"THE CONFESSIONS TOUR," Madonna (Warner Bros.)
Late last June, Madonna slid out a relatively unheralded (for her) but impressive live CD/DVD combo, "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret." Reinvention Tour, which was staged to promote her 2003 CD "American Life.
" The Jonas Akerlund-directed DVD also documented her process of 1991's "Truth or Dare."
its timing: When it came out, Madonna had already embarked on her next offer. And last year's tour proved to be the all-time top-grossing tour by a female artist.
So now out comes "The Confessions Tour," a live CD/DVD combo that fills in the blanks left by "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret."
London's Wembley Arena last August, a vivid spectacle that found her like horses.
The show is keyed to movement and complicated visual effects, a giant, mirrored cross from which Madonna hangs to sing "Live to Tell," a sight NBC refused to broadcast last fall when the network aired her concert.
songs of her career. That's why the CD is handy, blocking out the heart of Madonna's success.
Although the CD is an edited-down version of the DVD, both include a few well-recast oldies ("Like a Virgin," "Erotica," "Music") but mostly feature her brilliant new dance songs, including the Love"), a pumped-up "Jump" and the bouncy "Sorry.
" Both discs build in intensity to the show's finale, a propulsive version of London went wild.
"INFINITY ON HIGH," Fall Out Boy (Island)
For a restlessly clever group that's always changing it up, Fall pseudo punk.
formulaic thrash and chug, even though they've clearly shown they've got the goods to be more than a warmed-over blink-182 or Sum 41.
High," a follow-up to 2005's breakout "From Under the Cork Tree."
Lyricist/bassist Pete Wentz is clearly the brains of the outfit, lines on tracks with titles like "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," "The Carpal Tunnel of Love" and "I've Got All This Ringing in My Ears and None on My Fingers."
But the talent doesn't end with Wentz.
Stump is an expressive vocalist with crooner potential, and the entire band nimbly powers through numerous shifts within songs, almost always landing on piercing hooks.
lyrics, histrionic turns ..
. it seems nothing can stop Fall Out Boy. And "Infinity on High" is often beautifully bombastic, from the passages of "You're Crashing, But You're No Wave" to the florid piano foundation of "Golden.
" Plus Stump's vocal showmanship is always impressive - he's not one to waste a line like, "Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great."
Yet on most of "Infinity on High's" tracks, Fall Out Boy darts to twisting ingenuity of its arrangements. As a result, the artistic momentum blanches, temporarily, in a smudge of status-quo rumbling.
creativity is on one side of the scales.
"A NEW GROOVE," various acts (Putumayo)
The Putumayo label has been a boon to world music, sending out characterize a culture.
region or nation distinct, "A New Groove" is about worldwide commonalities.
However, the influences and nationalities are so mashed up that it's nearly impossible to identify any track with a specific culture.
For example, Indian-born singer Bajka is a guest vocalist on "The Hop" by Germany's "Radio Citizen," though the song's distorted cadence for its "The Lost Song." Meanwhile, the two Scandinavian Linn Freddie (with "L.
I.N.N.
") - both rely on a vibraphone-spiced jazz atmosphere that sounds more American than European.
sharing, appropriately enough, a heavy emphasis on grooves that range beat and tambourine, to "Unrock's" (by Gabriel Rios of Puerto Rico), sample.
"A New Groove" is also brimming with personality, including the coy chanteuse Shana Halligan of BitterSweet, who sings "Dirty Laundry," and the persuasive philosopher Jehro, who sings "Everything.
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