i don't think anyone included "confessions" as part of her decline, but that she has declined after that record both commercially and artistically. i agreed with heus's sentiment and there is no denying the period between "ray of light" to "american life" was madonna in artistic overdrive, but "confessions" is my favourite album from her since the millennium.

stuart has a point to a degree, but its only an opinion like everybody else has here. madonna will do what comes naturally to her and will not be influenced by opinion or perception of what she should do. the woman has struck gold too many times to go out on a low and i fully expect her to at least return to artistic greatness.

^^ sorry misinterpreted...always easy considering no one seems to know the tone/direction people type in...anyroad yeah fundamentally i do agree....

Anyways i hope you guys kinda hear me out with the other points i made where she may go on my post there....i do have a feeling Revolution/Art/inspired themes will play a part of the feel/vibes/concepts musically if she is ehaded that way...so i just feel that is an area she can focus into next would be ebautiful.

Also check out these mixes Orbit did for the LEAF festival last week.

two MDNA songs fit the bill nicely...very on topic

http://madonnaonline.mtv.uol.com.br/...-falling-free/

But yeah i hope my other points i put out there gt some thought in there...

no, need to apologise.

i think generally i am very direct as a poster, so i assume most people are aware of my tone when i post and i make no apologies for giving a honest opinion. in fact, i think i will dust off "confessions" tomorrow, because these lyrics are perfectly summing up my stance on many issues at the moment. "this is who i am, you can LIKE IT or NOT, you can
love me or leave me, cus I'm never gonna stop, no no". unless i cop a ban, of course.

oh wow. "falling free" is especially great. i clicked that one first and thought "bad casio job" at first, but actually it builds into something quite special. that reminds me, while we are on the subject of possible future collaborations or possible reconnection's. i really would like more penned joe henry material, i actually think he is quite underrated amongst the madonna fans and the songs that he has written for her including "falling free" are great.

Love those. I still think aside from Patrick Leonard that William Orbit is Madonna's best ever producer. This remix of Falling Free really is amazing and her voice sounds incredible on it. Just goes to show there was great tracks on MDNA she just picked the wrong singles. Infact she picked the worst tracks to release.

I think there was more to it than that. When she was going on about recording in Stuart's ''gritty'' home studio, and how it reminded her of NYC, along with the song dedicated to that city and all the samples from the time she was living there, I think a lot of the change from American Life to Confessions had to do with her growing disillusionment with her life in England.

I wouldn't have aired these thoughts if it weren't for the (coincidentally) aforementioned Falling Free, with all the references to ''hairline breaks'' and the like - when she and Guy got divorced, a lot of people said the problems started when she fell off the horse and he wasn't there for her. You could also say we see a reflection of this in Miles Away too.

Plus, it is pretty amazing how she basically dropped everyone from her life in England the moment she left. I think the only famous friend she's retained from those days is Stella McCartney - Sting, Trudi, Gwyneth, etc. all seem to have been given the heave-ho.

That makes no sense though. I Love New York was a rock song and made its debut a whole 15 months previously to Confessions happening. Its reworked for that record as were most of the Mirwais songs, infact several songs on Confessions have demos on Youtube that are Mirwais produced. Stuart Price just got lucky in that respect as it was set to be another Mirwais record to be fair and Madonna still spends 4 months of her year in the UK. She hasn't left the country altogether. Rocco is half British remember. I do however agree she got bored of England but I don't think it was the country she bored of. I don't think she ever knew what she wanted to be as a wife. Maybe this goes back to losing her own mother so young. I remember an interview she gave where she said being a wife was the most difficult thing she has ever had to be. I always thought what a strange thing to say. I think she has her demons.

i agree with that, there were hidden gems on that record, but the single choices were safe. i also think william was a great collaboration for her. some of the best songs on "ray of light" were produced by him and written by patrick.

That's an interesting point too, the whole ''I tried to be a good girl/ I tried to be your wife/ Diminished myself/ And swallowed my light'' lyric from I Don't Give A definitely points toward that direction. I guess she's the only one who knows, really.

It's really incredible how a woman who became famous being such a sexual AND emotional exhibitionist can still be such an enigma after all these years. I guess we will have to wait for the book, whenever it comes out - I'm guessing when she's around Keith Richard's age, and she doesn't give any more shits about the industry or anyone in the industry, at all.

A dream team would be William, Patrick and Madonna alone. No one else just these three. I would love to see what they came up with.

i defiantly would welcome that collective dynamic and it would be interesting to see what they could come up with now.

