Madonna serves up pure ecstasy with MDNA

Anyone who is not open to the idea that Madonna is the greatest pop artist in the world, please turn away now, I promise to have something different for you tomorrow.

But for today, the stage is, rightfully and in the manner of tradition,  all hers.

The mighty queen of pop released her latest album MDNA today, and for anyone who thinks she has lost her touch I suggest you give it a listen because this is Madonna back at her very best.

Each time she releases an album I foam at the mouth with anticipation.

But the past few times I have had a slight sense of doubt as to whether she will be able to deliver anything up to the same standard as she did in the 80s.

I liked her last one, Hard Candy, although it lacked the sense of wow that I had the first time I tingled my way through Like A Prayer.

Before that was Confessions on a Dance Floor, a vast improvement on the previous American Life, which even I had to admit was a definite low point of her career.

This time round I was again anxious, aware that she had devoted a lot of time to making a film, and wondered whether the divided focus would be noticeable on the album.

But the good news it isn’t. It’s good, really good.

We are 25 years on from the True Blue Madonna, and it is no good longing for those sticky sweet,  80s pop classics to re-emerge in her new work.

That is not Madonna’s style, she has always moved with the times and skillfully tailored her music and image before catapaulting herself into the market.

And that is what she has done with MDNA, the title of which is clever play on “MDMA” - the chemical formula for ecstasy.

Where she gets her inspiration to know exactly how to catch and ride on the crest of what is hip and happening I don’t know, but throughout her career she has done it over and over again with masterful precision.

MDNA delivers a belting roller coaster ride of dance, pop and ballard, packaged up in fluorescent laser pink Madonna magic only she can deliver.

From the first track Girls Gone Wild it bounces along  with a persistent feel-good beat allowing the odd pause for breath during a ballad.

And they are good ballads – although Madonna  is not best known for her slow and soulfuls, she has been known to deliver some quality in that area in the past – Crazy for You, Take a Bow, You’ll See.

In the ballad department MDNA offers Masterpiece and Falling Free, beautiful sweeping tunes that serves as a break to the thumping beats the rest of the album hammers out.

MDNA is a long way from Like A Prayer, but those days are well and truly consigned to pop history.

But Madonna is definitely back .... and bad, doing what he does best – and if you are  a fan, you will not be disappointed.