Rebel Heart Reviews

[groovyguy 63,859]

'Rebel Heart' review: Madonna's latest is intensely personal

New York Daily News (Jim Farber)

 

 

 

Updated with 4/5 stars http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/rebel-heart-review-madonna-latest-intensely-personal-article-1.2131124?cid=bitly

[groovyguy 63,859]

Awesome review from USA Today!

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/02/27/madonna-with-rebel-heart-on-sleeve/23889591/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycommusic-topstories

Madonna's new album is full of 'Heart'

When Madonna sings on the title track of her latest album, Rebel Heart (***1/2 out of four; out March 10), that she has "outgrown my past and I've shed my skin," she is both protesting too much and engaging in understatement.

 

Our most durable pop star has indeed reinvented elements of her look and sound repeatedly over the past 30 years, but Madonna has retained the same essence: that of a woman who champions and demands love, in every sense of that loaded word. No single artist has been more crucial in shaping our modern view of celebrities as people who need people — and attention.

 

As that view has metastasized into an expectation that artists share ever more of their personal and creative lives, fame's double-edged sword has grown a bit sharper. Madonna felt it last December, when two batches of early recordings from the Heart sessions -- essentially, an album in progress -- were leaked online. Her immediate response was to quickly polish remixes of the first bunch, and make them available to those who pre-ordered the album.

Rebel Heart includes those six songs and 13 more; and they present Madonna at her most determined and spiritually unplugged. The sound — crafted with such hip-hop, pop and EDM names as Kanye West, Toby Gad, Avicii and Diplo â€” is not so much raw as purposefully lean and piercingly direct, as are the lyrics, which mine emotions from righteous anger and pain to resolute joy.

 

Ghosttown mixes a disarmingly earnest sweetness with a stark, chilly arrangement, while on Heartbreak City, Madonna lashes out at a former lover over a shuffling hip-hop groove. The defiant exuberance of first single Living For Love gives way to the deceptively gentle, powerfully infectious Body Shop, with its tinkering rhythms and sly innuendo.

There are more graphic references to sex, and two song titles include a mild an expletive. A disciple, Nicki Minaj, pops up on the frisky B---ch I'm Madonna, in which the titular star chants, "You're gonna love this. ... You can't touch this." Madonna could be parodying followers — some of whom have absorbed her through Minaj and other younger stars — who have been inspired by her confidence and marketing savvy but are often less intuitive about things like desire and pain, be it their own or others'.

 

Madonna asserts both her enduring indomitability and her vulnerability, even getting self-referential a few times. On Veni Vidi Vici, she charts the past via song titles — "I saw a Ray of Light/Music saved my life" — then passes the mic to Nas, who recalls his own rise, rather more flamboyantly.

 

Nas raps playfully at the end, "Madonna on the track/Nas in the back." But each is a survivor, and Rebel Heart celebrates that increasingly rare bird with a bittersweet vengeance.

[Breathless 5,286]

Wow, some good reviews there!! Excellent!

[Breathless 5,286]

Except for maybe that "Material Girl bares all"....... but what do they know! Lol

[groovyguy 63,859]

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18667/reviews/4148750

Madonna Rebel Heart

Label: Interscope Release Date: 09/03/2015

 

by ANDRZEJ LUKOWSKI

March 2nd, 2015

 

When the entire history of the human race is written, the final week of February 2015 probably won't be deemed the absolute pinnacle of our species’ stupidity. But it'll surely warrant a mention, at least.

 

I’m not talking about those good ol’ boys in Isis trashing 9,000 years of human history, though there is that. I’m talking about us infidels more or less living up to Islamist stereotypes of us by getting furious excited over (in reverse chronological order): a dress that looked funny; two llamas; and a lady falling over.

 

I am not professing to be above any of this, and should the black flag ever fly over Britain then I’m going to be in as much shit as anyone. The dress was crazy, right? The llamas – well, who doesn’t love a llama, let alone two? And the lady who fell over wasn’t just any lady: she was Madonna.

 

In the inevitable deluge of think pieces over what must have been either the second or third interesting thing to have ever happened at the Brit Awards, there was a lot of talk of agism in the world’s fascination with said tumble. But without wanting to come across as some sort of apologist – I’m sure agists were delighted – I don’t really think so.

Firstly, having your Versace cloak fail to unbuckle correctly and dragging you over in the middle of a complicated dance routine is not remotely the same as your granny ‘having a fall’.

