all about Madonna

Recorded at a 2006 show in London, The Confessions Tour is Madonna’s second concert CD+DVD set in eight months. The first, I’m Going to Tell You a Secret, supported her American Life album and had the distinction of being both the first live album of her quarter-century career and her greatest musical fiasco. While similar in staging, this new set supports a much better album, 2005’s stronger Confessions on a Dance Floor, and that alone makes it the better of the two. Viewed together– their quick succession makes it impossible to assess them separately– this pair of releases signals the beginning of a new stage in Madonna’s career, one in which director Jonas A

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.” The release featured strong performances captured from her 2004 Reinvention Tour, which was staged to promote her 2003 CD “American Life.” The Jonas Akerlund-directed DVD also documented her process of putting the show together with side looks at her personal life _ a la 1991’s “Truth or Dare.”

The main thing wrong with “I’m Going to Tell You a Secret” was its timing: When it came out, Madonna had already embarked on her next tour to promote her 2005 release “Confessions on a Dance Floor” _ a considerably better collection of songs than “American Life” had to 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.”

The Akerlund-directed two-hour DVD catches Madonna performing at London’s Wembley Arena last August, a vivid spectacle that found her riding a saddle, playing guitar (albeit rhythm guitar), running around like a deranged runway model and holding court over dancers behaving like horses.

The show is keyed to movement and complicated visual effects, dramatic mood shifts to accompany costume changes and such displays as 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.

There’s so much going on that it’s easy to miss the best part of the show: Madonna delivering fine live vocals to some of the greatest songs of her career. That’s why the CD is handy, blocking out the DVD’s distracting images so fans can concentrate on the music at 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 surreal “Future Lovers” (fused here with a rendition of “I Feel Love”), a pumped-up “Jump” and the bouncy “Sorry.” Both discs build in intensity to the show’s finale, a propulsive version of “Hung Up.”

London went wild.

Rating (five possible): 4

Is the DVD a bonus to the CD or is the CD a bonus to the DVD? Whatever you decide, one thing is clear. Madonna knows how to put on a show.

In 2006, Madonna embarked on the “Confessions Tour”? to promote her new album “~Confessions on a Dance Floor.’ The tour was not without controversy since Madonna’s faux crucifixion raised the ire of several religious groups. I’m sure that was what was intended because for a time Madonna was getting tons of free press about her tour for this one incident.

The DVD features the two-hour Confessions show and was recorded in the UK at Wembley Arena. When her show was broadcast on several TV stations they cut out the offending crucifixion during “Live to Tell,”? but his DVD features the uncensored version.

The show is not only devoted to the new album, but features her classics “Like a Virgin,”? “Lucky Star,”? “Live to Tell,”? and “Erotica.”? The show features 21 songs/performances on the DVD but also adds about 13 minutes of behind the scenes footage and a photo gallery.

I’d have to say that the CD is the bonus to the DVD and the DVD is the main course. The CD features 12 tracks of Madonna’s live performance. To me listening to the audio of stage show is not as exciting as seeing the whole bit on the DVD, it just loses something.

Whatever you think of her, Madonna’s show is a real stunner. It has lots of dancers, videos, and special effects. A lot of money has been put into the stage show and it shows.

For fans, this is a must have since I’m sure that the tickets to the event were much more than the $20 or so that it will cost you to buy this DVD/CD online. It is a recommended purchase.

Madonna’s last few studio albums haven’t exactly set the charts on fire. But her Madgesty seldom fails to make a splash in concert.

So perhaps it’s no wonder that she’s decided to stop doing more of what doesn’t work and start doing more of what does. Which is to say: The Confessions Tour is her second live release in a row. Unlike last year’s documentary-style I’m Going to Tell You a Secret, however, this CD/DVD set is a straight-up concert film.

And a pretty good one to boot: The stage set and the production are as massive and elaborate as you’d expect; the 21-song set list draws heavily from 2005’s Confessions (and quite consciously avoids duplicating Tell You a Secret) but includes Like a Virgin, Lucky Star and Erotica; the ’70s roller-boogie leisure-suite mashup of Music and Disco Inferno is a hoot; and Madonna is in her usual provocative form, starting off in equestrian dominatrix mode and working through several costume changes before ending up in those high-cut lilac tights.

Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the onstage crucifixion during Live to Tell.

Not even Madonna could make a studio album that would compete with all that.

