Album Review: MDNA by Madonna

First let me say, if I haven't already, that I'm a big Madonna fan. Always have been but I'm disappointed with how her career has gone since the release of Ray of Light back in 1998. That's now 14 years and five albums of pretty much throwaway music. I want to compare this to another artist who I believe has held up very well over that same time period, Tracey Thorn.

In 1996 Everything But the Girl went all in with club music and put out their album Walking Wounded. It was a brilliant album and immediately established them as serious dance music artists. But they also brought in their smart lyrical content and so they brought along a lot of their faithful fan base as well into this new sound. Two years later Madonna would take the plunge into dance with her best album to date Ray of Light. Similar to the effort from Everything But the Girl, this was a dance album for adults, for her audience those that had aged with her and it was a brilliant piece of work.






In 1999 EBTG would come back with another brilliant record Tempermental. It aimed to the same audience as earlier, an older audience with thoughtful lyrics, while Madonna responded in 2000 with Music. In many ways Music was a step back as it went after a younger audience, definitely more of a dance club album.







EBTG then disappeared as Ben Watt focused on his record label and DJ gigs and Tracey took care of their kids and generally took a break. She would come back in 2007 with her first solo album in 25 years and sticking with the club sound, but now even more sophisticated lyrics. She had come back and she had come back for her audience. Madonna meanwhile would continue to regress moving away from her aging original audience and aiming to bring in a more youthful audience.





In 2010 Tracey Thorn would come out with a slower much more thoughtful album Love and Its Opposite. Now in 2012 we get the latest offering from Madonna and honestly it's embarrassing. The thoughtful Madonna that we got in 1998 has been completely thrown over for someone who seems desperate to sound young and relevant, but sadly just sounds like a 50 something trying to sound young and relevant.

Truth is Tracey Thorn has remained relevant to her fan base because she has continued to reach out to her fan base with thoughtful smart songs, while Madonna has essentially thrown off her fan base to try and capture a new batch of fans, and in the process has made herself irrelevant.

I understand that album sales would tell you that I'm incorrect in this conclusion, but in the realm of music Tracey Thorn continues to supply us with music that holds interest, while Madonna is not.

I'm not going to give this album 0 stars because there are a few songs on here that could make a workout mix, but outside of that the album holds little interest.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 1 out of 5 stars for Just OK.