 

And secondly, I’m not sure Madonna’s age actually registers with people anymore. She long ago shed such human baggage as a surname, and though she did dabble a little with growing up during the Ray of Light era, the 17 intervening years have seen her remain wholly in thrall to pop, her choice of wardrobe – cheerleaders outfits, rollerblades’n’hotpants – not so much a woman in denial as an artist toying ironically with the idea that ‘Madonna’ could get old.

 

Because Madonna is indestructible, transcendent of age, an incandescent avatar of pop, a Zelig-like figure who criss crosses modern history. Maybe her body will die or retire, but surely then the title of ‘Madonna’ can just be bestowed to somebody else. She is superhuman, ageless, and the fascination with her fall wasn’t so much to do with her age but because there is something fundamentally incongruous about her falling over, like Superman stubbing his toe or Jesus waking up with a hangover.

 

And certainly the idea of Madonna as an indestructible spirit of pop runs rampant through her mostly excellent thirteenth studio album Rebel Heart, a record whose strengths are timeless and whose faults are somewhat more modern.

 

One of the more remarkable things about Rebel Heart is how little ego there is on its best songs. ‘Living for Love’, the Diplo-produced opener, is a massive, uplifting house stomper that in the best way possible sounds like it could have been made by somebody else: during the verses the vocals are treated to the point of anonymity, and there’s nothing cheeky, sexual, self-referential or hubristic about the lyrics, which are blandly uplifting, but in a way that nods hyper-explicitly to the euphoria of that first wave of house - which Madonna, or course, very much lived through. The song is absolutely put ahead of the singer. Likewise ‘Ghosttown’, a stonking electro ballad produced by Billboard, is the sort of thing Rihanna might conceivably have her next big hit with if she was lucky enough to have somebody write it for her - there is nothing overtly Madonna-ish about it, other than it’s great pop. And even when the track name has you braced for impact, you’re occasionally pleasantly surprised: ‘Unapologetic Bitch’, written with Diplo, is a disarmingly vulnerable electro-reggae confection that sounds peculiarly like The Knife.

 

You’re not always pleasantly surprised, mind. Ego and the desire to play with the idea of being Madonna rather then just be Madonna do raise their heads on a vocal minority of tracks. ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ escapes being worst track on the album only because Madge almost feels excused from it: she basically pops up to offer occasional backing vocals on a noisy mess of a song almost entirely given over to guest Nicki Minaj. The nadir is debatable, but certainly pretty nadir-y. It's either the baffling ‘Iconic': a turgid burble of FX marked out by a weird spoken word intro from rapist Mike Tyson, a lobotomised chorus of “iconic, ironicâ€, and a totally random, tacked on guest slot for Chance The Rapper. Or possibly the unpleasant ‘Holy Water’ - I’m not sure whether the worst bit is the vocal hook “bitch, get off my poleâ€, or the clanging, sacrilegious interpolation of a bit of ‘Vogue’. Everyone's a loser, really.

 

Still, for each clanger there’s two bangers – there's no time to go through everything, but the likes of ‘Heartbreak City’ and ‘Inside Out’ are just effortlessly good pop. And occasionally she does manage to meld her more questing urges to her knack for a tune: the Kanye-co-produced ‘Illuminati’ is a euphoric rush of knowing stupidity, its deliciously dumb/clever lyrics referencing various batshit conspiracy theories, but suggesting our sinister masters just want a boogie: “everybody at this party, shinin’ like illuminai

 

The real flaw with Rebel Heart, though, is that modern pop bugbear: length. Whether to placate her army of producers or because she thinks the album as a work of art etc is dead, Madge has somehow conspired to let the record run to a walloping 19 tracks (if you pay out the pitiful difference for the deluxe edition – 14 if you don’t, but it certainly feels of one messy piece).

 

This is kind of just how producer-driven pop records get made these days, I guess, but it’s a shame because there is a phenomenal ten-track album in here. Even as recently as 2008’s Hard Candy, Madge clearly viewed an album as relative concise, unified body of work to be written with one main collaborator. But while Rebel Heart is greatly superior to her last set, MDNA, it suffers from the same malaise of of overabundance. Buy it, edit it, and make your own better version, but as it stands the full Rebel Heart experience is a bit of a chore.

 

But that’s pop music in 2015 for you: and Madonna has always been of her time.

