Madonna albums from this century fall into two categories: the playing-it-safe ones, and the WTF is she thinking? ones. You might be tempted to assume the mega-weird ones are better, but nothing is ever that straightforward in the Madonna universe. Confessions on a Dance Floor was her totally safe execution of an obvious idea why doesnt historys greatest disco mastermind just make a damn disco record? but it was also brilliant. Whereas the certifiably flaky American Life was certifiably ass. Thats just one of the many reasons Madonna remains the queen of all pop queens.
Yet Madame X is so admirably bizarre, all you can do is stand back and watch the girl go. Its a weird kind of energy, as she sings in God Control a rare moment of Madonna understatement. She dips into a melting pot of Latin pop styles, complete with a reggaeton jam called Bitch Im Loca. Its for fans of her loca edge only the wildest move shes made since Im Breathless, where she trapped Vogue in a maze of camp show-tunes. Every track on Madame X overflows with experiments no other pop star on earth would have the chutzpah to try.
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She teamed up with Colombian superstar Maluma for the scandal-bait lead single Medellin, learning to cha-cha-cha in her shaky new accent. As it turns out, theres a lot more where Medellin came from. Like a vocoder singing The Nutcracker in Dark Ballet. Or the moment where she chants: People think that Im insane / The only gun is in my brain / Each new birth, it gives me hope / Thats why I dont smoke that dope.
Madame X is the name she says Martha Graham gave her when she acted up in dance class, and as shes explained, Madame X is back to her roots, OK? She doesnt care. Zero you-know-whats. She made it with Mike Dean, her collaborator on 2015s Rebel Heart, and Mirwais Ahmadzai, who co-produced one of her best ever (2000s Music) as well as American Life. She throws down with Quavo, Diplo and Rae Sremmerds Swae Lee.
Weirdest of all, there are truly great Madonna moments all over Madame X. Especially Crave, a love song with florid acoustic guitar where she plays down the accent and gets lost in emotion. Come Alive has that Cherish girl-group flair, while Crazy toys with old-school Massive Attack trip-hop. (I bend my knees for you like a prayer hey, where have we heard that before?) But with her typical nerve, she buries the strongest songs deep in Madame X. To reach them, you have to endure disasters like Killers Who Are Partying, where she ponders political oppression: Ill be Islam if Islam is hated / Ill be Israel if theyre incarcerated.
Madonna has a long history with Latin America and its music, going back way before La Isla Bonita. Her first hits bubbled out of a Latina context her debut was a New York freestyle record forged on the floor of the Fun House. On Madame X, she attempts musical languages beyond what shes tried before. Came from the Midwest / Then I went to the Far East, she confesses amid the piano and tablas of Extreme Occident, the most touching and vulnerable ballad here. Its a revealing moment shes always been a musical traveler, a Bowie-style lodger whos roamed all over the world and left every place. (Or, as another great Detroit rocker once put it: she is the passenger.) No wonder she cops to a mix of lucidity and craziness. Her only roots are on the dance floor. But if she had any shame about making people cringe, she never would have made it to the Fun House, let alone where she went from there.
Theres something gratifying about the way the music on Madame X can trigger that familiar worried about Madonna feeling. Lets face it, arent we proud of our Eighties mega-pop idols for still being willing to act up like this? Imagine going back in time to the Eighties and saying, Someday, Madonna will chant Bitch Im loca the same week Bruce Springsteen releases his concept album about horses. These two legends never let us down, in their very different ways. Time will tell if Madame X has staying power or not. But if you love Madonna for her shamelessness bitch, shes loca.