What about What It Feels Like For a Girl? A great late slow song imo.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:44 (twelve years ago) link
It works. I'd argue that's a ballad conceived as a dance track (the sonics, the way her voice sounds like it's looped).
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:47 (twelve years ago) link
Re: Madonna's late voice & dance music, it's telling that both Hung Up and Sorry find her scolding somebody - not the whole album but the two big singles, and then Jump is hard-nosed self-help. The open-armed joy she could tap into on Into the Groove or Deeper and Deeper seems inaccessible to her now. Just a thought - there may be exceptions I'm forgetting.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:12 (twelve years ago) link
"Deeper and Deeper" doesn't feel joyful at all (and that's part of what makes it so great)! But yeah I agree.
― prolego, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
that rings true - confessions marked the first time i felt M's voice thudded somewhat and felt flat. for a dance record it's curiously lacking in uninhibited joy. but yeah, that's pretty bang on about why "hung up", "sorry", "jump" and "push" work (and it's why i've felt that unlike those, "get together" works despite madonna rather than due to her).
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:21 (twelve years ago) link
xp Ah OK, I find Deeper and Deeper pretty joyful, unlike most of Erotica. Ear of the beholder.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
"deeper and deeper" = numbing trauma with hedonism, finding a kind of liberation in that anyway. it's complicated
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
I'm half-tempted to start a fb campaign urging her not to release this album in an effort to preserve her legacy. A hollow gesture, of course, because the label has already sunk a ton of money into it, but a gesture from the heart nonetheless.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 12:52 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
because American Life and Hard Candy were so great that this is a shock
― DNRIYHM NATION 1814 (some dude), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
I want to lock Madonna in a room with just her guitar and see what she comes up with, because she needs a serious reboot.
― thinveneer, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:58 (twelve years ago) link
I'm sure that will work.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 13:59 (twelve years ago) link
Was Ray of Light the last really "unique" thing she did? I mean obviously it too heavily drew from several sources but most of them iirc were sort of more out of the mainstream than, say, disco (re: Confessions).
― I have one thing to say: "Roxanne Shanté" (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:03 (twelve years ago) link
Grasping at straws.
― thinveneer, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:07 (twelve years ago) link
Was Ray of Light the last really "unique" thing she did?
"die another day"!
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:08 (twelve years ago) link
you guys, this new song isn't amazing by any stretch of the imagination but it's a hell of a lot better than "Give Me All Your Luvin'"
also some dude OTM even though I loved American Life
― robbery by sudden snatching (DJP), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:12 (twelve years ago) link
Not to get all rockisty or anything, I think part of the problem is that in Madonna's prime the radio still played standard ... songs, for lack of a better word. Things that could be played on piano or guitar. But the last few years the pop music pendulum has swung over to clubby anonymity, which is fine ... for the clubs. But on the radio there's not a lot of room for songs without a 4/4 stomp and a stupid hook. It's a shame Madonna is buying into that, but I don't see what choice she has, if she wants to get played. Ray of Light and Music were sort of a transitional hybrids allowed by the advent of "OMG dance music electronics!" (see also: Moby, Prodigy, anything with OMG electronics!). But now we're on the other side of that. Just hypothesizing, but top 40 has never seemed more ... digital disco.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
you realize it's kind of silly to say music driven by MIDI synths can't be played on a piano, right
― robbery by sudden snatching (DJP), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:16 (twelve years ago) link
it is a shame that the woman behind "burning up" and "holiday" has been reduced to digital disco
― da croupier, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:23 (twelve years ago) link
At this point in her career, better this than jazz standards.
― Fonz Hour (Eazy), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
More the case that her most comfortable sound is now pop's default setting and instead of accentuating the differences the new single merges with everything else, which makes her sound like one of many. Stuart Price's Confessions production is "digital disco" but it doesn't sound like David Guetta and this one does.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
i don't even care enough about her to want to defend her but it seems off to not accept she's had club music from the start
― fauxmarc, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
(as opposed to "buying into it" now)
xpost Anything can be played on piano or guitar - notes are notes and chords are chords - but it's not really ideal for this sort of thing. It's all about the thump and the rhythm/repetition; the robotic-ness is its appeal, not the melody. (/geir)
Just saying, you can sing Madonna's best stuff in the shower. Or in the car. Or wherever. The newer stuff is subservient to the beat. Which isn't a bad thing! But there are many people who do it better than Madonna.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:50 (twelve years ago) link
I don't see the distinction. You can't really sing Vogue or Justify My Love in the shower. She's always had club tracks which don't make sense detached from the beat.
