Madonna’s First ‘MDNA’ Review: “This Is A Dark Album”

Becky Bain | March 2, 2012 11:57 am

For those who weren’t too impressed with Madonna’s first few musical offerings from MDNA, don’t give up hope — it gets better, and a whole lot darker. Attitude, a gay magazine from the UK, published the very first review of Madonna’s 12th studio album, and we won’t put you in suspense: they loved it. “Much of MDNA is about having fun, but despite that, this is a dark album,” writes reviewer Matthew Todd. “MDNA is a fuck you ­ to her marriage, the life that came with it, and partly to herself for losing her identity in a partnership. She’s out to recapture who she is, and she has demons to slay.” More details, including a handful of song lyrics, below.

He describes the Martin Solveig-produced “I Don’t Give A…” as “one of the album’s tour-de-force moments”, and one of the few times she directly references her marriage to Guy Ritchie: “I tried to be the perfect wife, I diminished myself, it swallowed me, if I was a failure then I don’t give a…” He adds that the track “builds to a genius, choral, almost Tim Burton-esque conclusion.”

The song “Gang Bang” is full of drama, with the pop star declaring, “Shot you dead, shot my lover in the head… I’m going straight to hell…I’ve got a lot of friends there,” before yelling, “Drive bitch, die bitch!”

Then there’s the summer-ready tune “Superstar”, which Todd calls one of “the sweetest songs Madonna has released since ‘Cherish'”, while the William Orbit-produced “Falling Free” is apparently one of the saddest. Ultimately, according to Todd, MDNA is “not as drastically new or experimental as music critics might like, but it’s fun, fucked up, dancey and full of drama.” Hey, that’s good enough for us.

Read Attitude‘s lengthy review here. Or, if you’re more pressed for time, you could just go with PopJustice‘s take on the album: “THE MADONNA ALBUM IS FUCKING GREAT.” (They’ll be posting a more in-depth review next week, but really, isn’t this all you need to know?)

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