And just WHAT do we think of "Give Me All Your Love"?

It's been a long time coming. The length of time between Hard Candy and the leaking of "Give Me All Your Love", the rumoured lead single for the new Madonna era, is the single longest period between any two Madonna albums so far. The period saw the release of a definitive greatest hits collection, two new 'lifestyle' lines and an entire new film, so it's not like she was sitting at home watching Loose Women and wishing she was bezzies with Denise Welch. But true Madonna fans couldn't give a fuck (LaToya) about any of that shit - it's the music which matters foremost, every time.

We've written about our excitement/uncertainties of the producers M is working with (Martin Solveig is the main producer/songwriter while the wizard behind Ray of Light, William Orbit, is executive producing) before and this was the first chance we've had to appraise the results. On first listen, the only thought our brains could process apart from "THIS IS A NEW MADONNA SONG THIS IS A NEW MADONNA SONG THIS IS A NEW MADONNA SONG" was "Okay... Beautiful Stranger". The dreamy 60s surf-pop sound is floating in the background, behind surprisingly infectious cheerleading chants - we were uncertain how they would work but we're pleased with the final product. The lyrical quality on the whole is a tad poor, but the song progression and chorus especially are rapturous and attention-snatching. Vocally, she sounds so passionate - angry and happy and bursting with life and energy. Maybe this break from music was totally what she needed to be excited about creating music again.

As a lead single, we do feel like it falls short of the standard set before. Madonna is renowned for opening each game-changing era with an equally game-changing lead single - think of them. Okay maybe not the first album (hey there "Everybody") but since then - "Like a Virgin", "Live to Tell", "Like a Prayer" (undefeated song of the century), "Erotica", "Secret", "Frozen", "Music", "American Life", "Hung Up" (possibly her finest lead single ever) and even poor old "4 Minutes" all had that immediate "Wow, what the fuck is this?" feeling upon first listen. As much as we enjoy "Give Me All Your Love" and feel that great rush each time with further listens, we feel like it would make a much more exciting second single... the lead single needs to have that magical spark which is somehow just missing.

To summarise: if we weren't that excited before for the new Madonna era, we bloody well are now. Hurray!

(PS we'll discuss Nicola Roberts another time)