Madonna
MDNA

"Bitch out of order - Bat out of hell - Fish out of water - I'm scared, can't you tell - Bang Bang, shot you dead - Bang Bang, shot you dead [...] Now drive bitch - I said drive bitch - And while you're at it, die bitch - That's right drive bitch." Madonna, Gang Bang

Madonna Louise Ciccone, year of our Lord 2012. An old, decrepit, bloated popstar, whose greatest fortunes - dating back to the much hated/loved/scorned/dreamed '80s - now seem a distant memory, is preparing to return to the multifaceted stage of the international music biz. In that rugged Amazonian forest made of records, disks, wigs, and breathtaking sets, subjects like Lady Germanotta navigate with stubborn determination, currently considered the magnum opus of mainstream pop, able to properly replenish the coffers of the "poor" majors chased by the economic crisis: bizarre outfits, music videos that last as long as a Byzantine-Orthodox rite religious service, everyday objects glued to the body, neo-blasphemous techniques that wink also at the kitsch panorama of "radical chic" by Montanelli's definition (actually not very chic - and even less radical) and many, many other knick-knacks aimed solely at materializing the philosophy of "the show must go on," the creed of every self-respecting popstar. The creed that Madonna introduced in 1982. Therefore, thirty years have passed since the eponymous debut and the substance, the juice of success is still the same: continuing to tread that stage even through shy looks from backstage during the most barren periods. Old age, alleged decrepitude, 54 springs, third-party instigation to eternal rest: not a chance.

It's true: the former little girl from Michigan, the one with only 37 dollars brought with her from Detroit to the wicked Big Apple, invested with a net gain of ten zeros, is no longer the same. The nascent topographic map of wrinkles on her face defeated by Photoshop, the tendency toward perfect metamorphism slightly annihilated, the vital force indispensable to withstand two hours of jumps, dances, and shouts in modest decline. Yet the vigor remains of the timeless spoiled teenager from Michigan of Material Girl, the redeemed sinner of Like a Prayer and later the "fallen woman" of Erotica and Bedtime Stories, the pseudo-guru of Ray Of Light, the soldieress in the D&G military outfit of American Life and the Lady of Disco in a shimmering pink suit of Confessions On A Dance Floor.

"MDNA", arrived four years after the much criticized timbalandian "Hard Candy", is all this: the Pop, certainly mainstream, sometimes plastic and slapdash, often easy and conformist, almost always packaged more by the skillful background producers than by the referenced singing subjects. Yet it is POP, the Pop without pretenses that invades nightclubs, the Pop that we all sing in the shower sometimes compulsively and uncontrollably, the Pop of the little-similar prostitutes who with their minimalist clothing and wacky visual-sonic offerings make us smile more than the most skilled professional comedians, the Pop of parties with friends where the most latent fussiness fades away in the name of anti-monotony lightheartedness.

Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary since the first single Everybody, Madonna revisits in a handful of tracks the entire discographical history of her career: it is no coincidence that the famous William Orbit, emeritus patron of Ray Of Light, has returned to be part of the trusted selected for MDNA, work in which the dance-electronic sounds of the recent albums resonate with slower, introspective, nostalgic tracks, sometimes blending the grace of rhythm and sentimental-spiritual intimacy in simple sound packages, free from too many distortions and/or pretenses of alternativity/innovation. MDNA is indeed an album of pure pop without any pretentious and presumptuous experimental ambition.

It begins with Girl Gone Wild, a sparkling electro-house track from the award-winning Italian Benny Benassi's family, then immerses in the unsettling house-dubstep basses of Gang Bang, perhaps the only hint of sound "experimentation." With Love Spent, an authentic jewel of the entire album, our Orbit brings us back to the ascetic-heterogeneous soul of Ray Of Light, electronic-alternative at the right point and with a pinch of nostalgic romance (with the mandolin) to spice it all up.

Turn Up The Radio and I'm Addicted, in free fall into the dance universe par excellence, represent the awakening of the glittery and multicolored Diva of Confessions On A Dancefloor from the (temporary) hibernation of the last studio work. Still, the noisy Some Girls flaunts the most smirking, capricious, and spoiled Madonna, who spits out the lyrics with a charmingly bold and provocative adolescence also present in the first (not very convincing) single Give Me All Your Luvin' (with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.). Worth mentioning, finally, the ballads Masterpiece and Falling Free, the latter particularly similar to the trance-ambient productions of Mer Girl and Drowned World/Substitute For Love (Ray Of Light, 1998).

Summarizing thirty years of career is complex: awards, little awards, trophies, styles, sounds, successes, trends... With "MDNA" Madonna has managed to "account" for her contribution to international Pop. It's true; we are not in the presence of an immense vocal talent, a genius of experimentation. Madonna is the Pop, the Pop that we "conformists," "enemies of niches," "simpletons," and "populists" (any reference is purely coincidental) like and will like. Without shame and/or embarrassment to express it.

Madonna, "MDNA"

Girl Gone Wild - Gang Bang - I'm Addicted - Turn Up The Radio - Some Girls - Give Me All Your Luvin' - Superstar - I Don't Give A - I'm A Sinner - Love Spent - Masterpiece - Falling Free.