culture mp3

Tandis que Entertainment Weekly recommande Hung Up

Le grand magazine américain Entertainment Weekly (qui n'a pas encore pu écouter l'album de Madonna) a néanmoins émis sa critique (review) du premier single "Hung Up" de Madonna:

Le magazine british BENT met sa review de COADF

Et encore une autre review, certes plus courte, mais toute aussi élogieuse:

MUSIC WEEK y va de sa review aussi

Personnellement j'ai du mal avec le sample d'Abba (j'adore Abba). Peut-être qu'il y a cette notion de sacrilège qui fait que j'ai du mal à écouter hung up ;)

Re:

Cela dit, tout l'album n'est pas du tout comme Hung Up d'ailleurs tu peux écouter un extrait de "I Love NY" de Madonna dans la section "mp3 video" topic sur "sélection musicale". L'album est semble t-il terriblement novateur et donen envie de danser , surtout les titres s'enchaînent les un à la suite des autres il n'y a pas de pause ni de blanc entre les chansons!

Encore une autre review

La chaîne anti Madonna

Même la chaîne FOX (réputée pour ses positions pro Bush) qui avait descendu en flèche l'album [american life] donne une note très honorable (voire excellente) à cet album de Madonna: un A- !!!

Voici ce que la review de la FOX:

ROLLINGSTONES y va de sa REVIEW !!!

3 1/2 étoiles sur 5 !! pas trop mal.

TIMESonline.com ajoute sa TRES longue review !!

lire la suite ici :  cliquez ici

SLANT MAGAZINE gave a 4 stars out of 5 !!!

The Observer Guardian note l'album de Madonna

Fantastique review (encore une!! décidément il en pleut de bonnes critiques)

MTV y va aussi de sa review !!

La site d'MTV met aussi sa review de CONFESSIONS et elle est bonne!

lire ici

Encore un autre article !! wow

THE UK PRESS ARE ORGASMIC ABOUT THE NEW CD, HER LASTEST HAILED AS HER BEST ... THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND AMERICAN LIFE imo sorry for shouting

There has always been a lot of gubbins spoken and written about Madonna. A popular theory sees her as some kind of Machiavellian pop genius, always right on the shoulder of those on the cutting edge taking notes and making plans to appropriate their vision for her own use. And there are those, like me, who think that school of thought gives the shameless self-publicist far too much credit. Madonna’s secret is simple – she has always worked her butt off. Ally this work ethic with an overarching streak of ambition and you have a formidable combination that makes her a one-woman multinational entity.

And like any voracious corporation, Madge strives to be the best all the time, to outsell everone, regardless of those who get in the way. She’s at her best when she’s at her most populist, crafting fantastic pop music for the masses; not when she suddenly starts to believe the hype and strives to make art. There have been two of these self-indulgent phases – the early Nineties when she produced Erotica and Bedtime Stories and the early Noughties when she made the passable Music and the hilariously po-faced American Life, probably the worst record of 2003.

But breathe easy. Confessions on a Dancefloor sees the return of Madonna, the acquisitive, robber baron pop star. She’s suddenly remembered what she does best and it sure isn’t art, baby. But it is – mostly – great pop music. Better still, there are – joy! – no awful Madonna ballads. It’s probably no coincidence that her collaborator this time is Stuart Price, a distinctly non cutting-edge minor pop star who values tunes over innovation.

1) Hung Up
You know this by now – the sample of Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight) is so great by itself that all the old pro only had to do was come up with a half decent chorus to complement it. And in this she has succeeded.
Sample lyric: “Ring ring ring goes the telephone”

2) Get Together
This has a simple electro pop frame with a gauze of fuzzy synths draped over the top. There is a slightly worrying 2Unlimited “techno-techno-techno” mini-riff but the middle eight is, more agreeably, reminiscent of Daft Punk and the tune is strong.
Sample lyric: “Can we get together/I really want to be with you”

3) Sorry
Again vibrant simplicity is the keyword here. Collaborator, Price, throws in a cheeky reference to the Jacksons’ majestic Can You Feel It? before Madonna lets loose with an irresistible pure pop chorus of which Benny and Bjorn would have been proud. A surefire single.
Sample lyric: “I don’t wanna hear/I don’t wanna know/Please don’t say you’re sorry”

4) Future Lovers
Here’s the first sign of a wrong move. It starts sumptuously with a Donna Summer-like I Feel Love throb but Madge insists on intoning portentously over the top. Old buddy Mirwais provides a thrilling production job with dark slabs of noise moving menacingly just below the surface but the song is not strong enough and its power slowly ebbs away.
Sample lyric: “There’s no love like the future love.”

