I have two words to describe Madonna’s 12th studio album MDNA: trite and overblown.
On the album, the “Give Me All Your Luvin” and “Girls Gone Wild” singer attempts to milk her established flamboyant, provocative “queen of pop” persona with vigorous dance-beats and lyrics, but ultimately renders herself a wannabe of her former “Like a Virgin” self.
MDNA seems to be a desperate attempt to clasp onto Madonna’s place in the contemporary pop community. With tracks featuring Nicki Minaj and MIA, Madonna makes a disheartening effort to retain her past ethos, but ends up being upstaged by her co-artists. This is as evident in her recorded audio performance as it was in her live Superbowl gig: next to fresh-faced Minaj, Madonna looked like a cracking prima donna.
All the Botox, dubstep bass drops, and rap verses in the world cannot change the fact that Madonna, and her most loyal fans, have aged 20 years. It might not be conspicuous in her face and dress, but whether she likes it or not, most everybody knows by now that she is nearing her mid-50s.
This is not to say that Madonna should retire and not experiment with creative tangents. Rather, it means that Madonna is no longer “like a virgin,” and she should be embracing the fact that this album is not her very first time. The tacky and girlish lyrics of “I Don’t Give A” and “B-day Song” should be on reserve for Ke$ha. Madonna needs to move on from her previous career highlights, and embrace the potential of a mature sound that is befitting to her biological age.
Madonna should practice what she preaches in “Give Me All Your Luvin”, and stop pretending to be what she is not. Indeed, every record sounds the same, and beg as she may for us to “forget about time” and “dance our lives away,” we simply cannot.
