Madonna: Confessions from a dance floor Rating: 6.1
I'm going to get right to the point on this review. I believe your reaction to the album's title will completely dictate what you think of the album, itself. If you find yourself squealing with delight at the thoughts of an entire Madonna dance club album, stop reading this and head straight to your nearest Best Buy and pick up a copy. If you either aren't overly enthralled with dance music in general or you believe that ol' Madge lost all music relevancy years ago, don't even think about purchasing this album and continue reading. This album serves as the perfect safety net for her because she won't lose any loyal fans, but at the same time, she won't gain any new ones either. This cd is not going to change your mind if you didn't like club music or Madonna already.
The first single, "Hung Up," is probably the best of the bunch and samples Abba's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight). Actually, the album kinda had me going through about the first three tracks. By the fourth, "Future Lovers," I was bored. The album flows pretty seamlessly from track to track, and therein lies the entire problem- every song sounds virtually the same. Honestly, I kept having to check the track listing to see if I was still on the same song. Now, perhaps, sitting at your desk at the office may not be the ideal setting for listening. I'm sure if you're throwing a party you can forego a DJ entirely and just let the CD play without interruption. That's fine and dandy; everybody needs a good party CD in their collection. But, unless you're on the payroll as a dancer at the gay club, you're probably doing more things than spinning around the dance floor with your pacifier and glow sticks and are, in fact, listening to music outside a club/party setting. And, come on, who really believes that Ms. Ciccone is still hanging out with twenty-somethings on the dance floor these days? And if she is, I think she might need to take an extra Kabbalah class or two.
Most of my disappointment in this album is in the lyrics, though. Apparently, Madge did at least have the good sense (particularly sense she co-wrote the majority of the songs) not to print the lyrics in the CD insert. There are very few lyrical gems here, and most of it is fairly insipid, actually. Here's the opener from "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
Vocally, she sounds just fine. I can't tell a noticeable difference between her vocals now than ten or fifteen years ago. It's hard to say if that is because she hasn't lost any vocal range or if it's because she and her co-producer, Stuart Price, have processed the hell out of it. The music is completely electronically generated, there's nary a trace of anything resembling an actual instrument.
So, if you're looking for a mindless dance cd with some good beats that you can listen to at the club, on the way to the club or adoringly dreaming of the club; then by all means purchase this cd. If you expect a little depth, look elsewhere. There's a line in the third track, "Sorry" that's chorus says "I've heard it all before." Yeah, after hearing this cd I kind of feel like I have.
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