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Rebel Heart Reviews


markm

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I'm confused about the term EDM. It's become this kind of bad word or has this negative connotation now, but I always thought it was just an abbreviation for electronic dance music and people say it because they don't want to spell out the whole thing. I use it and to me it just means any type of electronic dance music that dj's play in a club. To me, it's a broad term and can encompass many different sub genres such as house, dubstep, trance, electro etc. Just like rock is the broad term and there are many different kinds of rock like metal, classic, soft, punk, alternative etc. I thought it was created to distinguish electronic music from other genres such as rock and R&B that rely on traditional instruments and also to distinguish electronic dj's from the old school hip hop dj's that did the scratching of records.

so was it EMD?

YouCanDance.jpg

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EDM is just an abbreviation for Electronic Dance Music, but somehow people are using it as the name of it's own genre, even though there are lots of different genres within electronic dance music.

I'm confused about the term EDM. It's become this kind of bad word or has this negative connotation now, but I always thought it was just an abbreviation for electronic dance music and people say it because they don't want to spell out the whole thing. I use it and to me it just means any type of electronic dance music that dj's play in a club. To me, it's a broad term and can encompass many different sub genres such as house, dubstep, trance, electro etc. Just like rock is the broad term and there are many different kinds of rock like metal, classic, soft, punk, alternative etc. I thought it was created to distinguish electronic music from other genres such as rock and R&B that rely on traditional instruments and also to distinguish electronic dj's from the old school hip hop dj's that did the scratching of records.

So you're right about the term

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http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/madonna-returns-we-review-the-rebel-heart-songs-released-over-the-weekend.html/

The early ’80s Madonna bopping around in her “Lucky Star” video single-handedly fueled my lifelong fixations on the artist and pop music at large. I gave each phase of her recording career my full attention and was mostly rewarded for two decades following that initial exposure. While I certainly owe the superstar some gratitude in terms of my own music-fan trajectory, I can still look at her recent decade or so of music and acknowledge feelings of disappointment.

It’s no secret that pop’s queen is a perennial trend-chaser, yet it seemed on the 2012 collection MDNA that she and her producers tried too hard to be all things to all fans, sacrificing some of her signature dynamism (and thematic cohesion) in the process. Truth be told, I’d resigned to the fact that I loved the old Madonna and was simply putting up with the new one.

Things have changed a bit on that front since last week. After the online leak of demos from an album that Madonna’s been teasing for months, her own frustration inspired her to counter said leak with her own shrewd marketing move. Late Friday evening, she released the first six completed songs of the album, dubbed Rebel Heart, and promised the rest in March (praying for a SXSW show, Universe). Since then she’s been topping iTunes charts and trending on Twitter.

Honestly, I think this is a viable approach for all future Madonna projects. It allows fresh fans and jaded ones like me to process new material in smaller chunks, to get to know songs and the ideas behind them. I can’t wait to hear finished versions of songs that Dallas’ S1 contributed to Madge’s LP (including one called “Joan of Arc”), but for now I’m content with the directions of the six available tracks.

My thoughts on each:

albumcover-150x150.jpg“Living for Love” – The opening song (and likely first single) evokes the stripped-down Shep Pettibone redux of “Like A Prayer” that appeared on The Immaculate Collection. It’s a solid melding of club beats, brassy piano chords from Alicia Keys, beautiful choir-singer exhalations, and Madonna’s own world-weary vocal which gradually frees itself over the course of the track. Co-written by Keys, gifted pop producer Ariel Rechtshaid (Sky Ferreira, Haim) and producer Diplo among others, the tune shows a side of Madonna that’s less prickly or defiant than we see on Instagram these days. She’s still attuned to themes of familial love, which is a good thing. And that dance break is killer.

“Devil Pray” – Madonna will never grow weary of the dance-folk approach she took with the divisive 2003 American Life album. That its defining style has become more en vogue on the charts in recent months can be attributed in part to Avicii, who co-writes and produces “Devil Pray” with Blood Diamonds, DJ Dahi and Carl Falk. It’s a song that uses drug references to get somewhere deeper: Madge told Rolling Stone in her explanation of the song that while euphoric effects of narcotics never quite last, intense personal exploration is the better alternative. “Living for Love,” features some of M’s best melodies in years, but I’m more impressed by the darker elements of the arrangement that surface during a headphone listen.

“Ghosttown” – The artist sounds quite natural delivering the I’ll-stand-by-you lyrics of this one, even there are some slightly distracting vocal effects (hey, at least they’re obvious). Canadian producer Billboard achieves an epic, “Umbrella”-worthy quality. I could see this one being a radio hit for Madonna – something she probably needs to help drive the full album to success when it hits stores in March.