With ticket prices exceeding $300, this DVD and CD collection is likely the closest many mere mortals will get to seeing Madonna in concert. With moments that run the gamut from silly to offensive to brilliant, The Confessions Tour is an accurate representation of the myriad contradictions that add up to Madonna the artist circa 2006. This tour is not among her masterworks, but Madonna continues to always be well worth watching.

Stick With the Show

The equine fever dream of ponyboys in bondage that kicks off The Confessions Tour is likely to be offensive and off-putting to a number of viewers, but stick with the show. Sprinkling classic tunes among songs from her most recent studio effort Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna keeps the party moving and doesn’t stick too long with any single theme. Moving effortlessly from the aura of nightclub decked out with gymnastics equipment on “Jump” to Saturday Night Fever-style disco for “Music Inferno,” Madonna delivers a consistently eye and ear filling spectacle.

Outstanding Songs, Staging, and Choreography Always Equal Brilliance

The highest points of The Confessions Tour prove that a combination of great songs, riveting staging, and accomplished choreography always amount to a brilliant concert experience. Midway through the show, after the salute that is “I Love New York,” Madonna unleashes a stripped down, rocking version of “Ray of Light” that demonstrates little of the spectacle is necessary when the basics are intact. The mash-up of “Music” and “Disco Inferno” that results in “Music Inferno” is a joy to watch even with the silliness of white-suited disco moves.

Top Songs from ‘The Confessions Tour’

Jump
Live to Tell
Forbidden Love
Ray of Light
Music Inferno

The Uncensored Complete Picture

Almost all of what is here made up NBC’s Confessions Tour television special, but there was an important part missing. Due to her use of crucifixion imagery, Madonna’s performance of “Live to Tell” raised eyebrows and caused controversy around the world. NBC elected to leave the song out of their broadcast. Finally, this DVD/CD collection brings to home viewers what was left out, and it is one of the most powerful performances in the show. To appropriately make the sobering message Madonna is delivering, it seems almost impossible to leave the crucifixion imagery out.

The collection includes additional behind-the-scenes footage and a CD for listening without the video, but it is the concert itself that is the star. Whether Madonna is one of your favorite pop artists or not, The Confessions Tour provides abundant evidence that she remains tremendously relevant from an artistic point of view. As with any aesthetically challenging project, portions may fall flat, but the high points are tremendous.

Madonna, better seen or heard? That is the question. No need to ponder it for too long because thanks to the fine folk at Warner Bros. Records, you can have her both ways on The Confessions Tour. This two-disc set captures the Material Mom’s 2006 stop at London’s Wembley Arena with a 21-track DVD and an accompanying 13-song CD. The dual format means you can skip the dopey visual horseplay in the opening “Future Lovers/I Feel Love”? on the DVD, but still enjoy the audio of the Big M going back to the future with her own “Future Lovers”? and the Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder classic disco banger. You’ll want to check out the DVD, however, for Madonna’s strangely intriguing merry-go-round-cum-stripper pole antics on “Like A Virgin.”? Madonna’s live vocals have often been questioned, but here they are passable, if indeed they are live. Perhaps the strangest thing about the performance is her robotic, stilted between-song patter. Also, you’ll have to wonder why “Confessions,”? which includes the diva’s actors/dancers performing spoken-word monologues, was included on the audio CD instead of another track featuring the star singing. This show was actually broadcast on NBC around Thanksgiving time, save for the too-hot-for-TV performance of “Live To Tell,”? in which the pop Goddess crucifies herself onstage for all of our sins. The resulting controversy proved that Madonna, if nothing else, could still shock some people, some of the time. The most shocking thing about Lady M in the “~00s, though, may be the fact that she’s still on the scene, nearly a quarter century after her debut. Lucky star indeed.

Like I’m Going to Tell You a Secret before it, The Confessions Tour is a CD/DVD souvenir set documenting a new millennium Madonna concert this time, a London show at Wembley supporting her 2005 neo-disco album, Confessions on a Dance Floor. Unlike Secret, whose centerpiece was a lengthy documentary, this is a straight-up live album with the DVD capturing a full 21-song set and the CD culling 13 highlights from the set, a whopping eight of them from Confessions (“Sorry” and “Sorry [Remix]” counted separately since they are, after all, indexed separately here). Even if the newer songs don’t sound radically different from their album incarnations they’re either delivered straight or puffed out like extended 12″ remixes the handful of oldies that do show up here are given disco makeovers: “Like a Virgin” pulses with electro keyboards; “Lucky Star” eventually gives away to the ABBA sample that drives “Hung Up.” This helps give the CD on The Confessions Tour a sonic cohesion that’s about as stylized and chilly and its accompanying album the unity means it holds together, yet that icy reserve means it’s not all that much fun to hear, even if the reinterpretations of the 20-year-old hits are interesting. The DVD doesn’t feel as cold thanks entirely to the pizzazz of the visuals and the determined efficiency of the show, but even so, this is primarily of interest to the diehards who don’t mind purchasing another live CD/DVD set just a year after the first.