5) I Love New York
This is a real misfire. It features a decent enough brooding synth line but the lyrics are beyond caricature and the tune is banal. A low point.
Sample lyric: “I don’t like cities but I like New York/Other cities make me feel like a dork.” Yes, really.

6) Let It Will Be
The clumsy title aside, this Kraftwerk-inflected track with its nursery rhyme verse and perkier-than-Audrey-Tautou chorus represents a welcome return to form after the dire previous track. It’s about fame, apparently although the lyrics are as bad as ever.
Sample lyric: “Now I can tell you the place I belong.”

7) Forbidden Love
The album’s clearly going through a patchy middle phase as this drab, pedestrian pop song with trite lyrics attests. Madonna’s horse-frightening ballad-singing voice (first properly unveiled on Music’s Frozen) makes its only appearance on Confessions on a Dancefloor. Why has she never been on Stars in Their Eyes? “Tonight Matthew, I am going to be Nana Mouskouri.”
Sample lyric: “Just one smile on your face was all it took to change my fortune.”

8) Jump
It’s nearly all gravy from here on in. Almost all the bad tracks have been dealt with as Madonna and her collaborators find the keys to Pop Heaven and make themselves at home. Jump, another likely single, is a loping, athletic dance tune with a sinuous verse and a catchy if slightly obvious chorus.
Sample lyric: “I’m going down the road and I can’t make it on my own.”

9) How High
One of the album’s high points, How High is pretty electro pop with a strong sense of melody and a strong confessional tone that for once doesn’t sound forced. A lesson to the Kylies and Rachels on how it should be done.
Sample lyric: “It’s funny how I spent all my life wanting to be talked about/Should I carry on?/Will it matter when I’m gone?/Will any of this matter?”

10) Isaac
This is the most ambitious track on the album – a folky, klezmer-dappled bubbly dance track that is both highly propulsive and utterly ridiculous due to Madonna’s absurd attempts at being deep. Quite brilliant nonetheless.
Sample lyric: “Wrestle with the darkness/Angels call your name”

11) Push
It’s heartening that the best track on the album hasn’t been frontloaded. It’s quite usual for most records to die a slow death, as the act or record company like to get the best tracks in first. Push is an exception and is monumentally good with a kind of Cossack hip-hop beat played backwards, sideways, every which way and loose. It seems to be a tribute to Guy Ritchie but even this can’t detract from a fabulous chorus that is eerily reminiscent of Like A Prayer.
Sample lyric: “Everything I do, I owe it all to you.” And no, it’s not a crafty Bryan Adams’ cover.

12) Like it Or Not
The short answer would be, “Not.” An elaboration? It’s ungainly, stupid, and embarrassing. It’s meant to answer Madonna’s critics but it merely offers them more ammunition. An unfortunate way to sign off Madonna’s finest album since 1989’s Like A Prayer.
Sample lyric: “I’ll be the garden/You be the snake/All my fruit you can take.”

There you have it, the album that will restore Madonna to the top ten. I have a feeling she’ll be there for quite some time.

Encore un autre article !! wow

THE UK PRESS ARE ORGASMIC ABOUT THE NEW CD, HER LASTEST HAILED AS HER BEST ... THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND AMERICAN LIFE imo sorry for shouting

There has always been a lot of gubbins spoken and written about Madonna. A popular theory sees her as some kind of Machiavellian pop genius, always right on the shoulder of those on the cutting edge taking notes and making plans to appropriate their vision for her own use. And there are those, like me, who think that school of thought gives the shameless self-publicist far too much credit. Madonna’s secret is simple – she has always worked her butt off. Ally this work ethic with an overarching streak of ambition and you have a formidable combination that makes her a one-woman multinational entity.

And like any voracious corporation, Madge strives to be the best all the time, to outsell everone, regardless of those who get in the way. She’s at her best when she’s at her most populist, crafting fantastic pop music for the masses; not when she suddenly starts to believe the hype and strives to make art. There have been two of these self-indulgent phases – the early Nineties when she produced Erotica and Bedtime Stories and the early Noughties when she made the passable Music and the hilariously po-faced American Life, probably the worst record of 2003.

