Disney villain Ursula might belt out from the depths: Maluma (who also appears on lead single ‘Medellín’) the ideal sidekick. “Where do you want me to put this?” he drawls with a comedy wink. “You can put it inside” she replies. It’s like Madonna’s diva sketch at the end of ‘Act Of Contrition’ turned Carry On… Madame X. Her cover of ‘Faz Gostoso’ – originally by Brazilian pop star Blaya – is equally great fun. And the House-inflected standout ‘I Don’t Search I Find’  – bringing to mind Shep Pettibone’s production on ‘Vogue’, and repurposing a quote from Pablo Picasso for its title – is just as playful. “Finally, enough love,” Madonna announces.

    Throughout her forty year career, outrage has always tailed Madonna closely; a point which is referenced on the likes of ‘Extreme Occident’ and the vulnerable admissions of ‘Looking For Mercy’ (“flawed by design, please sympathise,” she pleads) . “People have always been trying to silence me for one reason or another, whether it’s that I’m not pretty enough, I don’t sing well enough, I’m not talented enough, I’m not married enough, and now it’s that I’m not young enough,” Madonna recently expanded, speaking to Vogue,

    In reality, if age wasn’t the chosen topic of the moment, the star would be “too much” of something – anything – else: too sexual, too attention-seeking, too weird, too controversial, too outspoken, too unwilling to disappear quietly into the good night. Instead, Madonna will do no such thing, happiest dancing said night away to the beat of her own creative drum.

     

    For the first time since ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’, perhaps, there’s a glint in Madonna’s eye; her visible, un-eyepatched one, at least.  Sonically restless, ‘Madame X’ doesn’t imitate current pop trends as much as it mangles them into new shapes. A record that grapples with being “just way too much”, ultimately, it refuses to tone things down.

    https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/madonna-madame-x-review

    Thanks! That is a great review!

    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Gabriel Ciccone said:

    I notice many reviews can't describe some songs, like Faz Gostoso. One said it's samba, Anitta told it was a funk.

    It is probably brasilian funk inspired as Anitta originally is a funk singer and the original song is a funk. People are deaf because samba (which has many different variations) has absolutely nothing to do with Brazilian funk

    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, smirnoff_ice said:

    Madonna, Madame X review: a mad mishmash of an album (3 out of 5) The Telegraph

    Madonna has often depicted herself as a pop revolutionary, a transgressive, barrier-breaking iconoclast fighting for feminism and sexual freedom. Her latest battle, though, is for survival. “I’m fighting ageism,” Madonna recently told Vogue Magazine. “I’m being punished for turning 60.”

    But is she really? Or is she just finding it hard to grow old disgracefully? Music offers many models for veteran stars, from dedicated virtuoso to mature singer-songwriter. But pop thrives on the energy of youth and novelty, the superficial and highly competitive thrill of new sounds, new styles, new effects, new looks. Madonna Louise Ciccone has been one of the reigning superstars of her era, yet given her empowering influence on female artists from Lady Gaga to Ariana Grande, perhaps the erstwhile Queen of Pop should be content with the role of Queen Mother of Pop now. She hasn’t had a hit single in a decade (her last UK top 10 was Celebration in 2009). Medellín, a gentle bit of Latin froth with which she launched her latest album campaign, stalled at number 87 in the UK.

    A certain desperation to fit in with chart trends is evident on her 14th album, Madame X. Indeed, the ubiquitous Autotune effect is laid on so thick on the eccentric God Control that she sounds like Cher with her jaw wired together. In the main, the sweet quality and thin tone of Madonna’s voice adapts pleasantly to the kind of glaciation that occurs with digital processing, lending a cool detachment to the understated melodies of Crave and Crazy, both pretty standard modern trap pop tunes created with hip hop producer Mike Dean. But it gets more extreme whenever long serving collaborator Mirwais is at the controls, layering digital voices over one another, reaching a pitch of brain-fizzling incomprehensibility during the extravagantly mad Dark Ballet. It is amusing, ear-catching stuff, an adventurous use of increasingly standardised technology. Perhaps the old Queen can still teach the young pretenders a few tricks.