• [*]

7

[groovyguy 63,859]

Wow, some good reviews there!! Excellent!

And for the not so good reviews, I feel the actual reviews are better than the given ratings! :(

[Rod Erick 70]

4 Stars - Review for the 14 track-standard edition

 

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/music/track-by-track-review-rebel-heart---madonna

 

Fortunately, in the final analysis, the music wins. Rebel Heart is a fine collection of sturdy pop tunes in which Madonna finally allows herself to look back and sometimes pilfer from her peak periods of the late 80s and early 2000s. Aside from a couple of clunkers, there is plenty for Madonna’s hard-core fan base, the casual listener and aspiring producers to enjoy here.

 

 

3 Stars - Reviewed alongside Bjork's Vulnicura

 

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/new-albums-from-bjork-madonna-20150303-13rwug.html

[groovyguy 63,859]

NME Review of Madonna’s “Rebel Heart†album

 

Three years after 2012’s EDM-driven ‘MDNA’ album, ‘Rebel Heart’ finds 56-year-old Madonna still trying to pass herself off as a teenager. It’s a disconnect that has become increasingly grating.

 

Rather than the return to ’80s underground New York promised by lead single ‘Living For Love’, her 13th album is a scattergun attempt to hit all the bases of modern pop. Instead of having one producer at the helm, as ‘MNDA’ did with William Orbit, Madonna hired the biggest chart-humping names she could find. Avicii co-writes three tracks: ‘HeartBreakCity’, ‘Devil Pray’ – reminiscent of Lady Gaga’s crazed 2013 dance tune ‘Aura’ – and the ballad ‘Wash All Over Me’. Kanye produces three: the classy, ‘Vogue’-referencing ‘Illuminati’, ‘Holy Water’ and ‘Wash All Over Me’. Diplo drives four: ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’, ‘Unapologetic Bitch’, ‘Living For Love’, ‘Hold Tight’. And Drake associates Dahi and Michael ‘Blood’ Diamonds take two: ‘Devil Pray’ and ‘Body Shop’. Chance The Rapper (trendy) and Nicki Minaj (bankable) rap on ‘Iconic’ and ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ respectively.

 

Diplo fares best. The pulsating ‘Living For Love’ is exactly what this record should have been top-to-tail, and the digi-reggae of ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ could’ve fallen off the back of a Major Lazer album. Diplo makes Madge sound fun, but as the candy-bass ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ – on which she sings “We’re jumping in the pool and swimming with our clothes on / I poured beer in my shoe and got my freak on†– shows, the gulf between her life and her music is now impossible to ignore.

 

The punchy ‘HeartBreakCity’ – a song Lorde would dismiss as too juvenile an interpretation of a break-up – illustrates that however on-point her musical instincts, this persona just isn’t believable any more. ‘Holy Water’ implores, “Kiss it better, kiss it better / Make it better, make it wetter / Don’t it taste like holy waterâ€. Coitus in mid-life can of course still be a richly rewarding experience, but must we hear quite so many details? Twee ballad ‘Body Shop’ hinges on a similarly tortuous lyrical conceit (“My transmission’s blown… You can keep it in overnight / You can do whatever you likeâ€).

 

Ultimately, ‘Rebel Heart’ feels like a wasted opportunity. Trite self-empowerment anthem ‘Iconic’ informs us that there’s only two letters difference between Icon and I Can’t. Sadly, there are also two letters between class and ass.

 

5 out of 10 stars

[groovyguy 63,859]

http://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/madonna-rebel-heart

Pretty Much Amazing Magazine’s Review of Madonna’s “Rebel Heart†album

In the opening track to the criminally under-loved Bedtime Stories, Madonna sings, “Does your criticism have you caught up in what you cannot see?†The song is the graceful and sexy “Survival,†and the question seems directed at the pop star’s many critics, a defiant challenge posed as a tease. It was 1994, Madonna had her champions at that point, but it was only eleven years since her debut, and the rockist critical establishment still had plenty of scorn for the Material Girl. Cultural dominance was hardly a certainty. In “Survival,†Madonna offers a promise: “Well, if you give me respect, then you’ll know what to expect, a little up and down and all around.†Twenty years later, Madonna has earned plenty of respect and squandered her fair share as well. More than a few ups and downs, all around. We were forewarned.

