The McVie Show Season 4

Has this ever happened to you? You’re listening to your favorite music, and suddenly there’s this funny feeling inside your head, like a tingling sensation or a sight buzz, almost a blurring of thought. It passes quickly, a giddy second or so of sensation. Yesterday I was listening to Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, and it happened during the second song, “Get Together.” Two-thirds into the song the beat pauses, and Madonna’s echo-filled voice sings “If it’s bitter at the start / then it’s sweeter in the end” while the beat builds up behind, sputtering back into pulse-pounding life.

For the past two days I’ve been playing again and again Madonna’s album and I must admit that the album has a hypnotic, even narcotic, effect on me. In “Sorry” it is the part where Madonna intones in the background, “I heard it all before” over and over; in “Future Lovers” it’s the Giorgio Moroder-like synthesizer background; in “I Love New York” it’s the irresistibly sing-along chorus and her “Get off my street” mantra towards the end of the song.

But I must admit that while Lola Madonna’s album is fantastic, I sort of tune out by the time her Kabbalah-inspired “Isaac” comes on. An album full of non-stop dance music can get tired, especially after the 40 minutes or so. Too much sugar and after the rush you get exhausted. So I limit myself to (usually) the first five songs of the album. Then I go back to the first song and repeat the whole thing.