Madonna to write an album of ballads with help from Adele

Madonna is hanging up her pointy bras and fishnets as she swaps dance music for a 'grown up' album of ballads - thanks to Adele.

Queen of reinvention Madge has asked the 25-year-old songstress, to help her, promising in return to write a song for Adele's next record.

'They have met in London and plan a writing session to produce a track for each other's new albums,' says a source close to Madonna.

From MOS Diary

Comments

[Rabbitbunny]

Once again, Madonna will Live to Tell and Take a Bow! Another Masterpiece for my Ray of Light?

[Rabbitbunny]

I am pleased with the news. Ballads are Madonna's real forte. There, you can hear her sadness and her scars! I am crazy for her! Live to Tell Madonna! Another Masterpiece?

[Sean]

@ Emma: I'm not normally the kind of person to respond back to a message or comment as, truth be told, i generally can't be bothered but as i have a few minutes to spare and in the spirit of the twitter 'i have to tell everyone everything about my life and day, privacy is overrated' generation that we now live in (and which i have up to this point avoided), i thought, 'Why the hell not!' 'Masterpiece' was NOT an official single release in the UK. It reached 68 in the UK singles charts as a result of digital downloads from the MDNA album only. It was released as a radio single promo to the album around the time of the 'W/E' film release to help promote both the movie and upcoming album but not as an official single release. Irrespective, it's one of the highlights in the album and would be a sound i'd be up for hearing in the new one - just not an entire album's worth.

[Mad on You]

I don't mind her working with Adele. Madonna can capture emotion well in her voice and Adele's songs are sophisticated. I can see this working. I want her to work with Patrick Leonard, Stephen Bray and William Orbit. I want to hear a pop album with good ballads and mid tempo songs. Maybe a few dance. The lyrics need to be meaningful. I don't want her to push the cutting edge stuff with new popular producers that are making the hits. She needs to trust her own instincts now. She's Madonna. I want her to take the reigns of her career again and stop juggling projects. I want to hear her on the radio again. I miss her music.

[Ed Jones]

hope not, agree with eugenia. Fair enough some slow songs, but i'm wanting a dance tour again before she hits her 60's.

[Emmy]

@Sean: 'Masterpiece' WAS a single in the UK and did receive airplay on some stations. It bombed.

[Scotty P]

I am also pleased by this news. I've been on board for all her recent LPs. But what I really wanted was an album with ballads PLUS mid-tempo and non-dance pop: "I'll Remember," "Don't Tell Me," "Secret" type songs. A few mid-tempos would break up potential ballad overkill. But I'll take it!

[Seadonna]

I think this may be true a little bit. I don't think Madonna will do a complete album of ballads. However, this album will be probably more ballad infused along with some up-tempo stuff. I think she is going with a new refreshed sound. Madonna has always been great/smart at the music game so she knows what she's doing. In my humble opinion she should work with "Phantogram" they would definitely give her a unique/experimental sound. The next tour will be similar to "Drowned World" to help introduce to the new Madonna era...mark my words :-)

[Pablo Cancino]

I detest Adele, I think it will come true because Madonna said she loves that singer, but this is all about fashion, she should work with Patrick Leonard, reinvention must come from your heart and mind, not from Billboard top hits. That girl will try to make sound Madonna "fresh and new", like a virgin,

[Sean]

This is definitely an interesting idea, though i doubt Adele needs Madonna to help her write or produce a tune. Let's face it, the best tracks on 'MDNA' were the unreleased ballads 'Masterpiece' and 'Falling Free' and while Madonna is no Celine Dion (thank God) she can produce good slow songs and ballads despite her limited musical range. Indeed, some of her best tracks of all time are within the genre ('Crazy for You' probably one of the best slow/love songs of all time). However, while i do think this is a good idea i hope it's not a strategic attempt to get airplay in America again by producing some of the same dire smush that she did with 'Something to Remember' in a PR response to the Sex book/'Erotica' backlash - an album of 'One More Chance' singles i can do without. If its sincere and the tracks are well written and the aim is electro-ballad like 'Frozen' then i'm 100% in support. In fact, an album in the vein of 'Frozen' would be amazing. I just hope, when and if it materialises, that it will be something to remember and not a reductive, derivitive set of 12 banal slow songs that are well produced but which she cannot sing live or it really will be 'Take a Bow'.

[fulya]

Singing Madonna!

[Emmy]

Wow! Something to Remember is one of my fave M albums, so fingers crossed!!!

[Anoir]

OMG I love this concept, and I love Adele.

[nicotor]

YesYesyes, finally!!!!

[M-bot]

If it's true, it should be more than a songwriting opportunity. Why work with Adele if she isn't going to improve your voice too? M should think about that & go for big vocals that can't be ruined by choreography.

[Gary R]

An album of ballads? Ugh. Madonna technically already released an album of ballads, Something to remember. I hope this is not true because let's face it, M has limited time left to continue doing dance music and put on big tours with alot of dance. If she does an album of ballads it will probably be a year before it's released and then she will spend months on promotion. She "might" even do a tour, a scaled down one in my estimation. Anyhow, my point is that if she does this it would probably be 3 years after that that we would get a dance album and Madonna will be in her late 50's then. I would have no problem if she put out dance music into her 80's, but critics are gonna be all over her. I think we can all agree that we would like a dance/pop/electronic album from madonna over an all ballads album. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[dknowles]

Wishful thinking. This is not true. It would be a dream-come-true for so MANY disillusioned fans like myself who have grown up. We want a matured, respectable and grown-up Madonna. But sadly, she has preferred to make a mockery of herself on Instagram on a daily basis, looking desperate and sad.

[Eugenia]

This is terrible news. The pop scene has nothing to offer Madonna anymore and she should not be pursuing it as such. If she continues to do "normal" pop, she won't be able to compete with the other, younger names in the industry.

What Madonna must do -- now that she had her fun of a "safe" album like her latest one was -- is to go more experimental. In other words, she needs to bring to herself a new awakening. Her second awakening was in 1998, with "Ray of Light", where she completely changed the name of the game. To compete today, she must do the same thing.

To do that today, she needs to be working with Indie experimental artists, like Grizzly Bear, Broken Bells, Animal Collective, Forest Swords, John Maus, etc That's where the cool stuff is today, not at "industrial pop".

Madonna hasn't done anything interesting musically in the last 2 albums. In my opinion (and I'm not trolling, I'm serious about these suggestions), if she doesn't get with the program to reinvent herself musically and become relevant again by way of Indie, she is going to get further typecasted and she will enter her older artistic age with the same way we consider Sinatra, or Tony Bennett. Old style, boring stuff that is. Doing a duet with Adele will bring such a long term result IMHO.

[ngl]

I really hope this musical project happens- Madonna excels with ballads! It's been so long since Madonna has made a 'grown up' album of ballads- this is exactly the direction Madonna should be taking.

[Mixie]

About time. Most of her best songs were ballads. And hopefully she'll keep the 'guest' singers away, since they all suck.