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http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1681578/madonna-mdna-album-reviews.jhtml

Madonna's MDNA: Reviews Are In!

Critics praise the album for its 'pumping pop tunes' and being Madge's 'most personal effort to date.'

By John Mitchell

Madonna's MDNA drops officially on Monday — though it leaked online earlier this week — and many critics are calling the set a return to form for the Queen of Pop.

"MDNA — her 12th studio album — is a collection of thoroughly pumping pop tunes, some of which are slices of sheer brilliance. Not only does Madonna take us to the club with MDNA, she exhausts us, drains us, and confides in us," Billboard writes in its track-by-track review. "Five minutes after an aerobic workout on the dance floor, we're in her private booth, where she's spilling her guts about relationships and how things just didn't turn out the way they planned."

Slant magazine calls the album "surprisingly cohesive" given the seven different producers who worked on the project, but has particular praise for the tracks produced and written by Madonna and her Ray of Light collaborator William Orbit. "It's obvious Madge and Billy Bubbles [Orbit] can still create magic together," the magazine writes.

"Songs like 'Gang Bang' serve as reminders that what separates Madonna from most other mainstream pop stars is her willingness to try new things," Slant continues. "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."

In an otherwise middling review, Entertainment Weekly praises Madge's vocal performance on the album's love songs, which are parsed out between darker tracks that seem to focus heavily on Madonna's divorce from Guy Ritchie. EW gives particular props to the Golden Globe-winning Orbit track "Masterpiece" and the "synth stomper" "I'm Addicted," which it says is "a warm ode to a crush [and] offers a good excuse to join in when she says, 'I need to dance.' "

Many critics compliment Madonna's decision to be so emotionally revealing. She's gotten personal in the past, of course, but on MDNA, she takes it to the next level.

"There's something remarkable about Madonna's decision to share her suffering the way she once shared her pleasure," Rolling Stone writes. "Her music has always been about liberation from oppression, but for the first time the oppression is internal: loss and sadness."

The Poughkeepsie Journal sees that as a natural extension of the best Madonna songs. "Yet in some of her most beguiling songs, Madonna has opened her heart and let her defenses down a bit," the Journal opines. "Think of the pregnant teenager in 'Papa Don't Preach,' begging for support even as she declares her resolve. Or the giddy lover pledging eternal devotion in 'Cherish.' Then imagine that those gals had lived a few more years, maybe married and divorced, and you'll have an inkling of the emotional wallop waiting in Madonna's most personal effort to date, MDNA."

More than anything, though, critics seem to be assuring fans that they can breathe a sigh of relief on two fronts: Not only is the album good, it is 100 percent Madonna and no one else.

"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," the BBC writes. "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.' "

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Guest groovyguy

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Music review: Madonna, 'MDNA'

By Thomas Conner on March 22, 2012 12:00 PM

(Interscope) 3 stars

Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the rest of the "shock" troops -- they never seem quite as labored and overwraught until we hear a new Madonna album. A good one, that is. When reminded of the effortless ease with which Madonna Louise Ciccone (and her usual bevy of producers) spins and slings dance-pop, both the pure fluff and the more serious stuff, the other ladies suddenly sound like they're running to stand still.

Madonna, 53, certainly has tried too hard many times herself; in fact, that's largely what she's been doing for the last decade, giving us the somber dud that was "American Life" (2003), the tired retreads of "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005), the embarrassingly oversexed (even for Madonna) generic disco of "Hard Candy" (2008). But when she lets us catch a little glimpse of the woman behind the brand, she usually scores on every level.

"MDNA" is also significantly better than we've been led to believe. The bright but banal Super Bowl performance, the string of surprisingly weak singles preceding the full-length, her directorial film debut ("W.E.") -- you'd be forgiven a healthy fear that Madge has spread herself too thin for the sake of satisfying the latest line item in her pioneering, $120 million deal with Live Nation announced in 2007. "MDNA," though, despite a rough start, is a revved up emotional roller coaster full of pop both sunny and bleak, all of it squarely engineered for the dancefloor.