“Unapologetic Bitch” – Diplo’s on the boards for this electro dancehall kiss off anthem, and Nicki Minaj is listed as a co-writer (although there’s no rap verse). I’m betting Minaj encouraged Madonna to apply that unexpected staccato rap style to the verses. It’s a nice surprise from an artist who’s done too much retreading on the last couple of albums.

“Illuminati” – Here, Madonna riffs on the celebs-as-all-powerful-beings myth, throwing out household names in lower-register raps that lead to coolly sung choruses. The song’s a bit difficult to explain or pin down, which is probably what made producer Kanye West so enthusiastic about working on it. It’s right in his wheelhouse as a music-maker, but it also incorporates the Dirty South approach of co-producer Mike Dean.

“Bitch I’m Madonna” (feat. Nicki Minaj) – This is really the only so-so track to be found in the first piece of Rebel Heart. It’s the pop-star equivalent of a hip-hop brag track, and it features a well-delivered Minaj verse. Whimsical concept and shrewd song title, considering Madonna’s ever-present influence on theatrical pop. But it’s not quite as effective at sassing as, say, “Vogue.” There I go again bringing up the old stuff …

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It's so good!

I like how it doesn't badmouth MDNA, but really gets it. I love the new stuff, but I don't like how certain reviewers and even people on this forum put down MDNA in the process of talking about the new stuff. How it says how MDNA blended classic Madonna with new sounds.

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I had a strong feeling the critics would start discussing how RH is a big improvement over the past two albums, but yeah it completely sucks how some critics put down MDNA in the couple reviews I looked over.

Yeah I noticed the same but the difference is abismal and positive. A comparison with MDNA (previous work) or any recent one it's fair.

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^ I agree any comparison with past work is very fair and appropriate. I'm just a little over sensitive to critics attacking MDNA because there are several greats tracks there even with how uneven it still sounds.

I love MDNA! The couple reviews of RH I have read so far acknowledged that MDNA had some killer tracks but a lot of fluff as well. Whereas it sounds like we are on the cusp of something monumental with RH.

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Yes... i love all the good press she is receiving but its really disturbing how almost everyone in the press disregards MDNA and Hard Candy. Both records are really great and i don't see so much difference from Rebel Heart besides the obvious mature content of the lyrics... perhaps those records weren't the type of lyrical content THEY wanna hear from a 50yo Madonna... the new music is very good, but not an instant classic like many of her previous hits... lets see how she will evolve this record with all the videos, performances, etc... i'm sure she will multiply those songs by 10 once she starts working on them with all the visuals she is preparing.

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Yes... i love all the good press she is receiving but its really disturbing how almost everyone in the press disregards MDNA and Hard Candy. Both records are really great and i don't see so much difference from Rebel Heart besides the obvious mature content of the lyrics... perhaps those records weren't the type of lyrical content THEY wanna hear from a 50yo Madonna... the new music is very good, but not an instant classic like many of her previous hits... lets see how she will evolve this record with all the videos, performances, etc... i'm sure she will multiply those songs by 10 once she starts working on them with all the visuals she is preparing.

Good points, but Madonna always suffers from revisionist history regarding critical acclaim. The fact of the matter is that both Hard Candy and MDNA got some wonderful reviews upon release. HC got a glowing review from Blender which was a big publication at the time, and MDNA got a near perfect review from Q. And people sometimes forget that Music was actually as critically acclaimed as ROL upon release (and made year end lists in Spin and Rolling Stone, neither of which ROL made).

Bring on more Rebel Heart praise!

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I love the pop culture review because at last someone gives American Life the credit it's due for starting the trend of folk-EDM that Avici et al are now dominating the chart with. Ok so M's Music did it originally but that was more pop orientated.

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I can't with some of these 'critics' & their assessment of what is 'EDM'...Are they 12 y.o.!?

There's NOTHING new or original about 'EDM'...Madonna has been doing this shit since the 80's.

CHECK URSELVES.

I Know Right :chuckle:

tumblr_merls1ilpz1rk8mhuo1_500.gif

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NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/arts/music/madonna-6-songs-offers-preview-of-rebel-heart-album.html?_r=0#

A Flurry of Releases, and a Show of Force by Madonna

6 Songs Offer Preview of ‘Rebel Heart’ Album

DEC. 23, 2014

By JON PARELES

In some circles, the six saddest words in the English language may be: “Don’t you know who I am?” Often the answer is an ego-crushing “no.” So when Madonna names a song “Bitch I’m Madonna” — and books Nicki Minaj to add praise — well, no one knows better than she does that celebrity is Darwinian.

