The MDNA Tour Debacle

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Collection: Madonna MDNA Tour arrives (although that may not be a good thing)

So after what feels like waiting a particularly long time, the new MDNA Tour bluray and CD arrived today! I must confess: I haven't actually watched it yet, nor listened to the CD. I deliberately avoided the EPIX Broadcast (bar a few clips) from a few months ago apart from the Paris Olympia show and the Superbowl, I haven't actually watched any live MDNA footage. I've heard rave reviews though for the MDNA tour, so my expectations are even higher than they usually are for a Madonna show. It's also going to be very interesting though because I've seen a lot of complaints about the quality of the bluray. In fact, Amazon UK have withdrawn it from sale, pending a review. I've read that Amazon Germany have acknowledged there is a fault with the bluray too. Truth be told - I'm not one for detecting such issues. Unless they are woefully bad. I mean I remember there being a lot of complains about the Celebration DVD set but - to my eyes at least - the picture was fine. With this though it's supposed to be awful. Of course, I've yet to watch any of it myself  (I'm going to watch a bit of it shortly before bed, but it won't be the full show). I'll be sure to post a follow-on post once I see the show and form my own opinions on the matter.

This coming week...

Evening all, no real post as such today because this week promises to be an utterly chaotic one with the slew of releases heading my way. I've got three Pet Shop Boys singles, Madonna's MDNA Tour Bluray/CD and of course The Clash Hits Back and Sound System. That's lots of first impressions posts I'll be making this week, and also arrival posts of course. Pet Shop Boys singles and Madonna MDNA items have already dispatched. I don't think the MDNA Tour Bluray/CD will arrive tomorrow. The Pet Shop Boys singles I ordered however I think may just. As for The Clash stuff, I'm expecting it will dispatch first thing tomorrow morning (at nearly 9PM here I can't see it happening tonight). I'm expecting that it will get here on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. I can't think of a bigger week than this upcoming one for my music collection - needless to say I simply cannot wait for it all to arrive. I've also got to try and track down a copy of the Depeche Mode Ultimate Music Guide too. I've got some posts floating around that I'm drafting too, hopefully I'll be able to publish one or two of them in the midst of it all too. See you all tomorrow for day one!

Madonna MDNA Tour Pre-order

This is pretty important if you're a Madonna fan in the UK - her MDNA Tour DVD/Bluray can finally be pre-ordered on Amazon UK. So far, it seems the only way to obtain a CD containing the tour audio is via importing a DVD/CD version. Really, I'm not sure what's going on there. Getting the blu-ray for me though was the obvious choice. I've got two blu-ray players in my house though, and I want to utilize them.  I'll definitely get it on CD format in the future if possible but right now it's not feasible. The release date is September 9th, the same as The Clash's upcoming Sound System and Hits Back compilations. Both of which are on pre-order for me too. As you can imagine, that week is going to be manic for me. I've just pre-ordered the Blu-ray version for now, and that will do me just fine. Now that I have an order placed for it though, I can truly get excited to finally see her acclaimed MDNA tour for myself!

Happy Birthday Madonna!

Today is a very important day in my musical calendar: The one and only Madonna turns 55 today. I've been a Madonna fan since the age of about twelve, the Confessions era being my introduction. The impact Madonna has had on me is incalculable, when I really sit and reflect. Honestly, aside from friends and family she is by far and away the most influential female in my life. Really she's been the only female that's ever inspired me for whatever reason. She's been my favorite female artist ever since I became a fan, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. When you're twelve years old and you watch videos like Justify My Love and Erotica at that age (as I did) it really leaves an impact on you. It opened the doors of sexuality to me just as it began to enter my life through physical and emotional changes. I became a fan just as I entered the cocoon that is the teenage years. Through those years of self discovery, self acceptance and just general transition as develop from a girl into a woman her music has been a focal force. I've danced many a night away to Confessions On A Dancefloor, I've pondered and reflected to Ray Of Light, you get the picture. Through ecstasy and agony, hurt to hope, she's sound-tracked it all for me. Thirty-one years into her career, her influence is still massively felt throughout music, and yes, she is still very much relevant. You don't loose your relevance when you're a music legend on Madonna's scale. Can I name a favorite album? Like heck I can. It's actually a five-way (yes really) tie. Even then, there's a further two albums just behind them. . Happy birthday Queen of Pop <3

The MDNA Mystery.

