Madonna

[Artoo]

Superstar

I'm your biggest fan, it's true
Hopelessly attracted to you
You can have the keys to my car
I'll play you a song on my guitar

Eye rolling, tragique lyrics. If the songs were good I could probably get past them but seeing as they aren't.. well.

The whole point of Superstar is about recapturing that childish, giddy feeling of instantly falling for someone. The lyrics are exactly what the chorus says it is - they’re written by someone’s ‘biggest fan’ and the song narrator, Madonna, is fawning over them like it’s a crazy stupid love, when actually, it’s most likely an infatuation.

Look at everyone she compares her guy to - Marlon Brando, Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, John Travolta, James Dean... men Madonna grew up admiring. All troubled men with various faults yet superstars in their various fields.

Now think about what we know about Madonna - when has she ever acted so childlike, so goofy, so bashful, so obsessed with someone, so drawn to talent? Well, her ex-husband - and we have lots of footage showing Madonna act in this way around him and when talking about him.

MDNA is a divorce album so I don’t know if Superstar is Madonna documenting how she felt falling for Guy, or if she’s repeating behaviour with someone new. It works on both levels and these goofy, childlike, cringe worthy lyrics are pure Madonna - that is absolutely 100% her character.

This is what I mean about taking the lyrics and judging them on their own merits. Is Superstar the best song ever? Far from it. But even at her worst, Madonna is an artist and there are layers and ways to dig into what she’s trying to say with everything she does.

[Jimshakes]

I actually liked MDNA. Though, for me, I don't think Madonna's ever made a bad album...she makes music I seem to like, sure there's the odd song I never listen to but I wouldn't skip any album (I don't really ever listen to Evita but it doesn't really count)...

[Forreal]

I love MDNA the album: I even like Superstar, and also TUTR has grown in me a lot. The only song I skip is Bday Song.
And the Tour was great, and a huge success .

[acrolyu]

I also like DNA a lot, the standard version, and I think the only song I don't like is Turn up the radio, I like Super Star a lot, like all the songs produced by orbit.

[Mpol]

Sorry chiming in late here... the MDNA tour is one of her best and greatest shows (by any artist) of all time. The choreo, athleticism and production are amazing. And the crap songs from that album come to life on stage. It is absolutely breathtaking. It’s almost like the album was an excuse for the Super Bowl/for her to go out on tour again.

Okay album... it is half arsed for her standards but the good on there is amazing. It beats out Hard Candy for me because the highs on that album just aren’t at the same level (though the lows aren’t as bad as Superstar, Some Girls, Gimme and Bday song). I played with the track list in the MDNA album thread and I truly believe had the final product been something like that, it would have been a fantastic M record.

I would agree that prime/peak Madonna could be seen from 1982-2012. All I ask going forward is that what we get from her musically is top notch and her doing what she wants. Madame X was that for me.

[madfan13]

I also love the MDNA Tour. The level of artistry, the choreographies, the athleticism... I attended the tour in Europe and Latin America and I have very fond memories in both geographies. I particularly loved seeing it in Medellin. It got rave reviews there—Colombians truly went nuts for her then. There were loads of tourist packages attached to the shows (tickets +hotel+flights) and all. I felt in Madonnaland that week. All Medellin was full of unofficial Madonna merch.

As for the MDNA album... I LOVE it too. I enjoy 90% of it (Bday Song and Some Girls being the low points for me). Most of it has truly enjoyable songs. The perfect post-breakup/divorce album.

[KEY9481]

MDNA Tour is absolutely breathtaking - if you take out the cheerleading section (or at least the atrocious outfit).
I listen to the show quite often!

[tee]

SuperBowl is seen as the biggest performance spot of the year. She was still on top of her game in 2012. By 2013 she was done. And has been done ever since. Thirty years on top is no small feat

a shame the album in 2012 was not more MadameX and less MDNA. (I like Gang Bang, Masterpiece and Love Spent. Having those three replace the worst three on MadameX in 2012 would have made for another classic album that year. Then again having Gang Bang on the same album as G-Control may be seen as a little hypocritical with all the gun shot sounds on GB).

[tee]

Here is a question. If you could re-create MDNA into a solid 12 track Madonna Masterpiece album using 2012, 2014, 2019 albums (4 top songs from each) to be released on SuperBowl night, what would it look like?

