Madonna's new album 'Madame X'

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my fav is "killers who are partying" because it's so weird smile

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps

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Reply #32 posted 06/14/19 3:37pm

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also, "I Don't Search I Find" sounds like a really good outtake from "Bedtime Stories" or something.

dancing jig

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps

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Reply #33 posted 06/14/19 3:47pm

SoulAlive	These are the songs I keep going back to: God Control Crazy Come Alive :music: I guess these are my early favorites
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Reply #34 posted 06/14/19 3:47pm

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i wish she'd just let mirwais produce the whole thing because the tracks she did with him
are absolutely the best imo. he's production here is pretty ace.

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps

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Reply #35 posted 06/14/19 3:53pm

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just went looking for "ciao bella" since it's also mirwais produced.

pretty good one as well. nice dance track. sort of the whole MX
through a ROL/CONFESSIONS filter. i like.

love the 'world' music elements in the album and bonus tracks.
finally something different. such a breath of fresh air.

i don't like the entire album, and her lyrics are still 'ewwwwwww'
a few too many times. but there's a lot to like here dancing jig

and true love lives on lollipops and crisps

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Reply #36 posted 06/14/19 4:06pm

SoulAlive	IstenSzek said: love the 'world' music elements in the album and bonus tracks.finally something different. such a breath of fresh air I totally agree.I feel like she’s gone as far she can go with electronic dance music.It’s time for something different and this album really delivers.It’s refreshing.
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Reply #37 posted 06/14/19 6:34pm

gandorb

Just listened to it and my first reaction is that it is the freshest album she has released in several years. It sounds like she is no longer chasing the charts anymore, which is a no win race at her age any way. Given how relatively uncommercial it is, it is refreshing how well it has received by the fans so far. It is getting extremely high ratings from fans on the metacritic poll. I look forward to hearing it again.

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Reply #38 posted 06/14/19 7:45pm

SoulAlive	It’s a very bold,fresh album....totally unlike her previous albums.I have always loved Latin music so this album is right up my alley.I’m having fun exploring these songs.Did you ever think that you would hear African drums on a Madonna album? it’s also fun hearing her sing in Spanish and Portuguese on several tracks
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Reply #39 posted 06/14/19 8:38pm

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Well, I listened to it this afternoon. I was nervous. Madonna's output, to me, is much like Prince's. There is something a string of good stuff, then a couple of humdingers. People love Rebel Heart, but I despise every piece of it, along with Hard Candy and American Life.

I was pleasantly surprised by Madame X. I've only listened once, so far.

I love the mixed nature of "God Control". It's the same engaging musical sychsophrenia in "Dark Ballet".

"I Don't Search I Find" is a grown up "Vogue".

She's a little heavy on a vocoder/talk box type effect on her voice. There was a lot of it on MDNA or Rebel Heart I think.

It has a good amount of ethnic influence in it, which I hoped for. I mean, one doesn't live in Lisbon for a few years and not pick up a few things.

It's definitely experimental and sort of an F.U. to any past formula of trying to have every song inhabit a pop song sensibility. I feel like it's sorta her The Velvet Rope or Unbreakable (from Janet), or even something like The Rainbow Children. Not in sound, but just in the sheer lack of giving a shit about conventions and formulas. And while I'm no fan of TRC, there is a clear similaritiy in its approach and the one Madonna took with Madame X. In general, I like the album.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.

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Reply #40 posted 06/14/19 8:55pm

SoulAlive	TrivialPursuit said: She's a little heavy on a vocoder/talk box type effect on her voice. Indeed I don’t like the way she sounds during the first verse of “God Control”,lol.Not sure why she did that.
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Reply #41 posted 06/14/19 10:55pm

Goddess4Real

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SoulAlive said:
IstenSzek said:
love the 'world' music elements in the album and bonus tracks.finally something different. such a breath of fresh air
I totally agree.I feel like she’s gone as far she can go with electronic dance music.It’s time for something different and this album really delivers.It’s refreshing.

yeahthat I give Madame X (2019) a solid 4 out of 5 music I really like the bonus track Funana....its been in my head all day

