It's official, she is playing at the brits
Apart from her graham norton slot (which had zero to do with MDNA and was about W/E), this is the promo she needs to remind her and us that her british fans are perhaps her most loyal. We were there for her when the US turned their back on her.

Really Hope Ghosttown doesn't get forgotten in amongst all the buzz about the new tracks and features. It remains the best and most commercial song on the album for me and absolutely should be the 2nd single.

I can now fully appreciate just how professional Madonna is. She's a Goddamn perfectionist and considering how strong the demos were/are, to actually produce an album of this calibre and make improvements on the demos is absolutely astounding. This simply has to be the album of the year and in my opinion, it is one of her landmark albums that her future albums will be compared to. For the poster who said Wash All Over Me was better when it was Avicii-fied, I disagree. The new version sends shivers down my spine. It is absolutely stunning and you wouldn't even know it was produced by Kanye West. The constant choral drones on the track are breathtaking and her vocals are magnificent. And Iconic? Bloody hell, what a track! Todays artists could get a masterclass of how to do things properly from this track. It has everything thrown in and it is stunning. If people thought Messiah was perfect, think again! She's done the impossible and made a perfect track totally heavenly. Whilst Ghosttown is still a very strong track, the clever and delicious changes she's made to Joan of Arc are genius. The song has become strengthened by adding a drumbeat and I love it. I really can not wait to own this album. I have now heard all the tracks and Rebel Heart is possibly the weakest track on it, and Rebel Heart is superb. She hasn't changed it drastically but it has lost virtually all the Avicii sound. SEX works on the album and isn't as bad as some posters think and Holy Water, complete with the sample of Vogue is much improved.

The tracks on the extra disc are clearly there because they're the weakest set. They're not bad by a long shot, but I prefer the demo of Beautiful Scars and Queen is a track that will need to be heard again before I pass judgement. Borrowed Time has been toned down and works well enough but Graffitti heart is a pulsating dance track. Autotune Baby is a bit hit and miss but catchy enough and Addicted is virtually the same as the demo but with refinements.

This album is likely to get good reviews and you can tell 100% that Madonna's heart was in it this time. I haven't felt her input since CoaDF because with Hard Candy and MDNA, you got the feeling others were pushing her buttons. With "Rebel Heart" you actually sense that she wanted to get out of bed and go to to work. It's Madonna at her best. This is definetely one of her best albums. Hallelujah for that!

Agree. The one country that has always stayed loyal to Madonna is the UK. So pleased she is finally coming back 'home'

Agree with this. Rebel Heart actually sounds like a Madonna album something I too haven't felt since Confessions. I'm such a happy Madonna fan right now!

I've heard the final album in full and I'm gutted... Everyone has a different opinion about her music, but I feel that this album isn't very good at all, I think there are so many weak and forgetable tracks on the album. Her voice isn't even clear in a lot of the songs, and on others she is using to much auto tune and effects on her voice. There's so many songs on the album that are nowhere near as good as the demo versions, the most notable is Rebel Heart, that song has been butchered. The demo with avicii sounded so much better, Beutiful Scars isn't as good as the demo either, infact I got bored halfway through the final version. The songs with the rappers on are just terrible and the Sex song is cringeworthy. The Autotune Baby song is irrating.

Overall she could have done so much better and the demos prove it, and the fact that the demos are better than the final versions is quite bad. The only standout track for me is Ghosttown.

I'd rank this album as one of my least favourites. It is definitely no Like A Prayer, Ray Of Light or Confessions on a Dancefloor

3/10

Ooh it's leaked
All 25 songs
Only just found out. That's what you get when you don't read the previous posts


Where can you pre order the super deluxe edition?

