base talk Should MDNA have been produced only by Benny Benassi?

[MP3]

12 minutes ago, ImpressMeMuch said:

music and album aside

 

she looked so good during that area, the right amount of cnt and beauty

Her body, outfit, face, etc during the first section of the MDNA Tour is the better she looked in years  

[Sergi91]

She should've worked with Avicci for MDNA… if not with Diplo and release RH in 2012 and Madame X in 2015…

[Charmed Life]

1 hour ago, NoAngelus said:

Mariah has Xmas catalog that puts her on top of the charts every single year, she doesn't need new music to do that when she's more relevant than ever thanks to the power of Xmas song on streaming services.

It's mostly all she's relevant for now. The only reason she charts every year is because she spends most of her time milking her Christmas tat out of desperation to top the chart and chalk up more weeks at #1, even to the point of embarrassing herself on tacky shopping channels:

 

 

 

Edited July 31 by Charmed Life

[MP3]

3 hours ago, Sergi91 said:

She should've worked with Avicci for MDNA… if not with Diplo and release RH in 2012 and Madame X in 2015…

No I really like Rebel Heart in general, and unpopular opinion but I think the final edits are better than the demos

Spoiler

Except Rebel Heart demo, that one is the biggest lost of her career

 

[MP3]

4 hours ago, NoAngelus said:

1-77-OUT is not something to brag about Mariah has Xmas catalog that puts her on top of the charts every single year, she doesn't need new music to do that when she's more relevant than ever thanks to the power of Xmas song on streaming services.

Let's be a lil honest here, if AIWFCIY didn't exist, Mariah would be probably in the abyss of the music industry nowadays, that song is her life jacket 

[Chris]

MDNA should have never even been recorded to begin with,

 

[Chris]

4 hours ago, NoAngelus said:

when she's more relevant than ever

Only during Christmas season.

 

Madonna is relevant all year round.

 

[TipToe]

20 hours ago, Iaintsorry said:

I think the biggest criticism of this album is always the cohesion so yes I think sticking to just any one of the main producers would have benefited the album. But she herself said this was hard to accomplish due to scheduling conflicts and it didn't help she had a major film project and the Super Bowl all happening at the same time. 
 

 

I don't think the lack of cohesion (or better put, a proper theme) is the weakest point on MDNA. The sings are just poorly done, too much effect to her voice, bad mixing etc. Love Spent could have been a career highlight but it almost sound like it was recorded under water and saved as a *.midi archive in Windows 98, what the hell? We expect a more sophisticated production from someone like her. It's strange because in the same alberm we have strange production alongside good ones (Masterpiece, Fallin' Free), it's so uneven.

[MP3]

13 minutes ago, TipToe said:

I don't think the lack of cohesion (or better put, a proper theme) is the weakest point on MDNA. The sings are just poorly done, too much effect to her voice, bad mixing etc. Love Spent could have been a career highlight but it almost sound like it was recorded under water and saved as a *.midi archive in Windows 98, what the hell? We expect a more sophisticated production from someone like her. It's strange because in the same alberm we have strange production alongside good ones (Masterpiece, Fallin' Free), it's so uneven.

Can't agree more about Love Spent. There is something about that song that really stand out but as you said the production is so cheap, the last part of the song where it's supposed to be explosive just sounds flat and the bass and claps are weak, I don't know, it's a missing opportunity  

 

 

 

 

[Attaboy]

Solveig, Orbit and Benassi

What a LAME lineup
 

The cracks were already starting to show with Hard Candy, when she hopped on the Timbaland train like a year late. But MDNA was when it became evident she truly lost her pulse on music. She became a follower not a leader 

Edited August 1 by Attaboy

[MP3]

16 minutes ago, Attaboy said:

Solveig, Orbit and Benassi

What a LAME lineup
 

The cracks were already starting to show with Hard Candy, when she hopped on the Timbaland train like a year late. But MDNA was when it became evident she truly lost her pulse on music. She became a follower not a leader 

Is that it or she just wanted to let herself go and works with artists she likes? Just to discuss

 

I really think she went through an age crisis right after Confessions and it led her to doubt about herself and jump on the first hit maker around the corner, like you said, a year late

 

 

[LittleStarmen]

16 minutes ago, MP3 said:

Is that it or she just wanted to let herself go and works with artists she likes? Just to discuss

 

I really think she went through an age crisis right after Confessions and it led her to doubt about herself and jump on the first hit maker around the corner, like you said, a year late

 

 

I don't think age was that much reason. Hard Candy is a very good record and She JT and Timbaland delivered. That album sounds very Madonna in retrospect and she wasnt going to do confessions 2.0.

