Madonna News

Oct30

Sticky & Sweet Tour in Chicago - Slant Magazine Review

It’s Madonna’s job to create buzz. Hence the name of her Sticky & Sweet Tour—only slightly less misleading than her 2004 Re-Invention Tour, which suggested a career change but settled for a big-band version of “Deeper and Deeper.” In her latest show, Madge enters stage in an “M”-encrusted throne grinding to “Candy Shop,” but it’s not quite the 50-year-old porn romp you might expect. By the time she transitions to “Human Nature” and Britney Spears shows up in a video trapped in an elevator and echoing, “I’m not your bitch/Don’t hang your shit on me,” it’s the same as all her shows: A remixed mind-fuck.

Before “4 Minutes,” the Top 5 duet with Justin Timberlake, it had been seven years since a Madonna single seriously contended on mainstream radio. (Part of me wanted to think she was selling out with Hard Candy. The same artist who sampled Main Source on “Human Nature” was suddenly tapping…Timbaland? But then the Pharrell-produced “Heartbeat” and “Give It 2 Me” are both as pure and as fake as anything she’s made since her debut 25 years ago.) But as always, she’s also in the news for a couple other things: her directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, and her maybe-it-did-maybe-it-didn’t-happen affair with Alex Rodriguez, which prompted Adam Sternbergh in New York to theorize that her “true art” is that “she’s so good at making us talk about her.” It’s a clich

4 Responses to “Sticky & Sweet Tour in Chicago - Slant Magazine Review”

  1. Jon says:
    November 1, 2008 at 4:45 am

    Really great insightful review.

  2. khosrow says:
    November 1, 2008 at 1:07 am

    American life is one of the best back to basic socio-political folk albums of all time.

  3. khosrow says:
    November 1, 2008 at 12:51 am

    This is so true: ” She makes the rules, but she also breaks them”.

  4. Marcus says:
    October 31, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Slant always does the best reviews on pop culture efforts (be it albums, live concerts or movies)… I was specially thrilled by their reviews of Erotica (13 years after its release) and American life (an updated review made this year), cause they managed to out on words my personal feelings towards both of those albums. If anyone is interested here are the links:

    Erotica:
    http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=396

    American Life:
    http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=1430