MDNA
Lady Madge drops her double-album release with 17 new tracks meant to show us that this first lady of pop music hasn’t lost her stuff. The verdict? She (mostly) hasn’t.
"Girls Gone Wild" opens with Madonna intoning the Act of Contrition; then she lets us know that girls just want to have fun. In "Gang Bang", Madonna sings, "Drive bitch. And while you’re at it, die bitch." To staccato backdrop, the song ends with the platitude, "If you’re going to be a bitch, you’ll die like a bitch," and gunshots.
"I’m Addicted" is a surefire dance club hit. It starts out with a smart synth intro, and Madonna jumps in with bouncy vocals, "Now that your name pumps like the blood in my veins, pulse through my body igniting my mind it’s like MDNA. Feels like a drug and I can’t get enough and it fits like a glove/ I’m addicted to your love." "Turn Up the Radio" is a pure bubble-gum pop ballad that seems to be geared toward listeners that are Lourdes’ age, imploring them to turn it up until the speakers blow.
Madonna teams up with Nicki Minaj for "I Don’t Give A," a choppy intro lays it down-she don’t give a f*ck about you. After swallowing herself and diminishing her life, this wife has had enough. As Minaj says, "There’s only one queen, and that’s Madonna, bitch!" The listener is peppered with fast-paced vocals, and the dramatic tension builds up at the end with an operetta-style flourish. She teams up with Minaj again for "Gimme All Your Love", another surefire hit. It opens with a cheer squad chanting, "LUV Madonna/ YOU you wanna." Madge pleads her case รก la Toni Basel in "Hey Mickey," and Minaj jumps in later in the song to lay her style of flow, a la her alter-ego Roman. This bubble-gum pop resurfaces again for "Superstar," a light song full of ooh-la-las rhymed with "you can have the keys to my car." Madonna compares her man to Caesar, a gangster, Abe Lincoln, James Dean, John Travolta, a hotshot, and an angel. "You can have the password to my phone; I’ll give you a massage when you get home."
Things start out sounding self-effacing in "Some Girls," as Madonna lets us know she’s not one of those girls who complains about the limo. Later, we discover she’s not like "some girls" -- she’s the best girl in the world. Madonna sings, "I’m a Sinner," and lets us know that she likes it that way. She gives her shout out to St. Christopher, St. Sebastian, St. Anthony, and even dishes out a Hail Mary.
In "Love Spent," a jaunty banjo-plucked intro gets woven into synth for an interesting old world meets new result. The vocal tracks are dancey, like Deborah Cox, with Madonna urging her man "I want you to hold me like you hold your money/ Spend your love on me," and later adds, "Frankly if my name was Benjamin, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in." "Masterpiece" evokes "Live to Tell," with Madonna warning not to fall in love with a masterpiece, because, "after all, nothing’s indestructible."
"Falling Free" is a ghostly love song, with the lyrics like, "Deep and pure our hearts align, and then I’m free I’m free of mine, when I let loose the need to know then we’re both free we’re free to go." "Dark eyes on a dangerous face, you are a ’Beautiful Killer’" Madonna sings in this radio B-side track. "You can call my name and I’ll be around, maybe I’ll let you shoot me down," she sings. "I Fucked Up" is a classic mea culpa, laying it all on the line. She made a mistake, blamed him for when things didn’t go her way, and now she’s owning up to it. Madonna rhapsodizes how perfect things could have been, and even includes this classic Woody Allen sobriquet, singing, "Wanna know how to make God laugh? Tell him your plans."
"B-Day Song" is a poppy, off-the-cuff song where the beat goes on, and the whole world is happy for Madonna’s special day. (Get a laugh over the lyric, "give me a spanking, start the day off right.") "Best Friend" is a dubstep electro treat, about a close lover/friend about whom she misses everything -- except the drinking.
The collection closes with the dance club hit, "Give Me All Your Luvin’ Part 2," a hot remix of her Nicki Minaj-duo "Gimme" with a sample of LMFAO’s "Sexy and I Know It." Madonna’s hard work staying on the cutting edge pays off in her 12th studio album, featuring some of her freshest cuts in years. (Interscope Records)
