A very good friend just dropped a tonne on two concert tickets and every kind of format this album comes in. “You can’t put a price on the Queen, nothing’s too much,” he said over pint earlier this week. I don’t think he’s alone in this assertion.
It’s because of this that reviewing a Madonna album is pretty challenging – the army of die hard fans are going to buy it regardless. And plus, it’s MADONNA, you can’t just listen and try to forget that it’s one of the biggest artists of all time singing. She’s familiar, famous, infamous, and whether you like it or not, she’s the Queen of Pop.
Musically, this album will not change the world. There’s nothing new here, nothing ground breaking. But that doesn’t matter, you don’t buy a Madonna album these days because it changes the world. What you buy into and what is fully delivered is a 19 track exercise in making exquisite pop music. In typical Madonna style, she’s taken the finest producers making the most current sounds and twisted it into her own.
With Diplo, Avicii and Kanye on board, expect spacey electronic beats and euphoric swooshes made for smoke machines and neon lights on the dance floor. The songs take longer to develop and build to their climaxes, showing her musical maturity by not laying all her cards on the table within the first few bars. ‘Living For Love’ is the prime example, an anthemic trance machine made for loud singing, sassy redemption and incredibly camp in places – like an update on ‘Believe’ by Cher. Not necessarily a bad thing, but very much playing to type.
Lyrically she’s split in two. She’s still into the religious imagery; twisting the concepts of confession, redemption and illuminati for teasing sexual innuendos. The epitome of this is ‘Holy Water’, where she exclaims: “kiss it better, don’t it taste like holy water? / Bless yourself and genuflect, Jesus loves my (squiggle sound) best”. Even with the deliberately provocative (and kinda tacky) lyrics, this is actually one of my favourites on the album – catchy and bassy.
On the other hand there’s the “I don’t give a f***” Madonna songs. ‘Unapologetic Bitch’ and “Bitch I’m Madonna” are decadent lyrical examples of that rebel heart she’s been on about. She’ll drink smoke and screw whatever she wants. And that’s fine, because she’s Madonna and we’ve been talking about everything she does for 30 years now.
In amongst the albums two big themes (religion and shagging) their are actually a couple of really nice, intimate moments that I can genuinely say are great stand alone pop songs. ‘HeartbreakCity’ is an expansive and moody update on ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. ‘Body Shop’ for me is the best track on the album, a cheeky, girlish, folksy ditty with a stripped back acoustic sound, altogether different from anything else she does. It’s really rather lovely.
Radio 1 won’t play it as apparently they’re so over Madonna, even though anyone of these songs would slip perfectly into their playlist and probably sound a little better too. The fact that this album is most likely going to top out at Number 1 this weekend just goes to show that Madonna doesn’t need anything other than her fans. And with all the sex, Jesus and disco, they have everything they need from this album.
Rebel Heart is out now via Live Nation Worldwide, Inc.
Kat Tittley
@LeTitts
Kate Tittley
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