Madonna - Girl Gone Wild [Official Video]

So, here's the rundown. We love MDNA, but of all the tracks, Girl Gone Wild certainly feels like one of the least adventurous - a kind of Madonna by the numbers, if you will.

But throw the Voguey black-and-white video into the mix and somehow, it instantly improves in appeal. Whereas before it felt like a rather bog standard dance number, a formless entry into the current panoply of other club chart stuff awash in the charts, now it feels like a genuine part of Madonna's ouevre as a whole.

It also feels even more like something off Confessions now, which is a very good thing indeed.

And most of all, the video, like Madonna always does when she's at her best, makes you absolutely reconsider what it means to be an artist of her age in the industry. Indeed, Girl Gone Wild feels like the work of some starlet twice Madge's years, and that, more than anything is evidence of the vitality at the of both it and MDNA.

Even the ample hip thrusting doesn't put us off this one.

Madonna - Girl Gone Wild [Teaser Clip]

How'd you like some chains and ample hip thrusting? Yup, it's only the new Madonna video for her single Girl Gone Wild, and this 27 second clip is the very definition of 'teaser'. There's something quite voguey to the black'n'white shots and while it doesn't come with any of the fun or perkiness of the Give Me All Your Luvin video, its grainy, scratchy looseness feels rather attractive.

Madonna - Love Spent

Yesterday we went and listened to the new Madonna album, MDNA, at a special playback session. It was all very fancy and we got given lots of free booze, cheese-sticks and posh salad - oh, and amazing MDNA notebooks to write our musical musings down in.

Love Spent is one of the William Orbit produced tracks off the album, and as this one minute teaser clip shows, it's a bit of alright! Boasting a classic Madonna chorus and some trippy interwoven acoustic guitar/synth bits, it's exactly the kind of thing we wanted when we first heard Orbit and Madge were getting together to cook up some tunes again.

Madonna - Girl Gone Wild [Listen]

It's been a long time since we felt a Madonna track sounded like 'classic' Madonna. Hard Candy was a tired chasing of popular R&B tropes while Celebration felt too rushed. But in Girl Gone Wild, we finally have a move back towards Madonna's dancefloor roots via a calculated new dabbling in the dark, synth magic that made Confessions on a Dancefloor such a joy.

Girl Gone Wild's chief merits lie in its simplicity - a great hook and a classic Madonna club groove that also mirrors some of the best moments of her Music album. It's a self-conscience looking back, and while it might lack some of the emotional maturity and depth that characterised Confessions, it's a definitive move in the right direction.

From what we've heard, Girl Gone Wild is far more respective of the MDNA album than Give Me All Your Luvin is - probably a good sign given said 'taster' single failed badly to set the charts alight in any shape or form. While us pop aficionados might have loved it, the public didn't seem to be swayed by Madge's MIA and Nicki team-up.

The best way to see Girl Gone Wild is as a prototype - yes, it's by no means perfect, and it's a long way off the absolute Madonna can produce when she puts her mind to it - but as a base template to expand from, it holds a whole load more promise than most of what she's done for the past few years.

Madonna - MDNA megamix, first impressions

We've seen the video. We've all got rather excited. But looking into our Madonna shaped crystal ball (because the first single is only the start), MDNA - the album - is so much more than just cheerleaders and men in American football get-ups.

So what does the album actually sound like? A three track megamix sampler offers tantalising glimpses. Give Me All Your Luvin aside (which we've already established as pretty damn good), it seems overtly dancey. And that's good. Very good. After the urban side-step Madge took on Hard Candy, it's great to see her returning to what she does best, club records.

MDNA sounds less celestial than Confessions, less magically enchanting, but rather pushes down the glossy up-beat route of Celebration, which, I suppose, would represent a logical progression of her sound. Of the two, Turn Up The Radio sounds better but both tracks strike the right balance between 'mature' and 'fun' Madonna, and while they're far from the actively explorative, innovating days of 90s Madonna, they sound infinitely more confident and grounded than anything on Hard Candy.