At 56, Madonna has to contend with a generation of singers who have studied her playbook so thoroughly that they are far more her competition than her admirers. But with the six songs she suddenly released on Friday, she’s still a contender.

Madonna put the songs out shortly after the online leak of more than a dozen songs thought to have been planned for “Rebel Heart,” the album she had scheduled for release on March 10. In a post on Instagram that she later deleted, she called the leak a “form of terrorism.”

But her commercial response was shrewd. The songs can be downloaded from online music services with a pre-order of the album or separately, and Madonna’s name recognition is still so strong that the announcement catapulted all six tracks into the iTunes Top 10 in dozens of countries. (They have since slipped in the United States, but five of the tracks were in the Top 20 early Tuesday morning.)

Madonna stated that the leaked files were unfinished, and that’s exactly how they sound, particularly those that can be compared with the official releases. Madonna and her producers tweaked the songs further, changing up rhythms and adding sizzle and sharpness to each mix.

In some ways, “Rebel Heart” shapes up as a sequel, with lessons learned, to her 2012 album, “MDNA.” On that album, she switched off between angry breakup songs and party-girl boasts; she also returned to her longtime strategy of collaborating with top D. J.s of electronic dance music as producers. But the resulting songs often felt coldly mechanized and dutifully trendy; overprocessed vocals and cliché-slinging lyrics didn’t help.

The six-song preview of “Rebel Heart” features Madonna’s better side: as a savvy pop ear and musical team leader, and as a lyricist who sometimes ponders sin along with romance and fame.

Madonna is still reacting to a breakup in two of her new songs (and in more of the demos). But at this point, she’s bouncing back. “Living for Love,” easily one of Madonna’s best singles in a decade, transmutes revenge into upbeat redemption. Diplo and Alicia Keys are among its seven songwriters; Ms. Keys’s piano is also in the track, which harnesses blipping electronics and a house beat to a gospelly buildup. Madonna moves through accusations on the way to positive thinking: “After the heartache, I’m gonna carry on,” she declares.

“Unapologetic Bitch,” another Diplo collaboration, is more testy. It swerves in and out of a reggae band groove, punctuated by air horn and electronics, as Madonna insults her ex’s sexual performance and taunts, “I don’t care no more / Tell me how it feels to be ignored.”

“Ghosttown” mixes affection and postapocalyptic gloom. It’s a straightforward ballad over synthesizer chords, written with songwriters who have also supplied material to Rihanna, Demi Lovato and Jason Derulo; it begs for a dystopian-romance video.

“This world has turned to dust / All we’ve got left is love,” Madonna sings, before the chorus promises, “When it all falls down, we’ll be two souls in a ghost town.”

Most of the “Rebel Heart” songs tend to check off at least two idioms per track. “Bitch I’m Madonna” is, fortunately, the most negligible of the “Rebel Heart” tracks. Behind generic club-night lyrics like “We get freaky if you want,” Diplo’s production alternates between blipping, trance-flavored verses — hinting at the chords from “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — and the slow, sparse beat of trap.

Kanye West shares the production credits on “Illuminati” and leaves his imprint with distorted vocal effects, a hard kick drum and a rubbery bass line. He’s also mentioned in the song’s merely clever lyrics, which have Madonna rapping the names of celebrities, summarizing the theory of the all-seeing Illuminati conspiracy and concluding, “It’s like everybody in this party / shining like Illuminati.”

Madonna’s hedonism and higher consciousness converge in “Devil’s Pray.” Its music, with Avicii among the producers, is a little behind the curve; it uses acoustic rhythm guitar above synthetic four-on-the-floor like Avicii’s hit with Aloe Blacc, “Wake Me Up.”

Madonna, the longtime God-fearing bad girl, sings about how “we could do drugs and we could smoke weed and we could drink whiskey,” but no, those would be bad alternatives. She wants her soul saved from the devil, and not even the tempting electronic beats of clubland can dissuade her. “Teach me how to pray,” she implores. That’s a different Madonna — not blasphemous but devout.

The leaked tracks might, in the end, only raise Madonna’s stature. When the finished album is released — with or without different songs — fans will hear what she adds to them, what she changes, what her standards and instincts demand. They won’t experience Madonna the celebrity or Madonna the fashion statement, but the Madonna who has kept us listening for decades: Madonna the musician.

