Soulflower

Cover of delux addition of Madonna's new album "Rebel Heart"


Madonna's Grammy's performance 2015




Madonna is about to release her best album in 17 years
Posted Today, 06:24 AM
http://www.thesun.co...k-by-track.html
Madonna's raunchy rebellion
World Exclusive: First review of Madonna’s new Rebel Heart album
By DAN WOOTTON, Head of Showbiz

Not since Ray of Light in 1998 has Madge come up with such a perfect collection of pop belters, while managing to remain at the cutting edge of music trends.
Rebel Heart, her 13th studio album, is deeply personal, exposing her darkest secrets, sexual desires and fears for the future.
It’s provocative, sexy, emotionally raw and self-referential.
But above all else, it features melodies and hooks that should send her back to the top of the charts.
While the 56-year-old has had to deal with almost constant leaks over the past two months, this is the first official review of the album.
If you were one of the few who has listened to the tracks illegally released online, then discount what you’ve heard.
Nine songs are now officially available through Apple’s iTunes store but ten more will be released on March 9.
I’ve had a world exclusive First Listen for Bizarre and am excited to bring you my top ten countdown of the unreleased new songs.
10 INSIDE OUT
Yes, Madonna most definitely still loves sex — or “the purest form of ecstasy” as she describes it on this track.
Eroticism and romance collide here as she stops singing to gasp: “I want to love you from the inside out.” Later she makes it clear the song is actually more about revealing your deepest feelings to your lover.
She sings: “Every scar you try to hide. Every dark corner of your mind. Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
9 HOLY WATER
One of four tracks co-produced by KANYE WEST. His influence is immediately evident, with “Yeezus” even getting a nod in the lyrics. The stripped-back instrumentation is very modern. But there’s still a cheeky reference to Vogue when Madge says: “Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it.”
8 BEST NIGHT
Top DJ DIPLO worked with Madonna on this feelgood and chilled-out party song about a one-night stand. A rap from Madonna, where she references the recent phenomenon of sex tapes, is the highlight here.
She seductively whispers: “Surrender to the pleasure when we breathe in together. It’s either now or never. No sex tapes on camera. Just you and me together.”
7 MESSIAH
The most traditional ballad on the album has similarities to Madonna’s brilliant Nineties hit You’ll See. There’s an impressive string section and very little dance production compared to the rest of the album. It’s one of five songs Swedish DJ AVICII has contributed to.
6 S.E.X.
Madonna shows why she was so scornful of Fifty Shades of Grey, with her own X-rated mission statement that puts EL James to shame. Her “lesson in sexology” includes handcuffs, blindfolds, high heels, perfume, fishnets, leather belts, thigh highs, silk scarfs and, er, a bar of soap.
Oh, there’s also audio of a woman, we presume to be Madge, making love . . .
5 HEARTBREAK CITY
This is how you write and perform a break-up ballad. Madonna sounds angry here. Like, you-don’t-want-to-mess-with-me angry.
Her vocals are on point too as she builds to a soaring chorus, singing: “Cut me down the middle. F***ed me up a little. You said I was your queen. I tried to give you everything. And now you want your freedom. You got what you came for — a bit of fame and fortune. And I’m no longer needed.”
4 VENI VEDI VICI
“I came, I saw, I conquered,” Madonna sings as she takes an exhilarating look back on her impressive career.
In a spoken word verse referencing some of her most famous songs of old, she explains how she’s impacted pop culture, saying in part: “I expressed myself, came like a virgin down the aisle. Exposed my naked ass and I did it with a smile. And when it came to sex, I know I walked the borderline. When I struck a pose, all the gay boys lost their mind. I saw a ray of light. Music saved my life.”
The guest appearance from NAS is brilliant too and proof he should be back in the charts in his own right.
3 BODY SHOP
One of the most experimental moments, this track is completely joyful and a strong contender to be a future single. There’s an eastern influence instrumentally and fast-paced verses, fused perfectly with background dance beats. Unlike most of the deep lyrics on the album, Madge has some fun here. “You can polish the headlights. You can start the ignition,” she sings happily.
2 WASH ALL OVER ME
An incredibly powerful and pretty emotionally traumatic song ends the main version of the album, with an intense church-like organ overlaid with modern house beats. Madonna looks at her place in the world, opening with the line: “In a world that’s changing, I’m a stranger in a strange land.” She also talks about “running away from all this madness”.
1 REBEL HEART
Surprisingly, the brilliant title track — my favourite moment of the album — doesn’t find a place on the main tracklisting, instead closing the deluxe version.
The lyrics are autobiographical — and she admits to being a “narcissist” and “provocative”.
The first verse is my favourite lyrically as she sings: “I live my life like a masochist. Hear-ing my father say: ‘I told you so, I told you so. Why can’t you be like the other girls?’ I said: ‘Oh no, that’s no me. And I don’t think it will ever be.’”
Thank God for that.



