Autotune Baby has a really lovely chorus melody that hammers home that improved focus on song craft after Hard Candy/MDNA's beats led writing. Also from memory it was one of the tracks we heard accurate rumours about prior to the major leaks so I just have a certain memory attached to it.
Y’all heard the word “autotune” and floored it, didn’t you guys... I never understood why Madonna stans are so weird with her using autotune as a studio effect while some of their other faves literally cannot record music without it.
Cry Baby - 3 ~ Like I've said, my lowest score in the entire rate. Not a song that I despise, but obviously one of Madonna's worst ones. The way it started, I was like: "Okay, Madonna doing a Betty Boop tribute? Cute." and then it just went on and on, adding more vocal affectations that became more and more annoying. It does succeed in maintaining that 20's/30's cartoon style and is charming from that point of view, but it's obviously not for everyone. And everytime I question whether I underscored it, that whistle and the absolutely obnoxious fake crying prove me wrong. Additionally, I lowered my score for it. Definitely her weakest collaboration with Patrick Leonard and among the most embarrasing things she came up with and released. Funny thing is that, recently, I re-watched this video of the first Betty Boop appearance, and she only sings (around the 2:50 mark): The vocals are horrendous, but oddly cute in a way. The similar thing can be said for Madonna's delivery in "Cry Baby". Autotune Baby - 4,5 ~ Whew, the average score jump! This is a weird song, but at least it is supposed to sound a bit weird. I think I played a snippet of this song, purely based on the title, but can't remember how much of it I've heard. Anyways, the song obviosly stands out from the oddity factor. Of course, the intro alone was off-putting and it's no surprise that many hate it. The song melody is actually nice, especially during the chorus, but the effect is too distracting for my liking. I'm usually here for odd/unexpected effects in music, but putting autotune over a baby crying makes me a bit uncomfortable and doesn't really work the way it could. Interesting idea that was not successfully executed. And it's not even my lowest score from that album - still, I surely won't miss it. I almost forgot about this gem. This is a great example of using baby sounds in a song correctly - a 10/10 song, of course.
Hahaha! That's what happens when you are used to/have the urge to comment on each and every song in rates and don't have a life alongside that. I wonder that sometimes, too. Some of these vintage cartoon styles creep me out. Apparently, Betty Boop was originally a dog and human hybrid. Enough said.
I gave both I'm Going Bananas and Cry Baby 5s. I'm Going Bananas is mercifully short, and I like the production, in all it's old-movie feel, and the melody in places is catchy. The lyrics and her vocals are really hard to swallow though. Again, I enjoy Cry Baby's production. It's kinda boppy, and I like the jazzy feel, and the melody in places is again catchy and enjoyable. I don't like the emasculating lyrics and yeah, her voice doesn't work. And it's too long. In hindsight, I probably could have scored them a bit lower, but in the end it didn't matter that much. Auto-Tune Baby is my second-lowest score in the rate, at a 4. I understand and can appreciate what it's going for, but it just completely misses the mark for me. The auto-tune baby crying is grating as fuck, and al that really sticks with me after listening to the song. But besides that, I really like the production, between the drums, the piano, and the weird "Huh's" throughout. The melody is catchy, and now that I'm paying attention to the lyrics, I like the song a little more, and she sounds pretty good, especially on the chorus. It probably could have been bumped up to a 6 or 7, but it's just a song I never want to listen to cause of that damn baby. So I'm not really upset it's gone. Overall, this has gone really well for me so far, so I hope some more of my low scores go soon, preferably: What Can You Lose Cyber-Raga Superstar I'm A Sinner Iconic Can't Stop Lament It's So Cool These are all in the 5-6 range.
Yeah taste is personal and all, but this was a moment. (and sure Madge had many, many of which were bigger but still...)
Huh, I always assumed that song was produced by Diplo because the autotune baby in question is sampled from a Major Lazer track. Also that first Major Lazer album was wall to wall BOPS. Pon De Floor, Keep it Going Louder, Hold The Line etc. Was that when you last listened to Rihanna's Take A Bow?
I didn't know Kanye was involved in Autotuned Baby but everything makes sense now. Reminds me of the experimentation on his work at the time like the autotuned off key parts in FourFiveSeconds.
I saw something yesterday (on Twitter) that she was actually a black character that got whitewashed. Didn't go any further but it was sad. - I truly loathe Auto-Tune Baby because it's just... ugly. Like the other ones are bad but this is just random and really shouldn't have left the leak-gate from Rebel Heart. To imagine we had thousand cute songs that could be released and... this one was picked all along.
It really shouldn't have. It's a mess though (gave it a 5). The good song within is suffocated by too much production excess.
A Madonna album fully produced by Kanye before he went full MAGAt would’ve been amazing. Illuminati and Holy Water are both so good.
