Madonna - Celebration (video)

"Come join the party"

Madonna has managed to keep it all in the family on her simple and quite-OK video for Celebration, directed by long time collaborator Jonas Åkerlund and starring, besides her current troupe of dancers, none other than present-boyfriend Jesus Luz and her own daughter Lourdes. Thankfully, the track used is the dirty-electro remix by Benny Benassi and not the poppy (and silly) original, so worth watching and hearing.

Best Of 2008: Top 5 Concerts

So it's here. During the next few days, I'll be putting online my top favourite lists for 2008. Enjoy!
It's obvious that a concert list has to be very subjective and personal, among other reasons because it depends on which concerts we have actually been to. I did go to a few this year and these 5 were the ones where I had the best time...

5. Goldfrapp @ SW08 in Zambujeira do Mar (8th of August)

Where candid pristine white met sexy electro glam.


4. Vampire Weekend @ Alive!08 in Lisbon (10th of July)

Catchy summer pop in a sunny summer afternoon... couldn't get any more fun.


3. Lykke Li @ Teatro Variedades in Lisbon (4th of December)

Innocent on record, pure fire on stage. Really, this girl has so much class!


2. Björk @ SW08 in Zambujeira do Mar (7th of August)

Few people make such a perfect fusion between the avant-garde, extreme forms of art and pop to the masses. With the Volta tour, Björk managed to take this concept into new dimensions and still put thousands of people jumping ecstatically with her.


1. Madonna @ Parque da Belavista in Lisbon (14th of September)

Musically, 2008 was the year when Madonna prefered to play it safe with "Hard Candy", but when considering her Sticky & Sweet tour, things did change a bit. It may have not been such a complete and artsy show as 2006's Confessions tour, but this time there was a big advantage: even with so much happening everywhere (dancers, lights, videowalls, lasers, etc.), it was all about herself and her presence live, in a non-stop celebration of her iconic status. And we're talking about Madonna on stage...

Madonna's Sticky & Sweet - Words & Pictures (Polaroids # 22)

So I finally got to see the new Madonna show here in Lisbon. 75.000 people. Lots of euphoria and fun. Better than her last tour? Possibly. Did I have fun? Absolutely.
Again, the show is divided in 4 distinct parts, each with its own theme and visual/musical genre. Madonna has to be one of the best performers ever. An actress if you will. She is her own piece of art. And, like art, she's constantly changing, evolving and surprising. Very few other performers are owners of this kind of talent (Bowie and Björk come to mind). If you wanna "get" her, you have to see her live shows. All photos below by yours truly.

ACT 1: The Ghetto-Fabulous Queen
This time around there's no big build-up intro with surreal Steven Klein images. There are some graphics projected on a screen (candy is the theme) and she comes on stage in a big M-shaped throne, wearing a black coat and knee-high boots, dominatrix style. A recurrent theme. She sings "Candy Shop" with some precise dance moves, then segues into the second song with a big "Hello Lisboa!" that drives us portuguese folks wild. The song is now "Beat Goes On", one of my favourites from her last record, and the huge screens on stage project images of Pharrell Williams and Kanye West in tuxedos singing with her. All very flashy and glamourous. Suddenly a huge white Rolls Royce comes on stage, with the words "M-Dolla" on the license plate (her alter-ego on the new record) and she and her dancers drive down the huge catwalk into the public. Works brilliantly! Next, a simple guitar based performance of her 1994 song "Human Nature" (a lyrical response to everyone who spoke against her when she was exploring sex as a theme) and the screens show a video of Britney Spears (yes, really) trapped inside an elevator, being filmed by CCTV cams. The thing here is the claustrophobia of fame and it's fascinating to me that Britney Spears agreed to do this. She is the perfect metaphor for the song. Next, a new rendition of "Vogue" (amazingly redone) and she's gone.










ACT 2: 80's are back
The screens light up with colourful animated versions of Keith Haring's paintings. Keith, an old friend of Madonna from their days in New York in the early 80's, would be 50 this year. She said this was an homage to him. She sings "Into The Groove", dances, girates, jumps rope with her dancers and it suddenly becomes one big party. Then 2 new songs: Heartbeat (with amazing choreography of her dueling with a dancer) and "She's Not Me", where 4 dancers come on stage dressed like her old personas (the virgin, the cone-bra early 90's persona, the Marilyn-esque, the bustier glam queen) and she torns them apart repeating the "She's Not Me" line. Then comes "Music" in a brilliant new version, with the screens full of graffiti tags, very street and fun. She's gone again.












