Bruce Springsteen/Madonna
Give the Arena Some
The first six tracks are all heavy irony shading over into murderous rage, with refurbished arena-rock to slam it home; it's perversely anti-political to lay any other interpretation on the opening "We Take Care of Our Own," which cites places "From the shotgun shack to the Superdome" where we‑-meaning the U.S.A. so many Americans weren't even born in‑-documentably haven't taken care of our own. It's protest music, damn right about moral abstractions rather than those finely limned characters good little aesthetes get gooey about, and for me a cathartic up. Second half's less of a scour, which the anti-political find a blessed relief and I find a forgivable nod to humanism and Clarence Clemons‑-especially since the climactic "We Are Alive" is so vulgar as to assume that all America's oppressed will rise up from the grave they share. To wreak vengeance, y'think? They got a right. A MINUS
Madonna: MDNA (Interscope)
Forget the four "Deluxe" extras, not one of which except maybe the pretty little "I F***ed Up" improves on the updated '90s arena-dance power tracks of the first 43 minutes, although they top the deadly-dreamy closer "Falling Free" as well as the penultimate "Masterpiece," which begins "If you were the Mona Lisa . . . ." Granted, I could mock "Ooh la la you're my superstar/Ooh la la that's what you are" just as easily. But lyrics have never been where she showed off her gorgeous brains, and anyway, the 10-track mix I propose as an alternative goes out on a real song called "Love Spent": "Hold me like your money/Tell me that you want me/Spend your love on me/Spend your love on me." Nicki Minaj shines bright, but she's no more crucial structurally than the cheerleaders who garnish "I'm Addicted" at its close and embellish "Give Me All Your Luvin'" throughout. Play loud. She's smart and she's proud. A MINUS
Madonna just gets on my nerves. She never was a great singer........a few tracks on this are pretty good. But often times she ruins songs with really stupid lyrics. Bang is down right offensive. She's too full of herself and too busy trying to be too young dating 23 year olds and even in her music going out of her way to appeal to a younger audience. It's all too calculated and fake. Springsteen on the other hand is the real deal ....at true musician!
Also part deux, what does everyone think of One Direction being the first band since The Beatles (and, are also British), to get to number one with their début? I don't think they are bad, per se, but... number one material? ...Unsure.
This is also a book by a Canadian pop writer considering a major Canadian cultural phenom (centered in a city I adore, Montreal), which gives it a hefty dollop of innate interest.
He also seems to have pretty decent knowledge and understanding of Francophone Quebec culture (or at least the part of it that he's writing about), an all-too-rare thing for an Anglo writer, especially one from outside Quebec - I wish that chapter had been 10 times as long. That Celine quote in the book about N.O. Katrina looters ("let them have those things") - Wilson is right, it's so Quebec it's perfect.
Let me say, electropop, then. The concept of pop, at least for me, always was confusing. If we consider it's just about popularity, tUnE-yArDs isn't fairly known here in Brazil, for example. I don't know how to handle with terms like indie/pop or alt/pop, though, too.
Pop is certainly a famously elastic term, to which I know many definitions miles keener than the one I'm about to offer have been applied. But just to clarify what I meant by it, I consider pop shortform music with a requisite emphasis on structured songwriting (however experimental), melody (however jagged) and upbeat rhythm (however undanceable), all of which are more or less proven by science to be the surest methods of musically instigating popular satisfaction.
Or, if you prefer, music that goes POP!
As for subgenre nomenclature and its arsenal of individual explanations, my belief is that those terms are exclusively rhetorical even if they're all getting at something. But what do I know?
If I'm wrong in considering tUnE-yArDs pop*, I concur absolutely. Its consistency and that luminous aura of sonic euphoria radiating from every perfect prefab beat definitely helped it climb abovekeepers-of-the-pop-flame Fountains of Wayne's entry. The lyrics weren't better, but as observed above re: Madonna, that isn't what we've ever turned to Britbrat for anyway. And just like Sky Full of Holes, Femme Fatale ended on an note of social consciousness so subtle it renders all of Bruce's beautifully intentioned anthems impossibly obvious by comparison.
*which I'm not
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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