Psychedelic party records is what Madonna is all about, and this kind of throwing-cares-to-the-wall and drinking a load of fizzy pop good-times stuff is such a refreshing return to form for her your only hopes are that the rest of the album matches up to the promising standards set by these two short snapshots. Because when Madonna is on-form, no-one else can touch her.

[Official Video] Madonna - Give Me All Your Luvin

If anyone knows about making a bloody good go of a comeback, it's Madonna. She's done it enough times already. But it has to be said, her stock has been at something of an all time low since the tepid Hard Candy and its faux pretentions at urban credibility.

Thank God then for Give Me All Your Luvin, a return to unabashed pure-pop Madonna - it's like the best bits of her 80s glory days given a 21st century overall. With cheerleader chants - always a plus. And while it might not be perfect - Madge's vocals aren't the strongest, and the Nicki Minaj rap feels oddly shoe-horned in - the frankly brilliant video does more than enough to paper over these flaws.

Like Material Girl gone bonkers, the video picks Madonna up and puts her down in a papery studio of comprised America, and yes... more cheerleaders. Best of all, Nicki and M.I.A. don those cheerleader outfits themselves and lead the pack - indeed, it's worth watching for that alone. It's surreal, flippant fun that could only come from the woman who has already conquered the  world a hundred times over - now free to pursue whatever damn direction she wants.

Dripping in all the trappings of Americana we've come to expect from Madge, Give Me All Your Luvin feels like a genuine return to both form, and fun. She looks good in the video, and most importantly, looks like she's having a good time. And on this alone, I'm holding out great hopes for the album.

Madonna - Masterpiece

After the initial shock of 'Oooh, she's done a Nicola Roberts!' that greeted Madonna's Give Me All Your Love, the general consensus seemed to settle on the fact that it was a rather good little tune, and a refreshing return to form for Madonna - a harking back to her fun, carefree 80s pop days.

If anything though, new track Masterpiece is even more 'classic' Madonna in sound - taken from the soundtrack of her W.E. movie, it's a lush, William Orbit produced ballad that really feels like it could have been an offcut from her Ray of Light days.

Featuring one of the best Madonna vocal performances I've heard in a long time, it makes for a tantalising glimpse at how good her upcoming 12th studio album might be.

Masterpiece (Remastered By Planete Madonna) by PLANETE MADONNA

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Lady Gaga. New single. Need we say more? Big music moments like this are the stuff the pop world is made for. All that anticipation and intense waiting, all for four minutes of brand new amazingness. Because surely Lady Gaga's new single will be amazing? Or are we hoping for too much from the woman who has become a living icon and one of the biggest forces in music today?

Well, Born This Way starts with one of those classic 'Lady Gaga does some sultry spoken word stuff' bits. The whole song is VERY Madonna's Express Yourself. And it is oh so camp. Like the campest thing ever. The vocals are almost annihilated by the relentlessly thumping beat. All the way through the track, just 'oomph oomph oomph'. But then again, a good healthy dollop of dance-pop 'oomph' is what Gaga has always done so well.

Is it better than Bad Romance? No. Is it a good pop song? Definitely. It's catchy, it's dance-able. So far, so Gaga. But what is new here? After all, this is where we see if she really can sustain all the momentum from her first record onto that 'difficult second album'. What works so well is that all the key Gaga elements are still here in healthy doses, but given a good shine and gloss-up. This is a far more uplifting, positive Gaga. The darkness that pervaded so much of The Fame Monster is pushed back, replaced by a far brighter sound. If The Fame was the descent into a seedy night-club, revelling in pleasure and drink all night long, then Born This Way is waking up the next morning and doing it all day too.

The more you listen to it, the more it strikes you just how Madonna-esque the song is. If you were a fan of her Confessions on a Dancefloor then you will adore Born This Way. That big disco beat is irresistible, the choruses ready-made to be shouted out across arenas and stadiums all the world over. Born This Way is massive, American, amazing, and most important of all, completely Gaga.