| Music - New Albums |
| CD Review: Madonna, “Confessions on a Dance Floor" |
| by Joe Nolan |
Old Madonna, New Again?
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“Time goes by so slowly…” With this phrase, Madonna kicks off “Hung Up”, the first single and the opening song from her new disc “Confessions on a Dance Floor”. The song lifts off into an infectious trance that admonishes those who would hesitate to embrace the moment to “Run”, like those who “seem to have all the fun”.
It is interesting to imagine a lyrical allusion to the Righteous Brother’s classic “Unchained Melody”, in which “Time goes by so slowly” for separated lovers wondering if their lives together are over. Perhaps Madonna is questioning whether or not she still has a connection to her core audience, which has always been found where queer culture and dance culture meet to worship their many-faced Goddess. If that is the case, “Confessions” can be seen not so much as a Catholic litany of private sins, but as a secret, whispered to an old lover, making sure all concerned parties know that the love affair never ended.
Fans and critics alike shunned Madonna’s 2003 album “American Life”, after its politics and publicity seemed too contrived even for a Material Girl like the former Miss Ciccone. “Confessions” is a record that speaks to her past career while remaining stubbornly contemporary and unstoppably danceable. Featuring sonic vistas and hooks that Joe Frazier would envy, Madonna references and samples 70’s disco, old-school synth blips and beeps from the 80’s and of course current dance music, all wrapped up in state-of-the-art production.
Although some have dismissed the return-to-the-disco-nostalgia of “Confessions” as a step-back for an artist who has relentlessly reinvented herself, they are missing the point. Even the Catholic Madonna was only human and our all-too-flesh-and-blood-diva is staring down the barrel of 50. With “Confessions”, Madonna has not reinvented herself, but she has recontextualized herself as a Fairy Godmother among glamour girls who can now go about the business of making music for her core audience for as long as she chooses, without compromising an art that was once driven by youthful physicality and sex.
This is not so much a new Madonna as it is a new Marlene Dietrich. |
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