 

Madonna has contemporaries but no equal. A string of mononymous divas – Whitney, Janet, Mariah, Britney — rose in her wake, and innumerable lesser talents, now forgotten, had their moments. Madge’s most obvious progeny, Lady Gaga, is charting a much more catholic course: those duets with Tony Bennett, that Rodgers and Hammerstein medley at the Oscars, the comfort with earnestness as provocation. Only Beyonce and Taylor Swift seem the least bit likely to match, someday, Madonna’s decades of cultural domination.

Impressive, right? Madonna certainly thinks so. Rebel Heart, her thirteenth studio album, pounds out the case for her legacy. Madonna used to have the hauteur of a sceptered monarch, queen for life. But her taunts have become strident, and her cultural currency is no longer backed by gold. Too many of the songs on Rebel Heart quote, sample, or invoke a career that can stand on its merits. The album’s “Bitch, I’m Madonna†sounds like a reminder: maybe she thinks we’d forgotten. In the mid-90s, no one needed to be told. Not so today. A disappointing string of releases — starting with American Life, and bottoming out with the disastrous duo Hard Candy and MDNA — have revealed Madonna as a luminary on the defensive. And her discomfort shows.

 

At its best, Rebel Heart has an ease, and a long absent softness, qualities sorely missed since her last masterwork Music. For every godawful moment, which come and go with a sad frequency on Rebel Heart, there are glimmers of virtuosity buried within the overworked mess. Or, to be more accurate, when taken in full (i.e., the 25 tracks found on the bloated “SuperDeluxe†edition) a solid comeback album is left behind after Madonna has chucked her disparate ideas and collaborations, willy nilly, at the wall. If she can no longer perform the role of a canny and thoughtful curator — once her greatest talent, now absent — the listener can, at least, excavate something to remember.

 

The album needs a scalpel’s touch. I’ll take the first stab.

 

My edit of Rebel Heart would open with the tender piano chords of “Wash All Over Me.†It’s a song filled with rolling drums, ethereal vocal overdubs, and some much needed self-doubt, and on the standard edition, it’s the album closer. Then I’d bring in “Rebel Heart,†the excellent title track that somehow isn’t even included in the standard edition, with its powerful declaration, “Hell yeah, this is me/ right where I’m supposed to be.†Next I’d place two real highlights: first, “Ghosttown,†a phenomenal post-apocalyptic love song, followed immediately by “Living for Love,†Madonna’s best single since “Hung Up.†The mid-tempo “Inside Out,†with its string-and-beat cool, would come next, a transition to Madonna in full ballad glory. The acoustic beauty of “Joan of Arc†and the naked honesty of “HeartBreakCity†give way to the equally soft, if goofy, “Body Shop.†No Madonna record would be complete without religious imagery. “Messiah†(also missing from the standard edition) and “Devil Pray†both capably check that box. And finally, we conclude with two worthy “SuperDeluxe†cuts: “Beautiful Scars,†a disco-lite throwback, and “Graffiti Heart,†a galloping love letter to creativity. And there it is: twelve tracks, 47 minutes. This would stand as a solid B+ Madonna LP, fitting snugly alongside her finest works.

 

But this album doesn’t exist.

 

If only someone had been there to say, “No, Madonna, bad idea,†to excise the dreck. Why, for example, are “Unapologetic Bitch,†“Illuminati,†and “Bitch, I’m Madonna†included on any iteration of Rebel Heart? Alas, they’re on the standard edition, and are, thus, canonical. That vile trio should promptly be marched into Mordor and tossed into the mouth of Mount Doom. Some not-so-terrific cuts have their own appeal, even if it isn’t musical: from a psychological standpoint, at least, “Iconic†and “Veni Vidi Vici†are fun, if desperate, clouds of narcissistic puffery. “Holy Water†and “S.E.X.†provide gasoline for Madonna’s ageist haters, but there’s something for everyone, or no one, here. On “Holy Water†we have to hear her sing, “Yeezus loves my pussy best†– like hearing your parents having sex, it’s embarrassing, gross, and all too hard to forget.

 

I uncovered an intensely personal, hugely enjoyable, and lovingly executed album from the wreckage of Rebel Heart’s too many versions and too many tracks. But that’s not my job. On the album’s title track, Madonna sings “Oh no, I want more/ That’s not what I’m looking for.†If only she’d given us less. That’s what I’m looking for.