The world can’t get enough of Madonna, and with CD/DVD sets like The Confessions Tour dropping regularly, it’s little wonder why. As a thrower of fantasy dance parties, she is peerless. As a physical role model for the 40-ish women who grew up on her music, she rules. And as an arbiter of what’s going to sound shockingly original in any given decade–well, duh. The Confessions Tour rounds up songs from way back–”Ray of Light” and “La Isla Bonita” make the DVD, and “Lucky Star” and “Like a Virgin” are on the CD as well as the DVD–but this concert, filmed in 2006 at London’s Wembley Arena, aims its sturdiest spotlight on Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madge’s 2005 disco disc. You could argue, then, that unless you’re in it for the sheer DVD spectacle (and what a spectacle it is), there’s no sense in owning this package. Only you wouldn’t be right. Because as any on-the-ball Madonna fan knows, what she’s doing musically is telling a story–you may already know the characters, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t completely reworked the plot. To that end, “I Love New York” gets its rock on, “Let It Will Be” has a musical temper tantrum, and “Hung Up” goes for the drama queen award. You’ve heard these songs before, but you’ve never heard them quite like this, to borrow a bad informercial phrase. As twisted and hopped-up as they’ve become, they’re all worth getting to know again. –Tammy La Gorce

I’ve never had much desire to see Madonna in concert, but The Confessions Tour has changed my mind. The new CD/DVD combo is stuffed with so many unintentional moments of spit-take comedy and high camp that it may well have been worth $350 a ticket to see the show after all.
What’s the finest moment? The crucifixion and crown of thorns (complete with dangling red crystal droplets of “blood”) during Live To Tell? The guitar-hero moments as Madonna pantomimes some radical shredding on a black Stratocaster, grabbing chords that don’t exist? The John Travolta/Saturday Night Fever-style dance-off? Or the repeated “rebel” gestures to the crowd as if she’s just discovered she has a middle finger?
One is reminded of the old joke that the only thing actually “live” on a live album is the applause. So with Madonna’s heavy use of backing tracks and rather transparent, er, “vocal enhancement,” one wonders just how much singing and playing was done at this show. For some songs she’s not on the stage at all, with prerecorded video and dance routines covering for her endless costume changes.
The 13-song CD is almost an afterthought. The best songs here, including Live To Tell and Ray of Light, appear only among the DVD’s 21 cuts. You also have the obligatory behind-the-scenes footage, where buff twentysomething dancers swear that Madge dances circles around them.
The comedy just doesn’t end.

She arrives by giant disco ball, which opens like a glittery spaceship. Out steps Madonna, done up as a horsewoman, to whip up excitement at London’s Wembley Arena.

She earns the adulation in Madonna: The Confessions Tour. The DVD, which will be out Tuesday, serves as an important reminder. Madonna may make headlines for controversies, from adopting an African boy to hanging from a cross in the concert. She may keep reinventing her image to stay in the public eye.

Yet what matters most is that Madonna remains an electrifying entertainer, a determined singer and a tireless dancer.

NBC edited that “Live to Tell” segment, which Madonna performed on a cross, when the network aired this special in November. She could be seen wearing a crown of thorns as she issued a heartfelt plea to remember the 12 million African children made orphans by AIDS. The concert quotes the Bible to reinforce that plea.

NBC did her a favor, actually, because “Live to Tell” takes a splashy show in a jarring, serious direction. The DVD allows you to judge for yourself by giving you Madonna uncensored.

The special, shot with 15 cameras, provides an eye-popping record of two concerts from August. Madonna’s razzle-dazzle showmanship echoes Cecil B. DeMille, Bob Fosse and even Steven Spielberg.

You want a light show? Madonna gives you one on “Future Lovers,” which opens the concert, and another on “Ray of Light.” Her pride in her dancers comes through in the showcases “Jump,” “Sorry” and “Hung Up,” the rousing finale.

Fans should be dazzled by the mix of videos, lighting and dancing. Maybe she’ll win a few new admirers.

In the end, this concert DVD buttresses her status as the hardest-working woman in show business.