MDNA Press Reviews

[XXL]

I mean that bitch of a journalist from La Repubblica

You know Madonna needs to learn to play the guitar or learn about surviving on the street from him

It's been 30 years and some things when Madonna is concerned just won't die I guess

[Guest groovyguy]

http://www.behindthehype.com/featured/who-needs-mdma-when-youve-got-mdna/

Who Needs MDMA When You’ve Got MDNA?

Posted on 18 March 2012 by Smoking Barrel

It’s been almost exactly four years since Madonna came out with her last album, Hard Candy (released in April of 2008). In that time, she has opened a chain of gyms of the same name, created a clothing line with her daughter, Lourdes Leon, written and directed a film, and negotiated a new recording contract with Interscope Records (incidentally, the same label Lady Gaga is on). Not to mention continue to piss people off over her mere existence. But, if you haven’t guessed by now, Madonna really doesn’t give a fuck. There’s even a song on MDNA called “I Don’t Give A.” So what can you expect from the indestructible tour de force’s twelfth studio album?: Dance music at its purest and finest. Hence the title, MDNA.

The second single from the album, entitled “Girl Gone Wild,” is also the song that kicks off the record. The track opens with a confessional apology extracted from the Catholic prayer, “Act of Contrition” (the title of a song that also appeared as the closer to Madonna’s seminal 1989 album, Like A Prayer): “Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pain of hell. But most of all because I love thee and I want so badly to be good.” It is, in essence, a sentiment that sums up all of Madonna’s actions throughout her career. But you can’t keep a bad girl down as the Queen of Pop dives into an electronically suffused beat that champions the cause of every “good girl gone wild.”

In an ideal world, “Gang Bang” will reverberate throughout every gay club in New York City. Or perhaps someday be featured as a lip synch for your life song on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Madonna oozes vengeance as she sings, “Bang bang, shot you dead/Bitch out of water, bat out of hell/Fish out of water, I’m scared, can’t you tell?” It makes so much sense that Mika is a producer on the song. Continuing with the MDMA motif, the next track is called “I’m Addicted.” Barring the similarity in lyrical rhymes to “Like A Prayer,” this is another standout song on the album in which Madonna reveals, “Something happens to me when I hear your voice/Something happens to me and I have no choice/I need to hear your name/Everything feels so strange/I’m ready to take this chance.” The beat then segues into something that only Benny Benassi could create as Madonna laments, “Fame’s like a drug and I can’t get enough.”

Martin Solveig, who also produced the first single from MDNA, “Give Me All Your Luvin’”, infects “Turn Up The Radio” with his usual brand of European house sensibilities. It is by far one of the most simplistic songs on the album, designed as more of a summer anthem as Madonna chants, “Turn up the radio” repeatedly, the only divergent lyrics being, “Don’t ask me where I wanna go/We gotta turn up the radio.”

“Give Me All Your Luvin’” succeeds “Turn Up The Radio” in a seamless transition of Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. chanting, “L.U.V., Madonna!/Y.O.U., you wanna!?” The video for the song, directed by MegaForce, coincided with Madonna’s performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, thus the football player/cheerleader motif throughout (with a Marilyn Monroe homage thrown in for good measure). The beat and rhythm of the following song, “Some Girls,” sets a new tone for the second half of the album, exuding a very reminiscent vibe to Goldfrapp’s 2003 hit, “Strict Machine.” It is also one of the triumphant auditory reunions between Madonna and Ray of Light collaborator, William Orbit.

And, speaking of collaborations, Madonna also enlists the backing vocals of her daughter on “Superstar.” Evocative of “Superpop,” a bonus track from 2005′s Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna uses famous names from history to create analogies on “Superstar”: “You’re like Caesar stepping onto the throne/You’re Abe Lincoln, ’cause you fight for what’s right.” Not one to pass up another opportunity to work with Minaj, Madonna appropriately features the Trinidadian goddess on “I Don’t Give A.” Although it is perhaps the most awkward song in terms of what fits in with Madonna’s musical style, it is definitely noteworthy for how personal the lyrics– undeniably directed at Guy Ritchie–are:

“I tried to be a good girl, I tried to be your wife/Diminish myself and I swallowed my light/I tried to become all that you expect of me/And if it was a failure, I don’t give a…”

“I’m A Sinner,” yet another one of Madonna’s theme songs in terms of telling her detractors to fuck off, is the most overt sounding Orbit track on MDNA. Moreover, what would a Madonna song about sinning be without name dropping a few of her favorite religious figures, including Jesus and the Virgin Mary? “Love Spent,” the third of four tracks with Orbit’s signature on it, once again mirrors an unofficially released Madonna song: “Liquid Love” from, you guessed it, the Ray of Light era.

As the album draws to a close, Madonna chooses to slow down the tempo with her Golden Globe-winning song, “Masterpiece,” featured on the soundtrack for W.E. “Falling Free” consummates the standard edition of MDNA. The influence of Joe Henry, country guru and Madonna’s brother-in-law, is evident on the laidback, twangy vocals.