I don't think Madonna has a strong dislike for England. In the Harpers Bazaar piece, she mentions how she appreciates the countryside and pub culture. I think it was more Guy as a person who did seem kind of macho and controlling that she had a problem with. I understand what she's saying about being a wife. When you are in a relationship, you do sometimes have to give up some of your individuality and personality to meld with the other person. As a strong woman, that's something I also struggle with. Hopefully, the other person gives up things too, so you two can meld as a couple. But maybe she sensed Guy wasn't giving up as much for her and it wasn't equal. You fall in love with someone because they have a unique interesting personality, but sometimes in doing that you use your own individuality. X-Static Process from AL is very much about that.
She also said in the Harpers piece she was lonely because she didn't know anyone here. Some of the friends she made in the UK weren't really close friends,not like the people she knows in NYC where she has lived for years. So I can see her losing touch with them, not because she hates the UK, but because they really weren't all that close. When you move another country it's easier to lose touch with people unless you make a really strong effort, which you won't do unless you have a super close relationship.

Ooh,so would I!

They would definitely be a dream team!

yeah, i think most of this is a fair assumption to make, considering your own personal experiences and it ties in nicely with heus's similar thoughts on this scenario she found herself in. i no longer live in wales with my family and friends, so i can understand to a much smaller degree with the predicament and the challenges that comes with moving away from familiarity.

M has always said how alien it was (england) but how beautiful and lovely it was.

I adore the Sexodus - M.I.A track …it so would have suited Madonna… such a missed opportunity …but i guess the album was ….. it had some killer tracks that were let down by bad single choices and bad production in places

MDNA - the reductive approach
[this should have been the release]

1. Falling free
2. Love spent
2. Some girls
3. I'm addicted
4. I don't give a
5. Sexodous
6. Girl Gone Wild (Avicii radio edit)
7. Beautiful killer
8. Gang bang
9. I ****ed Up
10. Best Friend
11. Masterpiece (kid capri mix)
12. Don't Wake me up

boysforpele, that got me thinking about how MDNA would have made a great ten-track album;

1. Gang Bang
2. I'm Addicted
3. Some Girls
4. Turn Up The Radio
5. I'm a Sinner
6. Beautiful Killer
7. Best Friend
8. Love Spent
9. Masterpiece
10. Falling Free

It retains some fun tracks, but with a stronger emotional edge than Girl Gone Wild or Give Me All Your Luvin'. It gets rid of filler like I ****ed Up, B-Day Song and Superstar and doesn't include I Don't Give A and hence any rappers.

I do like most of those songs, but I'd rate them from 4-6/10, and compared to the songs I kept they don't have the same impact, in my opinion. And if had she released Turn Up The Radio, Love Spent and I'm Addicted as singles that would've been perfect.

Oh well. Hopefully she'll edit the next album better, because MDNA had some great stuff.

This is a special present for Josh since he posted something about Kate Nash for me. Sorry, it's off the topic!

Here is an interview with Blood Orange, who he is always talking about and recommending Madonna work with. It's so wild he says one of his biggest influences is Suzanne Vega's first three albums. I just love those albums too. I guess it was because I was living in NYC at that time too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/ar...luxe.html?_r=0

Hehe, yay thankies!

Love this dude...yeah i like Vega too very interesting sources of influence he has for definite and i feel that helps a lot too.

Ah man would love these guys together...Madonna, Dev and Pat in a studio <3

Blood Oranges album Cupid Deluxe arrived today and man...i am just willing it to happen now...

Madonna + Pat. Leonard + Dev "Blood Orange" Hynes = Album 13

would adore that to happen, introspective, melancholic, euphoric, broad in scope it would be total brilliance definitely COME ON M!

Also congrats on her being the highest earning musician!

Great article about why Madonna is still cool.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mymdna/15-re...till-cool-ampt

Also some new pictures of her.
http://allaboutmadonna.com/2013/11/p...er-18-2013.php

Yes, Josh, I'm loving Cupid Deluxe too. Blood Orange reminds me of Prince but with a more friendly less obnoxious personality in that he has done and continues to do many different types of music everything from pop to alternative rock to R&B and 80's synth stuff. I think someone with that eclectic background would be great for Madonna.

SHe looks great....she really looks after herself and looks fantastic! Tbh...may be controversial of me but i think Madonna at this point in time looks her most stunning...Just my opinion but i loved her looks across the MDNA tour...it suited her...her punky looks this year she worked so well...and effotless city/airport strutting and rocking it...yeah makes me feel excited for where she is heading next.

