{"id":783671,"date":"2026-07-07T00:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783671\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:02:17","slug":"album-reviews-of-madonna-sienna-spiro-ten-part-invention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783671\/","title":{"rendered":"Album reviews of Madonna, Sienna Spiro, Ten Part Invention"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Madonna\u2019sMadonna\u2019s Confessions II: the pop icon returns to her roots.<\/p>\n

Madonna, Confessions II
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During a listening party for Madonna\u2019s new album, producer Stuart Price revealed that he resurrected the studio microphone used on 2005\u2019s Confessions on a Dance Floor, taping it together to record tracks for Confessions II. You couldn\u2019t blame Price for reaching for a talisman; his first album with Madonna was a critical and commercial smash. But happily for the producer, his biggest client, and her millions of fans, the sequel is Madonna\u2019s best record in 21 years.<\/p>\n

Impressively, it\u2019s no reheated version of the original. If the first record was inspired by disco acts such as ABBA, the Bee Gees and Cerrone, Confessions II draws from the Chicago, Detroit and New York house music Madonna was dancing to in the \u201980s.<\/p>\n

Built around a pulsing bass line that nods to the Giorgio Moroder-produced I Feel Love, opener I Feel So Free acts as a bridge between Confessions I and II. One Step Away goes deeper still, its echoing, watery synths invoking Lil Louis\u2019 1989 classic French Kiss.<\/p>\n

\"AtAt 67, Madonna has made one of her most vital records yet.Rafael Pavarotti<\/p>\n

While paying homage to the lineage, Price contemporises the tracks, loading the album\u2019s harder mid-section with ravey breakdowns, vocoders and dubby EDM whomp. Attempts to expand Madonna\u2019s appeal arrive in the form of zeitgeisty guests, including Sabrina Carpenter and Colombian reggaeton star Feid, but the album\u2019s best collaboration is The Test, featuring the lovely vocals of Madonna\u2019s eldest daughter, Lourdes (here, Lola Leon).<\/p>\n

Leon reportedly suggested the song as a means of healing their relationship, and the results are stunning, as Madonna acknowledges \u201cyou didn\u2019t ask for all the flashing lights\u201d and Leon confesses \u201csometimes I wish I could multiply you but I know you are all around me\u201d. A string of deeply personal ballads like this one close out the album, and while 16 tracks is probably two or three too many, there isn\u2019t a genuine misstep among them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Best of all might be Danceteria, a sashaying ode to the former Manhattan club where it all began for Madonna. \u00c0 la Vogue, she name-drops celebrities in a spoken word sequence, this time trading Garbo and Monroe for Madonna\u2019s own contemporaries. Among them, her one-time boyfriend Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nile Rodgers, the B-52s and her long-time bestie Debi Mazar \u2013 a who\u2019s who of \u201980s New York nightlife that Madonna was at the centre of, forging a glamorous history of her own.<\/p>\n

After a series of misfires in the past two decades, it\u2019s delightful to hear Madonna reconnecting with her roots on Confessions II and reminding us of who she is: the unsurpassed queen of pop. Of course, she\u2019s still dancing. Annabel Ross<\/p>\n

\"TenTen Part Invention\u2019s Time is Moved: the Rolls-Royce of Aussie jazz keeps purring.<\/p>\n

Ten Part Invention, Time Is Moved
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Someone\u2019s been tinkering under the bonnet of the band I once called the \u201cRolls-Royce of Australian jazz\u201d. With a few spark plugs changed, it\u2019s purring again \u2013 and roaring when the accelerator\u2019s depressed.<\/p>\n

In the 20 years since Sydney\u2019s 10-piece Ten Part Invention last recorded, their fearless leader, John Pochee, died. Half the band are now newbies \u2013 which means the other half, remarkably, have been on board since its 1986 inception. Pochee would be thrilled that the project lives on and, appropriately, they begin this double-album with Andrew Robson\u2019s Hymn for John. \u201cFeeling the love\u201d has become a frightful clich\u00e9, but here it\u2019s palpable.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the band\u2019s spirit is intact. The compositions, including Miroslav Bukovsky\u2019s wryly titled Nostalgia (isn\u2019t what it used to be), come from the members, and there\u2019s still a sense of 10 distinctive musical personalities digging in the same sandpit, rather than a well-drilled big band going through its paces. The warmth of original bassist Steve Elphick\u2019s sound is also central to the band\u2019s character, and new pianist Kevin Hunt slides effortlessly in beside him, as does drummer Rease Cameron, while the seven exceptional horn players ensure the music\u2019s character is in constant flux. John Shand<\/p>\n

\"SiennaSienna Spiro\u2019s Visitor: Gen Z get their bold British balladeer.<\/p>\n

Sienna Spiro, Visitor
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Every generation needs its own bold, soulful British balladeer \u2013 a powerful, captivating woman who bridges the chasm between pop and blues with towering anthems that capture your imagination and break your heart. Boomers had Dusty Springfield, Gen X had Kate Bush, Millennials had Adele, and Gen Z just found theirs: Sienna Spiro.<\/p>\n

After her breakout hit Die on This Hill blew up on TikTok, Spiro follows up with her debut record, Visitor. It\u2019s a profoundly felt, achingly performed collection of piano-laden laments, delivered with the assuredness and patience of an artist far beyond her 20 years.<\/p>\n

Spiro brings clarity to the murky depths of the soul. On The Visitor and We\u2019re Not in Love, she reflects on the heartbreak of relationships where one person gives more and loves more, that painful and dangerous power imbalance that sends your whole life off-kilter. Pure is a poignant meditation on living up to self-imposed expectations of greatness. Great Expectation and He\u2019s Not My Baby, I\u2019m His channel Amy Winehouse, intoxicating vocals and sardonic lyrics crooned from a smoky jazz bar between defiant drags of a menthol.<\/p>\n

You Stole the Show is the best power ballad since Someone Like You. One to belt out in your car, where no one else can hear you straining to nail that gargantuan chorus. Heaven help the brave people who try to tackle this one at karaoke. Tom W. Clarke<\/p>\n

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\"JohnJohn Shand<\/a> has written about music and theatre since 1981 in more than 30 publications, including for Fairfax Media since 1993. He is also a playwright, author, poet, librettist, drummer and winner of the 2017 Walkley Arts Journalism AwardConnect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-783671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}