0093624759829. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Filled with vocoders stylish neo-electro beats dalliances with trip-hop and occasionally eerie synthesized atmospherics Music blows by in a kaleidoscopic rush of color technique style and substance. It has so many layers that it s easily as self-aware and earnest as Ray of Light where her studiousness complemented a record heavy on spirituality and reflection. Here she mines that territory occasionally especially as the record winds toward its conclusion but she applies her new tricks toward celebrations of music itself. That s not only true of the full-throttle dance numbers but also for ballads like I Deserve It and Nobody s Perfect where the sentiments are couched in electronic effects and lolling rolling beats. Ultimately that results in the least introspective or revealing record Madonna has made since Like a Prayer yet that doesn t mean she doesn t invest herself in the record. Working with a stable of producers she has created an album that is her most explicitly musical and restlessly creative since well Like a Prayer. She may have sacrificed some cohesion for that willful creativity but it s hard to begrudge her that since so much of the album works. If apart from the haunting closer Gone the Orbit collaborations fail to equal Ray of Light or Beautiful Stranger they re still sleekly admirable and they re offset by the terrific Guy Sigsworth/Mark Spike Stent midtempo cut What It Feels Like for a Girl and Madonna s thriving partnership with Mirwais. This team is responsible for the heart of the record with such stunners as the intricate sensual folk-psych Don t Tell Me the eerily seductive Paradise (Not for Me) and the thumping title track which sounds funkier denser sexier with each spin. Whenever she works with Mirwais Music truly comes alive with the spark and style. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Rovi