For those with the sense to buy the deluxe edition, your ears will also be bestowed with “Beautiful Killer” (a song about French movie star Alain Delon), “I Fucked Up” (a relaxed mea culpa with a message that is the antithesis of “I Don’t Give A”), “B-Day Song” (another fast-paced collaboration with M.I.A.–because this was before M was upset with her over the middle finger debacle), “Best Friend” (in which M probes the demise of a relationship that reiteratively seems to be about Guy Ritchie: “You said you wanted more than just a pretty girl/Maybe I challenge you a little bit too much”), and, finally, the LMFAO “Party Rock” remix of “Give Me All Your Luvin’”. So, if you aren’t inclined toward dancing, having a good time, or escaping into the aural assuagement that only Madonna can provide, then MDNA may not be for you. And MDMA probably isn’t either.

[Roland Barthes]

Yeah, these kind of reviews are SO predictable

In a way they are only projecting their own fears.

[XXL]

In a way they are only projecting their own fears.

and their badly concealed sense of inadequacy next to her

[GimmeSomeMo]

and their badly concealed sense of inadequacy next to her

[XXL]

oh GMS

[sam1978mannheim]

Thank you once again Madonna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

greetings from Germany and I must admit that critics here (what I am reading online) are really bad for this record, I guess all those journalists/ writers here in Germany (and German-Speaking-Nations) are old and ugly and untalented, sorry but I am really starting to get pissed off by them.

Anyway, I just love it and I guess there are a lot more lovers than haters for this record ??!

enjoy it everyone:)

sam

[Love Spent]

Madonna's new album: Divorce, rage, regret -- and you can dance to it, too!

By Liz Smith

March 20, 2012

"THERE'S SOMETHING remarkable about Madonna's decision to share her suffering the way she once shared her pleasure. Her music has always been about liberation from oppression, but for the first time the oppression is internal: loss and sadness. Stars -- they really are just like us."

That is Rolling Stone's Joe Levy reviewing Madonna's upon-us-any-minute album "MDNA."

This record is dance-driven, revenge-driven, regret-driven and self-referential to the max. It has already received a batch of powerfully impressive reviews; those who have heard it agree it is disconcertingly dark, eminently danceable, and delicately mournful. A wild mash-up.

Madonna, who is only 53, is not going quietly into that good night of ballads and a single spotlight. (Although "MDNA" does contain three ballads, one of which, "Falling Free" is among the most intimate and well-sung of her career.)

But the beat goes on for Madonna. The album is chock full of 21st-century, in-your-face techo -- it thumps relentlessly, the bass booms, they do odd computerized things with her voice. Yet it often recalls her earlier efforts, during the halcyon days of her recording career. Her pure, unaltered voice is heard enough to reassure the fans who loved her in the '80s or in 1996's "Evita."

"MDNA" is not my kind of music, necessarily. But it is impressive. Impressive in that Madonna does what she wants to do, and says what she wants to say (Guy Ritchie, when you hear "Gang Bang," duck for cover!) And she says it -- haters be d--ned -- against throbbing dance beats.

Listen, Marlene Dietrich spent her entire career -- well into her 70s -- attempting to maintain the illusion of the fabulous femme fatale image created for her by Josef von Sternberg in the '30s. At Madonna's age, she was wearing semi-transparent gowns and singing the same old songs on stages around the world. And looking increasingly bored doing it, too.

Madonna was the sexy, controversial pop star. So she's still doing what she knows how to do. Difference? She doesn't seem bored. In fact, "MDNA" announces her revitalization.

She's always supposed to be "over," but somehow she never is. And I abhor the ageism and sexism so resonant in criticism of her.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201203191600--tms--lizsmittr--x-a20120320mar20,0,4466419.story

[MadCrazy]

Madonna's new album: Divorce, rage, regret -- and you can dance to it, too!

By Liz Smith

[BabyDietrich]

Listen, Marlene Dietrich spent her entire career -- well into her 70s -- attempting to maintain the illusion of the fabulous femme fatale image created for her by Josef von Sternberg in the '30s. At Madonna's age, she was wearing semi-transparent gowns and singing the same old songs on stages around the world. And looking increasingly bored doing it, too.

Mhm and I would have SOLD MY SOUL to see her perform the same old songs looking bored in a semi-transparent dress. The Power of Dietrich.

[Nikki]

marlene

[Guest]

Madonna's new album: Divorce, rage, regret -- and you can dance to it, too!

By Liz Smith

March 20, 2012

"THERE'S SOMETHING remarkable about Madonna's decision to share her suffering the way she once shared her pleasure. Her music has always been about liberation from oppression, but for the first time the oppression is internal: loss and sadness. Stars -- they really are just like us."

That is Rolling Stone's Joe Levy reviewing Madonna's upon-us-any-minute album "MDNA."