Keep Calm & Listen To Prince

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Reply #42 posted 06/15/19 2:22am

Moonbeam

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Better than I feared, but still not a good album, IMO. My review:

Common perception is that Madonna hasn't released a good album since Confessions on a Dance Floor. Hard Candy is rightly regarded as a disaster, and while I like MDNA, that is a minority opinion and I concede it isn't particularly special. Rebel Heart was serviceable, but the truth remains that she hasn't delivered an album to unite fans or a single to light up the charts in over a decade. Enter Madame X, billed as something of a concept album in which Madonna plays the role of a secret agent fighting for good around the world. As clumsy as this may seem, at least it signalled a return of a more ambitious approach. The result showcases that ambition with a wide range of popular musical styles from around the world, but its execution is spotty.

Much will be said about the autotune employed throughout the album. Indeed, Madame X sees Madonna's vocals processed like never before. While this may be a distraction for some, it suits some of the songs and is far from the worst feature of Madonna's vocals present. No, that would be the clipped and mumbled delivery she adopts in several of the songs, hopping on a trend of young pop starlets (or their producers) who seem to think that vowels can all be pronounced however you like to achieve a sort of sassy edginess. I find this sort of signing an obnoxious blight on pop music at the best of times, but it sounds so painfully unnatural for Madonna here that it comes off like someone parodying Madonna parodying this vocal style. Take the opening minute of "God Control", for instance, and recoil in horror at how forced it sounds as Madonna swallows her words. While this effect merely plagues the first minute of an otherwise good song on "God Control", it completely spoils what should have been a perfunctorily catchy single in "Crave". Her delivery is so clumsy as her usually clear diction is replaced by an ocean of schwas that deliver such horrors as "rəsh-rəsh-rəshhh on you", "cəz ah'm juss məe (yeah) thass əll ah cən bə". It gets especially excruciating as she claims she's [s]something real[/s] er.. "sumthən' rill (yeah)". Yeah... For all her ups and downs, I'd never been embarrassed by a Madonna song until now. Some of the other singles including "Future" and "I Rise" also suffer from these awkward vocal affectations, though not as badly.

While many of the other songs fare better, there are other foibles that detract from their impact. Lead single "Medellín" actually sees Madonna in clear voice and delivering a serviceably catchy melody and a decent rhythm track. But collaborator Maluma brings the sort of eyeroll-worthy presence to be expected from someone with an album called Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy, the bad-boy-from-the-boy-band caricature to serve up some sizzle that instead fizzles. Maluma also features on "Bitch I'm Loca", the less said about which, the better. Elsewhere, "Dark Ballet" suffers from some extremely lazy verses which routinely alternate between two notes and has a completely patchwork feel as it suddenly transitions into an electronic makeover of The Nutcracker Suite before abruptly dropping out altogether. There are some good ideas here, but they don't coalesce into a particularly cohesive whole. "Killers Who Are Partying" and "Extreme Occident", meanwhile, clearly aim to be message songs but end up feeling a little hollow. The former in particular, in which she announces her solidarity with various groups when they are oppressed, feels like little more than cause tourism. For instance, she insists she'll be poor if the poor are humiliated, with Islam if it's hated, etc., etc. But there is little else said other than a sort of passive acknowledgement of their plight which belies the sort of charity work she does in real life. The previously mentioned "God Control" eventually turns into entertaining disco glitz, but its shocking opening makes me not want to revisit it. These songs and others feel a bit like missed opportunities given their potential, rendering them as frustrating as they are fascinating.

Thankfully, there are a few unreservedly worthy songs to make the listening experience worth it. "Crazy" and "Looking for Mercy" may not feature the ambition of some of their other tracks, and perhaps they are better for it, as their focus on melody allows Madonna's presence to shine. "I Don't Search I Find", meanwhile, sees her rekindle the early 90s housey cool that gave Erotica such a great vibe. "Come Alive", the best of the bunch, is both hooky and substantial, showcasing Madonna's ability to make a pop song feel like more than a pop song. The fact that one of these is merely a bonus track and the others are mere album tracks suggests that Madonna or her team felt they either weren't notable enough, modern enough, or ambitious enough for further attention. But "back to the basics" as these songs may be in comparison, they sound and feel like Madonna songs in the best way.