ANd yeah...Ah cool you have heard it? i loved Coastal grooves from 2011....but ithink since his wor with Solange and working with MKS and the like i feel he has developed even further which i find so cool.

I see what you mean there "Prince" vibes....i love that he is motivated by strong women and unusual things...he oes computer/technical stuff and into robotics/sci-fi;;;i reckon he and Orbit would gel nicely too . He is very inspried and the other month when he posted the Like a Prayer video...and further back "bad girl" for the influence in his own song "bad girls" which he and Solange developed further on earlier this year..i mean MAN! yeah sold me to him even further

I find it interesting the way fans kinda want Madonna to find musical/artistic driven people to work with in the studio...like how she utilised Kazakay and the Kalakan Trio in the last era...i reckon Dev Hynes fits that bill as Blood Orange...and he is SO versatile....his previous name was Test Icicles and he did Indie/Rock stuff....really cool.

I reckon it would work so well and i hope to heck they do meet up i really do...even if for a song i would be happy but for a whole album//maybe Orbit on baord...Pat Leonard reunion...it would be seamless in music writing, production and conceps and would work so well...i feel that would be forward thinking...as the likes of Frank Ocean, Drake, Miguel, Solange, Janelle Monae, they are more "known" and establishing which i am thankful for...so i reckon it would be so damn epic if Madonna re-channeled her Soul roots as well as her Rockier roots and Synth beginnings and just pushed forward.....yeah..sorry mind fart but thats where i feel she just may indeed head too (plus her recent admiration for Frank and atending Drake, Asap Rocky concerts Neo-Soul/Urban vibes)...not to mention focusing on soudntracks and cinema.....

Madonna posted this fan made drawing of her and Jean Michael Basquiat on instagram.

http://instagram.com/p/g_MBySGEVJ/

Cute!
Madonna was seen at the University of Michigan. Lourdes as checking it out as a place to attend university. As everyone knows, Madonna went there for 2 years.

ok, so i was reading the gaga album thread and someone posted an article, which prompted madonna comparisons again. as everyone knows, i prefer to discuss madonna here and prefer to discuss gaga in the main on her threads. the comparison itself does reminds of the "erotica/bedtime stories" period and how that felt at the time being a fan. it wasn't the fact that madonna was out of favour that annoyed me, but it was the constant negativity in the media that felt very draining at times.

looking back through interviews at the time when damage limitation was in full swing, the ballads compilation was issued "without a lot of fanfare" and just before her evita triumph, this is definitely my favourite interview from that time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10PgltezbpE

yes, her answer about her acting career was a bit "shady", but she wasn't completely wrong when she suggested the movies were bad. i love this interview though, i think she looks really classy and relaxed. its a real personal insight, she is at her most humble here when she admits her record sales have been better, she talks intimately and honestly about very personal thoughts, her hopes and her dreams. its amazing to look back now and to see how it all worked out, she even adopted those babies. i love her response to the timely question on whether she would bail out of music, "no, no, i love music".

Yeah i love looking back at interviews thinking WOW...look at what she has achieved since then..that is why comments like "Madonna was good/Madonna isnt good anymore" annoys me because the past decade she has done SO much too ...heck the past year has been a LOT to handle too....more o nthe way soon guaranteed

But yeah...i love watching her Erotica interviews when she discusses all what she would face 21 plus years down the line with prejudice, sexism, intolerance, ageism...and how she reacted towards oall of it then...that backlash people seem to forget was more than a "backlash" it was personal and it was dirty...the way the media manipulated it and were "out to get her" because she pushed those buttons by literally "selling SEX" ...kinda reminds me now of how Lily Allen is facing some reactions...but the message is getting across...about being ironic/humourous/selling sex...and it not also being about that

I loved it when Tarantino went to an album signing for Erotica and she signed it "It is about love...not D!ck" in response to his famous Reservoir Dogs opening scene....awesome!

and what aggrivates me today in a lot of mainstream pop stars just kinda...sell sex as if none of that happened...and its backward it is deemed "shocking" you know? its not...its playful and commercial...more underground/indie artists tend to be utilising what Madonna stands for and i find that so damn cool too.

anyways speaking of that i reckon an Erotica-a-thon is long overdue now....tonight <3

Speaking of which aspects of Blood Oranges recordings do remind of the album..the Funk/Louge/NYC vibes...darker but warm too.

Has Madonna said in any of her chats that she is working on new material yet? I've not been keeping up but I was under the impression her Live Nation deal required two more world tours before 2016. I can see her doing a Greatest Hits tour at some point I suppose and I know she did talk of doing an album revamping some of her old hits.