Mine:

1. Girl Gone Wild
2. Gang Bang
3. Love Spent
4. Masterpiece
5. Living For Love
6. Ghost Town
7. Bitch Im Madonna (ft. Nicki Minaj)
8. Joan Of Arc
9. Medellin
10. God Control
11. Crave
12. I Rise

i think this would hold up to her other classics (too bad it takes three albums worth of recordings to get a great collection of songs)

[Artoo]

Had Madonna’s greatest hits on earlier and honestly, I’d happily swap the following singles:

1. Cherish for Promise To Try
2. Hollywood for Nothing Fails
3. Nothing Really Matters for Skin
4. What It Feels Like For a Girl for Impressive Instant/Runaway Lover

[jio]

1.I'd give "Cherish" the boot too but in favor of "Pray For Spanish Eyes" or (why not) "Supernatural"
2."Hollywood" is great but "Nothing Fails" is greater. I'd keep both but give NF the video treatment
3.I'd give "Nothing Really Matters" the boot too but in favor of "Sky Fits Heaven" instead.
4.WIFLFAG was pretty boring so yes to "Impressive Instant" and a massive no to "Runaway Lover"

[jio]

Here is a question. If you could re-create MDNA into a solid 12 track Madonna Masterpiece album using 2012, 2014, 2019 albums (4 top songs from each) to be released on SuperBowl night, what would it look like?

Mine:

1. Girl Gone Wild
2. Gang Bang
3. Love Spent
4. Masterpiece
5. Living For Love
6. Ghost Town
7. Bitch Im Madonna (ft. Nicki Minaj)
8. Joan Of Arc
9. Medellin
10. God Control
11. Crave
12. I Rise

If I had to have 4 songs from each it would have been:
1.Gang Bang
2.Some Girls
3.Masterpiece
4.Beautiful Killer
5.Inside Out
6.Wash All Over Me
7.Messiah
8.Best Night
9.Medellin
10.Killers Who Are Partying
11.Crave
12.Crazy

But without the 4 from each rule KWAP would get the boot and "Hold Tight" would take its place. I'd also like to add "Love Spent" and "Rebel Heart" but there is no space...

[tee]

^Thats a solid album^
It is hard to keep it to 12 but in a way a great editor makes a great album.

[Zeph]

Rebel Heart could’ve been a more solid album if she actually chose tracks that were actually pop songs and not songs like Sex or Illuminati. The demos from that time period were beyond extraordinary. Unfortunately for some hacker in Israel, the whole roll out was messed up but she managed to salvage the era as much as she could.

[Zeph]

Hard Candy still remains one of my favorites. The whole vibe and then the Sticky & Sweet Tour ... Madonna definitely made her mark and even if it was for the last time at the mega grand level, it’s no feat any other artist can ever achieve so many years into their career.

[jio]

Rebel Heart could’ve been a more solid album if she actually chose tracks that were actually pop songs and not songs like Sex or Illuminati. The demos from that time period were beyond extraordinary. Unfortunately for some hacker in Israel, the whole roll out was messed up but she managed to salvage the era as much as she could.

Many of the demos were better or at least more interesting but still, "Rebel Heart" could have been Madonna's last (to date) great album if only she had trimmed it down a bit and chose the best songs. Imagine this album:
1.Living For Love
2.Devil Pray
3.Ghosttown
4.Hold Tight
5.Heartbreak City
6.Body Shop
7.Inside Out
8.Wash All Over Me
9.Best Night
10.Veni Vidi Vici
11.Messiah
12.Rebel Heart

I mean that album is as good as any of hers really

[InFamous]

Rebel Heart could’ve been a more solid album if she actually chose tracks that were actually pop songs and not songs like Sex or Illuminati. The demos from that time period were beyond extraordinary. Unfortunately for some hacker in Israel, the whole roll out was messed up but she managed to salvage the era as much as she could.

Some of the demos were really better than the final tracks at certain stages. They really over produced the album and those awful marching drums they added to half the track were terrible.

[Zeph]

Some of the demos were really better than the final tracks at certain stages. They really over produced the album and those awful marching drums they added to half the track were terrible.

Totally agree.
demos> final album versions

[Artoo]

Rebel Heart could’ve been a more solid album if she actually chose tracks that were actually pop songs and not songs like Sex or Illuminati. The demos from that time period were beyond extraordinary. Unfortunately for some hacker in Israel, the whole roll out was messed up but she managed to salvage the era as much as she could.

I honestly think she gave up with Rebel Heart once it leaked. Madonna released her favourite six tracks with the iTunes drop in December 2014 (songs already completed) and despite releasing an additional drop of songs in February before the album was released in March, all three singles from the album were from that initial drop in December - raising the question as to what was the point in the rest of the album?

Obviously Madonna committed to completing the album despite the leaks and made a professional record, but I do think she just finished as much as she could and released it without a second thought - I don’t think she cared about track listings or anything like that, and released everything that was finished so fan could figure out the actual album for themselves (plus an overload of songs works from a commercial point of view).