Madame X is as mixed of a bag as any in her discography, with some worthy highs and some frightening lows. I applaud the ambition - given the course of her career, it's a good sign that she's not willing to stagnate and aimed to incorporate the widest array of popular styles ever into a single album. While the results may not always deliver, Madame X is interesting if nothing else, and that gives me hope that her thirst for creativity has not dried up, even if the result of it this time isn't always to my taste.

Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!

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Reply #43 posted 06/15/19 10:55am

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SoulAlive said:
TrivialPursuit said:
She's a little heavy on a vocoder/talk box type effect on her voice.
Indeed I don’t like the way she sounds during the first verse of “God Control”,lol.Not sure why she did that.

I don't either. Her and Prince both get caught up in these tropes that seem to stretch forever through their music. Madonna's a little worse at it. I remember going from Like A Prayer, to Erotica to Bedtime Stories. Three very different albums and constantly interesting. Then she got into electronica for years. And people can define electronica how they want, but you know exactly what I mean. She got into this dry, compressed, acrylic production that Prince did with Emancipation and onward. Now, it's the vocoder/talkbox/whatthefuckever effect on her voice. It's unnecessary in every song on a record. The record is vastly more interesting than that damn vocal effect.

PS she's on Graham Norton this week (probably airs in the US next week). She's got the eye patch on, but worse she's wearing those damn grillz in her mouth. Her lips poot out and she talks with a weird lisp. It's so goddamn pretentious and retarded. It's not even provocative, which she wants to be. It's just stupid. She did an interview with Harry Reid for NBC and she didn't have them in. Maybe she wears them based on how much exposure she'll get - the more she gets, the more she'll wear those fucking things. GRRRR

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.

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Reply #44 posted 06/15/19 10:59am

PurpleSullivan

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I haven’t gotten to give it a full listen yet, but I adore Madonna and both “Medellín” and “Dark Ballet” impressed me.

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Reply #45 posted 06/15/19 11:16am

ChocolateBox31
21

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StrangeButTrue said:
I’m glad our Purple hero gets a shoutout on Funana.

"That mountain top situation is not really what it's all cracked up 2 B when eye

was doing the Purple Rain tour eye

had a lot of people who eye

knew

'll never c again @ the concerts.just screamin n places they thought they was suppose 2 scream." prince

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Reply #46 posted 06/15/19 11:17am

SoulAlive

TrivialPursuit said:

PS she's on Graham Norton this week (probably airs in the US next week). She's got the eye patch on, but worse she's wearing those damn grillz in her mouth. Her lips poot out and she talks with a weird lisp. It's so goddamn pretentious and retarded. It's not even provocative, which she wants to be. It's just stupid. She did an interview with Harry Reid for NBC and she didn't have them in. Maybe she wears them based on how much exposure she'll get - the more she gets, the more she'll wear those fucking things. GRRRR

yeah,I saw the interview smile I wonder why she refers to Jellybean as her "shitty ex-boyfriend" eek biggrin She reveals that she will plan her own biopic of her life.....basically telling other directors to don't bother,lol

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Reply #47 posted 06/15/19 11:50am

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ChocolateBox3121 said:

StrangeButTrue said:
I’m glad our Purple hero gets a shoutout on Funana.

That pic is fake, by the way.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.

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Reply #48 posted 06/15/19 11:54am

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SoulAlive said:

yeah,I saw the interview I wonder why she refers to Jellybean as her "shitty ex-boyfriend"

Who knows. He could have said somethign in an interview, put stuff out musically she didn't want him to, or he was just horrible as a human being to her over time. I mean, what did Jellybean do before or after that anyone can readily recall, besides that one Madonna-soundalike chick that had one song? His only claim to larger fame is Madonna.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.