I've been holding off on writing about this for a few days. Mostly because I wanted to see if the situation rectified itself. As it stands, it hasn't. Earlier in the week the official artwork for the upcoming release of Madonna's MDNA tour on DVD/Bluray was unveiled. Not only that but a release date of September 10th was announced. Although as that's a Tuesday, I've a sneaking suspicion the UK release will be on September 9th, as that's our major release day. All good then. It's now officially available on Amazon US too. The problem? It's nowhere to be found on Amazon UK. Not a sniff of it - and judging by comments on her official website other European Amazon websites haven't listed it either. Huh? I really don't understand what is going on here. I mean, Sound System by The Clash was available to pre-order on Amazon as soon as it was announced and that was four months in advance of its release date. It's a little under four weeks until the release of the MDNA Tour. I'm deeply impatient, I know. I just can't wait to see it in all its glory - I've been saving myself by not watching the EPIX Broadcast, so to speak, so I can savor it when it does come out. I'll pre-order it as soon as it's available naturally. I just hope that's soon because I really don't know what's going on with Amazon UK.

Happy 30th Anniversary Madonna!

Today's a very important milestone for Madonna fans. Today marks 30 years since her debut album, Madonna, was released! I would have loved a 30th anniversary edition released of the album but alias, Madonna herself isn't one for nostalgia. I do hope special editions of all her albums will come in the future though. I love Madonna (and Madonna, of course) - Holiday and Borderline are her first classic singles I think. My favourite tracks are those two along with Physical Attraction, Burning Up and Think of Me. I know I've named over half the album there (and probably rendered the term favourite a tad meaningless) but I do think Madonna is a sublime piece of disco synthpop. It's definitely not only one of my favourite debut albums ever, but just one of my favourite albums ever. Happy 30th Anniversary Madonna!

Documentary First Impressions: Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

So, as you all know I've decided to withdraw watching the MDNA Epix broadcast so I can savior the blu-ray release fully at the end of August. In saying that, I did have a Madonna DVD I owned but hadn't watched yet - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret. It's a documentary which follows Madonna on her Reinvention Tour. If you recall, I got it at the record fair about two months ago. I gotta say, it was a really good documentary. It's done in a very similar style to the Blonde Ambition Tour documentation In Bed With Madonna: black and white behind the scenes footage interspersed with color performance footage. Sadly - a lot of the performance footage was incomplete. It was superbly edited though. I just wish a complete recording of the show was officially released. Thankfully - the full show is in circulation. What I loved about the documentary is you can clearly see how she's grown as a person since In Bed With Madonna. We see a lady in I'm Going To Tell You a Secret firmly in touch with spirituality. It makes for a documentary that really makes you think away from all the gloss of a tour. And Madonna comes across as such a warm person, especially with her kids. And she can be very funny. You can also see how dedicated she is to her work - and how motherly she is with her dancers. It's really very admirable indeed. Say what you like about her, but you cannot doubt her commitment to her art. A great documentary that is well worth watching!