 

C+

[Rod Erick 70]

I just don't get the comparison made by NME between Aura and Devil Pray. Aura is LGs attempt at an Impressive Instant moment. Devil Pray is a song that only Madonna could have conceptualized. And MDNA being a 'sole William Orbit project?' The reviewer must really hate or do not know Solveig at all. Living for Love is 80s underground New York? I wasn't part of that scene but I think Living For Love is pure 90s...like Vogue and Rescue Me 90s.       

[groovyguy 63,859]

I won't take the NME review seriously! 

[o_g_c_x 2,786]

5 of 10

LOL

[groovyguy 63,859]

Fans response to the dumb NME review!

 

https://twitter.com/RebelQueenofPop/status/573153822220009472

Beautiful Scarsâ€@RebelQueenofPop

Oh @NME @gavhaynes there's such a thing as Research. Use it next time you "review" a Madonna album you low life wankers.

 

https://twitter.com/Amen_Madonna/status/573148622398889984

The Queen â€@Amen_Madonna  23m23 minutes ago

WTF @NME you let a weak writer like @gavhaynes write incorrect BS for a review of an Icon like @Madonna smh

 

@NME @gavhaynes needs to work harder on his research instead of dropping names in review like gag & Lorde #Ageist

[Guest]

Yeah, I don't care about negative reviews, but I'd prefer it if they'd actually review the album completely and research the artist properly...

[devilpray 2,387]

I won't take the NME review seriously! 

 

let's remember NME said Born This Way was super original when they heard it the first time...

[o_g_c_x 2,786]

let's remember NME said Born This Way was super original when they heard it the first time...

:lol:

[groovyguy 63,859]

let's remember NME said Born This Way was super original when they heard it the first time...

was it the same guy who just reviewed Rebel Heart?

[o_g_c_x 2,786]

Litle Monsters...so cute...

[stormbringer 180]

I didn't know the NME still existed.

[devilpray 2,387]

was it the same guy who just reviewed Rebel Heart?

 

I'll do my research

[devilpray 2,387]

I can't find the article, but I remember that they had an exclusive first listen months before it was released and they praised how original and fresh (or something like that) it sounded

[Halex 1,610]

As if the NME review wasn't irrelevant enough, it's totally killed by this part : 

 

The punchy ‘HeartBreakCity’ – a song Lorde would dismiss as too juvenile an interpretation of a break-up – illustrates that however on-point her musical instincts, this persona just isn’t believable any more. 

 

I guess knowing what you're talking about isn't required anymore to write reviews.

[Fighter 28,803]

just another biased af hater without any clue   why even waste energy

[groovyguy 63,859]

Madonna Rebel Heart Album Review: A Regal, Star-Studded Set

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/madonna-rebel-heart-album-review-a-regal-star-studded-set-201543

Back away from the throne, girls. 

 

The 56-year-old Queen of Pop valiantly defends her crown against any would-be successors via a regal 13th studio album.

 

Backed by a battalion of boldface-name collaborators (Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, even Mike Tyson), Madonna lords over the dance floor with an elaborate array of electronic and hip-hop grooves.

 

Prime-picks: the transfixing, Yeezy-produced “Illuminati†and “S.E.X.,†as well as five Diplo jewels, highlighted by the house-gospel rave “Living for Love.â€

 

The Material Girl also expresses real Ray of Light vulnerability, imploring “Just hold me while I cry my eyes out,†in the mellifluous “Joan of Arc.†

 

Alas, there are chinks in her armor. The 19-song set could use some trimming, as one too many throwaways -take the tepid “Inside Out†or “Messiahâ€- flail in the wake of the superior ballad “Ghosttown.†

 

On “Veni Vidi Vici,†an autobiographical rouser featuring Nas, she proclaims, “I came, I saw, I conquered.†Almost, m’lady. (Interscope)

[groovyguy 63,859]

Track-by-track review: Rebel Heart - Madonna

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/music/track-by-track-review-rebel-heart---madonna

Four Stars

When it comes to Madonna, you just never know. The line between inspiration and cold calculation is blurred and her every move is studied and heavily discussed.

 

Was her stumble at last week’s Brit Awards a genuine blunder? Or an ingenious way to promote her 13th studio album Rebel Heart, with its theme of vulnerability?

 

Fortunately, in the final analysis, the music wins. Rebel Heart is a fine collection of sturdy pop tunes in which Madonna finally allows herself to look back and sometimes pilfer from her peak periods of the late 80s and early 2000s. Aside from a couple of clunkers, there is plenty for Madonna’s hard-core fan base, the casual listener and aspiring producers to enjoy here.

