Glindathegood said:

You are absolutely correct.I always look forward to her new albums because I know it's gonna be entirely different from the previous album.

another fake demo? LOL

SoulAlive said:

Definitely. The band on that tour was great.

Glindathegood said:

yup. Jai Winding was her best musical director even better than Patrick Leonnard.

I have to say, looking at what Madonna has recorded in the last ten years... going with Timbaland and Pharrell IS "going left". You can't predict what she is going to do.

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[Edited 1/19/08 14:38pm]

Aside said:

I feel like this too, on the other hand she worked with Mirwais on two albums and I didn't see the need (until I heard American Life which I feel is different from their prior work, but it still wasn't a favorite for a lot of listeners).

It was time for her to move on. No matter how good or bad the new album is, their collaborative relationship had pretty much run its course. Listening to a whole album produced by him kind of reveals that he's really only a one or two trick pony as a producer and isn't really a very strong songwriter. It was nice. It served its purpose, but there's not really anywhere for her to go beyond what she'd already gotten out of him on a creative level.

The same could be said about the other producers she's worked with who aren't actually songwriters. Shep Pettibone, William Orbit, Mirwais. The stuff they did is great, but there wasn't really anywhere else for it to go. Some of them stayed a bit too long as well (Orbit's contributions to the Music album, for example).

Aside said:

Exactly what I was posting at the same time.

Cinnie said:

it's a bold move for her,for sure.

ehuffnsd said:

Omar (the drummer) was particularly impressive.

SoulAlive said:

For me, Stuart Price wasn't plucked from obscurity, I had honestly wanted her to work with him because I thought it would be a good match, THEN we got COADF.

Someone could say she's "late" for choosing to work with Pharrell and Timbaland now, however, the only reason she wasn't working with them before was she was aiming at making a different kind of record before - simple as that.

Cinnie said:

True.

my gripe is fine, do an r&B album - but Stuart is extremely talented, especially at producing her vocals - why not keep him around for a song or two? I love his late 70s/early 80s vibe that he throws in the mix so well - the "Can You Feel It" or "I Feel Love" inspirations (i e SAMPLES) worked great methought.

and then if you want to do a hip hop record, how many up and coming unknown folks are out there she could have worked with?!?! even protoges of Timabaland and Pharrell. she really had to go and pick the two most overplayed ones? that's one thing that has always been awesome about her is finding artists who are otherwise obscure or only well known in on niche and basically handing them a mainstream career - her last No 1 single in the US (now 8 years ago?) was produced by a fucking French DJ named Mirwais for god's sake.