Madame X [Vinyl]

There are some that say this is a return to form for the Queen of Pop. If there is any truth to that, it most likely has to do with Madonna returning to mostly working with one producer, unlike her last handful of albums which included a countless who's who of big producer names. She reconnects with Afghan-French producer Mirwais, who last had a hand in 2005's "Confessions on a Dance Floor," 2003's under-rated-and-aging-oh-so-gracefully "American Life" and last but not least, 2000's record-breaking "Music," which includes the icon's last US #1 single in the title track.

So here we are with Madame X - Madonna's fourteenth studio album and final project with Interscope Records. Madonna relocated to Lisbon, Portugal in 2017 to support her son's soccer ambitions and through that journey met artists, painters, and musicians and decided to record an album based on her musical experience in the Portuguese city, which she referred to as "a melting pot of culture musically, from Angola to Guinea-Bissau to Spain to Brazil to France to Cape Verde". There's expected dance-pop, power pop ballads, pop, avant-garde, hip-hop, with portugese elements and latin elements, and a message of hope and strength weaved throughout.

If it wasn't for the fact that she's an older female, singles like "Crave" feat. Swae Lee, would easily have found a home on radio or the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 but alas that is not our pop reality so trust me when I say, this is another high bar presentation from the incomparable and only Queen of Pop.

- 1 -
1 Medellín
2 Dark Ballet
3 God Control
4 Future
- 2 -
1 Batuka
2 Killer Who Are Partying
3 Crave
- 3 -
1 Crazy
2 Come Alive
3 Extreme Occident
4 Faz Gostoso
- 4 -
1 Bitch I'm Loca
2 I Don't Search I Find
3 Looking For Mercy
4 I Rise