God Control
It is an experimental pop, disco, hi-NRG and electropop song and features the Tiffin Children's Chorus repeating "We lost god control" all throughout.
On June 26, an accompanying music video directed by Jonas Åkerlund was released; it interspersed footage of Madonna as her alter ego Madame X with scenes of a nightclub where a shooting takes place.
[12] On one particular section, there is a rap ;– compared by some critics to the vocal style she used on her 1990 album I'm Breathless and electronic duo Daft Punk – to sing "Each new birth it gives me hope / that's why I don't smoke that dope" and talks about her brain being "her only friend".
[13] Spooner said he had created the song's melody when Mirwais asked him to rewrite the lyrics and mix the audio of a demo for his solo album, in which he wanted to sing in English about American politics.
[14] When Spooner first heard the melody to "God Control", he felt it was too similar to the one he had created and accused the producer of using his work without permission; he then posted a snippet, comparing both songs, on his Instagram account.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic, wrote that "darkness hangs heavy [on the album], surfacing fiercely in the clenched-mouth phrasing on 'God Control'.
"[16] Variety's Jeremy Helligar deemed it, alongside previous track "Dark Ballet", as one of the moments in Madame X where "true weirdness sets in", and "the closest Madonna may ever come to her own 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
[19] Louise Bruton from The Irish Times, stated that the song is "an experimental stand against authoritarianism and gun control through distorted Black Mirror-style pop ... to basically shake our shoulders and tell us to wake up, sheeple".
Nonetheless, he called it an "irresistible take on Philadelphia soul" and praised it for being both "a camp commentary on the way people can dance in the face of crisis" and "catchy and amusing".
[12] Wren Graves, from online magazine Consequence of Sound, listed "God Control" as one of the standout tracks in Madame X; "Madonna's ambitions aren't merely musical.
"[27] During an interview with People, Madonna said one of the main reasons she made a video for "God Control" were her kids; "I send my children to school with the same fear every mother in this era has [...] It's really scary to me that the once-safe spaces where we gather, worship and learn are targets.
[29] Told through flashbacks in reverse chronological order, it begins with Madonna as her alter ego Madame X, wearing a short black wig and sitting at a typewriter typing the song's lyrics, interspersed with footage of the shooting at a New York Studio 54-like nightclub.
[34] Other scenes feature Madonna being assaulted on her way to the nightclub, a children's choir singing at a church vigil and footage of protests against guns and the National Rifle Association of America (NRA).
[29][31] It ends with the phrase "Wake Up", and a quote from civil rights activist and Black Panther member Angela Davis, "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
Ryan Reed from Rolling Stone, said it touched the theme of society's inability to restrict gun ownership, and that certain scenes were a contrast of "the joy of nightclub dancing" and "the brutality of a mass shooting".
The scene in which the singer is assaulted could be seen as a reference to her 1989 video for "Like a Prayer", in which Madonna witnesses a young woman being sexually attacked by a group of men.
[31] The author also pointed out framed photos of Frida Kahlo, Simone de Beauvoir, Patti Smith and Martha Graham hanging on the walls around Madonna's desk; this last one, according to the artist, christened her with the nickname "Madame X" in the late 1970s.
[37] Spencer Kornhaben said that the graphic tones of the video took away the song's "ambiguity and subtext", and criticized it for glamourizing trauma and "amplifying it", without "pushing the conversation anywhere new".
[41] Madonna first performed "God Control" during her appearance at Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019; she wore an eye-patch with an X, which was designed in the colors of the rainbow flag, while her background dancers were decked as police officers wielding combat shields.
[42] Billboard praised the "visually powerful live performance ... replete with detailed choreography and a disco groove that had the crowd gyrating and shimmying".
[45] Madonna then appeared, decked in a glittery Revolutionary War attire and a feathered tricorne hat, to sing the song while being bounced between two police officers' shields;[46] the performance featured two staircases, that moved and dismantled throughout the show, and cops attacking dancers under a video montage of news footage.
[23][47][48] On her review of one of the concert at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre, Kelli Syke Fadroski opined that "it was a bit unnerving to hear dozens of gunshot sound effects echo through a very dark venue.
