Just Saying...

Madonna, Madonna...Madonna  gone are the days of the mature and retrospective lyrics of 'Like a Prayer', 'Ray of Light' and even 'American Life'. Missing in her music now are the classic pop elements that filled ‘Dress You Up, ‘Vogue’, ‘Rescue Me, ‘Open Your Heart’, ‘I’ll Remember’ and even ‘Deeper & Deeper’.  Those songs had the Madge’ic us fans became accustom to and now long for when she releases anything in the 2000’s

Okay, so I heard the album today. I will have a full review of the album the week of its release. Let's just say that even though this album is no Ray of Light or Like a Prayer, there is nothing to worry about here. Madonna has made a solid album with only a couple lousy tracks: ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ and ‘B-Day Song’. By the way, MIA's contribution has been taken out of B-Day song.

Let me talk about the standout tracks first.

‘Girl Gone Wild’--This song is EPIC. It immediately is on fire. It sort of reminds me of ‘Deeper and Deeper’. It may be overproduced, but so what. I can see a great video being made out of this.

‘Falling Free’ is a beautiful ballad. Her voice sounds so pure in this. “Falling Free without a hand to hold. Falling Free like a dog without a bone" are they only lyrics I remember. Think "This Used To Be My Playground" but only better.

‘Masterpiece’ You have all heard this. It is beautiful.

‘Turn Up The Radio’ is definitely a club banger. If the lyrics didn't repeat themselves so much, this would have been my choice for a second single.

‘Gang Bang’ Madonna wants to kill somebody in this song. It's not so musically impressive, but the lyrics really tell a story. I hope the story isn't autobiographical.

‘I F*cked Up’ This song is Madonna basically saying sorry to people she hurt in the past. It sort of reminds me of Alanis Morisette's "Unsent." It has two slow parts, but the chorus is fast and really good.

The songs that didn't excite me:

‘I'm a Sinner’  It sounded like a Britney Spears song. It wasn't bad, but several took a bathroom break during the song. "I'm a sinner and I don't care. I have given all I dare to bare." LOL!

‘B-Day Song’Abortional. Nanananananananananananana.

‘Some Girls’ A good midtempo beat, but really bad lyrics. "Some girls they like candy. Some girls they like fun. Some girls like to f**k."

‘GMAYL’The worst song on the album besides B-Day song. The people at Interscope wanted to skip it, but some listeners wanted to hear it. One of the A&R guys told me that Interscope did not want to release this as the first single, but Madonna insisted they do.

Overall, I would give the album a B+ and that's just from one listen. It ranks up there with Confessions, but not Ray of Light or Like a Prayer.

Just like her evolving, gaunt and plastic looking face, her music is going in the same direction.  We look at her and listen to her music, but we think to ourselves "this is not the Madonna that we knew and loved".  She is now yet another version of herself that we are still trying to get use to. 

I long for another album fill of hits ala 'True Blue' or 'Like a Prayer'.  For me, ‘Confessions on a Dancefloor’ was the only album that came close to those.  I actually wish Madonna had Kylie Minouge’s catalog of music.  I get equally excited for her new albums as I do with Madonna’s, the only difference is I tend blast the princess of pops music more than the queen’s.  Yet, I still rank Madonna as number one.  Have I fallen into that group of fans that think everything she does is AMAZBALLS?  Hell no, I’m still patiently waiting to get my moneys worth after all these years of supporting her.

I think that ‘MDNA ‘ will have something for everyone.  The first three singles seem to point in that direction.  ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’, ‘Girl Gone Wild’ and ‘Masterpiece’ all seem to hit at different demographics (other than hardcore Madonna’s fans who love everything she puts out).  I guess we all will have to wait and see what we get when the album drops on March 26 and we will love it anyway. She's still our girl at the end of the day. The question is does she even care?