This record is dance-driven, revenge-driven, regret-driven and self-referential to the max. It has already received a batch of powerfully impressive reviews; those who have heard it agree it is disconcertingly dark, eminently danceable, and delicately mournful. A wild mash-up.

Madonna, who is only 53, is not going quietly into that good night of ballads and a single spotlight. (Although "MDNA" does contain three ballads, one of which, "Falling Free" is among the most intimate and well-sung of her career.)

But the beat goes on for Madonna. The album is chock full of 21st-century, in-your-face techo -- it thumps relentlessly, the bass booms, they do odd computerized things with her voice. Yet it often recalls her earlier efforts, during the halcyon days of her recording career. Her pure, unaltered voice is heard enough to reassure the fans who loved her in the '80s or in 1996's "Evita."

"MDNA" is not my kind of music, necessarily. But it is impressive. Impressive in that Madonna does what she wants to do, and says what she wants to say (Guy Ritchie, when you hear "Gang Bang," duck for cover!) And she says it -- haters be d--ned -- against throbbing dance beats.

Listen, Marlene Dietrich spent her entire career -- well into her 70s -- attempting to maintain the illusion of the fabulous femme fatale image created for her by Josef von Sternberg in the '30s. At Madonna's age, she was wearing semi-transparent gowns and singing the same old songs on stages around the world. And looking increasingly bored doing it, too.

Madonna was the sexy, controversial pop star. So she's still doing what she knows how to do. Difference? She doesn't seem bored. In fact, "MDNA" announces her revitalization.

She's always supposed to be "over," but somehow she never is. And I abhor the ageism and sexism so resonant in criticism of her.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-201203191600--tms--lizsmittr--x-a20120320mar20,0,4466419.story

THIS!

God, these have to be some of the best reviews of her career. And rightfully so. It really is an incredible album

[Case39]

Thank you once again Madonna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

greetings from Germany and I must admit that critics here (what I am reading online) are really bad for this record, I guess all those journalists/ writers here in Germany (and German-Speaking-Nations) are old and ugly and untalented, sorry but I am really starting to get pissed off by them.

Anyway, I just love it and I guess there are a lot more lovers than haters for this record ??!

enjoy it everyone:)

sam

Definitively

I'm ALL for criticism when it's needed but the negative reviews are just SO biased i can't take them seriously.

[Nikki]

also, if interscope & madonna dont want to release gang bang they should at least release love spent and not just stick with the safer turn up the radio (even though its a good song) love spent is something really special

[Guest groovyguy]

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2012/03/20/madonna-mdna-leaks-online/

Madonna's MDNA Leaks Online

Posted 3 hours ago by John Mitchell in Madonna

A week ahead of its U.S. release, Madonna's MDNA has leaked online. The album reportedly began showing up on some illegal file-sharing websites yesterday (March 19).

Contact Music reports that Madge's manager Guy Oseary has been on leak watch for a while and is asking fans to police them, writing in a series of tweets, "Please police all leaks for us... Much appreciated... It's more luck than anything else... We are grateful that no leaks have occurred... I've done my best... I'm sure it won't hold for much longer... I'm hopeful, but we are too close now... So I'm realistic..."

It goes without saying that you should go out and purchase MDNA when it drops next week. Show some respect for the music industry, the law and Madonna and don't steal it. But since it's out there and all over YouTube, people are talking about it, so we're breaking down our four favorite tracks, after the jump.

"Turn Up The Radio"

We've already covered this one. It's a big, anthemic dance-pop wonder with glittery synths and fun lyrics like "I don't know how I got to this stage / Let me out of my cage cause I'm dying / Turn up the radio, turn up the radio / Don't ask me where I wanna go, we gotta turn up the radio." It's also a perfect summer song and if Madonna has her wits about her, she'll make it her next single!

"Gang Bang"

Ah, the song everyone is talking about. So dark. So beat driven. So heavy. It's also damn good and a near perfect club track. "Gang Bang" packs a thumping wallop, and with lyrics like "I thought it was you/ And I loved you the most/ But I was just keeping my enemies close/ I made a decision, I would never look back/ So how did you end up with all my jack?" it's taking no prisoners. This song is easily going to be the fan favorite of the album. It's like an Erotica track remixed by a modern DJ. Oddly, it's one of William Orbit's contributions to the album and its pulsating darkness is unlike anything the Ray of Light producer has ever cooked up for the Queen of Pop.

"I'm Addicted"

This one is geared strictly for the dance floor. With its digital bleeps and driven breakdown, "I'm Addicted" wouldn’t seem out of place on M's classic Confessions on a Dance Floor. Produced and written by Madonna, dance music master Benny Benassi and Alle Benassi, the track swirls and twirls in a way that reminds us of "Jump." If you're not chanting "MDNA" by the end, you have no soul.

