I know it's one of those songs that deserves the acclaim it gets, and I don't dislike it by any means, I just easily prefer a solid 100+ Madonna songs. I can't imagine going "ooh I'm in a Madonna mood" and putting Mer Girl on.
I know she did not get herself hurled across a stage by a cape for people to start calling for Living for Love to go now.
Welp, this was literally my thought process yesterday morning. Although I ended up starting from Frozen to build the anticipation.
If I'm walking through a shady forest on a summer day, or if it's 3am in the morning and raining outside, Mer Girl is the perfect song.
98 SCORE: 7.597 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 5 - 93 of 210 (7.342) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 10 (@nikkysan @Vasilios @eatyourself @torontodj @scottdisick94 @DinahLee @Sleepycat @clowezra @sexercise @Music Is Life) LOWEST SCORE: 2 x 1 (@OSHi) MY SCORE: 7.5/10 There's really nothing about this song that I dislike; it sounds so smooth; like watching honey pour from a jug, but it feels more like a toe dip into what Bedtime Stories eventually goes on to master, which would be the successful marriage of Madonna and the current sound of the time. "Survival" just sounds a little too much like the latter and not enough of the former. Like... these lyrics. Madonna has been through shit. That scene in Shawshank Redemption where that man crawls through the sewer pipe to freedom? That was Madonna's career a few years in the 90s. She more than earned her right to write songs about going through some nonsense and coming out of the other side intact through her own sheer force of will, but... notlikethis.gif. I mean, I love a wee "Live To Tell" mention as much as the next guy, but these opposites attract lyrics... no ma'am! That's... really it. There's nothing else of note about this. Dallas Austin and Nellee Hooper worked on it and... Oh! It was the b-side to "Bedtime Story" when it became a single? That's basically it I guess. Such is the trauma of being on an album that had no tour in its honour.
Survival - 6.5. Pleasant enough but doesn't go anywhere. I need a bit more urgenncy in a song about surviving. The catchiest part is the recurring 'yeaaahhhh.'
Survival is gorgeous, and the lyrics are a bit "fanmade t-shirt" but considering how she was just over a decade in when it was released, it's actually pretty impressive. Her impact! I also like that the demo instrumental pretty much laid the groundwork for TLC's Creep:
