The Queen of Pop is back. On June 14, Madonna launches her 14th album, Madame X, and is trailing the first track Medellín on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and all the usual places now.
The album marks another reinvention from a woman who already has more regenerations than Doctor Who. This time Madonna is Madame X: a secret agent who adopts different characters to bring light to dark places. Her look goes from 30s vintage to Gilead Handmaid. The sound is mainly Latin, recorded in Portugal, London, LA and New York. Madonna says working on the album has reinforced her belief that music is not only interconnected, but is the very soul of the universe.
It is too early to say whether that’s a good thing: we’ve only heard the first song. Medellín takes three or more listens before it gets under your skin. At first, the heavy auto-tune and Spanish rap distracts from what is a great summery track. Its no ‘Material Girl’ – you can’t sing along with the chorus. But you can’t stop grooving to it either. Faster and more complex than recent latin hits like Havana, Medellín’s cha-cha rhythm will provide the soundtrack to a thousand barbecues. I’ll review the full album when it comes out. In the meantime, listen here
