Medellín: The Reviews
Time to start looking at the first (raving) reviews of Madonna‘s new single, Medellín!
Madonna: Medellín ft Maluma review – a shapeshifting return to form
From The Guardian:
Co-produced by her American Life collaborator Mirwais, Medellín is quite unlike anything we’ve heard from Madonna before, and her most subdued lead single since 1998’s stately Frozen. The most initially disarming about it is its balmy sense of ease. “I woke up in Medellín,” she sings over airy synths, before slyly adding, “Another me could now begin.” A rhythmic reggaeton beat that kicks in for a fiesta-starting chorus, with lovey-dovey call-and-response between the duo. At nearly five minutes, Medellín’s pacing feels refreshingly relaxed, though it wouldn’t be a Madonna co-write without a few lyrical clunkers (“pain” rhymed with “champagne”). It doesn’t exactly do much to dispel stereotypes of Colombia either (“we built a cartel just for love,” she sings).
But those are minor quibbles: Medellín is a potent reminder of Madonna’s deft history of meshing genres, while also a convincing addition to the roll call of western megastars like Beyoncé and Justin Bieber linking up with Spanish-language artists. And unlike the occasional trend chasing of her most recent albums MDNA and Rebel Heart, Medellín proves that she’s well equipped to weather the demands of today’s listening trends while bringing global styles into her own world. For Madonna, it seems that the streaming age may just speed up her shapeshifting.
Read more on The Guardian.
Madonna’s Latin-pop ‘Medellín’ has left us gagging for the ‘Madame X’ era
From NME:
The track is everything we want from a Madonna comeback: it’s fresh, (arguably her best work in years), it sets the tone for a brand new era and, if Medellín is an indicator of what’s to come, it’ll be an exciting shift from the electro-pop bangers Madge has offered up in recent times.
Sure, this is not the first time we’ve heard her majesty dabble in the Spanish tongue – La Isla Bonita, being a classic example – but this is Madonna integrating herself into a musical genre that has real weight right now, pulling in an established artist from the Latin pop world to give it some gravitas.
Read more on NME.
Medellin: il nuovo singolo di Madonna
From Vogue Italia:
Non è un fuoco d’artificio, non è un colpo di teatro, non è una superhit irrinunciabile che ci si trova a canticchiare qualche secondo dopo averla ascoltata: nel suo essere setoso e poco smaccato, Medellin può anzi far pensare a una sorta di B-side, un brano di quelli che finiscono per essere scartati non tanto per una questione di qualità quanto per il suo essere troppo raffinato e delicato. Il ritorno di Madonna quindi ha davvero le caratteristiche di un agent provocateur, laddove ci sembra che il protagonismo abbia lasciato spazio a qualcosa di più ponderato, sottile, conturbante e apparentemente accondiscendente. Che però poi, alla prova dei fatti, risulta in grado di cambiare le regole del gioco dall’interno. Noi da Madonna, nel 2019, non possiamo davvero chiedere di meglio.
Read more on Vogue Italia.
Madonna’s new single Medellin introduces ‘Madame X’ persona – and throws back to La Isla Bonita
From INews.co.uk:
[Medellín] lacks the punch of her most impactful lead singles, but this is new territory for Madonna and it’s a relief to see her take a risk again, on a previously unexplored genre. Creatively this may be her riskiest move since 2003’s American Life, coincidentally her only full album with Mirwais.
Medellín may not cause hysterics in the disco, but it proves Madonna has lost none of her daring spirit. Perhaps it will sound best blasted out of cars in sweltering traffic jams, or in the dark, getting up close, steamy, and handsy with whoever you dreamed about last night. Madonna still has something to say and, as ever, we’re compelled to listen.
Read more on a href=”https://inews.co.uk/culture/madonna-medellin-new-single-review-madame-x-album/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>INews.co.uk.
Madonna “Medellín” [ft. Maluma]
From Pitchfork.com:
Medellín may end up being a bigger moment for Maluma than Madonna, but as far as the pop icon’s semi-recent cool-hunting exploits go, the song sits closer to the top of the heap than the bottom. It is more sonically restrained than her EDM phase, leaving room in the production for tactile details that mostly work (though the echo and Auto-Tune on her vocals is a bit much). Madonna has struggled at times in her late career to find a balance between campy bangers and more mature balladry; Medellín is something of a sexy, stylish middle ground.
Read more on Pitchfork.com.
Madonna’s Gorgeous New Single ‘Medellín’ May Become the Song of Summer for 2019
From Parade.com:
Get ready for the Madame X era, Madonna fans. The Queen of Pop dropped a comeback single today. Mid-tempo, low-key and introspective Medellín may not be the high-energy pop blast some fans were expecting (Madge is known to drop exhilarating, bruising lead singles like Music and Hung Up), but it’s hard to imagine any of her fans not falling hard for Medellín‘s intoxicating, sultry spell. This is a gorgeous return-to-form for the highest-selling female artist in history, and it doesn’t really sound like anything she’s done before.
Madonna’s New Single, ‘Medellin,’ Is A Self-Aware Nostalgia Trip
From National Public Radio:
The first single from Madonna‘s upcoming Madame X suggests that the doyenne of dance pop is making canny decisions in her 60th year. Medellin is a carefully dosed combination of the coolly narcotic dance-pop she’s often made with the track’s producer, Mirwais, and the energetic reggaetón of the track’s featured guest, the Colombian star Maluma, and suggests this global pop sound will be the foundation of her fourteenth studio album. Starting with a whispered “one, two, cha cha cha” from Queen Madge that lends the arrangement a witty vintage feel, the song proceeds to relate a fantasy that’s both sexy and slightly nostalgic. “I took a pill and had a dream,” Madonna murmurs, her voice artfully Auto-tuned. “I went back to my seventeenth year.”
Read more on National Public Radio.
Single Review: Madonna’s ‘Medellin’
From Variety:
While a song that begins with a cha-cha count-in and the lyric “I took a pill” sounds like it should be a dancefloor rager, it’s actually the unexpectedly low-key return of Madonna, who today dropped Medellin, the first single from her forthcoming album Madame X. A collaboration with Colombian singer Maluma – himself a native of the country’s mountain city – and her longtime collaborator Mirwais, the song combines a sing-song melody with a reggaeton-inflected, shuffing beat; she and Maluma pair trade off flirty verses in Spanish throughout the song.
(…)
And while the song may not be the dancefloor-filling that fans might be hoping for, it’s a sultry and promising introduction to Madonna’s latest era.
Read more on Variety.