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Reply #49 posted 06/15/19 12:48pm

ChocolateBox31
21

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"That mountain top situation is not really what it's all cracked up 2 B when eye

was doing the Purple Rain tour eye

had a lot of people who eye

knew

'll never c again @ the concerts.just screamin n places they thought they was suppose 2 scream." prince

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Reply #50 posted 06/15/19 2:07pm

SoulAlive	I like seeing the many different physical copies of this album it makes collecting her music alot of fun
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Reply #51 posted 06/15/19 2:08pm

SoulAlive
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Reply #52 posted 06/15/19 2:10pm

SoulAlive	there is even a glittery cassette
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Reply #53 posted 06/15/19 2:11pm

SoulAlive
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Reply #54 posted 06/15/19 2:26pm

purplethunder3
121

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SoulAlive said:

TrivialPursuit said:

PS she's on Graham Norton this week (probably airs in the US next week). She's got the eye patch on, but worse she's wearing those damn grillz in her mouth. Her lips poot out and she talks with a weird lisp. It's so goddamn pretentious and retarded. It's not even provocative, which she wants to be. It's just stupid. She did an interview with Harry Reid for NBC and she didn't have them in. Maybe she wears them based on how much exposure she'll get - the more she gets, the more she'll wear those fucking things. GRRRR

yeah,I saw the interview I wonder why she refers to Jellybean as her "shitty ex-boyfriend" She reveals that she will plan her own biopic of her life.....basically telling other directors to don't bother,lol

I saw the promo for the Graham Norton show and I was horrified to see the grillz back! razz lol She's looked so classy up until this point, even with the eye-patch! lol

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

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Reply #55 posted 06/15/19 2:28pm

purplethunder3
121

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Finally, I'll have a chance to listen to Madonna's new album in full and let it resonate. I think, as usual, there will be some songs on it that catch my fancy... wink BTW the last Madonna album that I loved every song on was "Confessions On A Dance Floor."

[Edited 6/15/19 14:41pm]

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

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Reply #56 posted 06/15/19 2:30pm

lastdecember

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I will always give MADONNA credit for being one of the smartest in the industry as time as gone on. She still knows she has a base, shes not going have hits, or airplay etc...but she has the loyal base that will buy her up, and the more she markets limited editions, and collectibles she will also have that appeal to them. As for the album I have a mixed vibe on it, some songs are kiler and some songs I am already skipping.

"We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F

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Reply #57 posted 06/15/19 2:35pm

PurpleSullivan

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SoulAlive said:

there is even a glittery cassette lol

a need

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Reply #58 posted 06/15/19 3:40pm

gandorb

IstenSzek said:

just went looking for "ciao bella" since it's also mirwais produced.

pretty good one as well. nice dance track. sort of the whole MX
through a ROL/CONFESSIONS filter. i like.

love the 'world' music elements in the album and bonus tracks.
finally something different. such a breath of fresh air.

i don't like the entire album, and her lyrics are still 'ewwwwwww'
a few too many times. but there's a lot to like here

I agree with you about some of lyrics. I've never thought that was a strong suit of hers, as even at the peak of her game the lyrics were mostly cliches. For some reason, that doesn't bother me. I tend to listen to Madonna when I am moving, either in dancing, exercise, housework, or yardwork. Her music has always been wonderful to move to. Here, she just sounds invigorated and rather joyful even on the most lyrically challenged songs. Joy and invigoration with a beat is just what I need when on the move, lyrics be damned.

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Reply #59 posted 06/15/19 3:59pm

StrangeButTrue

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Nice to see folks giving her love in the press (even NY Post!) and here on the .org. This album is a grower, I’m really into Batuka and Killers Who Are Partying, the melody is so warm and lovely I find myself humming it. The lyrics become more “like a prayer” or mantra once you get used to them after a few listens. It’s a kind sentiment really, similar to Shanti Ashtangi and Cyberraga in the sense you know she is projecting something positive, just not exactly what she is saying.

Extreme Occident is one I have a hard time processing. And Looking for Mercy is about a minute and twenty seconds too repetitive, otherwise another great tune. If she makes that a single she better make a radio edit. I’m glad I got a ticket to the show before the album came out.

if it was just a dream, call me a dreamer 2

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