ACT 3: Gipsy Party!
She comes on stage on top of a piano singing "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You", a new song that fans seem to adore but that I failed to connect to. Until now that is. The performance totally made me enjoy the song more and more, mostly because of a new piano arrangement. She looks stunning in a simple black dress adorned with colorful pagan stripes that would make Björk jealous. A few songs later and it's one big gipsy party, with romenian musicians on stage with her and her tribe of amazing dancers. The portuguese audience seemed to love this. My favourite part of the show was actually here, when the lights go down and it's just her and the romenian band doing a great performance of "You Must Love Me". I was front row and she was just 2 meters away from me. I was singing like a mad man and she acknowledged that and smiled back. That's how intimate I'll ever get in a Madonna performance.








ACT 4: Rave!
There's one video segment before this where she tries to bring a political message to her show. The video, a new remix song called "Get Stupid" (love it!) shows images of good and bad, ending with Barack Obama on the good side. She's showing her support to him and this might be controversial when the tour lands in the US (and Madonna loves a good controversy). I'm posting a video of this bellow.
The last segment shows her in a space-age suit doing techno versions of "Like a Prayer" and "Give It To Me", among others. It's not very conceptual, unlike the previous ones, but it's one hell of a party and the audience is jumping like crazy. Laser beams light up the sky, Justin Timberlake comes up on stage in the form of a moving video projection, Daft-Punkesque robots dance with her on Ray of Light and for the last song, "Give It To Me", the screens project images of retro arcade games. The show ends with a big "Game Over" sign and you know the party is over.









I must say I don't think I ever had so much fun at a Madonna show. I recognize that her last tour ("Confessions", 2 years ago) was more of an art show, more dark and atmospheric. Therefore less fun. She was playing smaller arenas so I don't think that kind of intimacy would be possible on this tour. The idea here is to create a 2 hour non-stop party and you really get that in the end. It was simply really good, do not miss it if you have the chance. See you in 2 years Madonna...

Happy Birthday M

Today, August 16, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone turns fifty, proving that 50 is the new 35. Thank you for the music, the visuals, the freedom, the liberation and those killer dance moves. Happy birthday to you! Keep on cracking that whip...

Madonna - Hard Candy

[review by JP]

Madonna’s 2005 "Confessions on a Dancefloor" album placed her on a future-disco mood where there was some intention to mix the freedom and joy of a dance song with the deepness of some of the ideas expressed in the lyrics. But truth to be told, the album lacked intimacy between her and the listener. For die-hard Madonna fans, the darkness of some of her best songs such as “Substitute For Love”, “Paradise (Not For Me)”, “I Deserve It” or “X-Static Process” was missing. Even if enjoyable and highly successful, I think the record was a bit of an empty affair.

Fast-forward to 2008 and there she is again. And this time there’s the best of the two Madonna’s in the same “candy” package. There’s the Madonna who screams the joy of dance and freedom on tracks such as “Give It 2 Me” or “Heartbeat”, with such lyrics as “Can’t you see when I dance I feel free?” reminding us that the cool young girl who wrote songs such as "Into the Groove" has gone nowhere. But if, like me, you really enjoy her more personal writing, there’s some goodies in the bag as well. More about each song:

Candy Shop
The album's opener is a dirty little track where the lyrics reveal a sense of humor that she hasn’t used for a while in her writing. “My sugar is raw / sticky and sweet” she sings over a clever hip-hop meets electronica arrangement created by Pharrell Williams. Great opener for the record, a very seducing invitation to her “store”.

4 Minutes
The first single, a duet with Justin Timberlake. It’s actually one of the least effective tracks on the album, a great beat but somehow over-produced. She sounds lost in the middle of the production (blame Timbaland) and it’s just an odd choice for the first single since there are much better tracks on this confection.

Give It 2 Me
Ok so now we’re talking, Madonna and Pharrell turn the fun booster on in this bouncy track that will be the record’s second single. It’s mostly a self-empowering song that will get everyone dancing. “What are you waiting for, nobody’s gonna show you how” she sings, adding that “When the lights go down and there’s no one left I can go on and on”. As if we didn’t know that. Pharrell’s clever production joins electro elements, an amazing breakdown where they sing “Get stupid! Get stupid!” and it’s a total sugar high.