Madonna - Rebel Heart
by Matthew Harden
Discussing Madonna around a dinner table will likely garner her some ridicule. “Relevant” seems to be the last compliment people want to give her, these days. The typical naysayer will give praise for what she used to be but express disdain for her continued eminence in culture. Reasons for such contempt usually circle her 56 years of age and the belief she’s desperate tostill be doing what she’s already been doing for 30 + years.
.
Ironically, considering this apparent attitude, there are forces at work,which want Madonna’s new music in the world before she’s quite ready. The release of her 13th studio album Rebel Heart will be remembered for its premature leaks. Even before last year was through, numerous demos seeped onto the internet, prompting Madonna and her team to make six tracks from the LP immediately available on iTunes. An Israeli man was eventually arrested under suspicion for the hack, but the full album, in its completed form, subsequently emerged online earlier this month.
For an artist who has always muscled an iron grip on her career, it seemed, for the first time, Madonna was without considerable control. Interestingly, loss of control is a developed theme on ‘Rebel Heart’. In ‘Wash All Over Me’, she questions, “Who am I to decide what should be done?” There’s a sense Madonna has learnt to lean into seeming unease. “If this is the end then let it come. Let it come, let it rain. Rain all over me” she sings over the song’s majestic pace of marching band percussion. Lyrically, she’s releasing. And, at a point in her career where ageism is tugging at her seams, it’s a needed expression of self-awareness in being a mature icon, in today’s condemnatory pop world.
.

With letting go, Madonna is also willing to be vulnerable. Exposure runs rampant on ‘Rebel Heart’. Ten years ago, she was making frivolous confessions on a dance floor, now she’s confessing from a deeply honest place. On ‘Joan Of Arc’s’ tuneful chorus, she vents, “I don’t wanna talk about it right now, just hold me while I cry my eyes out.” It’s a tender moment from a woman who’s physicality, at the very least, suggests nothing can break her. ‘Joan Of Arc’ leads us to believe that despite her astonishing resilience, her armour can be shattered by what theysay. Perhaps it’s responsive to claims of her irrelevance and desperation – “Each time they write a hateful word, dragging my soul into the dirt. I wanna die.” It’s an admission from Madonna that feels like a rarity, considering her typically steely persona.
.
Madonna’s previous album, 2012’s ‘MDNA’, was deemed her divorce piece. Her lyrics often detailed the drama she experienced in leaving ex-husband Guy Ritchie. On ‘Rebel Heart’, Madonna articulates her experience with separation on a greater spectrum. Sentiments travel from anguish to the power found in goodbye. ‘HeartBreakCity’ is a clear cut from her material defined by grief. “Cut me down the middle. ****ed me up a little”, she tremors over a forlorn piano, which is later intensified by another percussive march. Notably, marching is the sound of endurance on ‘Rebel Heart’, and we’re taking Madonna’s steps of survival in listening.
.
From the strength she finds in moving on, ‘Living For Love’ is manifested, as the album’s lead-single. The Diplo made sequence of house lifts the roof like her titanic benchmarks, ‘Like A Prayer’ and ‘Express Yourself’. There’s also duality within the song’s context of life-after-love. The secondary message is making love the point of life. And, for this reason, one can easily imagine pride seasons around the globe elevating ‘Living For Love’ to a higher anthemic level than where it already stands.
.
The reverse side of Madonna’s loss of love is her undying affinity with romantic idealisation. Such musings gain tremendous momentum on ‘Ghosttown’, where her perspective is starry-eyed, as she narrates a tale of love’s survival in a post apocalyptic world. Adorned with a far-reaching chorus, ‘Ghosttown’ is an electro-ballad with melodies that curve deeply. Despite minor flourishes of auto-tune, Madonna’s voice sounds wholesome and less cartoonish here. Behind all that goes on, sonically, the cinematic embellishments of this tune are lassoed in by a series of humble yet mighty chord progressions, which work to keep everything tightly arranged. Solely written by Madonna, ‘Ghosttown’ feels more concerned with song-craft than trend, making it a rewarding listen.
The delightful ‘Body Shop’ is another rose-tinted vision. Madonna likens her romantic needs to upkeep on a car, which ought to be attended to by her beau in the body shop. “Jumpstart my heart, you know what you gotta do.” The metaphoric discourse is endearing and the song twangs somewhere between India and Middle America. Is it a sitar or banjo playing? Either way, it strums blissfully on the ears. Not dissimilar to ‘Ghosttown’, it’s a track where Madonna doesn’t seem preoccupied with staying current, and the results are actually quite fresh.