    Autotune can’t save Madonna’s typically awkward lyrics, in which lofty aspirations are brought to earth by clunking rhymes and cod-philosophical statements (“Each new birth it gives me hope / That’s why I don’t smoke that dope”). For Madonna, the medium no longer suffices as the message; she prefers to spell out her personal worldview in self-aggrandising platitudes delivered with the compromised gravitas of a stateswoman at a roller disco (“I will be Islam / If Islam is hated / I will be Israel / If Israel is incarcerated”). On afro-percussive blues-chant Batuka, she makes a stab at Trump (“Get that old man / Put him in jail”) but Madonna’s political thinking has never been entirely consistent. I am not convinced Bitch I’m Loca (a duet with Matuma) is a great campaign slogan but, in this day and age, who can tell?

    Madame X sounds like three different albums fighting for space. There’s the Latin pop album, in Madonna performs straight-up sexy dance duets aimed at the world’s fastest growing music market. There’s a strand of trendy, low-slung, sensitive trap pop that lacks the majestic swagger you expect from a grand dame of the game. And neither of these elements sits comfortably alongside the Mirwais spine of fizzy art pop marrying mad production with inflated lyrical themes. Madonna says she is fighting ageism but she is fighting on too many fronts at the same time. In pop’s game of thrones, her biggest weakness remains her ambition to rule over all.

    Madame X is released by Interscope Records on June 14

    Thanks! Well, this is the most negative so far...

    Madame X: Discussion (LISTENING PARTY info within)

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted · Edited by Geiger83

    9 hours ago, Jairo said:

    We're two weeks away for the album release. Keep calm. My bet is that she's saving herself for the whole week. Talk shows, interviews, performances, etc etc

    We know nothing. 

    Knowing nothing is what afraids me the most, because right now I get the feeling that the focus will be on the tour and the album will get very little attention from her...I hope I am wrong though...

    Madame X: Discussion (LISTENING PARTY info within)

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Samo said:

    Yes I hear you, I think I'm frustrated the most because this is her MOST visual era of her career, she adapted a new persona, with it being such a visual era, Madonna should be doing the most photo shoots, video shoots, performances etc to sell these personas

     

    So again it makes no sense that she hasn't done much of anything to showcase this, this is not a typical Madonna era, this is an era that's very visual by design thanks to the Madame X persona

     

    So she should be doing the MOST promo of her career to sell it

    That is what I think too. I know it is important to keep the expectations low, but after the teaser in April I thought we would get a Madonna tsunami and I was so excited. Maybe there is still a chance for it with the album release...

    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Humberto77rj said:

    I just read this from a Brazilian newspaper:

    "The only issue with Madonna is that she dared to age in front of the world.

    She did not die like Michael Jackson, or left the Spotlight to live only as a recording artist, not a touring one. She doesn't live solely by greatest hits like Cindy Lauper or Elton Jhon. She is living as a woman creating and making new music, wether you want it or not."

     

    Seriously...Madame X NEEDS to come to Brazil/South America.

    Where did you read that?...estou curioso😉

    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, robster said:

    People put too much importance on reviews. At the end of the day they are also merely just an opinion by someone. Okay, they are professionals so you might hope to expect a certain amount of skill and objectivity, BUT, it's an opinion nonetheless. I mostly read reviews to get some info on tracks before we get to hear them for ourselves. It's always nice when you can read glowing reviews and a project is a critical success, but good or bad reviews won't have any influence on my own opinion of an album!

    You are absolutely right. One of my tasks in my job is to be in touch with journalists and provide them with all necessary info about our albums. What I see is that they have very different opinions and often their opinions are not decisive and don't define if an album is good or not at all. If they don't like an artist they will review their album bad just for the sake of it, even if the album is amazing. The contrary is also true. So I also never pay attention to reviews, just if I want some infos. But the point is that depending on the media (if it is an important newspaper for instance) a good review can in fact boost the album sales.

    MADAME X: official reviews are in: MADAME X is a hit with the critics!

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted · Edited by Geiger83

    https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/madonna-madame-x/hnum/9154498

     

    JPC is not a magazine but they are the biggest retailer hier in Germany and they reviewed the album very positive giving 5 stars to it. This will obviously change after the users add their own reviews but I think it is a very good start and gives a good impression of the album. They also guarantee to deliver the album on its release date (our label works with JPC and they are really reliable. I ordere my deluxe CD and double vinyl at Madonna Store though. I had forgotten JPC...unfortunately)

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