Since the appearance of "Hard Candy," Madonna and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, divorced. This is not an idle fact here -- it's a thread tangled and knotted throughout the album. Madonna is moody, Madonna is mad, Madonna is forlorn and Madonna is sad. Skip the utterly forgettable first track and latest single (the cliché-ridden, Cyndi Lauper-quoting, Madonna-by-numbers "Girls Gone Wild") and dive into the ice water of "Gang Bang," a glitchy, downtempo techno throw-down that's a wholly different dancefloor confession -- the kind detectives wheedle out in interrogation rooms. After expressing her desire to shoot her lover in the head, Madonna gleefully, sinisterly snarls, "I wanna see him die / over and over and over and over ..."

The rest of "MDNA" is dark, but not that dark. In "Love Spent," she calls out a former lover as a pure gold digger with some cutting lines: "I guess if I was your treasury / you'd have found the time to treasure me." (One percenters need love, too!) But in no time, Madonna loses herself in her own chemically induced euphoria, which she sings "feels like a drug and I can't get enough" ("I'm Addicted," a whirling synth gem that should have been a single). Ever the tortured Catholic, she prays for guidance ("hail Mary, full of grace," in "I'm a Sinner"), and eventually concludes, over a hard, comforting dance beat and in a sing-speak voice perilously close to actual rapping, "I'm gonna be OK / I don't care what the people say" ("I Don't Give A").

We don't come to Madonna for the words, of course, nor have her vocals ever been a magnetic attraction. But both are full of grace throughout the William Orbit-produced "Falling Free," a stark ballad in which Madonna's voice is nearly unprocessed, naked, vulnerable and accompanied by see-sawing, Mellotron-like keyboards, strings and chiming bells. It's a beautiful song, with words hinting that she's seen her ray of light at the end of her dark despair.

The selection of singles has been confounding. The Martin Solveig-produced "I Don't Give A" is wobbly, but not the worst. As mentioned, "Girls Gone Wild" is anything but wild, and "Give Me All Your Luvin'" even admits "every record sounds the same" before promising change: "you've got to step into my world." But it's not exactly change we can believe in. A slight fixation on the Reagan era of her own heyday results in some of "MDNA's" worse moments (the Toni Basil cheerleading theme of "Give Me All Your Luvin'," the Cyndi Lauper quotations in "Girls Gone Wild") and better ones; the daydreamy vocals of "Turn Up the Radio" are free of too many 21st-century tweaks. That she still believes in the emotional power of radio is either a sign of adorable nostalgia or an artist who's more out of touch than she sounds. Either way, "MDNA" is a trip worth taking.

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Guest LeJazzHot!

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They seem to be including only the lower scores while ignoring the reviews that are amazing. Fuck them.

Somebody needs to tweet Keith telling him to submit his Billboard review to Metacritic. You couldn't have asked for a better review than for the one he wrote.

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vocalism Rising Star

vocalism

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They seem to be including only the lower scores while ignoring the reviews that are amazing. Fuck them.

Are they reputable sources? Because I know they only include reviews from publications that are on their list of approved sources.

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Guest groovyguy

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Lady Gaga and Caribbean sensations such as Rihanna and Nicki Minaj have threatened to make Madonna irrelevant now that the Material Girl approaches her 54th birthday. But Madge, in a welcome surprise, still has some tricks left and lessons to impart now that he has reached the September of her life on her new album “MDNA.” You can be forgiven if you don’t remember Madonna’s performance of “Give Me All Your Luvin” at the Super Bowl, because that single is one of the least catchy tracks on an otherwise cohesive album that will satisfy those who want disco-influenced fluff for the dance floor — as well as those who would prefer a window into her confessional. The singer, the co-writer of all 12 tracks, uses her divorce from director Guy Ritchie as fodder for songs that arguably are the most personal she has ever penned. But, frankly, all would be bollocks if these weren’t songs that made your hips swerve, so the phalanx of European producers that includes Benny Benassi, William Orbit (who helmed Madonna’s career-best 1998 album “Ray of Light”) and Martin Solveig ensure that she is not just modern but forward-thinking, as well as the Madonna who entranced us in the 1980s and 1990s. “MDNA” is the best Madonna album since 2000’s “Music,” and with Minaj guesting on two tracks, it is the rare case when Minaj is overshadowed by her elder, still in top vocal form.

Grade: B+

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Roland Barthes Proficient

Roland Barthes

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The only bad review i read so far in France is the one from that website EVENE which is written by a blogger not a journalist.

