Madonna

You have to credit Madonna with having exquisite taste in collaborators. Just like William Orbit, house god Stuart Price has given Madonna her finest release in years. True house fans will beg for a dub version to see how Price's lush, filtered beats, breakdowns and melodies wrap themselves around Madge's facile lyrics.

In 1985, Madonna's navel ruled the world. That year -- which opened with "Like a Virgin"
perched at Number One, and would later see "Crazy for You" knock "We Are the World" off
the top of the charts -- she boiled down her philosophy, her definitive worldview, to one
phrase. It kicked off "Into the Groove," perhaps her most sublime single ever (also the
theme to Desperately Seeking Susan, still the only good movie she's been in). Ov... More >

She did make an album like this before: her debut, where she flitted so astutely between producers that fools took her for a casting-couch queen. But where Madonna had a distinct feel, disco that partook simultaneously of electro minimalism and pop sellout, it also had distinct parts. Here she subs out the flitting to producer Stuart Price, who digests the entirety of '80s dance music into a flow that subsumes all details and referents. If anything, it's more a dance record, leaving those of us with a sentimental weakness for distinct parts a little lost. So not only am I glad she rhymes "New York" and "dork," I'm glad she put her kabbalist on the guest list. (Grade - B+)