Confessions on a Dance Floor

1	Hung Up 5:36
2	Get Together 5:30
3	Sorry 4:43
4	Future Lovers 4:51
5	I Love New York 4:11
6	Let It Will Be 4:18
7	Forbidden Love 4:22
8	Jump 3:46
9	How High 4:40
10	Isaac 6:03
11	Push 3:57
12	Like It or Not 4:31

Barnes & Noble

After 2003's disappointing and thematically heavy-handed American Life, Madonna rebounds with a straight-ahead dance record that's sure to please her core audience. Although there's nothing on it quite as catchy as "Lucky Star" or as innovative as Ray of Light, Confessions on a Dance Floor finds a solid dance groove and builds upon the sleek nouveau disco Ms. Ciccone touched upon with Erotica's entrancing "Deeper and Deeper." As the disc's title suggests, this is music primed for the clubs, a theme underscored by the sweat-inducing lack of breaks between tracks. The infectiously dizzying "Get Together" borrows lyrically from the S.O.S. Band classic "Take Your Time (Do It Right)"; the droning "Future Lovers" recalls a vintage Donna Summer track; and the catchy lead single, "Hung Up," would've fit right in at the original Studio 54. While Esther (her Kabbalah moniker) denies slipping in lyrical references to the ancient Jewish faith she champions, she does spout Yiddish on the glowstick-ready "Sorry," and the mantra-like "Isaac" is rumored to be about influential Kabbalah scholar Isaac Luria. If the former material girl-turned-spiritual matriarch's proselytizing is a turn-off, however, there are plenty of whirling synths and booming bass lines here to keep you distracted. Besides, Madge has always been provocative in a calculated way. And even as she approaches 50, she continues to express herself -- and to keep the public interested in what she has to say. Tracy E. Hopkins

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Grade: B+] Madonna opens up a bag of guilty pleasures that seem certain to make "Confessions on a Dance Floor" the dance album of 2006. Kevin Johnson