Popismyheart which is the french Popjustice gave it a rave review. I'm waiting for the Inrocks ( kind of NME meets Pitchfork) review, they gave the sole good review i read of Hard Candy in any country or language (but i know the fag who wrote the review^^). Keep in mind two things : 1/ It's universally known that we are snobs wether it's food, fashion, cinema or Music and yet we produce the cheapest and tackiest things :) 2/ Martin Solveig and especially Benassi are not highly regarded and respected. Mirwais was cool because he came from the punk and post disco scene....Another thing people here (especially in Paris) use the music they listen to as some kind of t-shirt with "I'm cool" written on it. You suddenly see people who never talk about music, never buy a cd or a file, never go to a concert have a say about Madonna's album and mostly negative because they heard people say it was bad but if someone cool says it's good then they'll change their minds....But don't ask them about Mark Lanagan, Trust or the comeback of house music.

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Music review: Madonna, 'MDNA'

By Thomas Conner on March 22, 2012 12:00 PM

(Interscope) 3 stars

We don't come to Madonna for the words, of course, nor have her vocals ever been a magnetic attraction.

Fuck off when people say this! This person can lick my pussy for saying this as if it is fact. I hate when critics write that her fans don't come for her lyrics or voice. I do. It is and always has been just as important as the actual music. I can honestly say I probably wouldn't enjoy her music as much if she wasn't actually singing it.

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The only bad review i read so far in France is the one from that website EVENE which is written by a blogger not a journalist.

Popismyheart which is the french Popjustice gave it a rave review. I'm waiting for the Inrocks ( kind of NME meets Pitchfork) review, they gave the sole good review i read of Hard Candy in any country or language (but i know the fag who wrote the review^^). Keep in mind two things : 1/ It's universally known that we are snobs wether it's food, fashion, cinema or Music and yet we produce the cheapest and tackiest things :) 2/ Martin Solveig and especially Benassi are not highly regarded and respected. Mirwais was cool because he came from the punk and post disco scene....Another thing people here (especially in Paris) use the music they listen to as some kind of t-shirt with "I'm cool" written on it. You suddenly see people who never talk about music, never buy a cd or a file, never go to a concert have a say about Madonna's album and mostly negative because they heard people say it was bad but if someone cool says it's good then they'll change their minds....But don't ask them about Mark Lanagan, Trust or the comeback of house music.

I think you described the belgian way of thinking with this as well ;)

I know about one horrible agist review and one glowing review here.

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MadFan Rising Star

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So the lowest I've seen is a 70% - the EW B- + a couple 3.5s. I might be appointed to review it for a student newspaper @ my uni (yeah I'll try to be impartial). :rotfl:

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Mattress Proficient

Mattress

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Reviews are as they have been for every album of her career dating all the way back to 1983. Projects that had barbed quips hurled at them years ago upon release are now the HOLY TEMPLATE to which all new material is compared and in many cases criticized for not being.

Every reviewer still desperately tries to undermine her many talents and sadly a typical "glowing" review for Madonna is littered with backhanded compliments. Also, an overwhelming number of these reviews have been written by women. Rather transparent, wouldn't you say?

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Guest groovyguy

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http://idolator.com/6227281/madonnas-mdna-by-the-numbers

Madonna’s ‘MDNA’: By The Numbers

Last spring, right around this time, one of our very favorite divas had us buzzing about a hotly-anticipated (and dance floor friendly) LP. Now it’s deja vu all over again. Like any sought-after album these days, Madonna’s MDNA leaked to web-savvy music fans a mite earlier than expected (aside from two bonus tracks, “Best Friend” and “Beautiful Killer,” which we’ve still only heard in snippet form). And, as with Britney Spears’ Femme Fatale, we couldn’t help notice some recurring themes after, oh, about 100 spins or so. So what ingredients does MDNA contain that leave us feeling so… ecstatic? Head below for MDNA: By The Numbers!

MDNA has most in common with 2005’s club-friendly Confessions on a Dance Floor, as well as some reminders of Ray of Light courtesy of William Orbit. It’s a bit of a comeback after 2008’s Hard Candy (likely Madge’s weakest to date). Already MDNA has spawned two terrific videos (“Give Me All Your Luvin’” and “Girl Gone Wild”), and also gifts us with a peppy new birthday song that doesn’t make us feel like we need to go take a shower (we’re talking about you, Rihanna).