Madonna - I'm Addicted

I guess I'm having a Madonna revival at the moment. She's one of my favourite artists so she's never truely went away.  She's always been a heavy feature on my music listening. With the MDNA tour being premiered though I'm definitely going through a period of particularly more concentrated listening. Yesterday, I listened to MDNA in full for the first time in a few months. I think MDNA is better than critics and some fans have given it credit for really. I actually like (at the very least) pretty much all of the songs on it. One song in particular hit me definitely yesterday though. I had always liked I'm Addicted, but yesterday I grew to fully love it. Now - I might consider it one of her best songs in recent years, if not ever! I'm Addicted was produced by Benny Benassi. It was one of a set of demos Madonna recorded in London with Benassi, and these sessions, where Girls Gone Wild and Best Friend developing from these sessions. Lyrically, it's essentially pretty self explanatory - the narrator is addicted to love. and makes continual references to MDMA, or what most people refer to as ecstasy.  Some of the lyrics actually remind me a little bit of Like A Prayer too, and the act of prayer is referenced in the song too. With the repeated chants of MDMA at the end you'd be forgiven for referring to I'm Addicted as the sort of title track of MDNA. It's not the track on MDNA with the most depth, but it does have an addicting (ahem) arrangement. It's got quiet verses and a chorus that is quite frankly bananas - in the best possible way.  It's a bit like Calvin Harris meets Confessions On A Dancefloor, particularly in the instrumental breakdown. It's very loud, and sounds like it was just made for a dancefloor with the loudest set of speakers you could imagine! At first listen - I thought it was too crazy. Like, there's so much going on. And it just gets more berserk as it continues too. The song just builds and builds until it bows out with a thrilling climatic chant of "MDMA MDMA" which lasts for around the last minute or so. It's by far and away the brashest and most in your face moment of MDNA. So in your face in fact that it would have been a killer lead single. It's one of the songs on MDNA that is also about being loose, carefree and just having fun in love (it was made for the dancefloor after all). Crucially though, it sounds quintessentially Madonna in a way that Gimme All Your Luvin and Turn Up The Radio don't. It's one of the biggest missed singles opportunities in her career I think, along with Impressive Instant from Music. I'm just glad it was included on the MDNA tour though. An epic song that deserved an epic video!

Madonna MDNA on Epix.

Hello all, I hope wherever you are you're receiving more sun than Belfast currently is. Moving on - it's been a crazy few days for two of my favorite artists: Madonna & The Killers. The Killers because last night they headlined Wembley Stadium which surely has to be the high point of their career this far. Madonna because EPIX has premiered her MDNA tour yesterday. This post deals with the latter. EPIX is a premium US channel so as you could imagine, only a fraction of fans have saw the broadcast. I understand that torrents etc are doing the rounds, but so far the only thing I've found is one very poor quality stream. I'll post the link to it at the bottom of this post, but trust me - it's pretty bad quality. I'm just going to wait until August when the blu-ray comes out in all honesty. I didn't attend any of the MDNA shows and other than the Olympia mini-show in Paris,  fan footage of Express Yourself/Born This Way/She's Not Me  and the official Epix trailer I've not seen the tour at all really. So, I can't wait for the bluray especially. Based on the fan's opinions that I've been reading today, not only is the tour exceptional but the editing is also great. My expectations for it are sky-high, I just hope it lives up to them!

Low quality stream

Breaking news: MDNA Tour DVD/Bluray release date announced!!

This has been a release that's long been on the horizon, but now we finally have a release date! The MDNA DVD and Bluray will be getting released on August 27th for US, with a global release on August 26th. The much rumored date was September, so I was expecting it to come it around the time of The Clash's Sound System boxset. As it stands it comes out 14 days before. It'll certainly be an expensive period - I'm just grateful there'll almost certainly be none of my other favorite artists releasing new music during that time. Anyhow - that's all off topic. I don't own that many music DVDs in all honesty, but new Madonna tour DVDs I always get majorly excited for because she's my favorite female solo artist of all time, and also because I feel her modern tours are perhaps even better than her earlier tours (Blonde Ambition aside). I haven't even seen that much of 2012's MDNA Tour bar a poor quality video of the opening of the show and the infamous Express Yourself/Born This Way/She's Not Me mash-up. As you can tell I didn't attend a show in person unfortunately - the idea was discussed for attending the Dublin show but as any Madonna fan will tell you, her shows do not come cheap at the best of time and costs to see her for me are only increased because I have to travel substantially to make it to Dublin - she doesn't play in my home city of Belfast. I technically have to go into another country to see her actually (it's this reason why attending shows for me is a rarity in general). In any case - the reviews for the MDNA tour were incredibly positive and I expect nothing less than (yet another) stunning show from Madonna. As far as I'm aware, no live CD will accompany this release (like Sticky & Sweet and Confessions had) but I don't mind: its becoming increasingly more straightforward to convert DVD audio into .mp3 format. The official article doesn't mention any bonus features but I would expect there to be something at least, if not I'd have to say I'd be disappointed. In any case - I cannot wait for this!

