Monday, February 27, 2012

'American Life' Is Sounding Better All the Time

As much as I rag on Madonna the Person (I think that's what she is), I've long been a huge fan of her music, the thing she does best. While her last album was marred by a poor choice of collaborators, and the two before it were uneven at best, I was hoping a reunion with producer William Orbit would lead to a return to form this time around. But if I thought the first single from "MDNA" was a bust (Toni Basil covered this ground in '82, my dear, and did it far better), the follow-up, "Girl Gone Wild," makes "Give Me All Your Luvin'" sound like a mashup of "Borderline" and "Into the Groove." Like its predecessor, it too is not one of the Orbit tracks -- this one's produced by Madonna, Benny Benassi and Alle Benassi -- which makes me wonder how weak those are if they are picking a song for a single that sounds like a wisely discarded demo from "Music." Zero for two. Can this album be saved?

9 comments:

DesperateArtist said...

I must politely disagree. I'm really diggin' this tune. All hail the queen.

Zippy McZipperson said...

Also digging.

Brian said...

It's a big improvement over Gimme All Your Luvin'.

Matthew Rettenmund said...

I'm not surprised you dislike it, and yet—you really liked "Celebration" and this is definitely in that vein (but IMHO way better).

Christopher said...

u are mean...

Blobby said...

"'American Life' Is Sounding Better All the Time"

Ouch and LOLLLLLL. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Put some clothes on, woman!!

shle896 said...

I'm really loving the new song, especially the version with the spoken words at the beginning.

And "American Life" is in my top three by Madonna of all-time (after Ray Of Light and COADF). Just because it didn't sell well domestically doesn't mean it was a bad album. In fact, with that album, Madonna broke a new record with most consecutive top ten dance singles from one album (SEVEN). I think that album is AMAZING.

Personally, I appreciate that Madonna doesn't repeat herself. We leave that up to artists like Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson who work with the same producers and writers ALWAYS. Perhaps that's why they're both doing Jenny Craig and Nutri-System commercials right now and not selling out arenas all over the globe like Madonna.

I do agree with you about one thing, though. "Hard Candy" wasn't great and the singles they chose to release were the weakest ones on the album.

I guess Madonna has provided me with so much excellent music over the years, I'm just not ready to write her yet-to-be released album off just yet. She deserves the benefit of the doubt. She's earned that much and "Girl Gone Wild" (in my opinion) is EXCELLENT.

Harry said...

Ken, I completely agree. Everyone kept telling me that Girls Gone Wild was better than Gimme..., but I don't hear it.

I expect more from Madonna. Maybe she was putting her all into W.E.