Hell hath no fury like Madonna scorned.
In the four years
since she recorded her last studio album, Madonna blew up her marriage to Guy Ritchie, made a tedious film about two
supposedly glamorous Nazi sympathizers and allowed herself to be upstaged by M.I.A.’s middle finger in front of 111 million
people. Distracted by ventures into clothing lines, fitness centers and international adoption, she drifted from her roots as
a pop diva with a knack for popularizing cutting-edge electronic music.
Rage, however, seems to have focused the
Material Girl on what she does best. With “MDNA,” she’s made her best record since 1998’s “Ray of Light.” It’s a collection
of club tracks and confessionals that drops white-hot disco bombs with laser-guided precision.
Working with
“Ray of Light” producer William Orbit, Italian electro producer Benny Benassi and French DJ Martin Solveig, she serves up a
succession of intoxicating grooves that stand up to anything Lady Gaga and Beyoncé have sent up the charts.
Where
Madge manages, at 53, to actually outpace her far younger peers is her willingness to lay bare the raw, jarring emotions of
the past few years. Her break with Ritchie has inspired surprisingly catchy observations of hearts imploding — Sean Penn and
Warren Beatty never worked her into such a lather.
“I Don’t Give A” and “I F – – ked Up” (available as a bonus track
on the deluxe edition) capture two facets of the horror of being newly divorced. The first rails against the process — “You
were so mad at me, who’s got custody? The lawyers suck it up, didn’t have a prenup” — but pledges that she’ll survive and
move on. The second expresses the guilt and remorse of a woman who accepts her own role in the split: “I f — ked up, I made
a mistake. Nobody does it better than myself.”
Yet even at her darkest, Madonna keeps intact her legendary instincts
for a killer hook. “Gang Bang” is a straight-up hater’s anthem. “I thought it was you, and I loved you the most,” she chants,
“but I was just keeping my enemies close.” As the Orbit-produced bass track grinds through the mix like a tank tread, she
merrily pronounces herself a proud assassin: “Bang bang, shot you dead, shot my lover in the head.” It’s an exquisite
kiss-off that’s equal parts meditation on spite and rump-busting dance-floor workout.
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While most of the album wades through the debris field of her failed marriage, there are
glimpses of brighter times. “Girl Gone Wild” leans on Benassi’s thumping house production for a party track that could have
easily been a single from her 2000 album “Music.” Then there are the breath-like keyboards on LMFAO’s remix of “Give Me All
Your Luvin’ ” (another deluxe-edition cut) that sound like they were lifted straight from one of the Material Girl’s “Express
Yourself” sessions.
Managing to find substance in fury and freedom in tears, “MDNA” is an uplifting testament to
resilience. Better still, it’s evidence that Madonna has finally returned from her sojourn as a would-be Renaissance woman
and to deliver an album with the guts and groove of her finest work.