Of course, there are ticks on ‘Rebel Heart’, where Madonna’s penchant for appealing to the youth market makes the production overexcited. ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’, featuring Nicki Minaj, swanks a flatulent synth that ambushes the listener with its teenage enthusiasm. With lyrics like – “Yeah, we’ll be drinking and nobody’s gonna stop us”, the song essentially uses the age-appropriate-guidebook as toilet paper. Likewise, on ‘Unapologetic Bitch’, Diplo edges the production with raving alarms, as it’s reggaeton beat struts with brazen confidence. “I’m popping bottles that you can’t even afford. I’m throwing parties and you won’t get in the door”, it’s a brattish ode to validating oneself against the ex. The pressing break-up suggests one she had with a recent boy-toy, perhaps twenty-something Jesus Luz or Brahim Zaibat? Surely Guy Richie could afford expensive champagne.
.
Even among the party packages, ‘Rebel Heart’ is an album laced with lush guitar and strong song writing. A noteworthy number, which attests to these qualities, is the title track, ‘Rebel Heart’. It’s a mid-tempo ballad so melodically sophisticated, with its sing-along euphony, that the chorus reaches a much higher plane. The instrumentation of heart-tugging strings and percussive punch helps to support a vocal performance from Madonna that echoes wisely from her point of reflection. The song, thematically, is a look back, “So I took the road less travelled by, and I barely made it out alive.”
.
Unlike the Madonna of previous eras, this one is absorbed in pronouncing all she’s done before. The album explicitly rejoices in her legacy and that’s evident in song titles like ‘Iconic’ and ‘Veni Vidi Vici’. In the latter, Madonna self-references her litany of hits by weaving big names into autobiographic lines like “I expressed myself, came like a virgin down the isle… I opened up my heart. I learnt the power of goodbye. I saw a ray of light. Music saved my life.” In the Natalia Kills assisted ‘Holy Water’, she goes as far as resurrecting the rap from ‘Vogue’ to commemorate her history. And after three decades of prominence in the music industry, she’s earned her privilege to revel in such rich heritage.
.
No one has matched the endurance of Madonna in pop. No one has had a career of consistency to compare to her achievements. ‘Rebel Heart’ can be enjoyed as a testament to her continuance. Usually, persistent success in one’s career, over a lengthy period, is societally regarded as an achievement worthy of applause. Therefore, it seems contradictory for cynics to drag her for prolonging a career. The alternative perception is to simply appreciate the music, as it so easily is, with ‘Rebel Heart’.
.
Inarguably it’s her best release in ten years. This is Madonna’s new era. If attention looks beyond the music, perhaps it’s time to notice that what she’s doing, as a 56-year-old female in pop, is shifting the paradigm for what it means to be middle-aged. We’re all living longer lives, let this central part in our life become more abundant. Let’s look to Madonna as an example on how to express freely.