Going to tell you...
Right now, on the East coast (in the States, obv), NBC is airing heretofore unseen footage from Madonna's 2006 "Confessions" tour.

I can officially say that the furor over her appearing on a crucifix has certainly overshadowed the amount of implied sex-with-horses imagery.

And, in the spirit of things, I have a confession to make:

I blanket-judged, and as such slagged, Confessions on a Dancefloor, without really listening to most of it.



Confessions' opening track and first single, "Hung Up", was generic EuroDanceCrap that anyone with half an hour to read the instructions to any Native Instruments software could have put together, and it was evidence, to me at least, that Stuart Price/Jacques Lu Cont/Thin White Duke/The Muffin Man/Whoever He Is Today would be recycling older tricks and spreading them thin throughout the rest of the album.

Don't believe me? Cue up "Hung Up", and then the Cont remix of Gwen's "Whatcha Waiting For". Same. Fucking. Song.

Regardless of how much Madonna and Price both phoned in "Hung Up", I had no excuse to just skim the rest of the album.

But skim is all I did. And it caused me to bypass the middle chunk of the record, which mixes song into song and creates a mood that pulses with some of Madge's best stuff.



Madonna: Get Together

Confessions' second track, and what should have been the first single. Coming off of American Life, a mostly-anger filled attack at so much, the frolic and bounce of "Get Together" rings, to me, like putting any cheesy Dutch Trance producer in charge of a 'Like a Virgin" remastering. Not the smartest-sounding stuff in the world, but. so. good.

Madonna: Future Lovers

Speaking of famous DJs throwing their weight behind Madonna, it sounds like both she AND Price were listening when Sasha handed in his phenom "Ray of Light" remix-because the billion-year, deep, low, snake-like pulse of the intro (which is extended to nearly 7 minutes in her live show) breaks finally into a deep groove that's less disco cheese than it is Progressive Trance with a more fulfilling low-end...and, yes, it's also a total rip of "I Feel Love", which she acknowledges live by...well, busting out a few bars Donna Summer/Moroder's chorus.

Now, I should note that I did just cherry-pick from the studio versions of the Confessions tunes. It's important to note that for every awesome, throbby, Pet Shop Boys-esque gooey synth confection like "Jump", or either of the two above tracks, there's a lot of utter crap, like "New York" (featuring her most incredible lyric EVER: "I don't like cities/but I like New York/other places/make me feel like a dork"), and the unfortunate last few tracks, not to mention that god-awful "Hung Up".

Also, I should point out that, on the opposite end of the disco ball pendulum, every. Single. Song. Was reinvented for the 'Confessions" tour.



Madonna: Live To Tell Interlude (live in L.A.)

+

Madonna: Live To Tell (live in LA)

I didn't post any live versions of the Confessions tracks, because the quality of bootlegs that I've found is really not that great...however, what "Live To Tell" became choked in my throat, made me chilled all over, and it's something that has to be heard to be believed.

I know there are some who don't like politics or emotion in their Pop. Madonna's never been one of them...so cue these two up, front-to-back, in the order they're posted. And make sure you're sitting down. It's a beautifulchillingcatharticpretty moment, and proof that Madonna will always be, even at her most stupidisco, a hell of a lot smarter than we give her credit for.

What this NBC special is teaching me, also, is that she knew what she she was doing with Confessions, and that it was me, listening to lots of Kanye and Broadcast at the time, that wasn't open to the handful of good songs on that album.

So. Like I said. I'm going to tell you a secret. I have a confession to make...

I can be wrong.

Ok, so that's no big secret, but whatever. I'm in the U.S. I should be cooking a turkey or something, right?

Back to the bottle of wine and the television.

resonator mag: 's like a little prayer