MDNA

by Madonna

Overview

Most pop stars reach a point where they accept the slow march of time, but not Madonna. Time is Madonna's enemy -- an enemy to be battled or, better still, one to be ignored. She soldiers on, turning tougher, harder, colder with each passing album, winding up with a record as flinty as MDNA, the 2012 record that is her first release since departing Warner for Interscope. That's hardly the only notable shift in Madonna's life since the 2008 release of Hard Candy. Since then, she has divorced film director Guy Ritchie and has seen her '80s persona co-opted and perverted by Lady Gaga, events so cataclysmic she can't help but address them on MDNA. Madonna hits the divorce dead-on, muttering about "pre-nups" when she's not fiercely boasting of shooting her lover in the head, and she's not exactly shy about reasserting her dominion over dance and pop, going so far as to draft Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. as maid servants paying their respect to the queen. Whatever part of MDNA that isn't devoted to divorce is dedicated to proving that Madonna remains the preeminent pop star, working harder than anybody to stay just on the edge of the vanguard. All this exertion leads to an excessively lean album: there's not an ounce of fat on MDNA, it's all overly defined muscle, every element working with designated purpose. Such steely precision means there's no warmth on MDNA, not even when Madonna directly confesses emotions she's previously avoided, but the cool calculations here are preferable to the electronic mess of Hard Candy, not least because there's a focus that flows all the way down to the pop hooks, which are as strong and hard as those on Confessions on a Dance Floor even if they're not quite so prominent as they were on that 2005 retro-masterwork. MDNA does echo the Euro-disco vibe of Confessions -- "Love Spent" consciously reworks the ABBA-sampling "Hung Up" -- yet as a whole it feels chillier, possibly due to that defensive undercurrent that pervades the album. Even if she's only measuring it in terms of pretenders to her throne, Madonna is aware of time passing yet she's compelled to fight it, to stay on top, to not slow down, to not waste a second of life, to keep working because the meaning of life is work, not pleasure. Naturally, all that labor can pay off, whether it's through the malevolent pulse of "Gang Bang" or the clever "Beautiful Stranger" rewrite "I'm a Sinner," but, ironically for all of Madonna's exhausting exertion elsewhere, these are the songs that benefit from her finely honed skills as a pop craftsman, illustrating that no matter how she combats it, she can't escape her age and may indeed be better off just embracing it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	03/26/2012
Label:	Interscope / Universal
UPC:	0602527968155
Rank:	152636

Tracks

1. Girl Gone Wild
2. Gang Bang
3. I'm Addicted
4. Turn Up the Radio
5. Give Me All Your Luvin'
6. Some Girls
7. Superstar
8. I Don't Give A
9. I'm a Sinner
10. Love Spent
11. Masterpiece
12. Falling Free

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Madonna   Primary Artist,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Nicki Minaj   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
M.I.A.   Primary Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Jean Baptiste Gaudray   Guitar
Jessica Phillips   Clarinet,Clarinet
Lola Leon   Vocals (Background)
Michael Turco   Synthesizer
Anne Gravoin   Violin
David Braccini   Violin
Pierre Fouchenneret   Violin
Stephen Kozmeniuk   Vocoder,Keyboards,Synthesizer
Barbara Currie   French Horn
Sylvia Volpe   Violin
Ellen Westermann   Celli
Ann Lehmann   Violin
Sean Carney   Violin
Dov Scheindlin   Viola
Romain Faure   Synthesizer
Sarah Veihan   Cello
Hahn-Bin   Violin
LMFAO   Featured Artist
Ayako Tanaka   Violin
Jean-Baptiste   Vocals
David Wakefield   French Horn
Mary Hammann   Viola
Christophe Morin   Cello
David Chan   Violin
Nathalie Tchitch   Viola
Sebastien Surel   Violin
Michael Tordjman   Guitar,Synthesizer
Miwa Rosso   Cello
Diane Lesser   Horn (English)
Vincent Lionti   Viola
Sarah Nemtanu   Violin
Lise Berthaud   Viola
Stacey Shames   Harp
Christophe Briquet   Viola
Alan Tilston   Drums,Percussion
Akemi Fillon   Violin
Avril Brown   Violin
Katherine Fong   Violin
Yuri Vodovoz   Violin
Jimmy Harry   Vocoder,Keyboards,Guitar (Acoustic)
Martin Solveig   Drums,Synthesizer
Diane Barere   Celli
Abel Korzeniowski   Conductor
Klas Ahlund   Vocoder
Karen Brunon   Violin
Julien Jabre   Drums,Synthesizer,Guitar (Electric)
Karen Karlsrud   Violin
Demacio Castellon   Bass,Drums
Dan Warner   Guitar
Bob Carlisle   French Horn
Stephanie Cummins   Celli
Desiree Elsevier   Viola
Jeff Carney   Bass