 

Live Nation couldn't care less about her albums as long as she toured asap, and that's what she did and she made more money than anyone until TS and Bey last year.

After the divorce, she really wanted to do W.E. so she could prove to Guy Ritchie she was a sucesfull director (lol), but that ended up being more important to her than music.

Without warner, she lost all her A&R team. She just didn't have time for this album and is clearly recorded in a rush

 

They were so eager to have her tour they annonced the tour without the name in 2012

 

In truth this should have been her first greatest hits era but she clearly was still very passionate about performing the new songs

Edited August 1 by LittleStarmen

[BraveNewSeth]

MDNA has grown on me a lot over the years but it's definitely the beginning of Madonna using what I call her granny voice. 

[Truth Teller]

On 7/30/2024 at 10:49 PM, The Next Day said:

No. The problem are the Solveig-produced singles. First, switch GMAYL and TUTR with I ****** Up and Beautiful Killer. 

Y e s

[Iaintsorry]

4 hours ago, TipToe said:

I don't think the lack of cohesion (or better put, a proper theme) is the weakest point on MDNA. The sings are just poorly done, too much effect to her voice, bad mixing etc. Love Spent could have been a career highlight but it almost sound like it was recorded under water and saved as a *.midi archive in Windows 98, what the hell? We expect a more sophisticated production from someone like her. It's strange because in the same alberm we have strange production alongside good ones (Masterpiece, Fallin' Free), it's so uneven.

aka no cohesion lol.

 

if you read any of the reviews or fan critiques, majority of them blame cohesion. 
 

It's not terribly in-cohesive, but Madonna is known to have perfectly executed album concepts so I guess this record stands out in that regard 

Edited August 1 by Iaintsorry

[TipToe]

6 hours ago, Iaintsorry said:

aka no cohesion lol.

 

if you read any of the reviews or fan critiques, majority of them blame cohesion. 
 

It's not terribly in-cohesive, but Madonna is known to have perfectly executed album concepts so I guess this record stands out in that regard 

I just think cohesion is not to blame because Rebel Heart suffers the same problem and it somehow works? I mean, it's far from being her best but the sings are far better than what she did on MDNA.

[TipToe]

11 hours ago, MP3 said:

Can't agree more about Love Spent. There is something about that song that really stand out but as you said the production is so cheap, the last part of the song where it's supposed to be explosive just sounds flat and the bass and claps are weak, I don't know, it's a missing opportunity  

 

 

 

 

I remember when a clip of it leaked exactly in that part the sing take another direction (when she sings "i want u to take me like u took my muhnay") and everybody was hyped but then you listen to the whole thing and there's this explosion of 16 bit sound effects like you're saying, omg. I wanted to sue her.

 

 

The performance of it on MDNe tour slays tho.

[Chris]

Who said Madame X was a return to form?

 

[MP3]

16 hours ago, LittleStarmen said:

I don't think age was that much reason. Hard Candy is a very good record and She JT and Timbaland delivered. That album sounds very Madonna in retrospect and she wasnt going to do confessions 2.0.

 

Live Nation couldn't care less about her albums as long as she toured asap, and that's what she did and she made more money than anyone until TS and Bey last year.

After the divorce, she really wanted to do W.E. so she could prove to Guy Ritchie she was a sucesfull director (lol), but that ended up being more important to her than music.

Without warner, she lost all her A&R team. She just didn't have time for this album and is clearly recorded in a rush

 

They were so eager to have her tour they annonced the tour without the name in 2012

 

In truth this should have been her first greatest hits era but she clearly was still very passionate about performing the new songs

Oh yeah I remember it was named like that at the beginning MADONNA 2012 WORLD TOUR

and you are totally right, she should have started to make GH Tour around that time, it seems that general public lost interest to go see her because of the too much new songs and the hits were remixed too much, it started with S&ST actually, even if that tour had a lot of classics, they were somehow remixed and there was too much HC songs. Opening with Candy Shop was kinda a bad idea, nobody knew that song. If you are gonna perform big stadium and open air shows, it must be 90% classics songs because otherwise people lost the vibe

[LittleStarmen]

48 minutes ago, MP3 said:

Oh yeah I remember it was named like that at the beginning MADONNA 2012 WORLD TOUR

and you are totally right, she should have started to make GH Tour around that time, it seems that general public lost interest to go see her because of the too much new songs and the hits were remixed too much, it started with S&ST actually, even if that tour had a lot of classics, they were somehow remixed and there was too much HC songs. Opening with Candy Shop was kinda a bad idea, nobody knew that song. If you are gonna perform big stadium and open air shows, it must be 90% classics songs because otherwise people lost the vibe

I do agree with you in terms of money and her brand but how lucky we are that she did new material non-stop 2010-2020. The first act of MDNA Tour, S&S, Even RH and MX have unique highlight performances that only Madonna could do it.  I love all these tours for different reasons...

 

She could easily had gone in a Greatest Hits route and stop being creative or doing new things.

 

Now with celebration tour she finally achieved that without being tacky or defeated. It was almost perfect retrospective show.

Edited August 1 by LittleStarmen

[ThePopStop]

On 7/30/2024 at 4:14 PM, .Odyssey. said:

I'd be so here for this.

 

It isn't discussed enough in Madonna fandom, but MDNA was her album with the most potential that just flat out flopped in execution. An angry post divorce album set to dark techno and EDM beats? Such a cool concept on paper.

 

But she goes and names the album MDNA and releases a "club track" like....GMAYL? HUH?  The whole theme didn't make sense from Day 0 of the album.

 

And then the actual EDM-based songs had absolutely HORRIFIC mixing. Girl Gone Wild is a great song conceptually (maybe could have used some additional vocal takes and layering), but the mixing is so flat and basic. I'm Addicted sounds way too compressed. Some songs like Superstar sound like straight up demos.

 

Songs like Gang Bang could have been really cool with better club production (imagine a Peter Rauhofer type of production on it instead of Orbit and the cheap Hold It Against Me bass with dated dubstep in the middle?). Same with Turn Up the Radio, Some Girls (which sounds like it's different lyrics on an I Like It Rough instrumental from Lady Gaga), Love Spent...

 

MDNA should have been a layup for Madonna as a comeback album. EDM was in, Madonna had all the spotlight on her, she was coming fresh off of the S&S Tour which was the all time biggest female tour.

 

GMAYL and the MDNA era may be a top contender for Madonna's single biggest career mistake. All momentum with her music in the Top 40 was lost after GMAYL (which bear in mind had a radio deal the weekend it came out and could have stuck around on the charts if she had released, say, a Hung Up or 4 Minutes type of bop instead). 

 

Someone should start a thread about Rebel Heart with different producers. I feel similarly about that album. 

You have some really good points here.

 

GMAYL didn't belong at all. It actually sounded like a throwback to Beautiful Stranger's retro sound. 

 

Another example of great concept bad execution is the demo version of Bang Bang vs the album version. Both Mika and Madonna's original demo had so much more emotion and anger in it, ironically so despite it being very campy sounding. Had they made it darker but kept the emotion it would've been so much better.

 

That's actually my main issue with MDNA - as a reviewer put it at the time: Madonna's vocals sound flat and phoned in. Like she was bored with singing her own songs.

 

So between the flat vocals and production it made the album unexciting.

[LOTF]

On 7/31/2024 at 10:21 PM, BraveNewSeth said:

MDNA has grown on me a lot over the years but it's definitely the beginning of Madonna using what I call her granny voice. 

That was definitely Hard Candy lol

[LOTF]

On 8/1/2024 at 8:37 AM, Chris said:

Who said Madame X was a return to form?

 

Those who have a superior intellect duh

[WaterDiamonds]

On 7/30/2024 at 9:32 PM, Saint James said:

i don't think Benassi has the writing and melodic knack required for a full pop album

Tbf most of the songs from the album were already written as most of the tracks were sent as demos by other artists, so he would have to pen much, just adjust the production and add new elements to the already existing demos to make them shine.

[WaterDiamonds]

On 8/1/2024 at 3:43 AM, MP3 said:

Can't agree more about Love Spent. There is something about that song that really stand out but as you said the production is so cheap, the last part of the song where it's supposed to be explosive just sounds flat and the bass and claps are weak, I don't know, it's a missing opportunity  

 

 

 

 

The Priscilla Renea demo of Love Spent doesn't have that issue, and honestly the song just flows so gorgeously with not so much electronic stuff going on, I think there's an early mix of Madge's take that keeps a similar instrumental but I can't find it now