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Grade and Rank Madonna's Last Three Albums


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I've been listening to Madonna's last three albums all week. It amazes me how all three of them together match the times we live in. Anyway, if you were to grade and rank them right now, how would you do so?

Here's how I would rank and grade them....

1. MDNA and Rebel Heart : I rank them both with an "A" and tie them at first place. I love the journey both take from dark to light. The dance songs are powerful. The ballads are so full of heart and beautiful. I loved the videos and both tours too. 

2. Madame X - "B-" I remember not liking this album in the beginning. The more I listened, the more I ended up liking it, though, still not as much as the previous two albums. I have to admit, I'm listening to it less and less as time goes. It's saving grace for me though is the cinematic, beautifully produced videos which are the best thing to come from this era imo. 

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Guest Nobody Knows Me

MDNA: B - Honestly I do really enjoy this album and I don’t think it deserves all the hate it gets. It just is a lot weaker artistically compared to her other bodies of work. That said, it was a really fantastic era and a fantastic tour.

Rebel Heart: A - I think as time goes by I prefer this album more and more to “Madame X”. I love the pure pop element of it, and I think it’s her strongest lyricism from the 2010s. It’s such a shame the leaks happened because I think this album could have been even better had the leak never happened. 

Madame X: A - Definitely her most innovative album in years and a really bold and brilliant body of work. Amazing music, her best visuals in a very long time. Only thing I didn’t like about this album was the fact that Quavo was featured. 

Right now, my ranking would probably be: 
Rebel Heart > Madame X > MDNA

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I think Rebel Heart will become more and more my favorite as time goes on, I just wish it was mastered properly. MDNA is good, but it seems a bit frantic. I wish Mirwais shined through more on Madame X, his production seems to take a back seat to Mike Dean's production, but other than that its a welcome step forward again. 

 

MDNA--           B

Rebel Heart-- A-

Madame X--   A

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Rank:
Rebel Heart
MDNA
Madame X

Grade:
Grading is based off of comparing every album to Madonna's past work. I did not take into account visuals such as music videos, tours, performances or anything unrelated to actual music since I'm not grading the era but just the music.

Madame X - For me the album left a lot to be desired. I didn't connect with the music and it couldn't name any track that I've left on repeat. The lifespan of this album has greatly worn off from it's initial release. The lyrics are okay in some tracks ("I'm sipping my pain like champagne") but then they feel like 'huh?' ("Insane people think I am, Brain inside my only friend, Hope it gives me birth each new, That dope I don't smoke"). The artwork is bland and don't have any iconic Madonna imagery with poor type face on the front. The vocoder is too much at times where I can't even understand what she's saying (Future). Nothing on the album sounds fresh for Madonna with many tracks seeming like music she's done before (IDSIF = Runaway Lover, Bitch I'm Loca = Unapologetic Bitch, etc). 

 

Rebel Heart - B - Great album cover with some great songs. The album is too disjointed with no clear focus. This album works well if you create your own playlist while leaving many tracks off. Listening to the demos early and hearing the final tracks it makes me confused why some tracks were turned lifeless from their amazing demo versions (Inside Out, Joan of Arc, Rebel Heart, Living for Love, Beautiful Scars, Wash All Over Me) while other tracks benefited from a face lift (Devil Pray, Illuminati). This could've been a better album if Madonna focused on improving only 12 of the 24 released tracks. Individually the songs are good but it seems like there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Lyrically its great in parts (Messiah, Ghosttown, Addicted) and other times its cringe worthy (SEX, Holy Water, Body Shop). 

 

MDNA - - One of her best album covers but the tracks mostly sound like demos from other artists like Britney Spears. Girl Gone Wild, while sounding basic, is the best track. I would've like the album to be more of a club banger and delve a little more into dubstep which it teases in tracks. This should've been the album that Madonna partnered with Avicii on and leave RH to Diplo. Lyric wise its eye brow raising for a Madonna album with Superstar sounding like something from a Kidz Bop album, B-Day Song being an awful collaboration with MIA, and IDGA being WTF is she talking about ("baby jesus on the stairs"). The William Orbit contribution sounds just like the same style of music he made 20 years ago with nothing new brought to the table.