"I F**ked Up"

Love it! We just … love it! We can't believe it's a bonus track and not on the proper album. When we first listened to the album, we wrote "electronic slow-jam" in our notes. Produced and written by Madonna and Martin Solveig, it is lyrically one of the strongest tracks on the whole of MDNA, deluxe edition or otherwise. We just …

[Guest groovyguy]

http://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/962683/Madonna-nel-nuovo-album-il-meglio-lo-offre-Mika-.html

Google Translate

Madonna, the new album the best it offers ... Mika

MDNA surprising freshness and rhythm. But Miss Ciccone is really the center with "Gang bang" signed by the British pop genie

Madonna, the new album the best it offers ... Mika

liberoquotidiano.it

Bang bang, you shot dead, shot my lover in the head. Gang Bang bang that of Madonna. And what a story. Without exaggeration, it is the most beautiful piece of MDNA and crazy. That is hardly the stuff of stronzette any but a surprising middle ground between the originality of Ray Of Light Confessions of dance and soul. A swing of styles, sounds and sensations. A work wonderfully and deliberately unsystematic. A confession in the confession: the Ciccone loves Europe and in fact wanted by his side, among others, an impeccable supervisor as William Orbit and real axes as Martin Solveig and our Alle and Benny Benassi. But above all, confirmed this: almost 54 years, Madonna, in everything he does, still does not fall into patterns of what a woman of that age you want to do and be. He never did. And it never will.

But back to Gang Bang, one of the authors that boasts the likes of Mika, Demolition Crew and Orbit, and in fact has little to do with porn movies and hot style all piled against one. The song has something violent, obsessive, dark, hypnotic, mind, space, surprising, wild, sexy, tight, whispering. It has a plastic beat, you feel it in your heart. And the electronic sounds devastating. And 'techno and, inevitably, dubstep. It has amazing evolution, do not expect that. The text, available in full on a site like Mr. drownedmadonna.com, talks about how the obsession of a love relationship can lead to planning a murder. The unusual thing is that it's a woman to do so. In the first part you said you always think about how he has behaved her man. It takes courage.

And at some point you have the impression that the sentences to repeat the mo 'mantra to convince you that yes, it should be killed. Then do it. And not repent. At the end confirms that if one day I would meet in hell, where it will go straight upright, he will not think twice before pressing the trigger again. Because he wants to see him die. Think about it: it is an "over and over" spoken in anger. It seems an orgasm. Reminiscent, of course in a different key, songs like Like A Virgin, where Louise Veronica was vaguely towards orgasm. In the end, able to make me shudder, there is a flashback. She tells him to drive. Then a car that shoots and feels sgomma. It runs away. In the dark of night. More than a song, a real movie, in which the star is a mysterious character, but also hilarious. Yes, a little 'to Russ Meyer and Quentin Tarantino. A former animal in a cage. What finally is back to screaming.

Leonardo Filomeno

[Guest LeJazzHot!]

Toronto Sun: Madonna's new disc 'MDNA' GR8

[Guest groovyguy]

http://thewildmagazine.com/blog/madonna-mdna-kicks-like-a-drug-and-kills-like-a-gun/

MADONNA / MDNA – Kicks like a drug and kills like a gun

by: Kristóf Yosef Steiner

The past 24 hours was all about insomnia for hardcore Madonna fans (and worried Lady Gaga fans). After last night, the songs off Madge’s new album – out on the 26th of March, now internationally called #madonnamonday – started to leak online many of us spent our Tuesday without trying to catch our breath. As a very sexy cherry on the top, E! presented to us the second music video of the era, ‘Girls Gone Wild,’ directed by Mert & Marcus, fashion photographers and pop cultural “it boys.” Madonna’s great comeback after the forgettable Hard Candy album was somewhat like Eva Peron’s famous Rainbow Tour in Europe, and as the lyrics of the musical go, Let’s hear it for the Rainbow Tour, “We weren’t quite sure, we had a few doubts Will Evita win through? But the answer is yes!”

Madonna did come back: her Super Bowl phenomenon single, ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ peeked at number one on Billboard’s Dance chart this week. Her World Tour is selling out everywhere from Israel to Australia. And with a Golden Globe in her pocket for her song ‘Masterpiece,’ presented in her movie W.E., she smartly decided to use this fruitful time to launch a new fragrance and footwear line called Truth or Dare. The name refers to her memorable documentary from the 90’s – best known for performing a perfect blowjob on a soda bottle. Lola Leon, her 15 year old fashionista daughter, has the trend brand Material Girl – an ironic self-reference in and of itself. On the new record Madonna proves she does mean it when she says, “I don’t like to repeat myself… or others.”

MDNA is the perfect soundtrack of 2012. In the year when spiritual elevation is more needed than any time before, the Queen of Pop and controversy are elevating our spirit by pushing us down into the rabbit’s hole. Because for me this is what MDNA is: Madonna falling down into the depth of her most beautiful dreams and worst nightmares. And like Alice brought us to Wonderland, Madonna takes us into a surreal world, filled with sensuality, pain, anger, silliness and joy where she can survive confusion and insanity only with disarming honesty.