Interesting that you are disappointed with the album. Perhaps in hindsight, none of us should have heard the demos. We wouldn't have had anything to judge or compare. I am wondering what it is you were expecting? HeartBreakCity for instance is not too dissimilar to the demo. Best Night is virtually the same. Wash All Over Me is superb (it was initially written as a ballad anyway), Messiah is virtually the same with a few synth tweaks, Joan of Arc has been given a bit of energy and the first 6 tracks we all heard anyway. Then there's Body Shop which is also similar to the demo. Iconic has been greatly improved. It is a massive track and Holy Water is just Madonna having fun and is much improved from the demo. I was disappointed when I learned the song "Rebel Heart" was going to be different from the leaked version, but it isn't massively different. It has just had the vocoder "Reeebbbbeeelll Hhhheeeaaarrrtt" segments between verses removed and Avicii's hook has gone. It is toned down, but compared to some of the songs on the album, it is one of the weakest. I will rank the tracks out of 5:

7: Hold Tight (3/5) Not a bad track. Great beat and great melody.
8: Joan of Arc (5/5) I love the combination of slow verse, quicker chorus.
9. Iconic (5/5) Wow! just Wow!
10. HeartBreakCity (3/5) Needs to be longer. It ends too abrubtly.
11. Body Shop (2/5) It's a good song, but one of the four weakest ones.
12. Holy Water (3/5) The demo version is a long distant memory. This is cleaner and slicker.
13. Inside Out (5/5) I love this track. It is mesmersing.
14. Wash All Over Me (5/5) this track sends shivers up my spine. It is Ghostown Part 2!
15. Best Night (3/5) It's OK. Good production but quite forgettable.
16. Veni Vedi Vici (3/5) It's not her best, but the lyrics are really good.
17. SEX (2/5) Another one of the four weakest tracks, but it isn't as bad as many are saying. After all, it's just a bit of fun.
18. Messiah (5/5) Say no more. Truly gorgeous.
19. Rebel Heart (3/5) A great melody, and I like the simplistic approach.
20. Beautiful Scars (2/5) The albums fourth weakest track. The demo was better.
21. Queen (3/5) A strange ballad that has Madonna showing off great vocals but the song doesn't go anywhere.
22. Borrowed Time (3/5) A track I will skip. Not my favourite but not a bad song in reality.
23. Grafitti Heart (5/5) Great pulsating dance track with a hint of folk! Great stuff.
24. Autotune Baby (4/5) On several hearings, I love this track. Great catchy melody and good fun!
25. Addicted. (4/5) Overall, largely unchanged from demo. A good song with a bit of angst!

Overall: 4/5. A great return to form for the Queen of Pop!

I was just hoping for a really good album like Confessions on a Dancefloor. I mean I've just been listening to some of the songs off that album like Sorry and then you compare it to songs off her new album like Sex and Iconic and they just don't even come close to how good her older songs are. I am really surprised that people are liking that Iconic wit the rapper and Mike Tyson because i just think it's such a weak song. She really needs to ditch all these rappers and featuring artists. She's trying to hard to be hip and in with the younger crowd and it's just embarrassing. She didn't need featuring artists or rappers on her last amazing album Confessions, so why does she need them now. And does anyone else think it's really hard to understand what she's saying in some of the songs?

There are a couple of songs that are deliberately hard to what she's saying. When she "lists" in SEX she has a distorted vocal and when she says "Jesus likes my....." in Holy water it isn't easy to hear. I would prefer it if she didn't feature other artists, but I can see why she does it. I don't believe she is trying to be hip. She's always been hip. Should Paul McCartney stop collaborating with Rhianna? No, of course not. Madonna gets a raw deal and tons of criticism because she's a woman. She makes music that she likes to listen to. She always will. Should Joan Collins stop doing what she likes doing because she's 81? Of course not, so why should Madonna stop making dance music?

At the end of the day you can't please everyone. I'm sure if she has kept the Aviici sounds she will get criticised so you can't win. I totally get Iconic. Before I heard the finished product I thought the Mike Tyson thing is a bit random but now I totally get it.

Madonna has always had a love for hip hop. Remember the rap track on Erotica? I get that some of her older fans may not be into hip hop and rappers but it's a new thing with her or her trying to be young and hip. She genuinely enjoys it. I'm not the biggest rap fan but I really like the NAS rap on Veni Vidi Vici.