:bow::bow:

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Good points, but Madonna always suffers from revisionist history regarding critical acclaim. The fact of the matter is that both Hard Candy and MDNA got some wonderful reviews upon release. HC got a glowing review from Blender which was a big publication at the time, and MDNA got a near perfect review from Q. And people sometimes forget that Music was actually as critically acclaimed as ROL upon release (and made year end lists in Spin and Rolling Stone, neither of which ROL made).

Bring on more Rebel Heart praise!

This! :thumbsup:

And not just regarding critical acclaim

Every time Madonna does something, anything, some people have to bring up Hard Candy, MDNA or American Life. It's become amusing really. Like it's a sport to some M fans. Most of the critics worldwide loved those records. Technically speaking, as far as her music career is concerned, she still has to have a FLOP in terms of critical reception (or, for that matter, a huge commercial flop in terms of sales, with the due individual considerations). Meaning when 40% of the press or more says that the album was SHIT

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I love the pop culture review because at last someone gives American Life the credit it's due for starting the trend of folk-EDM that Avici et al are now dominating the chart with. Ok so M's Music did it originally but that was more pop orientated.

Yes, the long time abused, dragged into the mud, brilliant American Life album :clap:

Queen in every decade :bow:

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Madonna, 'Rebel Heart' By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star

When a handful of demos for her new album leaked last week, Madonna fired back by releasing half of “Rebel Heart,” saving the remaining tracks for the official release in March.

The six songs that hit iTunes on the weekend find the 56-year-old queen of pop working in EDM and synth-pop -- avoiding the slamming club sounds of 2012’s so-so “MDNA.” In doing so, she employs producers like Diplo to keep things contemporary.

And she sings, well, Madonna numbers like “Devil Pray,” a driving recounting of doing drugs to run away from life, and the ballad “Ghosttown,” and proudly proclaims amidst reggae-tinged guitars that she’s an “Unapologetic Bitch” after a breakup.

For “Illuminati,” she brings in Kanye West to join her in rapping and name-dropping, and Nicki Minaj joins in on the electronically twitchy “Bitch, I’m Madonna” -- the edgy tracks that end the disc.

If the rest of “Rebel Heart” is as good as the first six songs -- which it very likely will be -- it’s going to be Madonna’s best album in years. For now, it’s an unexpected Christmas gift from Madonna. Grade: A

http://journalstar.com/entertainment/music/album-reviews/madonna-rebel-heart/article_a6fdf6fe-68b0-5fd4-9b6d-bc84abfbea39.html

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Single Review: “Living For Love” by Madonna

Anyone who has listened to the leaked album will know how good “Living for Love” really is. It is the standout track for majority of people who actually got their hands on the leaked version. “Living for Love” is a stunning track that has ‘hit’ written all over it. Hopefully success of this track will help Madonna and her label heal some of the wounds caused by the leaked album.

http://all-noise.co.uk/single-review-%E2%80%9Cliving-love%E2%80%9D-madonna/10175/

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Madonna, "Living for Love"
The new songs that Madonna released this weekend from her forthcoming 13th album Rebel Heart are a mixed bag, the worst of which feature dismayingly faceless vocals and permissive-mom lyrics as cringeworthy as “And we can do drugs and we can smoke weed and we can drink whiskey / Yeah, we can get high and we can get stoned.” But the spirited “Living for Love” — a kind of “Like a Prayer” update for Generation Dubstep — finds an unexpectedly perfect balance between the ghosts of Madge past and future. —Lindsay Zoladz (@LindsayZoladz)

http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/best-new-music-of-the-week-madonna-weeknd.html?mid=twitter_nymag

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Madonna, "Living for Love"

The new songs that Madonna released this weekend from her forthcoming 13th album Rebel Heart are a mixed bag, the worst of which feature dismayingly faceless vocals and permissive-mom lyrics as cringeworthy as And we can do drugs and we can smoke weed and we can drink whiskey / Yeah, we can get high and we can get stoned. But the spirited Living for Love a kind of Like a Prayer update for Generation Dubstep finds an unexpectedly perfect balance between the ghosts of Madge past and future. Lindsay Zoladz (@LindsayZoladz)

http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/best-new-music-of-the-week-madonna-weeknd.html?mid=twitter_nymag

Is this the first one in which someone proves they are an imbecile by flagrantly misinterpreting lyrics?

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I think the press is really in awe that Madonna could turn the leaks on her favor. It somewhat proves their point that she is the genius of this industry, or like Larry King said: "a marketer, a business woman" :dry: but this time she is acclaimed in the press as not only a great marketer, but also a great musician as well. Sorry Larry. :chuckle:

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