Madonna - Crave - Single [Review]

"Crave" is technically the third single from Madonna's upcoming studio album Madame X (due for release on June 14th, 2019). (I saw a fellow fan on Facebook say that Madonna has apparently announced that "Crave" is the album's second official single, but I am saying third because we have thus far had "Medellín," "I Rise," and now "Crave" all released as singles, but I guess that "I Rise" is intended as a promotional single and not an actual official single.) Although I am still a bit apprehensive about the direction of Madame X (as I discussed in my reviews of the first two singles here and here), a little bit of faith has been restored after having heard "Crave" because I really like this one, and it's my favorite song of the three that we have heard thus far. The track begins with acoustic guitar under Madonna's opening verse: "I'm tired of being far away from home, far from what can help, far from where it's safe. Hope it's not too late. Rush, rush, rush on you. Love, love, loved on you. Love you like a fool, put my trust in you." The first line of the song about being tired of being far away from home is likely inspired by Madonna's actually being far away from home, as she has been spending a great deal of time in Portugal (which is said to have inspired the Latin flavor of the overall album, which one can definitely hear in "Medellín"). I really love the pacing and rhythm of Madonna's verses, and although the song does have a bit of a generic R&B beat to it (something that I have seen a lot of fans negatively criticize, which I can totally understand), I overall love the song for what it is - a catchy and above average pop song. I even like Swae Lee (whose name I recognize from his collaboration with Post Malone titled "Sunflower") being featured on the song even though I usually don't much care for rappers being featured on pop artists' songs. (Nas, for example, ruined the final version of Madonna's song "Veni Vidi Vici" on her most recent album Rebel Heart.) Lee also contributes some singing (not just rapping) to the song, and I really like his singing voice. (I am even tempted to check out his own discography to see if there is anything that I might like, since I also like the aforementioned "Sunflower" song.) The song is lyrically pretty straightforward, as it is about being deeply attracted to and maybe even addicted to someone: "You're the one I crave," Madge sings in the song's chorus, "and my cravings get dangerous" (reminding me a bit of the Rebel Heart song "Addicted" in which she uses phrases such as "the drug that I crave" and "I'm attracted to the dark"). "Crave" is, as I said, very catchy and is definitely the catchiest of the three songs so far, but I really, really hope that I am wrong about Madame X. I have seen some fans (including a friend of mine) say that Madonna used to set trends but now follows them, and I, for the most part, agree. "Crave" (as much as I truly love it) does seem to be following a trend, but one reason why I love Rebel Heart as much as I do is that I feel like, for the most part, Madonna was just doing what she wanted to do on that album without worrying too much about current trends; it is, after all, definitely not a very mainstream album, with the lead single "Living for Love" even calling back to the gospel flavor of "Like a Prayer." I seriously doubt that Madame X is going to top Rebel Heart (I mean regarding quality, not financial success), but as a longtime Madonna fan, I am still, of course, eager to hear what more the album has to offer.