Madonna Tour Rehearsal

This record is not the new Ray of Light or Confessions on a Dancefloor. It’s not even the new Erotica as many of the fans predicted by looking at the promo shots for the album – Madonna dressed up in tiny underwear, bringing “Mistress Dita” back to life, her alter ego in her infamous SEX book. It’s better than any of these. How? By finally collecting on one album all the Madonnas we love or hate, but most importantly we all know. The New Yorker, the Londoner, dance queen, the woman in love, the underground weirdo, the trash princess, the spiritual goddess, the sex idol, the broken flower, the bitch, the fighter, the mother and the daughter.

And not surprisingly at all, we also have some new sounds here, what in some years the fans can easily refer to as “The MDNA Sound.” The ever-happy french dj, producer and musician Martin Solveig and Madonna’s long time collaborator, the gloomy scientist of music. William Orbit seems to bring out the best of her. Of course there is nothing surprising about Madonna starting a musical revolution, apart from her 2008 album, where she couldn’t catch the stream in time. She got on the sinking boat of the very 2006-ish Timbaland-grove – she was always incredible in choosing her collaborators, and while as a pop musician she connected to an already very popular scene, as a performance artist she was brave enough to bring an absolutely infrequent phenomenon.

[Guest groovyguy]

Toronto Sun: Madonna's new disc 'MDNA' GR8

Merci Beaucoup!

Madonna's new disc 'MDNA' GR8

By Darryl Sterdan

Lady Madonna. Trampy Madonna. Material Girl Madonna. Cowgirl Madonna.

Erotic Madonna. Neurotic Madonna. Fashionista Madonna. Fetishista Madonna.

We've met them all over the past 30 years — along with too many more alter-egos to list. So it should be no surprise that the pop queen of 1,000 faces has added a few more self-portraits to her vogue rogue's gallery with her 12th album MDNA.

One you won't meet: Washed-Up Madonna. Co-produced by Ray of Light co- conspirator William Orbit, French DJ Martin Solveig, Italian counterpart Benny Benassi and others, the 12-cut MDNA (out Tuesday) is one of Madge's most intriguing discs in a while, offering a deft blend of pop and dance with doses of hip-hop, electronica, dubstep, balladry and even some seriously weird moments. But what else would you expect from a disc whose title is one letter away from the acronym for Ecstasy?

Along with Reinvigorated Madonna, here are the other characters you'll meet on MDNA.

Cheerleader Madonna

You're never too old to join the pep squad, as the 53 year old proved at this year's Super Bowl. The highlight of her halftime gig was MDNA's first single Give Me All Your Luvin' (not to be confused with ZZ Top's Gimme All Your Lovin'). "L-U-V, Madonna, Y-O-U, you wanna?”

Smells like team spirit. As we speak, Avril Lavigne and Toni Basil are likely readying their class-action suit.

Bad-Ass Madonna

“Drive, b----! And while you're at it, die b----!” So sez Madonna on the misleadingly titled and magnificently twisted Gang Bang, a dark revenge fantasy in which she shoots her lover in the head. Hope Guy Ritchie has a sense of humour. Remember when Next Big Thing-turned- Never Mind Lana Del Rey tried to pass herself off as "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" a while back? This is what she meant.

Ex-Wife Madonna

Think your divorce was bitter? At least your ex didn't write a rap called I Don't Give A that says: “You were so mad at me / Who’s got custody? ... Suck it up / Didn’t have a pre-nup.” Thankfully, Madonna has softened a bit by the bittersweet closing ballad Falling Free, where she offers: "We're both free, free to go." As long as she doesn't mean 'free to go shoot you in the head.'

Smitten Madonna

When she isn't falling out of it, she's falling in it. Along with Give Me All Your Luvin', the fittingly trippy I'm Addicted, the bouncy Superstar (featuring daughter Lourdes on backup vocals), the eccentric Love Spent, the glammy Some Girls (no, not THAT Some Girls) and the folky Golden Globe-winner Masterpiece all remind us that Madonna is a woman who loves to love. Until she doesn’t.

Religiously Conflicted Madonna

Sure, we've met her before. Many times. But she's back again. Girl Gone Wild opens MDNA with a cheeky prayer for forgiveness ("I want so badly to be good”); I'm a Sinner namechecks the Virgin Mary and a slew of saints with a country tinge; and between the rest of the tunes, she bends of breaks most of the 10 Commandments, with the possible exception of that one about thy nighbour's oxen.

• • •

Track-by-Track Review of MDNA:

Girl Gone Wild | 3:43

More confessions on the dance floor. Beginning with a churchy keyboard and spoken-word prayer, the cut gradually builds to a pumping party anthem. Too bad the chorus is a bit clumsy.

Gang Bang | 5:26

The album's strangest and greatest track is a stark, sinister stomper in which Madonna takes her lover for a last ride before plugging him.

Whispery vocals, whiplash snares and Morse Code synths up the tension, while gunshots, sirens and police scanners add drama. The dubstep breakdown might be too trendy for its own good, though.

