In the evidence of its brilliance

Madonna – Confessions on a Dancefloor : Theres no doubt about it, a new Madonna album certainly creates a stir, perfectly timed for the holiday season, perfectly timed for a ‘keynote’ appearance on the MTV Europe Awards (where she was pretty damn good) and perfectly timed for an all out assault on the media. Its obviously planned -and it works every time, so its no surprise that she ends up at number one. All of that is no good, unless you have some decent product to back it all up – and once again Madonna delivers the goods – drafting in Stuart Price to give the whole thing a smooth, cutting edge feel. Its a full on dancefloor attack – sequenced like a dance mix and moving through styles of disco (and house) seamlessly…from the opening track ‘Hung Up’ with its clever Abba sample – and ‘Get Together’ which apes the compressed string sounds of much of the French Disco of the last 5 years – not surprising as Mirwais is still involved in some of the writing. The stand-out track for me is ‘Future Lovers’ – with a Moroder styled bassline which reminds me of Donna Summer from the 1980′s. Overall, its a good Madonna album – not a standout in the market, but as the title of my post suggests a cleverly calculated return to form for one of pop musics most enduring females.