Sound of The Week: Albums

So, this week I've been listening to one artist overall above all else: The Velvet Underground. I first heard some tracks from The Velvet Underground & Nico a few months ago and I didn't know what to make of it. Much like Hounds of Love by Kate Bush it was a challenging listen on first play, but there was a mystique about the music that made me want to explore it further. I guess that was Lou Reed's voice initially; I've heard his Transformer album and I think its a great album. A few weeks ago my interested in Velvet Underground restarted when I heard the track Rock and Roll (I'm actually listening to it now as I type this post). It was a brilliant and addictive song and I decided to get their greatest hits; which I fortunately found last week at the record fair. I've been playing it non stop all week! With the exception of I Heard Her Call My Name I love every song on it already. My favourites being Herion, Rock and Roll, I'm Beginning To See The Light and Some Kinda Love. It's just a brilliant listen. I've managed to listen to two of their albums so far too, these being The Velvet Underground and The Velvet Underground & Nico. I've really enjoyed both so much too, I've got a strong feeling The Velvet Underground are going to become one of my all time favourite bands!

Honourable mention: I also this week finally listened to my copy of Nirvana's live album From The Muddy Banks of The Wishkah. A brilliant album and this is coming from someone who doesn't tend to listen to live albums so often. There's so much energy in the performances compiled on the CD though, absolutely brilliant and I prefer that version of Smells Like Teen Spirit to the studio version. For new albums I've heard the best one this week has to be Little Boot's brilliant second offering, called Nocturnes and scheduled for release tomorrow. Check it out electronic/synthpop fans!

In terms of re listens, I also played Madonna's Music album. This was always one of my least favourite Madonna albums... until now. I'm not even sure why it was one of my least favorite Madonna albums really. I think its because the album does have a weird schizophrenic electronic acoustic hybrid. Truth be told I'm no great lover of acoustic style material: albums in this vein tend to always be my lesser played albums of artists even if I'd consider the artist an all time favorite. That said, I love how there's a variety of electronic sounds to be heard on Music: Electropop on the title track, slightly trance sounds on Runaway Girl and triphop on What It Feels Like For A Girl. The latter two tracks in particular I have a new found love for. Its definitely becoming one of my favorite Madonna albums now!

Sound of The Week: Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster

Sunday (and the week) is nearly coming to an end here in the UK. I've been busy today finishing Prison Break (I felt Final Break was just needless) and starting The Walking Dead. Today has gone in so fast I very nearly missed my first post in a new little series for the blog: The Sound Of The Week. It's basically me highlighting a track that's been getting frequently aired this week by myself.  So, this is the track that's been getting the most plays from me this week. I've got to admit - I was tempted to post Some Kinda Love by The Velvet Underground. Alias, I went for Stiff Little Fingers.  I've known this track for around a year and I hold it in very high regard. In my view it's one of the best songs (from one of the best artists) to come out of Northern Ireland. Not only that but one of the best punk songs (and bands) also. The Clash will always be my favourite punk band, but Stiff Little Fingers aren't far behind them for me. I know I am biased given that I live in Ulster so there's obviously a local connection at play here, but I do honestly feel Alternative Ulster is better than anything Sex Pistols ever recorded. It was a song written about very real issues. It was written about life in 70's Belfast. A place that was very dark indeed. I wasn't alive then, but based on what I've seen of it in retrospective footage etc I'm glad I missed out on those days. Dark, paranoid and desolete seem to be three words that sum it up aptly. Many of Stiff Little Finger's songs were essentially about how the young people of the time were disenchanted living in such a negative place. I still think it holds a lot of relevance today even. Obviously not to the same degree, but elements of the lyrics still ring true for me. Belfast has moved on so much since the 1970s (long may it continue in that vein) but its still got a long way to go. I was born in 1994 and believe me - I get fed up living here sometimes. For me though Alternative Ulster I find more inspiring than anything. It's motivational, and makes me want to contribute to the postitive growth of my city. The music is also rousing: I just love the chug chug sound of the guitars nearing the song's outro. I've been listening to the song a lot lately because at this moment in time I'm trying to think of ways I can make my future job (hopefully) of music journalism benefit Belfast as a whole. A brilliant song by a very underrated band.

