MADONNA
Title: Madonna
Date: November
Madonna or Kylie? To a certain kind of pop fan with only £10 of disposable
income this autumn, deciding which album to buy has the makings of an
anguished eeny-meeny. Surely, if you like one maturing icon of gay pop,
chances are that you’ll like the other, yes? For some, perhaps, but in every
sense that matters there’s a world of difference between being Kylie and
being Madonna. There’s something about Kylie that makes you want to put a
protective arm around her. You wouldn’t dream of doing that with Madonna.
Comparing the two singers is like comparing sculptures to a sculptor. Kylie is
a muse for popsmiths of the day. Fine, but every generation has its pop
muses. Madonna’s thing is control and vision. Her innate fearlessness
informs everything she does, within and beyond music, from Like A Prayer’s
black Christ controversy to her reported adoption of a second Malawian
orphan. Though misunderstood at the time, her erotica anthology Sex saw
her take an unprecedented risk, reinventing female sexuality as a thing of
beauty rather than a tool of exploitation.
To people determined never to forgive her for being an ex-dancer from Michigan
she’s only ever as good as her collaborators. In reality, Madonna’s pop nous
is second to none. Listen to the version of Don’t Tell Me that Joe
Henry penned for his album Amor before Madonna stripped its murky Cuban
ambience and replaced it with a future-folk sheen. Even back in 1984 she
knew how to bring something iconic to a song. Before she got involved, Billy
Steinberg and Tom Kelly’s piano demo of Like a Virgin sounded like
something you wouldn’t have rescued from Barry Manilow’s dustbin.
But, once again, her detractors will no doubt seize upon the fact that her new
album enlists the production services of Timbaland. But speaking to MTV
recently, Timbaland was palpably fired up by their time together in the
studio. “There’s this one song, we taking it back to: ‘You must be my
luck-eee starrrr!’. . . The hook is no words. It’s saying stuff named after
coffee – all these different names for coffee is the hook. The name of the
song is La, La. She’s off the chain.”
As with Ray of Light and Music, first impressions of The Beat Goes On –
the first single from the Timbaland sessions – leaves you attempting to
reconcile how something so off-beam can also be so catchy. A skeletal
production frames an exquisite slice of machine-soul over which Pharrell
Williams and Madonna playfully duet. Also leaked in advance is one of
several Justin Timberlake collaborations, a pneumatic sex-pop monster called
Candy Shop.
As ever, she sounds oddly untouchable on the new songs, and you suspect that’s
how she wants it. Other female singers inspire affection, a sense of warmth
– Kylie more than most. Faced with a choice, you’d rather find yourself
stuck in a lift with Kylie than Madonna. But if one lift was playing Kylie
songs, and the other Madonna, that’s another matter.
Pete Paphides
KYLIE MINOGUE
Title: rumoured to be X
Date: November
The concept of “Kylie” – the logo, the all-conquering hits package with
feathers on its head, the brand of nice pants – can occasionally appear so
synthetic it’s easy to forget that there’s a human being at the centre of
the phenomenon. Her well-documented past few years could easily pave the way
for her tenth studio album to be Kylie’s most personal.
For the past 18 months pop songwriters and producers around the world have
adopted the phrase “we’re working on tracks for Kylie” as something of a
mantra. And some big names have been connected with this album. These
include Groove Armada, Calvin Harris, Hot Chip, Boy George and Mylo, as well
as world-class songwriters and producers such as Bloodshy & Avant, Cathy
Dennis, Jewels & Stone, Hannah Robinson, Johnny Douglas and Richard
Stannard. While some collaborations have made the cut – the brilliant Calvin
Harris-produced track In My Arms is in the running for the first single –
others have fallen by the wayside. Another potential first single is Two
Hearts, an unusual and extremely unKylieish track submitted by the London
electropop outfit Kish Mauve. As is now traditional with Kylie many other
pop moments have already leaked online, along with a a list of 49 song
titles – including Sexual Gold, To the Nines, When the Song Comes On
and Down Down – and on the evidence it seems that she’s not going to be
short of magic.