But breathe easy. Confessions on a Dancefloor sees the return of Madonna, the acquisitive, robber baron pop star. She’s suddenly remembered what she does best and it sure isn’t art, baby. But it is – mostly – great pop music. Better still, there are – joy! – no awful Madonna ballads. It’s probably no coincidence that her collaborator this time is Stuart Price, a distinctly non cutting-edge minor pop star who values tunes over innovation.

1) Hung Up
You know this by now – the sample of Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight) is so great by itself that all the old pro only had to do was come up with a half decent chorus to complement it. And in this she has succeeded.
Sample lyric: “Ring ring ring goes the telephone”

2) Get Together
This has a simple electro pop frame with a gauze of fuzzy synths draped over the top. There is a slightly worrying 2Unlimited “techno-techno-techno” mini-riff but the middle eight is, more agreeably, reminiscent of Daft Punk and the tune is strong.
Sample lyric: “Can we get together/I really want to be with you”

3) Sorry
Again vibrant simplicity is the keyword here. Collaborator, Price, throws in a cheeky reference to the Jacksons’ majestic Can You Feel It? before Madonna lets loose with an irresistible pure pop chorus of which Benny and Bjorn would have been proud. A surefire single.
Sample lyric: “I don’t wanna hear/I don’t wanna know/Please don’t say you’re sorry”

4) Future Lovers
Here’s the first sign of a wrong move. It starts sumptuously with a Donna Summer-like I Feel Love throb but Madge insists on intoning portentously over the top. Old buddy Mirwais provides a thrilling production job with dark slabs of noise moving menacingly just below the surface but the song is not strong enough and its power slowly ebbs away.
Sample lyric: “There’s no love like the future love.”

5) I Love New York
This is a real misfire. It features a decent enough brooding synth line but the lyrics are beyond caricature and the tune is banal. A low point.
Sample lyric: “I don’t like cities but I like New York/Other cities make me feel like a dork.” Yes, really.

6) Let It Will Be
The clumsy title aside, this Kraftwerk-inflected track with its nursery rhyme verse and perkier-than-Audrey-Tautou chorus represents a welcome return to form after the dire previous track. It’s about fame, apparently although the lyrics are as bad as ever.
Sample lyric: “Now I can tell you the place I belong.”

7) Forbidden Love
The album’s clearly going through a patchy middle phase as this drab, pedestrian pop song with trite lyrics attests. Madonna’s horse-frightening ballad-singing voice (first properly unveiled on Music’s Frozen) makes its only appearance on Confessions on a Dancefloor. Why has she never been on Stars in Their Eyes? “Tonight Matthew, I am going to be Nana Mouskouri.”
Sample lyric: “Just one smile on your face was all it took to change my fortune.”

8) Jump
It’s nearly all gravy from here on in. Almost all the bad tracks have been dealt with as Madonna and her collaborators find the keys to Pop Heaven and make themselves at home. Jump, another likely single, is a loping, athletic dance tune with a sinuous verse and a catchy if slightly obvious chorus.
Sample lyric: “I’m going down the road and I can’t make it on my own.”

9) How High
One of the album’s high points, How High is pretty electro pop with a strong sense of melody and a strong confessional tone that for once doesn’t sound forced. A lesson to the Kylies and Rachels on how it should be done.
Sample lyric: “It’s funny how I spent all my life wanting to be talked about/Should I carry on?/Will it matter when I’m gone?/Will any of this matter?”

10) Isaac
This is the most ambitious track on the album – a folky, klezmer-dappled bubbly dance track that is both highly propulsive and utterly ridiculous due to Madonna’s absurd attempts at being deep. Quite brilliant nonetheless.
Sample lyric: “Wrestle with the darkness/Angels call your name”

11) Push
It’s heartening that the best track on the album hasn’t been frontloaded. It’s quite usual for most records to die a slow death, as the act or record company like to get the best tracks in first. Push is an exception and is monumentally good with a kind of Cossack hip-hop beat played backwards, sideways, every which way and loose. It seems to be a tribute to Guy Ritchie but even this can’t detract from a fabulous chorus that is eerily reminiscent of Like A Prayer.
Sample lyric: “Everything I do, I owe it all to you.” And no, it’s not a crafty Bryan Adams’ cover.

12) Like it Or Not
The short answer would be, “Not.” An elaboration? It’s ungainly, stupid, and embarrassing. It’s meant to answer Madonna’s critics but it merely offers them more ammunition. An unfortunate way to sign off Madonna’s finest album since 1989’s Like A Prayer.
Sample lyric: “I’ll be the garden/You be the snake/All my fruit you can take.”

