MDNA - Madonna
Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 34
  3. Negative: 2 out of 34
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  1. Beats Per Minute (formerly One Thirty BPM)
    Mar 28, 2012
    35
    I'd say that MDNA is at the very least "not bad," but frankly, it's worse than bad: it's mediocre.
  2. Uncut
    May 2, 2012
    30
    Madonna's 12th album has a good title and a nice cover, but that's almost as much as you can say in its favour. [Jun 2012, p.77]
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 251 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 95 out of 133
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 133
  3. Negative: 26 out of 133
  1. doc2be
    9
    Absolute cracker of a record! Some of the best songs of her career here. Not your average POP album. An eclectic mix of music genres with a Madonna flavour. Sadly the user average is brought down by "reviewers" rating it 0, but then gave Gagas very mediocre Born this Way a 10...suss much?… Full Review »
  2. madmandonna
    8
    MDNA is a return to form after the lackluster Hard Candy. The album feels a lot more like a Madonna album and manages to take risks where her more recent releases have failed to do so. The singles are a bad indication of how good the album actually is, Give me all your luvin' the first single that failed to ignite the charts is the worst song on the album, whilst Girl Gone wild though good is so generic it hurts. MDNA has some song though better than your average filler track by the likes of Pink and Gaga, are still very much by-th-numbers filler tracks, Turn up the radio for example is fun but doesn't really try very hard, as the bubble gum style superstar. Where the album is better is on tracks like I'm a sinner, love spent and falling free (all William Orbit productions) where the vocal, lyrics and music work together with love spent being a personal favourite with its banjo segments that are just so bizarrely amazing. Masterpiece is another good track, a lovely melody, flickers of spanish guitar and one the better songs lyrically. The stand out track is the darkly harsh revenge song Gang Bang, though a long track, it sublimely sinister and sexy as hell and thankfully lifts the first half of the album up.

    MDNA is both fresh, rehashed and commercial. Its very odd how she can stand out and yet blend in. She always kind of done this, especially with the albums Music and Ray of light, and though MDNA isn't as flawless as Ray Of Light nor as clever as Music it finds a middle ground, probably on par with Confessions on a dance floor, which was as a whole album amazing but with only 2 or 3 stand out songs you couldn't take it in small doses and miles better than the kind of boring American Life and the mis-guided Hard Candy. I would reccommend Hard Candy to all Madonna fans and to casual listeners I'd recommend downloading Gang Bang, I'm a sinner and Masterpiece. 8/10    … Full Review »
  3. cosmic_lover
    10
    The queen of pop is always at her best when people try to write her off. On MDNA Madonna successfully returns to what she does best: high-energy disco mixed with soulful ballads.… Full Review »
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