It was mildly surprising when Madonna released a live album last year""her first in a 24-year career""and it's even more unusual that her follow-up release is yet another live album in spite of the fact she hasn't recorded any new material. But if there's one thing you learn being a Madonna fan, it's to not ask questions of the queen and just take what she gives you. Fortunately, with the live CD/DVD combo, The Confessions Tour, Madonna has given her legions of fans a fun, occasionally fabulous collection of dance music and succeeded in once again pushing forward her ever-expanding musical boundaries.
The album starts off with a medley of Future Lovers"" and Donna Summer's ""I Feel Love"" (the latter being the most influential dance song of the disco era). The combination is interesting without being revelatory, but this promising start is dashed by the next track, a lame attempt to glitz up ""Like a Virgin"" to the sound of disco music. Aside from failing musically, Madonna, like many performers, can't reach higher octaves while dancing around onstage, so her attempt to give this already flimsy song a soulful edge falls flat.
Fortunately, ""Like a Virgin"" is only one of two clunkers on this collection, the other being ""Confessions,"" a collection of inspirational, autobiographical monologues from her dancers about surviving child abuse, rejecting gang culture and finding the will to live. The DVD reveals this sequence works fairly well in concert, with video images and choreographed moves complementing the words, but without these ""Confessions"" sounds trite and forced on the CD.
The DVD also shows us Madonna's now-infamous decision to sing ""Live To Tell"" while on a crucifix. What the media and religious icon-worshippers failed to point out when hyping this controversy, however, was that behind Madonna were video screens juxtaposing statistics about starving children in Africa with Biblical verses from Matthew where Jesus tells his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. So while the entire point, however obliquely, of her performance was to preach Judeo-Christian morals, many people chose to ignore this and wag fingers at her for putting on a thorny crown. But considering organized Christianity is more about keeping up appearances and following the rules than deeply-felt love for others, it's really not that surprising.
After a slow start, the last half of the CD is where The Confessions Tour changes from an entertaining, fans-only live album to a stimulating, thrilling celebration of life and dance. With ""I Love New York,"" Madge pulls out an electric guitar and proves she learned plenty about fuzz tones and sludgy riffs by growing up in Detroit. She turns the dance number into a hard, mosh-worthy rocker. Reports are that her next album, due out sometime this year, will continue to follow her growing flirtations with hard rock, and if this is any indication of what's to come, she certainly won't embarrass herself.
Soon following is ""Music Inferno,"" a mash-up of the Trammps' 1977 monster smash ""Disco Inferno,"" her own ""Music"" from 2000 and ""Where's the Party"" from 1986. This song makes you experience one of those glorious ""fuck yeah"" moments where you thank God for digital technology and the internet culture that spurred such fantastically freakish hybrids.
The final two songs on the CD, ""Lucky Star"" and ""Hung Up,"" continue with the breathtaking disco-meets-house approach to dance music Madonna and Stuart Price nearly perfected on Confessions on a Dancefloor. ""Lucky Star"" grooves beautifully to the disco treatment, and it segues gradually into a banging run-through of ""Hung Up,"" which still dares you not to dance after being played over and over.
Madonna's second live album easily surpasses her first one, I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, in terms of energy, imagination and quality, although the accompanying DVD is hardly as interesting as the intimate, behind-the-scenes film about her Re-Invention Tour included on that CD/DVD set. Nevertheless, The Confessions Tour is highly recommended to Madonna fans.