There you have it, the album that will restore Madonna to the top ten. I have a feeling she’ll be there for quite some time.

AOL met sa review de l'abum de Madonna

Updated: 06:15 PM EST
Madonna Less Opinionated in New CD
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP

Advertisement

NEW YORK (AP) - Madonna certainly has been the embodiment of the adage, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." For years, she expertly used controversy as a sales tactic, as she challenged sexual and social mores with her outlandish antics, defiant attitude, outspoken nature - and, of course, her music.

And it always seemed to work - until she got political.

Her last effort, 2003's "American Life," trumpeted the star's opposition to the Iraq war, complete with a violent video that included a spoof of President Bush. It drew the usual cries of outrage from her detractors, but for the first time in her two-decade career, sales were lackluster.

"Of course I was disappointed," she says, the bitterness still present in her voice and her eyes. "I sort of knew it already, but if you're an entertainer, you're not allowed to have an opinion. ... if you go against the grain, you will be punished. I thought there would be a lot of people who agreed with me."

Madonna is decidedly less opinionated on her new record, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," out Tuesday. An effervescent celebration of club life, the disc recalls the exhilaration and exuberance of some of her biggest hits, like "Music" and "Vogue."

But while some may see the album as her attempt to re-establish herself as a pop queen, Madonna - who at 47 has become an icon, selling more than 60 million albums in the United States alone - says the quest for more fame is a low priority. What's paramount to Madonna now, besides her family and spirituality, is creating music that reflects her evolution not only as an artist, but as a person.

"I'm constantly changing and growing, and hopefully my work will always reflects that," she says. "Some things people will be able to relate to and they'll be popular and accessible, and other things they won't, but I'm not going to let that stop me. I didn't get into this business because I wanted people to like me instantly and be my best friend."

While becoming Miss Congeniality may not have been Madonna's goal when she entered the business, her quest for success was undeniable - and well-documented. Her 1991 documentary "Truth Or Dare" was a testament to her blond ambition, which she pursued with reckless abandon.

But on her new CD, the former Material Girl expresses disillusionment with celebrity. On the song "How High," she wonders how much fame is enough - and what it's all worth in the end. And her new documentary, "I'm Going To Tell You a Secret," which premiered on MTV last month, shows a Madonna more interested in her family life and the lives of her dancers and friends than in living in front of the cameras.

"I'm a totally different person now," says Madonna. "It's the natural progression - most people just grow up (after) having children, being in a grown-up relationship, having so many years of life in the spotlight ... having fame and fortune (and) realizing it's not what everyone thinks it is, and what it's all cracked up to be."

Not that she doesn't still play the part of the trendy pop star. On this day, she looks like a fashionista, dressed in a stylish outfit accented by golden pumps. And the blitz to promote the album is as massive as her previous efforts - she blanketed MTV's airwaves and has made high-profile appearances on behalf of the disc. But this time, there's no major reinvention from the woman who has made it her career - from Madonna the disco queen to Madonna the vamp to Madonna the mother to Madonna the spiritual goddess and back again.

"I think for her, this record is sort of a retrospective of her career ... it's very self-referencing," says Stuart Price, who wrote and produced much of the record with Madonna. "I think the reinvention this time is not so much of a reinvention as an embracing of what it is and what she does."

MTV Networks President Van Toffler says Madonna still matters to the MTV audience and beyond.

"I remember probably about a year or so ago, Madonna was here and 50 Cent was in the studio. And 50 was dying to get introduced to her, and then he walked away and said ... `She kissed me!"' he recalls.

But while Madonna remains keen on keeping up with trends, it's clear it's no longer her focus. She's unlikely to be in the clubs these days because she has to get up early and tend to her family. Married to director Guy Ritchie, Madonna spends most of her time with him and their two children at home in Britain; her free days revolve around her kids' activities.

"My daughter (Lourdes) dances, she loves ballet," Madonna muses. "I like to go and watch her dance. My son (Rocco), he does martial arts, because that's what my husband does. ... They're pretty busy, they do lots of afterschool activities. I like to do those things with them."

She says her children get much of the credit for the kindler, gentler Madonna that's emerged in recent years (the former "Sex" author has even penned children's books).

But her devotion to Kabbalah, the Jewish mysticism that has gained popularity in recent years, also has been a factor.

