MDNA＜初回生産限定盤＞

Rolling Stone (p.68) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "MDNA stands as Madonna's most explicit work....Hooks emerge quickly; there's lots of naughtiness for the DJ to bring back, and the music has depth that rewards repeated listening." Entertainment Weekly (pp.72-73) - "Madonna is at her best on the love songs....The synth stomper 'I'm Addicted,' a warm ode to a crush, offers a good excuse to join in when she says, 'I need to dance.'" Billboard (p.33) - "Madonna is still very much the queen of pop. Her 12th studio album, MDNA, is a collection of thoroughly pumping pop tunes, some of which are slices of sheer brilliance." Q (Magazine) (p.88) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Opening MDNA with a confessional prayer to the almighty, Madonna sets this up as not simply an album but a skillfully assembled piece of pop theatre." Mojo (Publisher) (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "I Don't Give A' is vintage vengeful Madonna....She and Orbit have created a startling kind of electronic chanson...thank God they found each other again."

Most pop stars reach a point where they accept the slow march of time, but not Madonna. Time is Madonna's enemy -- an enemy to be battled or, better still, one to be ignored. She soldiers on, turning tougher, harder, colder with each passing album, winding up with a record as flinty as MDNA, the 2012 record that is her first release since departing Warner for Interscope. That's hardly the only notable shift in Madonna's life since the 2008 release of Hard Candy. Since then, she has divorced film director Guy Ritchie and has seen her '80s persona co-opted and perverted by Lady Gaga, events so cataclysmic she can't help but address them on MDNA. Madonna hits the divorce dead-on, muttering about "pre-nups" when she's not fiercely boasting of shooting her lover in the head, and she's not exactly shy about reasserting her dominion over dance and pop, going so far as to draft Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. as maid servants paying their respect to the queen. Whatever part of MDNA that isn't devoted to divorce is dedicated to proving Madonna remains the preeminent pop star, working harder than anybody to stay just on the edge of the vanguard. All this exertion leads to an excessively lean album: there's not an ounce of fat on MDNA, it's all overly defined muscle, every element working with designated purpose. Such steely precision is preferable to the electronic mess of Hard Candy, not least because there's a focus that flows all the way down to the pop hooks, which are as strong and hard as those on Confessions on a Dance Floor. MDNA does echo the Euro-disco vibe of Confessions -- "Love Spent" consciously reworks the ABBA-sampling "Hung Up" and it's also evident on the malevolent pulse of "Gang Bang" or the clever "Beautiful Stranger" rewrite "I'm a Sinner." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

前作のUSアーバン路線から一転、4年ぶりの新作ではマーティン・ソルヴェグやベニー・ベナッシ、旧友のウィリアム・オービットら欧州のプロデューサー陣と合体した女王様。私のDNAのすべてを刻み付けてやる!とでも言わんばかりに、多面体な新旧マドンナ像を各曲に投影する。エレクトロからバラード、歌モノからラップまで。良き母がまさか?というハジケっぷりと過激な表現には驚いたが、独身ガールなわけだしね。
bounce (C)村上ひさし