I’ve always found it interesting that Madonna has the album cover shot and half the album ready to drop in December 2014, but hasn’t even finished the album with only a few weeks to go before manufacturing needed to start.

If the album hadn’t leaked, I do think we’d have had a shorter record that was more focused than what was released, but from the leaks and eventual giant pile of songs released (24!) you have to wonder where she was headed - in retrospect, she definitely didn’t have a clear direction.

[Zeph]

Many of the demos were better or at least more interesting but still, "Rebel Heart" could have been Madonna's last (to date) great album if only she had trimmed it down a bit and chose the best songs. Imagine this album:
1.Living For Love
2.Devil Pray
3.Ghosttown
4.Hold Tight
5.Heartbreak City
6.Body Shop
7.Inside Out
8.Wash All Over Me
9.Best Night
10.Veni Vidi Vici
11.Messiah
12.Rebel Heart

I mean that album is as good as any of hers really

I would’ve included Never Let You Go, Heaven, Alone With You; heck, even Two Steps Behind me. Stir the pot. Not sure why M held back.

[Artoo]

Hard Candy still remains one of my favorites. The whole vibe and then the Sticky & Sweet Tour ... Madonna definitely made her mark and even if it was for the last time at the mega grand level, it’s no feat any other artist can ever achieve so many years into their career.

It was a great album and a great tour. I loved it so much. I queued 12 hours to see the opening show in Cardiff and was on the barriers. It was a great night, but I utterly destroyed my feet.

Also, it was my first time in Cardiff so the night before I had a walk to the stadium to know where I was going, and I got to listen to the full final rehearsal.

[Artoo]

Many of the demos were better or at least more interesting but still, "Rebel Heart" could have been Madonna's last (to date) great album if only she had trimmed it down a bit and chose the best songs. Imagine this album:
1.Living For Love
2.Devil Pray
3.Ghosttown
4.Hold Tight
5.Heartbreak City
6.Body Shop
7.Inside Out
8.Wash All Over Me
9.Best Night
10.Veni Vidi Vici
11.Messiah
12.Rebel Heart

I mean that album is as good as any of hers really

That wouldn’t be my 12, and I think the fact the first 6 songs were finished and ready to go in December 2014 means they were always going to be part of the album as far as Madonna was concerned - especially when the only singles came from that first 6!

[Zeph]

I honestly think she gave up with Rebel Heart once it leaked. Madonna released her favourite six tracks with the iTunes drop in December 2014 (songs already completed) and despite releasing an additional drop of songs in February before the album was released in March, all three singles from the album were from that initial drop in December - raising the question as to what was the point in the rest of the album?

Obviously Madonna committed to completing the album despite the leaks and made a professional record, but I do think she just finished as much as she could and released it without a second thought - I don’t think she cared about track listings or anything like that, and released everything that was finished so fan could figure out the actual album for themselves (plus an overload of songs works from a commercial point of view).

I’ve always found it interesting that Madonna has the album cover shot and half the album ready to drop in December 2014, but hasn’t even finished the album with only a few weeks to go before manufacturing needed to start.

If the album hadn’t leaked, I do think we’d have had a shorter record that was more focused than what was released, but from the leaks and eventual giant pile of songs released (24!) you have to wonder where she was headed - in retrospect, she definitely didn’t have a clear direction.

The leak definitely impacted the era and Madonna’s rush to release. I just don’t understand why release over produced inferior versions of tracks when the Avicii tracks were EXCEPTIONAL. And, I don’t use that word lightly or gratuitously.

Tracks like Ghosttown and Devil Pray (or as I facetiously call it Devil’s Prey because of M’s constant play on words and entendres) were amazing. Along with the dozen or so other tracks recorded but never to make the light of day as I wrote in response to jio

[Zeph]

It was a great album and a great tour. I loved it so much. I queued 12 hours to see the opening show in Cardiff and was on the barriers. It was a great night, but I utterly destroyed my feet.

I actually saw it 7 times. I was obsessed. In one of the shows we were standing right behind Pharrell. I thought the Re-Invention tour was awesome when Liz Rosenberg picked me out to go to the pit but Sticky and Sweet never got stale. Especially I love the way they extended it with Round 2 with some changes in the set list. The whole concert...um, event was awesome.

[Artoo]

In the end, I think Madonna made the best out of a bad situation for Rebel Heart. I really enjoy the album - it’s not her best and it’s not her worst, but in the end, I have a playlist with 41 songs that I really enjoy.

Well, 39 different songs + the original leaked Avicii versions of Wash All Over Me and Rebel Heart. I don’t listen to demos of officially released material (how many different versions of a song do you need?) but Avicii’s WAOM and RH are basically different songs.