The Runners Up

• Madonna - Oh Father
• The Velvet Underground - Some Kinda Love
• Little Boots - Confusion
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege
• The Beatles - Love You To

Why I'm A Fan: Madonna

Madonna is my favourite female artist, has been since I began listening to her seven years ago. I'm the only Madonna fan I know. In fact most of my family and friends dislike her, particularly her personality. Yes, she's a controversial figure but I love that about her. I don't always agree with what she says or does, but I fully respect her at all times because she just doesn't care what others think of her. You have to admire that. In a modern music industry were artists lack personalities sometimes; artists like Madonna are more relevant than ever. So how did I become a fan? When I was small I used to love Beautiful Stranger, but following that my first proper introduction to Madonna came when Hung Up was released. Initially I didn't like the song and it was played everywhere which didn't help. It did grow on me though until I eventually liked it (although it has never been one of my favourite tracks), and I decided to check out Confessions On A Dancefloor. That album, coupled with seeing clips of the Confessions tour online got me hooked. From then on in I was sold. I began listening to her previous albums in earnest. Songs like Justify My Love made a big impression on me at the time - I was twelve when I began exploring her thoroughly. In terms of favourite albums I have four that I can't decide between: Bedtime Stories, Ray Of Light, Erotica and Confessions On A Dancefloor. I know its controversial to prefer Bedtime Stories to say, Like A Prayer (which is still a terrific album) but there's just something about Bedtime Stories that keeps me revisiting it. I do feel that both Hard Candy and MDNA were a tad more complacent than usual so I hope that for her thirteenth effort she pushes the boundaries more like I know she can. She's in no way past her best and could make an album up there with her best if she applies herself I think!
Favourite album: A tie between Bedtime Stories, Ray of Light, Confessions on A Dancefloor and Erotica. But if I had to choose just one... it'd probably be Erotica
Favourite Songs: Rain, Forbidden Love (both songs), Get Together, Cherish, Physical Attraction, Erotica, Bad Girl, Love Spent, Drowned World, Justify My Love, Holiday, Some Girls, Open Your Heart. Express Yourself. Keep It Together. Skin. Bedtime Story. Angel. Inside Of Me.

