Album Review: Madonna -- Rebel Heart

Choosing decent Madonna albums is like a tense game of Battleships.

M10 (Confessions On A Dance Floor) was a definite ‘hit’. M11 and 12: frustrating misses.

What, then, for her 13th? For the first time in years, Madonna has used her lust for stylistic fantasia to lyrically connect the insatiable sexuality she has today to the naiveté of the daydreaming Dunkin’ Donuts counter chick she once was. Lead single, Living For Love - thanks to Diplo’s bouncing production and Alicia Keys’ housey piano - strides with the proud bravado of the most fabulous divas. It’s an assured ‘hit’ to kick off with, but then she’s hastily being pushed back on stage in a different direction by Avicii for Devil Pray. Just as on MDNA, there are too many producers and stars working independently and Madonna – by her own admission – “stood with a clipboard… like a school teacher” keeping things in order. Unapologetic Bitch is feisty, yet stumbles under layers of clumsy dancehall klaxons. Ghosttown and the utterly gorgeous Heartbreak City may well be her best power-ballads since Frozen. However, Bitch I’m Madonna (featuring one woman cancer against pop-feminism Nicki Minaj) is just vile, playing on outdated tropes of gay club-kid behaviour whilst completely forgetting to include a tune.

Too often, quality control is sacrificed for the sake of sounding cool, but thematically at least, Rebel Heart is the most honest Madonna album since Ray Of Light. M13 scrapes the hull just enough to be counted as a hit. But it was a close game.