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 - 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.