ONTD, as much as we all pretended not to notice, two of our most loved and/or most-love-to-hate favs have had their entire album leaks MONTHS before they're dropping, and therefore months before the reviews will start coming in. So which album is actually better? Enter for this completely unbiased breakdown of both albums!
Please note: These songs came to me in a dream and I in no way condone piracy.
Rebel Heart: Standard Edition vs Marina and the Diamonds Froot
Rebel Heart: 14 Track Standard Edition (Tracklist from Wikipedia)
1. Living For Love: An autotuned Like A Prayer wannabe. Why are we starting this album with a demonstration of autotune only Kanye West would excuse? It's not a bad song, despite how derivitive it already feels. 3/5
2. Devil Pray: Here we go. Madonna sounds great, interesting lyrics. Should have been the album opener. Strong, powerful, confident Madonna. I don't even hate all the stupid drug talk, because as the rest of this album teaches us, we have to appreciate every moment Madonna isn't rapping... 5/5
4. Unapologetic Bitch: Great... Madonna is rapping. Madonna should apologize for this song. She's trying to do reggae and it's bad. Also, high-pitched vocal cringeworthy chorus. Sometimes I've got to call it like it is! 2/5
5. Illuminati: Why does Madonna hate singing? Why is she destroying her vocals with Autotune? Slightly better than Unapologetic Bitch at least. 2.5/5
6. Bitch I’m Madonna: I like this song better the fifth time I've heard it. Vocals aren't that good, but the production and the Nicki collab come together to make this a mini-bop. The dub-step breakdown & chorus screams outdated EDM, but it's catchy as fuck. 3.5/5
7. Hold Tight: Thank god trend-chasing Madonna seems to have left this album behind. Hold tight is beautiful, her vocals sound much improved. It's sitting in that great lower register comfort zone that Madonna carries so well, and really should stick to more often. 4/5
8. Joan of Arc: This song has made me catch feelings. I don't buy the martyr message Madonna is spinning, but she's more open and her vocals are good. The chorus is wonderful. 4.5/5
9. Iconic: This song is amazing and clever, and even though the intro is by a disgusting rapist, if you didn't know that, it would be purely epic. I love it, even though I hate the choices made to bring it about. The best production on the album, hands down. This song makes the autotune work for Madonna, not against her. 5/5
10. HeartBreakCity: This was dumb as a demo, and it's dumb now. I thought MDNA was supposed to be her breakup album? Why is she so fucking whiny. I don't care, and this song doesn't make me want to care. At least she's singing. 2.5/5
11. Body Shop: I might be feeling generous because of the poor song choices of this album, but this is an amazing song. Cute, fresh, sexual and lovely. Clever and VERY Madonna. Her higher register sounds good for her, and she's not autotuned to death. Sounds like it could fit into an indie soundtrack. 5/5
12. Holy Water: Madonna is trying too hard with the EDM tracks and this one is the worst offender. "Bitch get off my pole"... no. But the chorus is catchy. It sounds like a reject from the Confessions album. 3.5/5
13. Inside Out: Madonna singing again? Talking about getting on our knees and confessing to her? That's what I'm talking about! I wish songs like this had made up the whole album. Simple, good melodies, Madonna lyrics. 4/4
14. Wash All Over Me: Boring. Fine. Why the fuck isn't Rebel Heart on the standard edition? Bye. 3/5
Grade: Incomplete
In sum:
Madonna's about to release a great 10-track album! http://t.co/GzeXxf0kEVpic.twitter.com/gShE4vg2Z5
— Popjustice (@Popjustice) January 19, 2015And those 10 tracks are definitely not all found on the standard version.
FROOT
1. Happy: A nice slow song, but not a strong album opener. It’s too good a song to give a lower mark, however. 3.5/5
2. Froot: I would give it more than a perfect score if I could, it’s just that good. Obsessively good. Vivid. Memorable. Exquisite. 5/5
3. I’m A Ruin: The way this song picks up in the last half gets it the high score. Slow, but not boring at all. 4.5/5
4. Blue: Excellent pop song. The chorus is heavenly. 5/5
5. Forgot: loses some points for strong resemblance to “Teen Idol” 3.5/5
6. Gold: What is this shit? Boring. Dumb. Did this not hit the cutting room floor because it fit the color theme? It sounds like Ace of Base and not in a good way. 2/5
7. Can’t Pin Me Down: This song is fine. Because it came after Gold the whole album starts to drag at this point. 3/5
8. Solitaire: Beautiful. Clever. You might have caught onto the fact that this album is a smash by now. Tiny reduction in points for dragging a bit by the end. Would have been better at just over 4 minutes. 4/5
9. Better Than That: It’s pretty good, but Marina can do better than this. 3/5
10. Weeds: This song is transcendent. Why isn’t Marina a star? No, seriously. What the fuck have we done that Lana del Samelyrics and Charli ABCs of Pop are bigger than her? 4/5
11. Savages: It’s with this song that the album seals the deal. The assessments of humanity are spot on, and show a lot more than most of these songs about where Marina’s head is at in this album. All this talk about rotting/poisoned fruit comes to a head in this track as she condemns humanity at its worst. I’m not afraid of God, I’m afraid of man. This sounds like it could have come from The Family Jewels in all the best ways. 5/5
12. Immortal: Sad. Beautiful. Fabulous. Loops wonderfully into “Happy” if you’re listening to this album on repeat, which you should. 5/5
Grade: B+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Heart_%28Madonna_album%29#Track_listing_and_formats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_(album)#Track_listing
https://twitter.com/Popjustice/status/557263004296036352
You can tell where I fall, ONTD... which album did YOU like better?