Indeed. Madonna is an American at the end of the day. Hip Hop is a part of American culture so she is going to empathise with it. She has collaborations, but she doesn't inflict too much on us so therefore what she does use is enough to be in context with the songs. I like all the collaborations on Rebel Heart - except Nicki Minaj because I still don't like Bitch, I'm Madonna, but that's just me. But there are enough fabulous tracks on the album to make up for it.

Incidentally, regarding collaborations, there have been some on many of her albums since 1989. Prince on Like A Prayer, Mandy Pantikin and Warren Beatty on I'm Breathless, the rap you mentioned on Erotica (Did You Do It - which had very minimal Madonna vocals), there was a rapper on I'd Rather Be Your Lover on Bedtime Stories too. It was just Ray of Light, Music and American Life that didn't have any collaborations because Confessions did feature the Jewish man singing in Isaac. I think it's fine because Madonna respects other musicians and genuinely enjoys working with them. You never hear her slag off other artists, even if others slag her off. When Elton John was being bitchy about her and accused her of lip synching throughout her concert, she sent him a box of chocolates!

I would say this album is much more mature than HC and MDNA. I'm not sure how anyone could listen to it and feel she is chasing a young audience or trying to be hip. She did a great job of being a little more mature, but not too mature as to make it boring and not sound like her. She has to retain a certain electronic edge to her music to make it Madonna.
Nothing will ever touch Ray of Light and Like A Prayer for me as her all time best albums, but I like this much more than Confessions. There is much more variety than on Confessions which didn't really have any ballads. This album has some beautiful ballads. I really love the reworked Wash All Over Me. The album is more midtempo and has more guitar than Confessions does. I enjoy Confessions but it was more of a purely club album, the closest she got to sounding like Kylie. I guess some people like that, but I like more variety and less stereotypical club music. It has a club electronic aspect but it also incorporates other flavours which is the essence of Madonna's style.
I think Hold Tight should be the second single.

IMO Wash all Over Me and Rebel Heart in their demo form were guaranteed smash hits, and the best Madonna songs I've heard for years. The removal of the 'rebel heaeaaart' hook was a mistake, and these songs now seem like only 'good album tracks'. Such a shame.

I also don't think Madonna can do 'silly songs' very effectively, and there are a bunch on here that shouldn't even have made it as Japanese bonus tracks.

Perhaps this is one of those albums where you can make your own playlist of songs that you connect with, and still have a 10-15 track album! Then you can rediscover the 'leftovers' later on. On the other hand, after the dust settles and the inevitable "best album since....." gun jumping has ended, this may turn out to be the 'quantity not quality' album.

What can you pre order the super deluxe edition? I am rather confused regarding that.

I don't think its up for pre order yet. I read there was a 50 page 'Revelution' photo book with it so maybe that's causing the delay.

I can so see Iconic being the tour opener! It has to be.

Apparently, this is not the finished product and has not been re-mastered, that's what I've heard. I'll wait until the album is released officially before making up my mind. Of the six tracks that I have heard, to me it sounds like a return to form from Madonna. I like that there are ballads on the album as well.

Thank you

Definitely missing the "Rebellll Hearrrrrt" part. Not sure I like the slow Wash All Over Me....I shall probably replace both with the demos - unless they're singles or I get into them.....

I think this "leaking" may be marketing on Madonna's part....The album release will be brought forward to the Brits I reckon.

It's an exhausting and rather soulless experience.

It's sad to see Madonna releasing such a messy yet predictable album - for the 3rd time in a row. She needs to get back to basics, a simple glorious 10 to 12 track pop album - stop the effects, the guests, the raps, the aren't I edgy lyrics and unclutter the production.

You are welcome!

It needs to be the next single and if they have any sense it will be. I can see it being a huge hit on radio and a late April/May release is perfect as we head into summer.