Madonna - confessions on a dancefloor

Thirty years after moving from Michigan to New York to look for success, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, at the age of 46, releases her 14th album since her debut ‘Madonna’ in 1983. Once again she continues her formula of collaborating and composing closely with different producers to reinvent herself. This time it is a disco ride to surprise those that thought she would never emerge from her 90’s spiritual and political bubble. For a moment we thought we lost Madonna as she found herself, but she turns around here with anashamed dance pop, exactly what most fans were missing from her last two albums. The hooks are there, but despite the title, it never actually confesses as much as ‘American life’ did. From the clever Abba-sampling opening single it’s filter house all the way, lush arrangements, and only one breakbeat near the end to break the wanted dance monotony. On ‘I love New York’ she bitches in true style: ‘If you don’t like my attitude then you can F-off’. At First it’s the second single ‘Sorry’ which stands out. This is one of the best Madonna hits in years and it sticks like another ‘Into the groove’. No wonder you might hear the Green Velvet remix twice in the early Sunday morning hours on Sliver’s dancefloor. The tag on the cd cover promises a future plug track ‘Jump’. When this will be released we don’t know yet, but it’s a standout, written with her brother in law, alt-country star Joe Henry, who also wrote one of her previous hits ‘Don’t tell me’ and even recorded a lesser known but beautiful duet with her. With only slight variations in tempo, the album plays almost like a clubmix, though tracks never go on for too long, except maybe for third last track ‘Isaac’ which could snugly have fit on Ray of Light. This is what Madonna should sound like, now that she has explored far enough to return to form, and the proof of the pudding is that she is in vogue yet again. Fans can look out for a new Madonna documentary entitled ‘Im going to tell you a secret’and a limited edition Confessions Remixed album that has just been released.