Dust off your disco shoes. She’s back.
TSHE WAS once the undisputed Queen Of Pop, a woman whose blonde ambition made her unstoppable. But in recent years, many fans had begun to say a little prayer for the musical health of Madonna.
The singer’s last two albums, 2000’ s Music and 2003’ s American Life, were wayward affairs, bedevilled by poor lyrics, tentative rhythms and a lack of hummable tunes. Even last year’s Reinvention tour seemed like a desperate attempt to halt the slide.
But fear not. Madonna is returning to reclaim her dance- pop crown with a record that pushes her, feet-first, back into club culture.
Confessions On A Dance Floor, out Monday, is not only the former Ms Ciccone’s best album since 1998’s Ray Of Light. It’s a non- stop, rhythm- driven tour de force that ranks alongside anything she made in her chart-conquering heyday.
Madonna, her self- confidence surely dented by the cool reception of American Life, has gone back to basics. That means a return to the spirit of the New York clubs where she cut her teeth.
She describes the new album as ‘future disco’, but there’s a strong retro feel to the 12 tracks here.
Some will claim that dressing up in a pink leotard and stilettos and getting down and dirty ’neath a disco ball isn’t a particularly dignified way for a 47-yearold mother- of-two to behave.
That won’t bother Madonna, who has never been one to grow old gracefully. Singing with assurance, she carries off this latest reinvention with aplomb.
Part of the credit should go to her latest creative partner, producer Stuart Price. As musical director on her last two tours, Price knows Madonna better than most, and his electronic rhythms dovetail perfectly with her distinctive voice.
Madonna and Price also observe one of the basic rules of great dance music: people might shuffle their feet to throbbing rhythms, but a barnstorming dance anthem is nothing without a decent tune — and Confessions On A Dancefloor is chock-a-block with them.
Current single Hung Up, a souped-up cover of Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme, sets the tone. Kylie- esque, it might be aimed at Madonna’s large gay following, but its slick, sexy appeal is universal and it’s no surprise that it is almost certain to top the charts this Sunday.
From that point on, the highlights come thick and fast. Get Together is a trancelike number which marries ambient keyboards to a strong hook. Sorry, a future single, borrows the bassline from Can You Feel It by The Jacksons.
Future Lovers finds Madonna repeating the phrase ‘ give me evidence of its brilliance’ against an undulating synthesiser backing reminiscent of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love.
HE SINGER’S nostalgia for her
roots is also evident on I Love
New York: ‘I don’t like cities, but
I like New York/ Other places
make me feel like a dork/ Los Angeles is for people who sleep/Paris and London, baby, you can keep.’
Given that all but two of the tracks here were recorded in the UK, one should take her dismissal of London with a large pinch of salt.
Elsewhere, Price’s layered electronic instrumentation returns on Let It Will Be, Forbidden Love and Jump — the latter another surefire hit in the making.
The momentum slackens only in the album’s final third, with the ponderous Push and the Eastern-influenced Isaac.
But Confessions rallies to end defiantly with Like It Or Not, the only track to blend acoustic guitar into the mix.
‘ This is who I am/ You can like it or not/You can love me or leave me/‘Cause I’m never going to stop.’
You have been warned.