On Confessions on a Dance Floor Madonna returns to her roots

A genuine global superstar, packing stadiums worldwide with her astonishing stage spectacles, Madonna, a multi-Grammy winner, has made music history with international sales of over 200 million albums. Her enormous influence has spanned 33 number one dance hits; five chart topping albums and 46 Top 40 singles and 20 MTV Video Music Awards. A cultural innovator of astonishing diversity and enduring appeal, Madonna has defined our era with her sound, style and vision that has inspired countless artists and fans around the globe. In the process she has pioneered a new model of creative empowerment, overseeing a multi-faceted career that encompasses virtually every aspect of contemporary culture. Anyone who thought Madonna might have abdicated as the Queen of Pop can kneel at her throne once more. On Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna returns unapologetically to her roots. It is an hour of pure electronic dance/pop heaven. There are no gaps between tracks so listening feels like you are having a private DJ session. It is a stunning blend of musical styles with one foot in early disco and the other pointed toward the future.

All-dance and ballad-free

The sounds on this record are deliriously saturated, the dynamics piquantly tooled. The first single, Hung Up, sets the throbbing agenda. The next single, Sorry, sees Madonna taking a lover to task over an insistent dance-pop rush. It is punctuated with Madonna singing the title in about 10 different languages, and wistfully evokes the sounds of the '80s-era dance clubs that first lofted her toward stardom. Let It Will Be, meanwhile, is a kaleidoscopic track whose subtle synth hook and percolating equanimity make it an obvious candidate for single number three, if the pop law didn't state that third singles must always be ballads. Splendidly, there are no actual ballads at all. The only time the tempo drops is on Confessions on a Dance Floor's centerpiece, Isaac. It's the disc's most explicit nod to Madonna’s spiritual practices. The ballad-shaped hole is also filled by How High, a spot of pumping self-analysis that does the thoughtful work of the album. It does this very well, with Madonna pondering the value of her fortune and fame. The final track Like It or Not adopts the glam stomp currently owned by Goldfrapp and runs with it, ending Confessions on a Dance Floor on a jaunty, jubilant note.

Madonna and Stuart Price created a sound that's classic but also new

Recorded in London, this album features songs primarily co-written and co-produced by Madonna and Stuart Price, producer, mixer and DJ-supreme. Confessions on a Dance Floor borrows from the past – even from her own past – to create a sound that's classic but also new. The album merges elements of '70s disco, '80s electro-pop and present-day club burners, but it also allows us a peek into her mind, with her thoughts on love, religion and fame bubbling into the album's frothy mix. "When I wrote American Life, I was very agitated by what was going on in the world around me," Madonna says. "I made a lot of political statements. But now, I feel that I just want to have fun; I want to dance; I want to feel buoyant. And I want to give other people the same feeling. There's a lot of madness in the world around us, and I want people to be happy." Fun music requires serious research, so Madonna and Price studied the classics. Together, they soaked up vintage disco hits by Donna Summer, the Bee Gees and ABBA. The album's first single, Hung Up, uses a sample of ABBA's 1979 disco hit, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), and in other songs, she weaves in snatches of the Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls and Being Boring and Donna Summer's I Feel Love, along with elements from songs by Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Erasure and Kylie Minogue.

Madonna has never lost her faith in the power of the beat

As Confessions on a Dance Floor illustrates, Madonna has never lost her faith in the power of the beat. Driven by kaleidoscopic, head-spinning production the album comes on like an all-out disco inferno, and takes Madonna out of the English manors and yoga studios and back into the untamed club world where she made her name. This is an album designed for maximum volume. It's all motion, action, speed. The tracks are constantly shifting, with dizzying layers of sounds and samples dropping in and out, skittering and whooshing across the speakers. Confessions on a Dance Floor is likely to please anyone who's been longing for a Madonna album like the ones she used to make.

11.11.2005