"Like it or Not" with Madonna

OK. Here it is. The inevitable "Confessions on a Dance Floor"-review.

I have to state right away that even if I am as much a Madonna fan as your average gay guy (I’ve done my share of Vogueing and the movements in "Express Yourself", I’ve seen the "Blond Ambition Tour on VHS so many times the tape broke, and I have all her albums in one way or the other), I can’t say I know every song she’s done, and I haven’t cared much of her albums since Ray of Light"…and before that I guess the last record I bought with her Madgesty where "Dick Tracy"…
…so the complete flow of unconditional love that will flush over you in this review is not some kind of "Madonna is my goddess" type of love…is just my love for pure, danceable pop-music.
Just so you know….here we go:

Hung Up
Madonna, Stuart Price, Björn&Benny
Everybody knows it by now, and I’ve already talked about in this blog. It’s a huge hit, it’s as gay as a tune can be, and I guess its only flaw is that you might get tired of it sooner than you expect. But it is a great start of this album, and a great come-back single for Madonna.
Get Together
Madonna, Anders Bagge, Peer Åström
Not one of my favourite tracks, but I really can’t say why. I guess that even if the base is nice as hell and it is very well produced, I think the song never takes off. It just goes on…which can be nice….but I wouldn’t have put this as number two on the album…it’s more like a number eight or something…and it also has the unfortunate placement between two of the albums best and most catchy songs…
Sorry
Madonna, Stuart Price
…since this is one of the best dance/pop-songs of 2005. It’s the next single, it is pure Madonna, pure pop, and pure fantastic. Once again (last time was "Material Girl") she borrows the base from Jackson Five’s "Can You Feel It" (but this time it’s actually another loop) and the result is amazing. The text is cool (it’s more important to act decent than be an idiot and the say you sorry), and it is impossible to tell what’s most catchy; the verses or the chorus. Your feet can’t possible stand still when you here this, and I can hardly wait for the remixes… The only thing I miss is a "Förlåt!" when she says "Forgive" me in different languages…but I guess you can’t have everything.
Future Lovers
Madonna, Mirwais
I’m not a big fan of Mirwais, but I am a big fun of songs where people talks in the beginning. And even if this song never reaches the heights you might suspect in the beginning, it is a distant cousin of Kylie’s "Light Years" – and you can have a lot worse relatives than that. You just keep on dancing.
I Love New York
Madonna, Stuart Price
The first line ("…I love New York, other places makes me feel like a dork") and the strange decision to sing "F-off" rather that "fuck off" makes this song a little hard to love…and as I read somewhere: this song is more fun than good. But at the same time the beat is fantastic and it grips you by the balls and makes you dance your head off while shouting "Get off my street!"…and oh; I love the siren at the end. That’s really New York!
Let It Will Be
Madonna, Mirwais Stuart Price
You might have guessed that I love most of the songs on this album – but this is one of my three favourite songs among the twelve (the other two are "Sorry" and "Jump"). The strings are fantastic, Madonna almost hisses out the text and sounds incredible, the production is impeccable, and once again there’s a chorus that makes you want to throw your t-shirt off and dance until you get unconscious. This must be a single?? I demand at least three or four fabulous remixes.
Forbidden Love
Madonna, Stuart Price
Madonna tells us a story about forbidden love and manages to revive the voice-coder that Cher killed in the nineties. If the previous songs have been songs you dance yourself to death in clubs at – this one has more of "lets-do-something-very-nasty-while-dancing-to this-how-about-something-as-close-as-sex-as-it-gets"-kind of wibe. And I love the countdown at the end, which leads us right into…
Jump
Madonna, Joe Henry, Stuart Price
…this favourite of mine. This song sounds like Madonna-in-the-eighties meets the production of the 21st century, and it borrows its synth-loops from Pet Shop Boys and adds some well placed hand-claps. I loved it from the first time I heard it…I guess this is how I want my music.
How High
Madonna, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winberg, Henrik Jonback
One of the songs written by Swedes on this album; a disco-march with a heavy beat and a text about success and fortune and if it all matters in the end. Not bad at all, but not the strongest pupil in this school.
Isaac
Madonna, Stuart Price, Yitzhak Sinwani
The song that has infuriated Madonna’s kabbalah-gang (we all know that religious people have no sense of humour or self-distance, so what did she expect?) starts of with a male Ofra Haza and the crashes into something reminding of her previous hit "Frozen". A very intense guitar and a heavy beat lifts this song from just being bizarre to be a favourite that stands out from the rest of the gang.
Push
Madonna, Stuart Price
Slow, oriental, and constantly repeating the line "You push me" makes this my least favourite song of the album…a bit like how Guy Richie (Madonna’s husband, which the lyric is all about) is one of my least favourite directors now a days. What saves it from being a total disaster in my book is the chorus, which in some way reminds me of a slow-beat "Like a Prayer".
Like It or Not
Madonna, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winberg, Henrik Jonback
"Better the devil you know" she sings, but I don’t think that is a tribute to Miss Minouge, more than the lines "…sinner, not a saint" is a tribute to Alcazar… This is just a very nice ending of a marvellous album, and it is a cool, heavy-beated, Swede-written tune about who Madonna is – and that we can love her or leave her; she don’t care. Well, I love you Madge! And if I like this album or not? Well, tuff call…I love it! 10 disco balls out of 10!

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Tomorrow’s a new day and a new song.

Song of Today: "Like it or Not" with Madonna