 

Living For Love

A great start. Rebel Heart kicks off with the first of many of Madonna’s self-referential musical moments. The ascending 90s-house keyboards and empowering lyrics recall the likes of Ray of Light and, to a certain extent,Vogue. Diplo, in the first of his several production contributions, anchors it in the present with a sweaty dance breakdown full of squelchy keyboards and deep bass drums.

 

Devil Pray

Madge enlists the seemingly specialised country-dance services of Swedish producer Avicii for this survivor’s tale. Thankfully this is nothing like her woeful 2003 cover of Don MacLean’s American Pie, but there is heavy reference to The Animals’ 1964 classic House of the Rising Sun.

 

Ghosttown

The biggest setback on Madonna’s previous album, MDNA, was its heavy-handed approach to innovation. In contrast, Ghosttown is a gorgeous yet streamlined power ballad with a huge, winning chorus. Sure, this could have easily been sung by Katy Perry or Rihanna, but Madonna, fortunately, trusts her pop instincts with this one.

 

Unapologetic B***h

Where Madonna genuinely grieved on her last two albums over the end of her marriage to the British film director Guy Ritchie, her latest ex, Brahim Zaibat, doesn’t receive that courtesy on Rebel Heart. Over a peppy reggae track, Madonna gives him a smackdown. Producer Diplo channels his former work with the mercurial Sri Lankan artist and former Madonna collaborator M.I.A. by adding a smattering of air horns and military drum beats.

 

Illuminati

When the demo version of the track was released this year, it rang alarm bells. While Madonna’s voice has never been her strongest asset, she was paired with some staid dance synths and cheesy acoustic guitars. Thankfully, Kanye West rescued it by throwing out the lameness and added the dark and claustrophobic sounds of his seminal 2013 albumYeezus.

 

B***h, I’m Madonna (featuring Nicki Minaj)

Another production triumph that is nearly derailed by some awful, ego-swelling lyrics. Diplo and the British beat-maker Sophie conjure up a deliciously slithering beat that is a bona fide dance-floor filler. Minaj also rises to the task and delivers another blisteringly bonkers rap.

 

Hold Tight

Discussions of Rebel Heart being too long are legitimate. Hold Tight is the first of a few tracks that should have been cut. Its atmospheric keyboards are sleep-inducing, with Madonna mumbling something about holding on and being strong.

 

Joan of Arc

A Madonna track harping on about the unforgiving media was always going to sound a bit rich. The anaemic production here doesn’t help as she laments: “Each time they write a hateful word/Dragging my soul into the dirt, I wanna dieâ€. Yeah, I am sure Madonna’s verbal-bullying victim Lady Gaga would agree.

 

Iconic (featuring Mike Tyson and Chance The Rapper)

Rebel Heart’s mini slump is arrested: anyone thinking the former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson has embarked on a music career will be disappointed – his contribution is merely a sample proclaiming his greatness over loud applause, before the beat drops on this motivational dance anthem.

 

HeartBreakCity

Long before Lana Del Ray, Madonna was demonstrating the underrated power of emotional detachment. In this pensive, piano-led ballad, Madonna refuses to collapse in a teary mess, yet acknowledges she is emotionally in the weeds.

 

Body Shop

There is a hodgepodge of sounds here, with warm synths, plucked banjos and hollow drums as Madge metaphorically riffs on the open roads and repairing her heart. It’s uninspiring but probably a great commercial jingle if you can afford it.

 

Holy Water

Another throwback and the most scandalous Madonna track this decade. The brooding bass-filled verse gives way to a poptastic chorus that uses hedonistic sound effects harking back to her 1990 Justify My Love. It is safe to say the lyrical content deserves the parental advisory sticker.

 

Inside Out

A sonically desolate track as Madonna’s reverb-drenched vocals float over some stalking synths supplied by producer Mike Dean. The chilliness here suits the lyrics as Madge demands her lover be emotionally bare: “Every scar that you try to hide/ All the dark corners of your mind/ Show me yours, and I’ll show you mineâ€.

 

Wash All Over Me

The regal final track (of the standard version) is another addition to Madonna’s underrated collection of ballads. This century has been unkind to Madonna, who has had her share of heartbreak. Over a baroque piano, she surveys her present condition but vows to keep on moving: “Gonna watch the sun going down/I’m not gonna run from all this sadnessâ€.