I'm Addicted | 4:33

It's about being hooked on a man. But between the ping-ponging bleep- bloop melody, the waves of echo and reverb, the layered vocals and lines about how love "flows through my body, igniting my brain ... like MDMA,” this is Madonna on drugs.

Turn Up the Radio | 3:46

No big metaphors — just a simple, gently pumping pop number about driving in your car and listening to music loud. Lightweight but enjoyable.

Give Me All Your Luvin' | 3:22

Somehow, Madonna and Martin Solveig blend martial snares, cheerleader chants, a chuggy surf-twang bass and ’60s paisley pop — and make it work. Nicki Minaj almost upstages her hostess with a typically skewed verse, while M.I.A. underwhelms.

Some Girls | 3:53

Sadly, not a Stones cover. But this grinding glammy stomper's lyrical structure is kind of familiar ("Some girls goin' off the deep end, some girls livin' for the weekend”).

Superstar | 3:55

"You can have the keys to my car / I'll play you a song on my guitar," promises Madonna on this fawning ditty. Thankfully, the bouncy beat and “Ooh-la-la” refrain make up for the insipid lyrics.

I Don't Give A | 4:19

Another standout. Madonna delivers a boasting rap about how awesome her life is — and tosses in a few barbs about Guy Ritchie. Minaj returns to pay tribute before the cut ramps up into sweeping orchestral pomp.

I'm a Sinner | 4:52

And she likes it that way. With its funky beat, bright ’60s-pop jangle, and mid-song country-gospel-disco fusion, you'll like this Beautiful Stranger-style number too.

Love Spent | 3:45

A low-impact William Orbit production that starts with banjo and then adds strings, video-game squiggles and AutoTune-dusted vocals. Yet it still seems to be missing something.

Masterpiece | 3:58

Over folk guitar, Latin rhythm and strings, Madonna compares her lover to a work of art in this Golden Globe-winning ballad from her film W.E. It's nice, but seems out of place.

Falling Free | 5:13

The real closing ballad — and the better one — has strings and piano decorated with synth dots and dashes, topped with forgiving lyrics about a breakup.

[Guest LeJazzHot!]

San Diego Music Examiner: Madonna's 'MDNA' is as close to art as pop music gets

[Guest LeJazzHot!]

BBC Review: Madonna's 12th studio collection has a few faults, but it's still a fantastic pop album

[Guest]

just curious about allmusic.com review. the review isn't in yet but they already gave mdna 4 out of 5 stars...a result she doesn't deliver since Music!!!

[Guest LeJazzHot!]

just curious about allmusic.com review. the review isn't in yet but they already gave mdna 4 out of 5 stars...a result she doesn't deliver since Music!!!

Where did you hear that? That's incredible!

[Guest]

a music site. www.allmusic.com

always interesting reviews. some you can agree some not (especially in madonna case) but they're alqays argumented and well written.

[Guest ditaluver]

San Diego Music Examiner: Madonna's 'MDNA' is as close to art as pop music gets

thats right bitches!

[Guest LeJazzHot!]

Slant Album Review: MDNA- 3 and a half stars

[Guest groovyguy]

San Diego Music Examiner: Madonna's 'MDNA' is as close to art as pop music gets

Madonna's 'MDNA' is as close to art as pop music gets

San Diego Music Examiner Rating: A-

Various cuts from Madonna’s MDNA can be heard on San Diego’s Z90.3. We previewed MDNA a couple weeks back in Los Angeles and our preview was actually tweeted by Guy Oseary, Madonna’s manager.

We have acquired more time to tie our thoughts together in order to give you our full review and can happily say our first impression was right on target; MDNA is the best Madonna album since Like a Prayer, which will always be Madonna’s best album because of the timing of the release and how well the album has aged.

It’s hard to say yet if Madonna’s MDNA will be considered one of her classics. For one thing, the wrong singles, “Give Me All Your Luvin” and “Girl Gone Wild,” have been chosen to promote the album. “Give Me All your Lovin” is really one of the worst Madonna songs ever. The demo, which leaked last November, was certainly promising. The problem came when Nicky Minaj and M.I.A. were added into the final mix; it portrayed Madonna’s insecurity with her own music and—from listening to the album—there is no reason she should feel insecure.

“Girl Gone Wild” kicks off the album and it is an addicting thumper. Interscope didn’t do itself any favors by giving listeners a low quality version on VEVO; one really has to hear the HQ thumping bass to appreciate it. The lyrics are cliché, but the excellent production really covers this up. It’s a “B+” song. The problem with releasing it as the second single is that Interscope really needed an “A” song while people are still interested and there are plenty of those on MDNA.

Perhaps the best song on the set is “Turn up the Radio,” a song that reminds of us a little bit of Cheryl Crow’s “Soak Up the Sun.” It is cheerful, wild, relaxing, and sounds like it has been plucked from 1985. Madonna purposely sings in her little girl voice to give it that effect.

