Rebel Heart vs Madame X

[Cerro de Casa]

Not a track by track comparison necessarily (although maybe someone can post that if they wish), more which album do you prefer?

This seems to be doing the rounds on the fan FB groups and forums. I'm a bit surprised by how many people seem to prefer Rebel Heart. Personally I feel that Madame X is in a totally different league as an album although I do acknowledge that from a singer-songwriter perspective Rebel Heart had some fantastic songs on it.

 

[Iguana]

Madame X for sure.

However there are some solid efforts on Rebel Heart. Weg got stuck in a YouTube Madonna video loop last night and Living For Love really is pretty good. I mean, we watched the BRITS version of course, but her vocals are pretty good there even despite nearly dying conveniently.

We then listened to American Life at NY Pride 2019 and the deterioration in the vocals even since 2015 was very apparent

 

[Cerro de Casa]

I don't know if it's deterioration necessarily vs. not being bothered at the moment. I thought she sounded good on the Rebel Heart Tour - there were a lot of backing tracks /lipsynch eleganza moments / backing singers etc. but when she sang live (which I'd say was probably about 50% of the concert), she sounded pretty good. And that wasn't really that long ago..

She always sounds better when she's had more rehearsal time and has been singing the songs over and over in a tour setting (understandably).

Still no excuse for the Eurovision and NYC Pride NOCALS naturally...

 

[HeLikedTurner]

Madame X, by a country mile! It’s far more daring, interesting and sophisticated than RH, which mostly sounds cheap, generic and scattershot.

 

[lolly]

Madame X, by a country mile! It’s far more daring, interesting and sophisticated than RH, which mostly sounds cheap, generic and scattershot.

Absolutely.

Although in fairness I don't even remember half of RH, and have no intention to revisit it.

 

[Iguana]

There's no doubt that better production plays a massive part in it, as well as a generally better quality of song. You can tell she put effort into Madame X.

I'm glad she's doing a lot of tour rehearsal as evidenced by the many videos of it, although I note we've not really heard her singing much apart from a chorus of Crave and a comedy version of Crazy, both of which sounded fine albeit sung quite quietly (my phone autocorrected that to "dying quite quietly" which may in fact be more apt). I hope she is properly rehearsing the vocals. I suspect she's just not showing the vocal rehearsals to keep us guessing

 

[BoysForSeles]

Madame X. I know you used these two as they are the most recent two releases but I’d say Madame X is loosely from a Ray of Light, Music and American Life lineage and is a more interesting comparison.

 

[Pipo]

Absolutely.

Although in fairness I don't even remember half of RH, and have no intention to revisit it.

when I do I always succumb to the leaked demos they're better anyway

 

[Halli]

I can see a lot more has gone into Madame X, and it can be argued its TECHNICALLY better. But I like Rebel Heart more, I just can't enjoy her much this time around...