Overall, we’re noticing a ton of references to past Madonna songs, plenty of religious imagery (hello again, Catholicism! nice knowing you, Kabbalah!), and the usual mix of sex, drugs, and violence we can expect from the Queen of Pop.

Here’s how the math works out:

MADONNA’s MDNA BY THE NUMBERS:

Number of songs with drug and/or alcohol references: 5 (”I’m Addicted” — “feels like a drug,” MDMA; “Girl Gone Wild” — Tanqueray, “Some Girls” — “one drink and it’s all a blur”; “I Fucked Up” — “we could have gotten drunk and driven on the Autobahn”; “Gimme All Your Luvin’” — “we can drink some wine, burgundy is fine”)

Number of songs referencing guns: 4 (”Beautiful Killer” — “can’t really talk with a gun in my mouth”; “I Don’t Give A” — “shots fired” in Nicki’s rap; “Girl Gone Wild” — “fired up like a smoking gun”; “Gang Bang” — “bang bang, shot you dead, shot my lover in the head”)

Number of songs with driving/car references: 6 (”Gang Bang” — “drive bitch”; “Turn Up The Radio” — “I just wanna get in my car”; “Love Spent” — “now you have your fast car”; “Some Girls” — “crying in the limousine”; “Superstar” — “you’re James Dean driving in your fast car”; “I Fucked Up” — “we could have gotten drunk and driven on the Autobahn”)

Number of animals Madonna compares herself to: 3 (”Gang Bang” — bat and fish; “Turn Up The Radio” — moth)

Number of saints mentioned on “I’m A Sinner”: 3 (Saint Christopher, Saint Sebastian, Saint Anthony)

Number of famous Roman Catholic theologians from the 13th Century mentioned on “I’m A Sinner”: 1 (Thomas Aquinas)

Number of Mary references: 1 (”I’m A Sinner”)

Number of Jesus references: 2 (”I’m A Sinner” and “I Don’t Give A”)

Number of unusual places to find Baby Jesus: 1 (”on the stairs” on “I Don’t Give A”)

Number of times the word “bitch” is used in “I Don’t Give A”: 1

Number of times the word “bitch” is used in “Gang Bang”: 11

Number of songs that take great pains to avoid using the F word: 1 (”I Don’t Give A”)

Number of songs that use the F word anyway: 1 (”I Fucked Up”)

Number of “First World problems” / “white girl problems” Madonna faces on “I Don’t Give A”: 12 (or 13, if you count “I swallowed all my light”)

Number of artists on MDNA who appeared with Madonna at the Super Bowl: 3 (M.I.A., Nicki Minaj, LMFAO)

Number of songs Martin Solveig gets a production credit on: 6

Number of songs William Orbit gets a production credit on: 6

Number of songs Benny and Alle Benassi get production credits on: 3

Number of songs Madonna gets a production credit on: 17 (all of them)

Number of other producers on the album: 4

Number of times LMFAO plugs their own singles on “Give Me All Your Luvin’” remix: 2 (”Party Rock Anthem,” “Sexy And I Know It”)

Number of songs on which 53-year-old Madonna calls herself a “girl”: 5 (”Girl Gone Wild,” “Some Girls,” “Give Me All Your Luvin,’” “I Don’t Give A,” “B-Day Song”)

Number of things Madonna does at once on “I Don’t Give A”: 10

Number of days every year M.I.A. celebrates her birthday, according to “B-Day Song”: 365

Number of songs that use the word “indestructible”: 2 (”I Fucked Up,” “Masterpiece”)

Number of songs that reference gold: 2 (”I Fucked Up,” “Falling Free”)

Number of songs that reference silver: 1 (”I Fucked Up”)

Number of songs that reference bronze: 0

Number of “password” references: 2 (”Superstar” and “I Don’t Give A”)

Number of famous people Madonna compares her man to on “Superstar”: 9 (Marlon Brando, Michael Jordan, Al Capone, Julius Caeser, Abraham Lincoln, Bruce Lee, John Travolta, James Dean)

Number of famous people Madonna compares her man to on “Superstar” who died tragically: 5 (Al Capone, Julius Caeser, Abraham Lincoln, Bruce Lee, James Dean)

Number of Twitter references by pretty much the only major artist left to not have a Twitter account: 1 (”I Don’t Give A”)

Number of Myspace references: 0

Number of references to The Louvre: 1 (”Masterpiece”)

Number of songs that contain possible Guy Ritchie disses: 3 (”I Don’t Give A,” “Gang Bang,” “Love Spent”)

Number of songs with possible Lady Gaga disses: 1 (”I Don’t Give A,” via Nicki Minaj’s rap)

Number of songs that contain possible apologies to Guy Ritchie for above-mentioned disses: 1 (”I Fucked Up”)

Number of songs containing a banjo: 1 (”Love Spent”)

Number of times Nicki Minaj manages to rhyme “business woman” with itself: 3 (”I Don’t Give A”)

Number of songs that sound like an old-school Madonna/William Orbit collaboration: 1 (”Falling Free”)

Number of other artists we can think of who also released a song called “Some Girls”: 4 (The Rolling Stones, J.C. Chasez, Rachel Stevens, Bananarama)

And here’s the biggie…

Number of references to past Madonna songs: 18

“Act Of Contrition” on “Girl Gone Wild” (opening prayer)

“Erotica” on “Girl Gone Wild” (”it’s so erotic”)

“Bad Girl” on “Girl Gone Wild” (”but I’m a bad girl anyway”)

“Lucky Star” on “Give Me All Your Luvin’” (”in another place at a different time, you can be my lucky star”)

“Like A Prayer” on “I’m Addicted” (”something happens to me when I hear your voice and I have no choice”)

“Like A Prayer” on “I’m A Sinner” (”get down on your knees and pray”)

“Stay” on “Turn Up The Radio” (”I’m leavin’ the past behind”)

“Angel” on “Superstar” (”you’re my angel”)

“Vogue” on “Superstar” (Marlon Brando and James Dean references)

“Into The Groove” on “Superstar” (”you’re Travolta getting’ into your groove”)

“Waiting” on “Best Friend” (”your picture on my wall, but I’m still waiting on your call”)

“Hanky Panky” on “B-Day Song” (”give me a spanking”)

“Like A Virgin” on “Some Girls” (”like a virgin, sweet and clean”)

“Express Yourself” on “Some Girls” (”put your loving to the test”)

“Thief of Hearts” on “I Don’t Give A” (Nicki Minaj’s “bitch”)

“Material Girl” on “I Don’t Give A” (Nicki Minaj’s rap)

“Sorry” on “I Fucked Up” (”Je suis désolé”)

“Me Against the Music” on “Girl Gone Wild” (”in the zone”)

Did we miss any? Any recurring elements you picked up on? Tell us on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments!

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XXL Mentor

XXL

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It becomes more and more obvious. The real negativity is coming from women. Their reviews are mostly dealing with her age and that she should start acting appropriately (but of course avoiding to say what "appropriate" actually means). She is using the term "girl" way too much (you know, for her age). She is using the term "bitch" way too much (you know, that's not appropriate and certainly not for someone her age). Madonna is described as desperate. Well, if anyone is desperate it's those women who are shitting her pants in fear that Madonna is setting the bar so high on how a 53 year old woman should look like or should act like, achievements they simply cannot compete with.

:thumbsup:

Jealous that Madonna at 53:

Can have a tour of the capacity singers male or female half her age can't CHECK

Gets paid £10m for a big name fashion campaign CHECK

That she earns tens of millions of $$$ every year even when she's not touring CHECK

The fact that she managed to retain some sanity in spite of the life she's had CHECK

The fact that she not only was hugely successfull but she even managed to create a family for herself CHECK

The fact that she has a relationship with a boy who's still not close to being half her age DOUBLE CHECK

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sam1978mannheim

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it is nice that there are lots of good reviews around the world (thank God "germany is never the world LOL). Reviews from my home country are not good, some even really really bad. but we r living in a time where almost everyone can speak their mind, so will I too: all those haters, just fuck off and may b u need to b fXXXXXX really good so that you can enjoy such great Madonna Music again:)

sam

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