Peter Robinson
BRITNEY SPEARS
Title: TBC, although everyone’s favourite celebrity catastrophe is
seemingly asking fans to vote on titles via her website. Choices included: OMG
is Like Lindsay Lohan Like Okay Like; What if the Joke is on You; Down Boy
and – could this be ironic? – Dignity.
Date: November
Of course, the fact that pop’s former golden girl has been recording with
Timbaland protégé Nate “Danja” Hills and producer- du-jour
Sean Garrett is of only minor interest compared with the album’s backdrop of
personal chaos. In fact, despite her alleged fortune, Poor Britney might
be a better title; any working mother with two kids aged under 2 deserves
some sympathy.
Poor Britney has also faced misogynistic attention from “fans” and media over
her divorce from Kevin Federline and their custody battle for little Sean
Preston and Jayden James. Obviously, her ongoing refusal to wear underwear
while exiting cars hasn’t helped her cause, but there have been enough
mental-health red flags – the head-shaving, her crying jags while filming
the video for new single Gimme More – to leave you wondering whether she
really needs the pressure of releasing a career-saving album right now.
But her career as a pop star depends on this record. Fake tracks on the
internet have shown that the appetite for her music remains, but with only
19 US radio stations reported to be playing the really rather good Gimme
More (hear it on the gossip website www.perezhilton.com),
chart success could be elusive.
PJ HARVEY
Title: White Chalk
Date: September 24
Produced by Polly Harvey, Flood and John Parish, White Chalk represents a
departure for the enduring indie heroine. Harvey corsets her voice into a
higher pitch while sitting moodily at the piano, increasing the sense that
this is the work of a deranged Victorian governess in an attic.
After 2004’s slightly disappointing Uh Huh Her, this is as superbly
unsettling as Rid of Me-era Harvey while sounding entirely different.
JAMES BLUNT
Title: All The Lost Souls
Date: September 17
Following the success of Back to Bedlam, the pop aristo sticks his head
beneath the guillotine of public opinion for the second time.
JONI MITCHELL
Title: Shine
Date: September 24
The legendary singer-songwriter releases her first album of new songs in
nearly a decade.
ANNIE LENNOX
Title: Songs Of Mass Destruction
Date: October 1
The first solo album from the Eurhythmics diva in four years boasts a
“feminist anthem” starring 23 female artists, including Madonna, Shakira and
Fergie.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Title: Magic
Date: October 1
Although fans will been delighted to know that Bruce Springsteen’s fifteenth
album has been recorded with the E Street Band, it seems that the Boss lived
up to his name. Most of the band's contributions were recorded separately by
producer Brendan O’Brien.
According to manager Jon Landau it’s “high energy” rock: not one
of his Nebraska moments, then.
BABYSHAMBLES
Title: Shotter's Nation
Date: October 1
Recorded with the Smiths/Britpop producer Stephen Street, Babyshambles’ second
album betrays the band’s chaotic state by featuring yet another new lineup.
If you can tune out the hurdy-gurdy racket of the media circus it’s just
possible to hear Pete Doherty’s songwriting strength rushing back on such
tracks as Crumb Begging.
MICHAEL JACKSON
Title: TBC
Date: Before the end of 2007
It’s testament to his enduring reputation that the controversy surrounding
Michael Jackson has not deterred the likes of the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am
and Akon from working on his new album.
Jackson’s lack of major-label deal is the most taxing issue however. He is
said to be sorting out distribution, possibly online.
Will.i.am has reportedly said that the new album will be this generation’s Off
the Wall.
R.E.M
Title: TBC
Date: TBC
It has been recorded in Vancouver and Dublin with flavour-of-the-year producer
Jacknife Lee, who has put the final nail in the coffin of Michael Stipe’s
“enigmatic” reputation by declaring R.E.M. “aren’t strange, they’re just
your proper artists”
IAN BROWN
Title: The World is Yours
Date: September 24
King Monkey’s fifth solo outing takes an evolutionary step back with guest
appearances by Manchester stalwarts Andy Rourke and Paul Ryder and the Sex
Pistols’ Steve Jones and Paul Cook.
JENNIFER LOPEZ
Title: Brave
Date: October 8 The romantically cursed diva describes her fifth album
as “a little Jamiroquai, a little Sade” and “real feel-good music”.
Victoria Segal