Madonna - Bad Girl

Despite being a firm fan favorite (and probably my favorite Madonna album) - Erotica took years before it slowly began to garner respect for the music contained on it. Many of the songs on Erotica rank as some of Madonna's absolute best, and Bad Girl is no different. A largely forgotten single but it remains a hidden gem and is backed up by one of her greatest videos. One of the great strengths about Erotica is that it isn't an album that sounds like how you would expect and Bad Girl is a prime example of this. From the title of both song and album you'd expect Bad Girl to be brash, sexy and vibrant (much like the lady herself). It's not quite like that. The song is a mournful ballad actually. The narrator of the song is deeply hurt over a relationship that although has ran it's natural course she is struggling to move on from. Her defense mechanisms against the hurt and the pain is to drink & smoke excessively and sleep around in various one night stands. All of which is extremely self destructive behavior. It becomes a vicious cycle really as the narrator is well aware that her behavior is ultimately not going to get her anywhere and if anything it makes her even worse - thus making her employ these various coping mechanisms even more and so forth. Ultimately the song's core theme is self destruction. It's far removed from being in any way a sensual song. If anything it's the counterbalance: it highlights that love can consume us in the best possible way but in this case its the worst possible way. Every time I listen to this song I get a feeling the only conclusion is self destruction. The video only serves to highlight that too. The video probably does enhance the song to an extent (although it's still a great song regardless.) I will dissect the video in another post but in short I honestly think its one of the best music videos ever. Sadly the Erotica controversy dented single/album sales and it became Madonna's first single to not make it into the top 20 in her native US. It fared better in the UK (reaching #10) but that was still slightly lower than usual and on a worldwide basis the song wasn't as a big a success as previous singles. It fell off the UK chart rather quickly which caused Fever to be released as a UK single only a month later. Sadder still the song has never featured in any of Madonna's tours - it only was ever performed on her January 1993 Saturday Night Live appearance. It's a truly fantastic song that I wish received more attention, as it is probably one of her best ballads!

Madonna - You Thrill Me/Erotica

Widely touted as one of the highlights from her Confessions Tour. It is the second song of the disco segment (the last segment) of the tour. The song hadn't been performed live on her previous Drowned World tour so the reemergence of it in the Confessions tour set list was a welcome (if surprising) inclusion. As you can tell listening to it, it's vastly different from the infamous single. Many of the lyrics aren't found in the famous single version either. The lyrics (for the most part) that are used here are actually from a very early demo of Erotica. I've seen the demo on youtube with the title "second original demo". In the supposed original demo though she doesn't sing these lyrics. There's been some debate about the legitimacy of the demos and The Rain Tapes (collection of Erotica era demos) so I can't say for sure what demo is the correct one. What is sure though is that these were demo lyrics. From the different versions I've heard I personally don't think the Erotica arrangement and these alternate lyrics went together well at all - I don't even think the original Erotica lyrics and these You Thrill Me share a similar tone really either. I absolutely love the disco remix of this live version though - it's softer than the original version (which I still love too). It actually has a very different tone to the original I think too but it's just as good and many fans actually prefer this live version. I think both are brilliant in their own ways and it's one of the finest examples of Madonna's stellar ability to take already classic songs and rearrange them in a different way for yet still make them as enjoyable. A great performance, probably one of her best ever really!

Initial thoughts of Madonna - MDNA

Yesterday I picked up the Deluxe Edition of Madonna's new album MDNA on the first day of release! I've given it two full plays so far (hoping for a third listen later on possibly), I've still got to listen to the second disc yet, so this is just some initial thoughts about the main album. It's not a full review, I'll start working on that next week possibly when I've given both discs multiple plays. So far I'm really enjoying it and think its going to be charting high on my list of favourite Madonna albums!

• I have to say its a big step up from Hard Candy (which I did like). Most of the songs have instantly grabbed me, and there is no song on the album I dislike (I disliked a few on Hard Candy). 
• Gimme All Your Luvin doesn't really represent the album, I think it was chosen for the lead single purely for the "L-U-V Madonna!" chants to tie in with the Superbowl half-time performance. Its actually quite a sparse arrangement compared to the other tracks.
• Its incredibly contemporary, much the way that Hard Candy was, but also harks back to older Madonna (Hung Up sample in Love Spent and Superstar has a sort of True Blue era vibe I think).
•  Its probably not as introspective as I was expecting, and its incredibly dancey, probably her most danceable album along with Confessions On A Dancefloor. It definitely benefits being played from on a good set of speakers.
• It definitely needs repeated listens too. It's very chaotic in the sense that a lot seems to be happening. Its worth noting though that during my initial first play, I had just heard some sad news about a teacher that I respected very much who died unexpectedly at the weekend, which would have affected my ability to take things in. Although I don't think its possible to take it all in on one listening, and there's a lot of breakdowns and build-ups, it feels like at least if at least one (if not both) every track. Many of the tracks also tend to start off one way, then change into something pretty different, Love Spent being a good example, the song initially doesn't sound that much like the leaked snippet at all.
• There are some tracks which I think will go down as Madonna classics: Gang Bang, Love Spent and Falling Free in particular, but I like every song (so far I have to say that Some Girls and I Don't Give A are my least favourites, but even still they're both good songs) Masterpiece also fits in surprisingly well, and has really grown on me, I now really like it!