Heartbeat
Still Pharrell on the dance-floor with Madonna, where she asks us “Don’t you know, can’t you see? / When I dance I feel free". Everyone knows and loves this Madonna. Still very electro over an hip-hop arrangement, something that I quite like on this record. One of the best tracks.

Miles Away
Back to Timbaland, this isn’t by any way a ballad but it’s very mid-tempo and beautiful. Accoustic guitars, strong dry beats, and some great lyrics where she says “I guess we’re at our best when we’re miles away / You always have the biggest heart when we’re six thousand miles apart” (now we know not everything is perfect inside the Ritchie’s family house). Very personal lyrics but all in a perfect-pop fashion. This will be played to death by radios everywhere, write it down.

She’s Not Me
Back to Pharrell for another one of the album’s highlights. This starts like a disco song about a relationship gone wrong, where she says that whatever the new lover can bring the guy, she’s not her and she never will be. The track is very funky and by the second half, it turns really electro as well. I love what Pharrell did here, the song is very rich and kind of takes you on a sonic journey. He guest vocals in the end and his singing is totally amazing! Wendy Melvoin, the guitarist of Prince and The Revolution fame, funks up the guitar hook on this one.

Incredible
Very close to the previous one in structure but very melodic and I’m hearing this can be a single. It’s kind of like she’s saying she wants to go back to the first days of a relationship where everything is perfect and beautiful. I get the sense that she’s not 100% happy in her marriage, or at least the lyrics on “Hard Candy” seem to reflect that (and Madonna does write her own lyrics, she always did, even if she gets her co-producers to shape them into the song).

The Beat Goes On
Very different to the leaked version that surfaced online a few months ago. That was simply a demo, here she and Pharrell go nuts and fuck up the elements of that demo. Pharrell does the back-chorus singing “Get down / Beep beep!” and it’s great fun. Kanye West drops by for a guest rap and it fits perfectly. One of the best songs of the package.

Dance 2Night
Back with Justin Timberlake again, it’s like a late 70’s / early 80’s disco tune where they both do a bit of a “boy meets girl on the dance-floor” escapism thing. Very nice, I sense an early Michael Jackson influence here but maybe it’s just me.

Spanish Lesson
Ok, this is the worst track here. Latin beats and guitars and very cliché lyrics. It’s not bad but it’s the filler of the album. You can listen to it and have fun but it’s very empty.

Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
As the album gets closer to the end the lyrics get more dense, which by now is a common Madonna standard (“Secret Garden”, “Mer Girl”, “Gone”, “Easy Ride”, “Like it or Not”...). I’m not into this song because Timbaland re-uses a lot of his own clichés, think "Cry Me a River". It’s a huge ballad with great lyrics and it would have an impact on the US Top 40 but nothing close to the creative heights of what she achieved with Pharrell on the previous tracks.

Voices
Love this one. Starts with an acapella of Justin asking “Who is the master and who is the slave?” and the whole thing is like questioning if you are walking the dog or the dog is walking you. Very clever lyrics and a huge orchestral instrumentation. She’s singing about someone who has demons and the whole thing just makes a fantastic end to the record.

So the verdict here is that it’s a way better record than “Confessions…” was. The lyrics are all great and the production is stellar. She achieves her best moments with Pharrell Williams on production, not Timbaland. Pharrell and Madonna go to the same levels of creative chemistry she had with Mirwais or William Orbit. To me, that makes this album the perfect blend of US street sound culture with a more european electronic sensibility that we know from her latest records.

Next, I hear she’s going on tour…

Music Videos # 78

Madonna (feat. Justin Timberlake) - 4 Minutes



The video rules and the song is OK though not her best, but the real treats are yet to come with "Hard Candy", an absolute stunner of an album. Great song-writing by an inspired icon, loads of sexy punchlines and a team of the best producers in town showing why they're on top of their game (was Pharrell high or what? His stuff is completely out of this world!)...resulting in one of the best pop albums the mainstream has seen in years. For now, my favourites include "She's Not Me" and "Incredible" with their amazing twists, the vintage delight that is "Dance 2night", the futuristic electro-funk vibes of "Hearbeat" and the brilliant "Give It 2 Me" with its hallucinating keyboards. Expect a more-detailed review soon!