“Gang Bang” is another brilliant track, although it may not make it as a single with such lyrics as “Bang, Bang your dead. Shot my lover in the head.” Madonna sings it with conviction, heart, and she is 100 percent nasty. Dita is back, but she is a killer this time instead of a sex Nazi.

“Masterpiece” is another “A” song that had received almost unanimous praise when it was revealed last December. It will remind many Madonna fans of the song “To Have and Not to Hold” from Ray of Light, but it is even better. Madonna sings about how hard it is to fall in love with someone so perfect. It won a Golden Globe award, but really deserved an Oscar.

Madonna sings “Superstar” with her daughter Lourdes singing background vocals. It’s cheerful in the same way “Cherish” was back in 1989. Less cheerful is “Some Girls,” which may hit after a few more listens, but sounds a little stale. “I’m Addicted” is a club thumper, while “I Don’t Give A” is sung with Nicki Minaj, who declares that Madonna is the only queen.

“Falling Free” is a soft Celtic album closer that is obviously about Guy Ritchie and the fact that they are both free to let go. Anybody who thinks Madonna can’t sing should listen to this song. She may not have the vocal power chops of Adele, Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera, but none of those singers could come close to giving the emotional performance Madonna does on this track. It’s not all about hitting the notes; it’s about emulating feeling and taking your listeners in.

MDNA is proof that age is only a number. Madonna may be 53, but she still has twice the drive and talent of her younger counterparts.

[nightcutter]

Madonna's 'MDNA' is as close to art as pop music gets

San Diego Music Examiner Rating: A-

She may not have the vocal power chops of Adele, Mariah Carey or Christina Aguilera, but none of those singers could come close to giving the emotional performance Madonna does on this track. It’s not all about hitting the notes; it’s about emulating feeling and taking your listeners in.

MDNA is proof that age is only a number. Madonna may be 53, but she still has twice the drive and talent of her younger counterparts.

Good review.

[Guest groovyguy]

BBC Review: Madonna's 12th studio collection has a few faults, but it's still a fantastic pop album

BBC Review

Madonna's 12th studio collection has a few faults, but it's still a fantastic pop album

Nick Levine 2012-03-21

Madonna is judged to a higher standard than the common or garden songbird. When you've sold 300 million records, racked up enough hits to omit Deeper and Deeper from your two-CD greatest hits set, and generally become the sort of pop culture colossus who can publish a book featuring a photo of yourself hang-gliding naked, well, people just expect more.

Which is why the opening song on her 12th studio album is so disheartening. It's a fairly charmless genero-banger called Girls Gone Wild on which this 53-year-old mother-of-four trills: "You got me in the zone / DJ play my favourite song."

MDNA picks up as soon as it finishes, but it's never the most innovative or sonically adventurous Madonna LP. Featuring production from French DJ Martin Solveig, house maestro Benny Benassi and Madge veteran William Orbit, it sounds contemporary(ish) rather than cutting edge. Nor is it a cohesive artistic statement like 1998's Ray of Light. At times, Madonna seems to be using her lyrics to teach her kids the meaning of the word cliché. If she's not "a fish out of water", she's "a bat out of hell" or "a moth to a flame"… Got it now, Rocco?

However, there's no denying MDNA delivers thrills. In true Ciccone fashion, club pop pounders like Some Girls, Love Spent and Turn Up the Radio seem to push a bit harder than the competition – that last one's got a drop like an open manhole. MDNA also has something the last two Madge albums lacked: ballads, both of which are quite lovely.

Best of all, several moments prompt a welcome sigh: "God, only Madonna". Gang Bang is a preposterous piece of pop schlock featuring gangster film sound effects and the old girl gunning – quite literally – for revenge. I Don't Give A has Madge rapping and ribbing herself in the process: "Ride my horse, break some bones / Take it down a semitone." I'm Addicted climaxes with a pulse-quickening "M-D-N-A" chant; when they're old enough, it'll define ‘iconoclastic’ to her brood.

The result? It's got its faults, but MDNA isn't just a good pop album, it's a good Madonna album too.

[Guest groovyguy]

Slant Album Review: MDNA- 3 and a half stars

In 1993, when asked by a Mexican journalist what she feared most, Madonna admitted plainly, "Dying." Looking at her body of work, it's embarrassingly obvious now, and it's funny to think she's best known as the queen of sex and not, in fact, the queen of death. Beating the clock, moving fast, accomplishing things because time is scare and life is short are themes that have permeated almost every aspect of Madonna's life and career. Her mother, also named Madonna, died at the age of 30, and her namesake spent the next 25 years believing she would meet the same fate. When Madonna became famous at the height of the AIDS crisis, her friends began succumbing to the disease one after the other, which turned the singer into an activist, but also ostensibly became an impetus behind her near-pathological drive to leave her mark on the world.