Unexpected gems

I found a great little store in one of the area's of Belfast city center that I'm not usually in. Its a collectable's store that sells comics, vinyl, VHS tapes and some CD's. I didn't find any Pet Shop Boys records, but I did see about half of Morrissey's albums in the CD part for about £3 each. I also seen some George Michael singles. I didn't have a massive look in the vinyl section (I'm small, and couldn't even see the top shelves) but I did see Erasure - Two Ring Circus, Prince - Parade and Saint Etienne - Avenue in the vinyl section though. I didn't buy any of them, I don't buy vinyl unless its something I really desperately want that costs about £3. They also had Blur - Parklife and a VHS tape from a Madchester era band called The Farm that I really like but like vinyl, I don't collect either VHS nor cassette. I eventually settled on Grace Jone's most recent album and two Madonna singles from the 90s.

When I went into the only proper record store in city center they had a massive sale on. They were selling various albums in their 2 for £10 deal that I really wanted so I had a hard time choosing. They had greatest hits by The Cure, New Order, Kate Bush, The Farm and I'm pretty sure there were others too (I had to rush around HMV because my dad and me had two hours to get out of town and we were pushing it) I eventually settled on The Farm and Kate Bush's greatest hits, but I'm hoping to go back in there sometime this week to have a proper look

I did order some things online too, New Order - Waiting For The Sirens Call arrived on Saturday and I've just ordered Madonna - American Life. So after 6 years of being a fan I've finally got all her studio albums! I'm ordering a few other bits and pieces this week too, so I'll post more when they get here!

Madonna - Gimme All Your Luvin!

So Madonna's new video premiered today, and the hype for MDNA on March 26th is in full swing! I have to say, the lead single is different from what I was expecting but still good nonetheless! It was produced by Martin Solvieg and features Nikki Minaj and M.I.A. Its incredibly retro sounding and is insanely catchy, its been stuck in my head since first listen! I love the little cheerleader chants too, I think they're good fun and will sound brilliant live. I wasn't overly excited though when I heard that Madonna was collaborating though, purely because I don't think she needs a collaboration. On that note I have to say I think the respective guest vocals of Nicki Minaj and M.I.A don't add that much to the song, although I'm not a fan of Nicki Minaj anyway though I do like M.I.A's work. Its already excited me more than 4 Minutes did which is a good sign, although I am hoping that the album will be a bit more introspective. Never the less, a really enjoyable song, and I'm so excited she's back!

Madonna - Bedtime Story

Madonna's Bedtime Story is probably my favourite single from her, only rivalled by Justify My Love. The song was written by Bjork, and you can definitely feel her influence on the track and its easy to imagine her singing this song. The song is the penultimate track on Madonna's sorely overlooked album Bedtime Stories, and does have a very different sound to the other tracks. The album is a soft R+B kind of sound, but bizzarely this experimental electronic track seems to fit in! It foreshadows the work that Madonna would do on her next album, Ray of Light I think. Its a hybrid of ambient/house beats that sound totally different to anything Madonna has done before or since. The song has been cited by critics as one with a lot of unfulfiled potential and I would have to agree! The song has hardly ever been performed live, only serving as an interlude in the Reinvention Tour. It also seems to be slightly more forgotten about in comparision to her classic singles like Vogue etc, which is absolutely criminally as this is Madonna at her experimental best.