Two things made me go back to where it began. The big M has a new album coming out, and the slathery reviews for it all say something like ‘She’s gone back to her dance roots!’<\/p>\n
The unimagination of the paid<\/em> reviewers leads me to think that they didn’t look past the title (Confessions on a Dance Floor<\/em>) for press grist.<\/p>\n What exactly are Madonna’s roots anyway?<\/p>\n The second thing in this series of events was hearing “Material Girl” on a hip(tm) oldies station. “Wow,” I thought. “That song is even cooler than I remember. I should get that album, there is more there <\/em>there.”<\/p>\n And Santa brought me “Like a Virgin” for Christmas. And a few others, but I’ll write about that another time.<\/p>\n Let’s just say, if Confessions on a Dance Floor<\/em> is going back to M’s roots, it’s not going all <\/em>the way back. This is the stuff. This is the Madonna I will always love.<\/p>\n “Material Girl”, “Like a Virgin”; I am ready to go find some lace fingerless gloves and about a thousand bracelets right now. I want the big lacy bow in my hair. And who said bustiers are only for the bedroom? It’s time to bust out; show the bra straps on any occasion. And use the wide-tip applicator for my black eyeliner.<\/p>\n I am inspired.<\/p>\n Okay, even besides the fabulous fashions of Madonna, the music is so fun! Perhaps because I was so young the first time, but I didn’t realize how New Age her Marvelousness was. She was so popular, I didn’t quite get that she was more than a little cutting edge. The synths and the bouncy bass, and the not-a-machine drums are pretty darn great. Bouncy happy dancey music, but not the uber-processed dance music that we have become accustomed to by the time we hit the 21st century.<\/p>\n That’s not to say this is ‘unplugged’ or anything like that. In fact, what I am liking about this album is its mix of real and processed sound. I mean, the synthesizers are so retro that they almost sound acoustic to my jaded ears.<\/p>\n And I can hear her youth in the tracks. I can hear how much Madonna is ready to take over the world, how much she wants it. This album has a push to it, a ‘nothing is going to stop me’ sound. It’s just a shade different from later albums, where the drive is to stay <\/em>on top, rather than to get there.<\/p>\n I can’t say I love everything the Material Girl has ever done, but I am a huge fan of her style and power. And this album rocks my world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two things made me go back to where it began. The big M has a new album coming out, and the slathery reviews for it all say something like ‘She’s gone back to her dance roots!’ The unimagination of the … Continue reading