In the past three years, two of the three biggest pop superstars of the '80s have died tragically. But unlike Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, Madonna wasn't thrust into the spotlight by way of an enterprising family or the kind of prodigious talent that, with or without its owner's consent, begs to be hoisted up and exalted by the masses. That Madonna was forced to compensate for her perceived lack of natural "talent" with, in addition to unbridled creativity, supreme self-control and focus is probably what's helped keep her from succumbing to the demons that have plagued many of her contemporaries. It's also, perhaps, the thing that makes her a somewhat unsympathetic character, an attractive target for ridicule among even those who claim to love her.

Everyone is afraid of death. But how that fear manifests itself when you're one of the most famous women on the planet and how it's compounded when you reach middle age in an industry that increasingly values youth and beauty were revealed, respectively, in Madonna's largely graceful quest for answers to life's most universal questions on Ray of Light and her often awkward, misguided attempts to reconcile those lessons with a habitual desire to preserve her status in the years that have followed. Social, cultural, and political impact aside, Madonna's career has been a demonstration of endurance.

To that end, while Madonna was accused of running out of ideas long before she actually did, her recent propensity to rehash her own canon seems deliberate—not to mention cynical. Last month, she told The Advocate that while she "never left" her gay audience, she's "back." (Back from where is unclear, though her estranged brother's claim that ex-hubby Guy Ritchie is a homophobe offers a clue.) The video for "Girl Gone Wild," the second single from her first album in four years, MDNA, is like "Human Nature" redux, seemingly tailor-made to snatch the title of Most Played Video Artist at Gay Bars from Lady Gaga.

But while "Human Nature" was an intentional sendup of Madonna's Erotica period, the seemingly straight-faced Catholic Girl Gone Bad shtick of "Girl Gone Wild" is just—you guessed it—reductive. Even though Madonna's dressed up like her, the feisty pop singer who went on Nightline in 1990 and clumsily but zealously called out the media for its hypocrisy and sexism is missing here. Madonna pilfers the title of one of her earliest rivals' songs during the hook of "Girl Gone Wild," only to defang it of its feminist bent: Just like Madonna's own "Material Girl" was meant to be ironic, the point of Cyndi Lauper's signature anthem is that girls want to have fun, but that's not all they want to do.

The song's intro, during which Madonna recites an act of contrition over canned disco strings, is just a ruse; the rest of MDNA is reminiscent of neither Like a Prayer nor Confessions on a Dance Floor. It's unclear what Madonna's motivations were for reuniting with William Orbit after more than a decade; a smarter move would have been to call on longtime collaborator Patrick Leonard to help her excavate and examine the remains of her second marriage. But while the album is no Ray of Light either, MDNA is surprisingly cohesive despite its seven-plus producers (most notably, Martin Solveig, the man behind the regrettable lead single "Give Me All Your Luvin'"), and it's obvious Madge and Billy Bubbles can still create magic together. "I'm a Sinner" harks back to the pair's most ecstatically joyous work—not just sonically, but vocally. Something about recording with Orbit again has inspired Madonna to abandon her recent insistence on singing like she's wearing a clothespin on her nose.

Likewise, her performance on "Love Spent" is confident enough to transcend Orbit's superfluous vocal effects. It's not just the most melodically sophisticated song on the album, it's also the most revealing, rather poignantly alluding to the tens of millions Ritchie received in the couple's divorce settlement: "I want you to take me like you took your money," she longs. What makes the lyrical faux pas of songs like "Girl Gone Wild" and "Superstar" so frustrating is the pop mastery of tracks like this and the Italo-disco "I'm Addicted," a meditation on the power of language that's both profound ("All of the letters push to the front of my mouth/And saying your name is somewhere between a prayer and a shout") and tongue-in-cheek ("I'm a dick-, I'm a dick-, I'm addicted to your love"). When she's not rapping about child custody and prenups on "I Don't Give A," she admits: "I tried to be a good girl/I tried to be your wife/Diminished myself/And I swallowed my light."

But in case the title of that song didn't tip you off, the Madonna of MDNA is more defiant than heartbroken. Ritchie's impact on the singer's personal life is obvious, but his influence on her work is just as apparent: He bought her a guitar when they met, changing her approach to songwriting, and he was responsible for the introduction of violence, often seemingly gratuitous, into her videos and stage performances, starting with his clip for her 2001 single "What It Feels Like for a Girl." So, in that sense, it's disappointing to see guns and violence continue to play such a prominent role here. But the twisted "Gang Bang," a standout cut in which Madonna quite convincingly portrays a jilted bride turned femme fatale in the vein of Beatrix Kiddo, plays more like a piss take of Ritchie's gangster fetish than a glorification of it.

Madonna's Super Bowl performance last month—spectacular but lacking spontaneity—was indicative of her overall approach to her career these days: meticulously orchestrated down to every dance move, every mimed syllable. The non-controversy of M.I.A. flipping the bird was notable only because it served as a reminder of just how "safe" the rest of the performance was. But songs like "Gang Bang" serve as reminders that what separates Madonna from most other mainstream pop stars is her willingness to try new things. Fear—of failure, of looking uncool, of death—can either paralyze or propel you. MDNA finds Madonna continuing to defy the laws of nature by doing both.