+ H E R P L AY
Madonna is Only Human
BY MORGAN HUFSTADER
L
ove her or loathe her, Madonna is back in full fury with the release of her latest album, Rebel Heart. Though the album was initially intended for release later in the year. After a few tracks leaked, her label was forced to release the first half of the album. While the marketing might seem a little strange, at very least it gives us, and the rest of the world, a chance to sample the album before it’s official release. Rebel Heart starts off with more of a whimper than a bang. The first track, Living for Love, doesn’t do the album justice. It starts off like something that would play in a dentist office. Devil Pray is a little more like it. Madonna incorporates a lot of her standard religious (or, depending who you’re taking to, sacrilegious) iconography within the lyrics of the song. The message is a strange blend of hippie-era drug worship (is acid still a thing?) and genuine soul searching. There are a little too much synthetics in some of the tracks, giving the impression that they’re masking years of wear and tear on her voice, but then Madonna busts into Ghosttown. The song proves, above all, that Madonna is not irrelevant in the 21st century. She manages to bring a surprisingly modern sound to her music and her voice, providing fierce competition to the “young and fresh” pop stars, including Rihanna or Sia. Unapologetic Bitch is in the same line. Illuminati sounds the most like a homage to her fans of the 80s, mainly with her opening monologue and pulsing electronic feel. Ironically, Madonna blends in smoothly to the age of electronic, rusty metal synthetic pop. In many ways, she rode the initial wave of incorporating synthetic sounds in her music. With that said, there is still an aged quality to her sound. Bitch I’m Madonna featuring Nicki Minaj is a very obvious attempt to break into club music, but it feels more like something Mrs. Pacman would rock out to. At the end of the day, Madonna has a lot to prove with this album. It is a clear effort to stay true to Madonna’s old sound, as well as update her.
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| HERS M a gazine | March /A pril 2015 |
Ultimately, no one is arguing that Madonna is a legend, but maybe she is destined to be just that—a legend of something that was once great. Songs like Ghosttown proves that Madonna does have it in her to rise to the occasion again, but Rebel Heart doesn’t have the shock-and-awe spice that long-time Madonna fans are accustomed to hearing. As Madonna herself admits in the lyrics, “I can’t be a superhero right now…I’m only human.” This is, however, only the first half of her album, so there may still be a trick or two up Madonna’s sleeve. Look out for Rebel Heart in March.
hers-magazine.com