Her ties to it have drawn skepticism, and some people have even labeled it a cult - which makes Madonna bristle.

"I think that people are bothered by it because it's unfamilar to them," she says. "If you're someone that people look up to, and you're doing something that doesn't fit into the expected behavior of a pop star, some people are going to be suspicious about that. But, you know, it's not like I've joined the Nazi party!"

Instead, she says it's only added to the continuing development of Madonna - the person, not the superstar.

"It's made me grow up and it's made me ask more questions and made me understand that I have a responsibility in this world that goes beyond me," she explains. "It's the realization that we're responsible for each other in the world (and) we're not accepting that as a sound bite but living it."

Le Boston Herald met sa review de l'album aussi!

billboard reviewed CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR

Confessions On A Dance Floor review (billboard)

RollingStone.com reviewed her album as well !!!

How Madonna Got Her Groove Back Madonna is returning to her dance-floor roots for her latest triumph
By NEIL STRAUSS



Have you ever witnessed a Madonna moment?



Allow me to share one with you.

It begins with the words "nice boots." Those are the first words Madonna says to me when we meet. The next words are "I approve," letting me know that we are now in her world, where a strict code of standards and practices applies.

But this is not the Madonna moment. She is just, in her own way, being fun and friendly.

The Madonna moment comes two hours later, when she changes into knee-high silver boots for a television performance.

As she walks past, she looks down her nose at me and says, "Who's got the better boots now?"

This is a Madonna moment.

One can't help but wonder sometimes how this boy-crazy outcast from Michigan ended up selling some 250 million records worldwide. But watch her closely for a while, and that answer will come in a Madonna moment, when, despite the ego-shedding lessons of Kabbalah, her competitive nature emerges.

She is probably a good person at heart. And if not, she's at least struggling to be good. But there's a tripwire in her head, and when it's crossed, you understand that it's no accident she became one of the most famous women in the world and has retained that title for more than twenty years.

There are Madonna moments in her tour documentaries, when she refers to herself as "the boss" and "the queen" when talking with her crew and dancers. And there was a golden Madonna moment on Late Night With David Letterman in October, when Letterman offered her the smaller of two horses to ride. Mistake.

"I don't want a tiny one," she snapped. "I want a big one. I want the prettiest one. Well, I want the best horse."

Madonna moments are not bad things. They are the telltale signs of a woman who believes she deserves the best the world has to offer -- the best boots, the best horse, the best career, the best stage show, the best seat on the plane. For the most part, thanks to her confidence, intelligence and single-minded work ethic, she's gotten it.

That is, until she had her first experience with mortality a few months ago. In a well-reported incident, Madonna attempted to ride an unfamiliar horse at Ashcombe, the eighteenth-century estate in western England that she shares with her husband, director Guy Ritchie. She fell from the horse, breaking eight of her bones. It was the first time she'd ever broken a bone and a wake-up call to her own vulnerability.

"It was the most painful thing that ever happened to me in my life, but it was a great learning experience," she says. She is sitting on a private plane that is taking off from a Royal Air Force base south of London. Its destination is Germany, where the members of Green Day will soon experience a Madonna moment of their own.

Madonna version 2005 is a woman in flux. She is part spiritualist, part narcissist; part provocative sex symbol, part children's-book author; part artist, part mother; and, thanks to her new aerobi-disco look, she is part retro, part futuristic. She doesn't even live in one place; she spends most of her time in London and has homes in New York and Los Angeles. She is a contradiction. And she will always be one. This is because her true genius is a facility for learning. She is a quick study. One of the only things consistent about her career is her ability to absorb and incorporate knowledge at an alarming rate, allowing her to stay one step ahead of critics, competitors, fans and trends. Some accuse her of being pretentious since she started speaking in a British-tinged accent, but rather than being an affectation, it is simply further evidence of her adaptability and spongelike nature. Before I leave her presence, she will actually count on her fingers the things she's learned from me. I've served my purpose.

Her new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, integrates the lessons she learned from her previous album, American Life. Perhaps her most poorly received album (unjustly so), this was Madonna restyled as a pop-culture Che Guevara and anti-materialist girl, brooding about her life and the culture she's part of. It is her folk album. Confessions on a Dance Floor is the antithesis.