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23 minutes ago, dankpepe said:

Rank:
Rebel Heart
MDNA
Madame X

Grade:
Grading is based off of comparing every album to Madonna's past work. I did not take into account visuals such as music videos, tours, performances or anything unrelated to actual music since I'm not grading the era but just the music.

Madame X - For me the album left a lot to be desired. I didn't connect with the music and it couldn't name any track that I've left on repeat. The lifespan of this album has greatly worn off from it's initial release. The lyrics are okay in some tracks ("I'm sipping my pain like champagne") but then they feel like 'huh?' ("Insane people think I am, Brain inside my only friend, Hope it gives me birth each new, That dope I don't smoke"). The artwork is bland and don't have any iconic Madonna imagery with poor type face on the front. The vocoder is too much at times where I can't even understand what she's saying (Future). Nothing on the album sounds fresh for Madonna with many tracks seeming like music she's done before (IDSIF = Runaway Lover, Bitch I'm Loca = Unapologetic Bitch, etc). 

 

Rebel Heart - B - Great album cover with some great songs. The album is too disjointed with no clear focus. This album works well if you create your own playlist while leaving many tracks off. Listening to the demos early and hearing the final tracks it makes me confused why some tracks were turned lifeless from their amazing demo versions (Inside Out, Joan of Arc, Rebel Heart, Living for Love, Beautiful Scars, Wash All Over Me) while other tracks benefited from a face lift (Devil Pray, Illuminati). This could've been a better album if Madonna focused on improving only 12 of the 24 released tracks. Individually the songs are good but it seems like there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Lyrically its great in parts (Messiah, Ghosttown, Addicted) and other times its cringe worthy (SEX, Holy Water, Body Shop). 

 

MDNA - - One of her best album covers but the tracks mostly sound like demos from other artists like Britney Spears. Girl Gone Wild, while sounding basic, is the best track. I would've like the album to be more of a club banger and delve a little more into dubstep which it teases in tracks. This should've been the album that Madonna partnered with Avicii on and leave RH to Diplo. Lyric wise its eye brow raising for a Madonna album with Superstar sounding like something from a Kidz Bop album, B-Day Song being an awful collaboration with MIA, and IDGA being WTF is she talking about ("baby jesus on the stairs"). The William Orbit contribution sounds just like the same style of music he made 20 years ago with nothing new brought to the table.

I loved this.  I enjoy your writing. And you are right how some of her lyrics are crazy such as "baby Jesus on the stairs". :laughing:  Thank you!!

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MDNA: C (zero effort on her part) 

Rebel Heart: B (would have been an A with fewer songs and more cohesiveness. There are some absolute gems but too many duds too) 

Madame X: A- (would have been a full A with more sing-along songs like Ghosttown. God control, I Rise, IDSIF and Medellín all lacked a strong hook) 

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MDNA: A+. It's fun, It has amazing and catchy songs. The problem? The Singles.

Rebel Heart (Final Version): D. In my opinion, Madonna destroyed a fantastic album. I only play the demo versions.

Madame X: B. It's a good album, I like it, but I'm sorry, it's not my cup of tea. (I have the same problem with "Bedtime Stories").

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13 hours ago, dankpepe said:

and IDGA being WTF is she talking about ("baby jesus on the stairs"). The William Orbit contribution sounds just like the same style of music he made 20 years ago with nothing new brought to the table.

I don't disagree with the rest you said but I found I Don't Give A a highlight of MDNA as it's very different for her and expresses what really troubled her at the time. When it comes to the Baby Jesus lyric, I think it's a very cute one. The way I understand it, she was leaving the house without saying her prayers because there was no time to and her schedule was too hectic to remember it every day. So she was reciting some prayer addressed to Baby Jesus, as her kids were all very young then, while climbing down the stairs to leave. In my opinion, only a song with that pacing could give us a glimpse of what it is to be a single mom of four and career woman. Just wanted to clarify that song a little the way I understood it, thank you. 

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