One year on from release, it's time to reveal how you have rated Madonna's 14th studio album.

 

xx Medellín

xx Dark Ballet

xx God Control

xx Future

xx Batuka

xx Killers Who Are Partying

xx Crave

xx Crazy

xx Come Alive

xx Extreme Occident

xx Faz Gostoso

xx Bitch I'm Loca

xx I Don't Search I Find

xx Looking For Mercy

xx I Rise

xx Funana

xx Back That Up to the Beat

xx Ciao Bella

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure to predict, comment and listen back along the way! :cheer: What will be first out?

Hype! I'm guessing it'll be a 'God Control' vs. 'I Don't Search I Find' finale but I can't call which will come out on top. A year ago, I'd have backed 'God Control', but 'I Don't Search I Find' has had better sticking power and would definitely be my favourite Madonna song of the 2010s.

 

18. Funana ~ 4.77

 

Tonight we go dancing, our souls are starving

 

First out, we unsurprisingly lose a track taken from the Deluxe Edition of the album. It is a song about dancing in the face of despair and it lovingly looks back at artists and musicians that have helped to shape Madonna's own career and the musical landscape of the past decades. In the song, Madonna sings of Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, James Brown, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Mac Miller, Avicii, Tupac Shakur and “Prince Rogers Nelson,”, all of whom are remembered alongside the Portugese inspired instrumentation. Her vocals are heavily distorted in the song and it flows with a meloncholy vibe throughout. It introduces the second CD of the deluxe album, and it's first out here!

Not my least favourite but then again it’s not one of the highlights.

 

I do like it though the part what I’m not so keen on is the name dropping of deceased artists that kinda drags it down for me but the first half of the song is a nice listen.

It's definitely worthy of being the last place song. I agree there are some good parts in it but on the whole it's quite dreary and monotonous.

Funana does not deserve last place !!! I love it .

Absolutely agree with it being last position :kink:

Bottom 2 is fine but I’d have rather one of the other bonus tracks was last

 

17. Back That Up to the Beat ~ 5.08

 

Now I know how freedom feels, I'm never going to stop

 

Next out it's another track on the 2nd disc of the Deluxe Edition. The track is recycled from a demo initially penned for Rebel Heart. Taken from a recording session with Pharrell in 2015, that initially planned to feature Miley Cyrus, it was instead used here and reinvented for the Madame X album. It is about partying on until you can't do it any longer. It is a track with a fearless energy and a drum beat, alongside Madonna's heavily distorted vocals.

 

A deserved bottom 2 tbh, the next one however is a slight shock!...

Back That Up To The Beat would’ve been my pick for last place!

Deffo deserved last place.

 

Hope killers is out next

 

16. Batuka ~ 5.79

 

Things have got to change

 

Shocked by this! 'Batuka' was written by Madonna and her son David Banda, alongside producer Mirwais and it features the Batukadeiras Orchestra, an all-women group that play the drums throughout the song. The song is about overcoming adversity. It received a music video which attempts to recreate Madonna's first meeting with the Batukadeiras Orchestra, and the journey they shared together. The song came from Madonna's time in Lisbon, when she met artists and painters and musicians and the result was this triumphant song about empowerment. Here the song has performed less than favourably, becoming the first track from the standard edition of the album to be out.

I'm disappointed by Batuka being the first out from the main album :(

 

I can see why some people don't like it but for me it remains a really unique track in her discography and one I always enjoy when I listen to the album. It is perhaps a little long and it doesn't quite ever build in the way that it could but I'm assuming that is down to wanting to represent the music of the Batukadeiras Orchestra in a true traditional way.

I don’t agree with Batuka leaving so soon but I did actually expect it to leave fairly soon.

 

I personally really like it though when I hear it in the album context although I don’t think I’d rush to hear it on its own.

Batuka was better on tour. Expected this to go early.

 

15. Killers Who Are Partying ~ 5.82

 

Will we know when to stop?

 

A song about the minority and marginalised communities of the world, Madonna sings of their persecutions. It is heavily inspired by fado and it features a Portuguese guitar accompanied by a minimal beat, as well as Portugese lyrics. Madonna stated that: "I feel like I've been discriminated against my whole life because of the fact that I'm a female and now I am discriminated against because of my age. I am saying 'no, we belong together' and it's a song about unifying the soul of all humans. And I have the right to say that I want to do that." when asked if she could claim to have an affinity with these minorities. It's a very striking song with at times daring lyrics, with an interesting musical structure.

Killers and Batuka both went way too soon!

 

I can imagine Batuka being a real moment in an intimate live setting :wub:

Killers is my least fav. Good riddance.

 

14. Extreme Occident ~ 6.21

 

I tried to discover my own identity

 

This song is about Madonna trying to find her place in the world. She has lived her life defiantly and not conforming and this song situates that and tries to find peace with the lack of belonging. The contradictory lyrics "I guess i'm lost... I wasn't lost" represent how she used to beat herself up over the criticism of naysayers stating that she didn't conform, and Madonna responded to this by stating that it hurts her to think "I wasted all that time caring what people think." It is another song that is representative of her time spent in Lisbon during the recording of the album.