If American Life was for the head, Confessions is for the feet. It is pure groove. It is her equivalent of a mash-up album. It takes snippets from forty years of dance music (Giorgio Moroder, Tom Tom Club, Abba, Pet Shop Boys, Stardust, the Jacksons), mixes in snatches from her own back catalog ("Like a Prayer," "Papa Don't Preach," "Die Another Day") and filters it all through club-cool electronics in a nonstop mix. At the helm is Stuart Price, who in addition to being the musical director on Madonna's last two tours is an English DJ, remixer and recording artist (known as Les Rhythmes Digitales) who is equal parts Beck and Daft Punk.

Even in a form-concealing black sweat shirt, Madonna looks thin and fragile. At forty-seven, she cuts a more spartan and elegant figure than the navel-bearing, crucifix-dangling, hair-moussing Madonna who burst into the national pop consciousness in 1983. She is now Esther, Madge, Lady Madonna with children at her feet, or, as her staff calls her, simply M.

"Do you want to see where the bone broke?" Madonna asks as we talk about her horse tumble.

She pulls her sweat shirt aside and proudly displays the battle scar: a collarbone that, at its midsection, disconnects and juts up into the skin.

"She's broken hers, too," Madonna says, gesturing to Shavawn, her former nanny and current stylist. Shavawn is helping her massage the bone with some sort of vibrating machine that Madonna says has helped it heal faster. "She's the person who made me get on the polo horse."

"I didn't make her," Shavawn protests.

"She did," Madonna insists. "It's her fault."

"I didn't," Shavawn repeats.

"Because she was the person who instigated it, she had to be my caretaker," Madonna continues. "She slept in the room next to me the whole time."

"You're guilting her out," I protest in Shavawn's defense. Even though Shavawn is laughing, inside she must feel bad. Who wants to be responsible for breaking their boss's bones? That is, assuming they like their boss, which Shavawn clearly does.

"I don't have to," Madonna says. "She guilted herself out."

Suddenly, Madonna sounds a lot like my Jewish mother.

It is at this point that I notice the carry-on bags that both Madonna and her manager have brought on the airplane -- they are both filled with popcorn. I make a note to ask about it later, when we're not on the subject of medical emergencies.

Despite being taken to the hospital, Madonna says that the day after the accident, she decided to take a helicopter to Paris for her birthday. Hopped up on morphine, she felt little pain.

"I'm a lot of fun on morphine," Madonna says with a laugh. "At least I think I am." She pauses and looks at Shavawn for confirmation. "But I'm not fun on Vicodin."

Her manager, Angela Becker, who is also sitting on the plane along with Madonna's hair and makeup team, clarifies. "Do you know the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?" she asks. "I've never seen a transformation like that in my entire life."

"I only tried Vicodin once," Madonna says. "I was in a lot of pain, and everyone kept telling me to try Vicodin. But they kept saying, 'Be careful. It's so amazing. You're going to get addicted.' So I called five people to get advice before I took it, and they all told me I was going to love it."

"She went on a walk with me," Shavawn blurts, as she packs up the bone machine. "And it was really scary."

"Drugs have a weird effect on me," Madonna continues. "They do the opposite with me. I just chewed the entire inside of my mouth. I bitched at everybody. And I was in more pain. It was the worst experience of my life. So I'm happy to say that none of my pharmaceuticals -- and I had a plethora of them given to me -- influenced me."

Madonna's lack of interest in drugs is another reason for her success: The biggest career killer is the mixture of a person who's very confident in her judgments with drugs that impair those judgments.

"I just like the idea of pills," she says as she stretches her legs on the wall of the cabin. "I like to collect them but not actually take them. When I fell off my horse, I got tons of stuff: Demerol and Vicodin and Xanax and Valium and Oxy Contin, which is supposed to be like heroin. And I'm quite scared to take them. I'm a control freak."

Just the other day, Madonna was in Portugal, where she obsessively rehearsed the first live performance of her undeniably catchy electropop single "Hung Up" thirty times for the MTV Europe Music Awards. The result: She not only stole the show but, nearing fifty and wearing a leotard, still managed to be the best-looking woman on the stage that night.

For Madonna, whose stage productions have become as career-defining as her albums, the next project is to start planning a tour for the new year. "I want to make people feel like they're inside a disco ball," she says, beginning a show description that in part sounds like a non-ironic version of U2's Popmart. "I want to explore the idea of making the dancers more personalities in the show and having their stories come out. And we want to devise a sound system that's surround-sound, because the standard system in a sports arena is crap for people watching, and it's crap for people onstage."

(Excerpted from RS 988, December 1, 2005)