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CD Review by Aubrey McInnis MADONNA Music Maverick/Warner · Fourteenth release is mostly a collaboration between Madonna and French producer Mirwais Ahmadzai. · Forty-five minutes of mindless escapism delivered with aching beats and an array of borrowed moods from Daft Punk, Air and Bjork. No album this year is better suited for a sweaty night out at Rollerland with all the retro, strobe-lit glory reflecting on the glitter-covered skin of blissed-out rollergirls and boys. However, the only constant trait within Music is a sexy, super-charged circular movement with heavy recontextualizations of ’70s and early ’80s disco accessories. Disparate sounds come swirling together in a caressing motion – it's almost as compelling as basking in a dream. But just as Music sets up matches between opposites – the lyrically profound paired with simple acoustic arrangements and the lyrically vacant paired with bubbling, synthesized soundscapes – the simplicity leaves you clinging on something deeper. Madonna deftly manicures intelligent and compact pop arrangements, but her lyrics and vocals take a noticeable backseat (a Cher talk box, Madonna?). It may be a fine strategy for a disco album, but Music doesn't have a hope of emerging from the shadow of the utterly liberating Ray of Light. There's too much fashionable flippancy to make it a solid record, but it's damn close. 4/5

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