― Suede - the fabric, not the band (DL), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:53 (twelve years ago) link
I agree with that (though you can totally sing the chorus to Vogue!). But I'd still say songs like that are the clubby outliers of her ouevre. Lately she's been overtly playing catch-up with club trends rather than originating them, and the look doesn't suit her.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
the only reason you can't sing Vogue in the shower is because no one remembers how the verses go
― robbery by sudden snatching (DJP), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
You can't really sing Vogue or Justify My Love in the shower.
believe me, you most certainly can.
― I have one thing to say: "Roxanne Shanté" (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
though you can't really sing Justify My Love at all
xpost They goes like this: dooby-doo, dooby-doo-doo-do-do-doo-do, dooby-do-do-doo.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:02 (twelve years ago) link
dooby-doo, dooby-doo-doo-do-do-doo-do, dooby-do-do-doo(that's what it's for)
― robbery by sudden snatching (DJP), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
You do the Lenny Kravitz doh-doh-doh-dohhhh part and then you pick up the shower nozzle like a mic and say "Love me! That's Right! Love me!"
― Fonz Hour (Eazy), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
You guys sound like Paul fucking McCartney.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:27 (twelve years ago) link
Thumbs aloft!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:32 (twelve years ago) link
How complex does a hook have to be before you can sing it in the shower?
― da croupier, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
Exactly 39% complex.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
I just mean I have no difficulty imagining LMFAO lyrics can be heard in your more tragic dorm bathrooms. The problem is less that new music is unsuitable to Madonna's gifts so much as Madonna's new music is tired. Cher pulled off digital disco ten years ago.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:04 (twelve years ago) link
If Madonna tried to play "Into The Groove" on guitar it would sound like "I Deserve It."
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:24 (twelve years ago) link
Madonna's gift, as such, used to be (besides not sounding tired) not sounding like she was breathlessly, belatedly playing catch-up.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:29 (twelve years ago) link
― da croupier, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 11:04 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I've never been happier to be done school.
― I Fucked Up (jer.fairall), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
isn't "tragic dorm bathrooms" redundant
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 23:22 (twelve years ago) link
a girl gone WILDa good girl gone WILD
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 10:58 (twelve years ago) link
But on the radio there's not a lot of room for songs without a 4/4 stomp and a stupid hook. It's a shame Madonna is buying into that, but I don't see what choice she has, if she wants to get played.
Seriously? It's Madonna, she'll get played whatever, she could afford to take more risks than pretty much anyone else. I haven't heard any of the new stuff but if it does just sound like Guetta-house then I'd put that down to lack of imagination rather than anything else. See also Hard Candy.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:01 (twelve years ago) link
there's a good argument to be made that this new single is the worst thing that madonna has ever committed to record
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 11:08 (twelve years ago) link
IIRC Like A Virgin was half amazing singles and half unlistenable garbage.
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:01 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah. It was her weakest album for a couple of decades.
― prolego, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:10 (twelve years ago) link
surm won't tolerate any dissent re "Shooby Dooby Doo."
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:28 (twelve years ago) link
"Revolver" pissed me off way more. Plus Evita (not really her fault).
― dead-trius (Eric H.), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:45 (twelve years ago) link
I don't understand how this new boring song can be viewed as being worse than the actively terrible song she released right before it, not to mention the impressive string of drippy clunkers she's released throughout her entire career
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
The worst thing about it is how it disinfects the word "erotic."
― dead-trius (Eric H.), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:52 (twelve years ago) link
Not even sure if it's better than the Paris Hilton sexting song.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:56 (twelve years ago) link
I will never know about that because srsly fuck seeking out a Paris Hilton song, life is far too fucking short for that
― Vaseline MEN AMAZING JOURNEY (DJP), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 14:57 (twelve years ago) link