Technical Credits

Hardy "Indiigo" Muanza   Composer,Producer
Markus Lupfer   Wardrobe
Liz Rosenberg   Publicity
Paul Kremen   Marketing
Brad Leigh   Assistant Engineer
Marcus Piggott   Photography
Stephane Reichart   String Engineer
Keith Harris   Composer
Alessandro "Alle" Benassi   Composer,Producer
Sara Zambreno   Management
Gina Brooke   Make-Up
Nelson Milburn   Assistant Engineer
Kenta Yonesaka   Assistant Engineer
Jenson Vaughan   Composer
Jade Williams   Composer
Marco Benassi   Composer,Producer
Stephen Kozmeniuk   Mixing,Editing,Composer,Engineer,Programming
Gloria Kaba   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Priscilla Hamilton   Composer
Quentin Belarbi   Assistant Engineer
Cathialine Zorzi   Assistant
Fred Sladkey   Assistant Engineer
Brett Mayer   Assistant Engineer
Alexandre Vauthier   Wardrobe
Delfina Delettrez   Wardrobe
Don Juan Demarco "Demo" Casanova   Composer
Dorothy Gaspar   Wardrobe
William Orbit   Orchestration,Instrumentation,Orchestral Arrangements,Composer,Producer
Alain Whyte   Composer,Instrumentation
Michael Turco   Instrumentation
Raphael Lee   Assistant Engineer
The Demolition Crew   Producer
Justin Cognito   Remixing,Additional Production
Kiki de Montparnasse   Wardrobe
LMFAO   Remixing,Additional Production
Madonna Ciccone   Composer
Jean-Baptiste   Composer
Ryan Buendia   Composer,Instrumentation
Free School   Producer
Laurie Mayer   Composer
Guy Oseary   Management
Jean Baptiste   Composer
Arianne Phillips   Stylist
Alessandro Benassi   Composer
Rob Katz   Assistant Engineer
Antonio Berardi   Wardrobe
Graham Archer   Engineer
Mert Alas   Photography
Michael Tordjman   Composer
Jill Dell'Abate   Contractor,Production Coordination
Mark Baechle   Copyist
Jason "Metal" Donkersgoed   Editing,Engineer
Ian Kagey   Assistant Engineer
Giovanni Bianco   Art Direction
Julie Frost   Composer,Composer
Cecile Coutelier   Assistant
Christophe Briquet   Contractor
Andros Rodriguez   Engineer
Demolition Crew   Producer
Michael McHenry   Composer
Alan Tilston   Assistant,Instrumentation
Pete Wolford   Assistant Engineer
Tom Ford   Wardrobe
Michael Malih   Producer
Madonna   Composer,Producer,Executive Producer
Maya Arulpragasam   Composer
Jimmy Harry   Composer,Programming,Additional Production
M.I.A.   Composer
Martin Solveig   Composer,Producer,Instrumentation
Mika   Composer
Philippe Weiss   Engineer
Angie Teo   Editing,Engineer,Mixing Assistant,Assistant Engineer
Klas Ahlund   Composer,Producer,Instrumentation
Ron Taylor   Pro-Tools,Vocal Editing
Julien Jabre   Composer
Demacio Castellon   Mixing,Engineer
Nicki Minaj   Composer
Chris Gehringer   Mastering
Frank Filipetti   Engineer
Joe Henry   Composer