Madonna. (AFP)
Madonna’s back, bitches. And fortunately it’s the thoughtful, soulful, adventurous Madonna of watershed albums “Like a Prayer”, “Ray of Light”, and (the criminally undervalued) “American Life”.
Which is to say that the first batch of songs she has officially released from her upcoming new album “Rebel Heart”, in response to the recent leak of a total of 27 songs from the recording sessions for the album, is some of the best music she has ever made. (“Rebel Heart”, due in its 19-track entirety in March, is now up for pre-order in iTunes.)
Things get off to a rousing, gospel-powered start with album opener and carrier single “Living for Love,” a throbbing throwback of a club track about carrying on with love after a heartbreak that marries the velveteen sounds of “Vogue” and the “Express Yourself” dance remix with the defiant spirit and the spirituality of the latter song and “Like a Prayer.” The track is a perfect child of the trinity of past, present, and future.
The reformed Material Girl calls on the Holy Trinity, and Mother Mary, in “Devil Pray,” a country-tinged mid-tempo track that’s both a prayer for “something to believe in” and an appeal to listeners to aim for spiritual heights rather than a drug- or booze-induced high.
Co-written with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, the song wraps a “House of the Rising Sun”-like hee-haw lilt in a cottony shuffling rhythm with all sorts of electronic blips and burbles that would not sound out of place in American Life. And that’s a great thing.
“Ghosttown” finds Madonna dipping her toes in Beyonce-style R&B power balladry and surprisingly acquits herself terribly well. It’s a straightforward we’ll-always-stay-together-no-matter-what romantic love song (sample lyric: When the world gets cold I’ll be your cover / Let’s just hold on to each other) that Madonna invests with affecting warmth and passion. One of her finest, strongest vocal performances to date.
Sassy, snarky, saucy Madonna makes her first appearance with the breakup track “Unapologetic Bitch”, a pulsating reggae-drenched mid-tempo ditty worthy of Rihanna. The song opens with the kiss-off line, “Woke up this morning feeling good that you are gone,” and then proceeds to a disfest in the verses that includes “When we did it I admit I wasn’t satisfied” and “I’m popping bottles that you can’t even afford / I’m throwing parties that you won’t get in the door,” and then climaxes with a “f*ck you!” in the chorus.
Things get dark and brooding with “Illuminati,” Madonna’s semi-rap/sung illumination about a supposed secret organization called Iluminati that’s allegedly composed of all-powerful personages, including actors and musicians, and believed to be manipulating the media on a grand scale.
She-name checks everyone from the Pope to Gaga over a driving sinister electronic drone crafted by the song’s producer, Kanye West, who is also among those mentioned in the lyrics. It’s an odd subject matter for an unlikely superstar pairing. And it’s a knockout.
The bitch returns to close out the set with the shape-shifting club banger “Bitch, I’m Madonna.” No, it’s not another song directed against the many Madonna wannabes in pop. Well, not mainly. It’s mostly a song about having fun and doing whatever the heck Madonna wants to do because, well, she’s Madonna. Nicki Minaj springs up towards the end of the song to basically underline Madonna’s status as someone who has “nothing left to prove…these hoes know.” Well, there goes the dig.
This six-song set is not a good preview of “Rebel Heart”. It’s a great one, one that promises an album showing Madonna back in top form as the high priestess of pop – daring, innovative, maddening, entertaining, surprising, and singular.
REVIEW | Madonna returns to form with ‘Rebel Heart’ preview
Source: InterAksyon.com (December 29, 2014 at 07:16PM)
Continue...
No comments:
Post a Comment