In which Madonna forgets that her two last, most undisputable, hits, were undisputable ART ROCK hits, and makes a pop move.
The good news is, between the movie, and the Superbowl, and the simple truth that 150,000 units shifted can land you an # 1 in the Hot 100, Madonna just might make it.
The first thing Madonna did was to replace Tinberlake and Timberland with Minaj and M.I.A., film an excellent little video and release the single, the truly baffling piece of self-love "Give Me All Your Luvin'".It is a terrible song. A cheerleader chant for the middle age hausfrau with an uncomfortable looking Nicki and MIA, adding background cheers and rapping, uninspired.
Meanwhile, Madonna peeks into her closet of past hits and finds… a "Holiday" reference. The song itself is a pop-dance mover, with a nearly fully formed melody. But it is very Frankenstein monsterish, it feels cobbled together from bits and pieces of other current hit songs. The Nicki rap seems hijacked off "Monster", MIA is underused terribly, one set of drums sounds like it might fit in on a MIA song but the rap is weak. The synth is right of the 1980s and the melody, on second hearing is a weak copy of what came out so easily 20 years ago.
Essentially, Madonna is attempting to mix 1982 with 2012 and it is really sad. Around the time of Ray Of Light, Madonnaa had found a way to deal with the aging process: she became a muusical artist. She perfected it by tapping into her pop memory for the mid-period masterpiece, Music, and since then has been completely lost. If Madonna is about the now of pop, here she is trying to have it both ways and failing. The song isn't there. It has all the ingredients, it should add up, but it is bad song and she can't save it by tinkering with its inside.
Madonna reminds me of Michael Jackson circa HIStory. Like MJ, she is sliding somewhere, somewhere irrelevant, and she has fought back by exploiting her past and her present and while in theory what do I care? In practice, I have been a huge fan and this song is drag and a disappointment.
Grade C+