93 SCORE: 7.685 2015 PLACEMENT: DOWN 32 - 61 of 210 (7.912) HIGHEST SCORE: 10 x 18 (@aux @Butterfly @dodoriazarbon @Remyky22 @Suburbia @fatyoshi @torontodj @Syzygyz @Dreampopboy @scottdisick94 @Sideout @unnameable @joeee @phoenix123 @wintersleep @Remorque @nametag @Markus1981) LOWEST SCORE: 4 x (@OSHi @dylanaber @theelusivechanteuse @Modeblock @Coochi @Pop Life) MY SCORE: 7/10 I don't know if I've mentioned so far in the rate, but Madonna's been through shit. Like, loads. Her response through her music is usually resilience; pushing it off as unbothered and coming back stronger than before. So I guess, after over thirty years, she was due at least one song where she admits, "Hey, that actually kind of hurts sometimes." and... who can blame her? When Madonna's career is looked back on in retrospect years from now, I hope there's focus on the truly brutal turn she had from the press for most of it. I also remember thinking that this song hit doubly hard around the Rebel Heart era because it felt like the first time she was treated as something truly... repulsive in the pop sphere. Like the very idea of her doing everything she was doing at her age warranted eradication. The incident with Drake at Coachella in particular, where he spent months flirting with her on Instagram only to run away like a child when he got what he wanted was the height of it. I guess MILFs are only a sexy concept when you're harassing them on Instagram, I guess. But yes, I like this. Queen sounds lovely on it, and... I think it just manages to avoid hitting my saccharine barrier because in general it's rather sonically buoyant. It probably boasts one of the more surprisingly catchy choruses on the album too. And plus, like I said above, sis has kind of earned a little moment of self-pity and telling people to back off for two seconds. It's easily one of the best ballads on Rebel Heart, so it makes sense that it has made it as far as it did while the more maudlin, treacly numbers faded away. The song, oddly enough, didn't get a slot on the Rebel Heart Tour despite it being an obvious favourite of Madonna's. I think it might have been rumoured to be part of the section that ended up getting entirely cut, but we'll never know. So instead, enjoy these performances of it on the Ellen Degenerate Show, and during the iconic Tears Of A Clown show.
Lucky Star Borderline Burning Up Holiday Material Girl Like A Virgin Dress You Up Papa Don't Preach Open Your Heart Live To Tell True Blue La Isla Bonita Like A Prayer Express Yourself Till Death Do Us Part Promise To Try Cherish Oh Father Spanish Eyes Vogue Erotica Deeper And Deeper Bad Girl Waiting Thief Of Hearts Words Rain Secret Human Nature Sanctuary Bedtime Story Take A Bow Drowned World/Substitute For Love Swim Ray Of Light Skin Nothing Really Matters Sky Fits Heaven Frozen The Power Of Goodbye To Have And Not To Hold Mer Girl Has To Be Music Impressive Instant I Deserve It Don't Tell Me What It Feels Like For A Girl Paradise (Not For Me) Gone American Life Hollywood Love Profusion Nobody Knows Me Nothing Fails Intervention X-Static Process Mother And Father Die Another Day Easy Ride Hung Up Get Together Sorry Future Lovers Let It Will Be Forbidden Love Jump Isaac Give It 2 Me Miles Away Devil Wouldn't Recognize You Living For Love Devil Pray Ghosttown Bitch I'm Madonna (Feat. Nicki Minaj) Rebel Heart Medellín (Feat. Maluma) God Control Crave (Feat. Swae Lee) I Don't Search I Find Into The Groove Crazy For You Who's That Girl Causing A Commotion Justify My Love Rescue Me I'll Remember I Want You (With Massive Attack) You'll See Beautiful Stranger Time Stood Still Celebration
Lovely write up and I’m glad someone called out Drake. I’ve seen Madonna fans defend him, claiming it was all about her lip balm. It was childish what he did. Edit: wow, that Tears of a Clown performance!
Joan of Arc is really affecting and she sounds lovely on it. I also weirdly recall Sam Smith tweeting about it when the album was released, so...snatch that promo! And yes, she was absolutely done dirty by Drake in the fallout from the Coachella kiss. He basically got off scot-free and left her to deal with people talking about how old and gross she was, one post even going so far as to call it assault. Nasty.
Good to see "Joan of Arc" leave. It's cute, but certainly doesn't belong to her top 100. The fact that "Living for Love", "Bitch I'm Madonna" and the title track got anywhere near the top 5 of songs from "Rebel Heart" is laughable.
At this point I'd be fine with Bitch I'm Madonna getting eliminated just so some of you will shut the fuck up about wanting it to leave with every new elimination
There are so many songs I want to leave but I’m not gonna bleat on about it constantly. It’s not that deep!
Bitch I’m Madonna is excellent. The only track from Rebel Heart that I think has slightly overstayed its welcome now is Devil Pray.
I do like Bitch I'm Madonna, but Living For Love still being here is a joke, when it's really nothing more than an uninspired basic bop... that isn't even that much of a bop.
Wait, "Joan Of Arc" is legitimately great? I love the tracks where she makes tempered claims to greatness (which contrasts quite directly with several songs on Rebel Heart itself), and the production on it is just really breezily lovely. This is putting me on edge!
Top 5 of "Rebel Heart" in the 2015 was: 1. Ghosttown 2. Living for Love 3. Devil Pray 4. Joan of Arc 5. Rebel Heart Not seeing "Bitch I'm Madonna" among them makes me hopeful that it's going to leave soon. Then again, the elimination order for that album has differed quite a lot between the two rates, so who knows... Aside from that, I think that "Has to Be" and "I Deserve It" are running out of time and will be eliminated very soon, despite being far from my lowest rated songs.
Also, I find it hilarious that "Rebel Heart", "True Blue" and "Bedtime Stories" are all down to five songs, despite the former losing about 34 more songs than the latter two. In a perfect world, "Bedtime Stories" would now have nine songs standing... * starts sobbing because of the losses of "Forbidden Love" and "Love Tried to Welcome Me" *
I would have rated "Joan Of Arc" higher if it weren't for that ridiculous album mix. Miss Joan did not require the presence of bouncy drums and those goddamn incessant pitch-affected wails assaulting listeners from all soundscape vantage points during the chorus. 'Rebel Heart' really is such a frustrating album.