Official site
MySpace page

Must-have objects for a survival kit # 6

Madonna - The Confessions Tour (DVD)



The title of this post actually says it all. Ok, I have to confess that i'm getting a little bit tired of this very-long Confessions-disco-diva-on-a-dancefloor era (don't blame me, it's been a lot of very intensive months with great music, nice videos, amazing shows and, well, also kids books, kids movies, leotards, bad hairdo's and babies adoptions), but to see this show again, this time on screen and so beautifully filmed and edited, equals pure ecstasy. She really is one of the best performers ever, no discussion there. As for the part seen above, it's one of my favourites of this tour, even if also being one of the most simple. To understand why, let's do a little rock-concert check-list of its contents:
- Rock chick with an attitude? Check.
- Glamorous clothes? Check.
- F-word shouted loud on the microphone? Check.
- Politicallly and sexually charged imagery? Check
- Blasting guitars in the end? Check
And, yes kids, she does say "If you go to Texas, you can suck George Bush's dick" and we do love her for that. Now on to my Madonna abstinence period (Björk, where are you?).

Best Of 2006: Top Concert

1. Madonna - Confessions Tour in Amsterdam (3rd & 4th of September)

Music Videos # 17

Madonna - Jump



Directed by Jonas Akerland, here's the fourth video to be taken from the Confessions on a Dancefloor album. Filmed in Tokyo during the final leg of her Confessions Tour, it revolves around the urban-free-style discipline known as Parkour. A simple and effective idea, beautifully done and with great shots, it's a quite a cool video, with a very fresh feeling, while she looks simply amazing in it.

Polaroids # 7

Madonna Confessions Tour (mobile-phone) pictures...




Seeing this girl in concert is always an intense experience. Her shows are a rollercoaster of sensory stimules, ideas, ideals, imaginaries, celebrations, raw sexuality, messages, images, sounds and thousands of screaming and adoring fans. And above all that there's her presence on stage, so full of a strong charisma as only an icon who's been around for almost 25 years can have. Yes, I was star-struck once again.

(pictures taken on the 3rd and 4th of September 2006 in Amsterdam Arena)

Home Videos # 2

Madonna - Lament (live)




Madonna - Music (live)



Tomorrow I'll be flying to Amsterdam and, besides other good things, my visit will also include seeing Madonna live once again, this time on the Confessions Tour. For the meantime, these are two videos I made two years ago, during the Re-Invention Tour stop in Lisbon.

(filmed on the 13-09-2004 in Pavilhão Atlântico, Lisbon)

Some music for summertime

El Perro Del Mar - El Perro Del Mar


Coming from Sweden, here's a wonderful surprise set to become this summer's perfect soundtrack, full of beautiful and ethereal pop melodies sung by a (not-so) innocent voice. To hear by the river/sea during sweet melancholic sunset afternoons.


Gilles Peterson Digs America - Brownswood USA


As a music fanatic, his record collection is so huge that he has to keep it all in a separate house known as Brownswood. Out of nowhere, here's another one of his selections, this time presenting 16 rare and vital funk/blues/soul/jazz lost pearls for us to discover.


Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions


First heard in the magnificent movie that was "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" by Wes Anderson, these are the versions that Seu Jorge, from Brasil, did for some classic David Bowie songs, armed only with an acoustic guitar, reinvented and inspired portuguese lyrics and the beautiful charm of the simplest things.


Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That


Elegant and simple melodies played with a natural teenage enthusiasm, in an album of infectious rock anthems by this french group. Fans include people like Sofia Coppola, who uses their songs in her movie soundtracks or Hedi Slimane, who designs their album covers.


Richard Dorfmeister vs Madrid De Los Austrias - Grand Slam


Nothing really new in this collection of remixes, but the "Vienna sound" trademark elegance is intact to keep us interested after so many years.


Four Tet - Dj-Kicks


Most recent installment from the DJ-Kicks series, this time coming from Kieran Hebden, a music scientist eclectic enough to mix Madvillain with Animal Collective, Cabaret Voltaire with Gong or Syclops with Curtis Mayfield. And it does so much sense.


Buraka Som Sistema - From Buraka To The World E.P.


Still not the album, but a good soundtrack for crazy nights with no inhibitions, from the "Progressive Kuduro" ambassadors.


Jay-Z - The Blueprint


From 2001, I've been listenning to this one a lot again. One of the best hip-hop albuns of all time, the perfect symbiosis between classic soul samples and innovative beats. Kanye West was one of the producers.


Wordsong - Pessoa (Dual CD+Book)


Summer is the perfect time for reading, so there couldn't be a better time to consume this multimedia project around Fernando Pessoa. It includes songs recreating his words, videos inspired by his imagery and a book with poems and an essay about this enigmatic portuguese writer.


Madonna - I'm Going To Tell You A Secret (DVD + CD)


A DVD documenting her previous 2004 tour, showing us how's life on the road for a world icon and what's in her mind these days. Features a bonus CD with some audio selections from the Re-Invention shows, bringing back good memories (and a good aperitif while waiting to see the Confessions Tour in September).

Music videos # 7

Madonna - Get Together


Some people just eat too much mushrooms and whoever made this clip is surely one of them. With that said, we have to confess that we do love this cool animated video, totally fitting with the mood of the song. Which, by the way, is one of her best singles in years.
See it here.

Confessions Tour - first show

Madonna has kicked off her Confessions Tour last Sunday in L.A. to rave reviews from both press and public. MTV.com has a nice description of the show and setlist here.
As always, there's already some controversy, especially regarding the hanging-in-the-cross act during "Live To Tell". The L.A. Times has made a very interesting analysis about it that pretty much applies to her entire career:
"...In the nearly two-hour show's most obviously controversial sequence, the 47-year-old was positioned on a giant steel mesh cross, singing her poignant ballad "Live To Tell" while pictures of suffering children swirled about her. What was so fascinating wasn't the message of compassion this outspoken children's advocate attached to her heretical stance; it was the way she held it, arms outstretched and face serious, for the entire song, until the shock wore off and it seemed less like blasphemy than an ardent attempt to understand what makes such an image so compelling. If the dizzyingly elaborate Confessions revue said anything in particular, it was that images - Madonna's stock in trade - have a way of veering out of control and gaining new meanings..." (Taken from an article by Ann Powers, The Los Angeles Times.)

Iconic Images # 2

Madonna photographed by Steven Klein, W Magazine, June 2006 issue

Iconic Images # 1

Must-have objects for a survival kit #2

Confessions Tour Ticket


Hard to get and quite expensive, but it doesn't matter at all: being at a Madonna's concert is a mandatory out-of-this-world experience.

Madonna - Confessions Tour

Madonna has announced the dates of her new world tour, which will start on the 21st of May in Los Angeles. She will be playing in the United States until July and then will come to Europe, with shows in the U.K., Italy, Germany, Denmark, France and Holland, before ending in Japan in September.
Click here to see a clip from her performance of "I love New York" (best song on her latest album, among with Get Together, Future Lovers and Hung Up), which took place last November, in an intimate show in London broadcasted live through the internet.

Music Videos # 1

Madonna - American Life (the uncensored version)


Directed by Jonas Akerlund, this is one of the strongest Madonna videos but it was also one of the causes for the backlash she suffered in 2003, due to its political anti-war messages during a very sensitive time (America was about to invade Iraq). Full of comments towards not only the war but also the material world most western people live in, it eventually suffered a lot of cuts. Then, on its first day of release, she ended up pulling out the final version and replacing it by a very weak and bland video, where she basically was standing still and singing in front of a variety of flags.
If you would like to see the original uncensored version, click here.

Underrated Projects # 1

Madonna - American Life (2003 album)


This was Madonna as we had never seen her before. Political, angry and interventional, she was raising questions and wanted us to hear. Her song-writing skills were the strongest ever, while Mirwais - the producer - took his trademark minimal dry-beats sound to the extreme. The result was a strong and cohesive album, full of protest music and confessional lyrics but also love songs and pure pop sounds. Musically, it touched everything, from folk to french techno, garage rock, electronica, hip-hop or even tango.
Unfortunately, it was out during a Madonna-backlash period and ended up being her least popular album ever. Still, along with The First Album and Erotica, this is probably one of her best works to date.