Bang! Shot You Dead!
The stereo is on. The disc is in (shall I say, the iPod is docked?). You can turn off the lights if you want. Get comfortable. Press play.
The good news is that you have 3:43 to prepare yourself. The other news (no, it ain’t bad news) it is that in less than 4 minutes (uh-uh 4 minutes)
your Madonna experience will not be the same again.
If you’ve loved Girl Gone Wild, you’ll be happy – there’s no doubt the song is the perfect album opener. Think of what Give Me All Your Luvin’ was to
the Super Bowl half time show, “girl” does the same to MDNA. It’s great to listen to at full volume (did I mention you should pump it up?) and if you
didn’t fancy it that much at first sight, chances are that it’s now growing on you as we speak, and you’ll be happy when you hear it in the album, too.
But then…
Bang!
I couldn’t go through this song without some smiles. I don’t think this is exactly what Madonna meant when she used to mention the “smiley” side of
the album courtesy of Meur Solveig, though. While listening to Gang Bang I smiled, I grinned, I laughed. In an hysterical way.
I felt fooled. I felt raped. I felt owned.
We will probably never know who Madonna is being shooting in Gang Bang (and she wants to shoot over, and over, and over, and over), but I
certainly felt like I could be one good target. Well no, don’t call me delusional. I don’t think I’m so important at all. But Gang Bang shouts “you silly,
what were you expecting from me in this record?” from the beginning to the end.
Now we’re really getting into the MDNA mood. I felt the song was a complete twist from Girl Gone Wild, I felt displaced, confused, boozed. And still, it has all the M-DNA in. It is violent, but not because of the things Madonna sings, whispers, or shouts. It’s a punch in the stomach also musically, it’s huge, it’s loud and it is so damned good.
“Gang Bang” shifted the listening session completely. As I was looking around to the faces of the bunch of people in the room, I saw some other smiling, too. I heard laughs. And I felt someone was a little petrified.
Yes, this should have come unexpected. I remember someone described GMAYL as “Avril Lavigne on ketamine”, and having the chance to see the very same person and test his reaction live while listening to Gang Bang was priceless.
And it got even better as the album went on.
End of Part Two.