Madonna’s
in an incredibly tricky position, whether you love or loathe her. There’s no
road map for her to refer to; generally popstars follow a certain trajectory
that has been defined by their predecessors. Madge has never been one for conforming
to expectations, but at this point she’s doesn’t even have any real referents.
By the age of 50 most female popstars have resorted to a Las Vegas residence,
retirement, or acoustic, sedate versions of their previously fiery material. In
this sense, while MDNA is largely quite conservative and trend-chasing
sonically (more on that later), Madonna is still very much a pioneer within the
music industry – perhaps more than ever before.
In
a holistic sense, much of the criticism levelled at Madonna can be attributed not
to the lady herself, but to the society and industry in which she operates. The
idea of a woman over the age of fifty being sexually active, and even – gasp! –actively
soliciting sexual activity isn’t
something where used to, or culturally equipped to deal with. The sight of
Madonna cavorting with men half her age in the ‘Girl Gone Wild’, for instance,
causes most of us to automatically revert to the “put some pants on, you old
woman!” position that has largely been adopted towards the icon in the last few
years. Upon examination, however, Madonna has to be admired for her continual
challenging (whether conscious or otherwise) of these attitudes.
Throughout
her career she’s managed to subvert many ideas about female sexuality and
objectification, but whether she’ll be able to overcome the culturally-defined
ideas of what women ‘of a certain age’ should or shouldn’t be doing is in
doubt. I suspect Madonna’s efforts to combat ageism within both the music industry
and society in a greater sense won’t be appreciated for a few decades yet, with
our focus currently on other facets of equality. The old adage about age being nothing but a
number, while idealist in sentiment, doesn’t necessarily ring true in terms of
the way we react to the embodiment of the phrase.
Forgetting
the cultural context within which Madonna finds herself, MDNA is a solid, if
not brilliant, record. The deluxe edition clocks in at over an hour, and would be
far more palatable if cut to about two thirds of its current length. The album’s
first half is quite brash, with the tracks’ sexual, ‘age-inappropriate’ lyrical
content taking the brunt of the aforementioned criticism. These songs are the
most immediate, tending tend to follow the dance trend that has held perhaps
held variety within pop captive in recent years The likes of ‘Beautiful Killer’
and ‘Some Girls’ , while pleasant enough, feel entirely superfluous. ‘Superstar’,
despite starting off promisingly, quickly recedes to almost-offensively bad territory,
with frankly unrealistic professions of love from Madonna such as “I’ll give
you a massage when you get home”, and name-dropping that traverses a few millennia
(Caesar right through to Michael Jordan)!
M.I.A.’s
contribution to the album is similarly disappointing. The thought of the
innovative, fresh artist injecting her spirit into the work of a woman who has
debatably lost some of those qualities in recent years is mouth-watering, but
the end result falls flat. The simplicity and inanity that plagues ‘B-Day Song’
(unless there’s some sort of profound second meaning that I’m missing) is deflating;
it was evidently relegated to bonus track status with good reason.
This
mediocrity, however, lies between an enticing core of tracks that suggest
Madonna still has much creative potential left in the tank. The attitude-laden ‘I
Don’t Give A’, despite harking back in some respects to the late Noughties,
feels like one of the more honest, personal moments, veiled in rather frenzied
production and an uptempo feel. Amidst a listing of daily tasks for the icon
are some illuminating confessions about her ill-fated marriage to Guy Richie,
which for subsequent tracks becomes a central topic.
‘Masterpiece’
is perhaps the most enjoyable cut. Its subtlety and comparatively reposed feel
immediately separates it from the more uptempo tracks. The track’s extended ‘work
of art’ metaphor, while hardly groundbreaking, is consistent and pairs well
with the restrained but sombre melodies. This welcome movement away from
relentless dance beats is continued with curious closer ‘Falling Free’, the
final moments of which see Madonna’s vocals at their most exposed and
emotional.
These
later tracks, while still largely electronically-based, are less sex-centric
and feel fare more nuanced. There seems to be conscious effort throughout MDNA
to cater to two quite different audiences. One ‘side’ of the album
(concentrated around the album’s latter half) feels more geared towards
concerns plaguing people of Madonna’s age, among them divorce and loneliness.
The album’s first few singles, in contrast, are obviously an attempt to garner
and maintain the attention of the youth audience Madonna’s traditionally
pandered to.
MDNA
is Madonna’s fifteenth album (including soundtracks). At the end of the day,
music is bound by an ultimate number of potential melodic patterns. Only twelve
tones exist within an octave, and this scope is further limited depending on
chordal movements and that sort of thing. Lord knows how many Madonna songs
have been released in some form or another during her career; she can’t be
blamed if some songs (primarily the middling moments discussed previously) feel
plagued by a sense of melodic exhaustion and predictability.
As
with the Madge-directed W.E., it’s quite likely that this album would have
received a warmer welcome had it been by someone without the weight of the (pop)
world on her shoulders. I can’t help but return to my hypothesis that it must
be incredibly difficult for an artist of Madonna’s stature to not constantly
cross-reference her current choices with what she’s done before, given the lack
of external precent in terms of
the position in which she now finds herself. As she proclaims in ‘Masterpiece’,
“it can’t be fun/to always be the chosen one”.
7/10
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