09/21/2005
Exclusive Madonna Album Details
Friend of Towleroad and dance music maven Matt Kalkhoff attended the Q&A session with Stuart Price (aka Jacques Lu Cont), the producer/collaborator of Madonna's new album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, and has some great details on the forthcoming album.
From Matt's mouth to your ears:
The entire album was recorded in the home studio of his London flat, including the vocals. He said his studio is as small as the stage he was sitting on -- and a lot warmer.
He apparently has a female neighbor who just cries throughout the day, and that you can actually hear her faintly in the background on some parts of the album.
Madonna knew from the beginning that she wanted to do a high-energy dance album. She said, "It’s gotta start at 120bpm and only go up."
The album’s 12 songs are continuously mixed, by Stuart, like a DJ set.
A full track listing is now available, as well as the cover art, at Madonna.com. But he mentioned the last song, "Like It Or Not," and said it was the perfect way to end the album – it’s a song that basically says, "This is who I am, this is what I do. Take it or leave it."
He chose the Jacques Lu Cont moniker for DJ and production work because it sounds like cunt, and he just wanted to hear someone on BBC get all tripped up while saying it, which apparently happens frequently.
Even after winning a Grammy earlier this year for his remix of No Doubt’s “It’s My Life,” working on two tours with Madonna (as Musical Director of Reinvention and keyboardist for both it and Drowned World), he still lives in the same flat in London.
He says Confessions is “where pop meets dance” and blurs the line between the two. But it is also very soulful as opposed to techno or minimalist.
Madonna’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, was also in the audience. Even though she helped bring Stuart to the Summit, she said she had a few questions of her own. She started out by saying, “I thought I knew everything about Madonna, but…” She and Stuart basically talked about how Madonna has a DJ’s ear and “she knew what she wanted to dance to,” so it really was the perfect record for her to make.
Thanks for the missive, Matt. You can read more of Matt's writing at MattUnleashed.
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 11:25 AM EST by Andy in Music | Permalink
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does one think that Madonna and her 120bmp mean that she clearly understands her only true followers at this point are the gays?
Posted by: Frank | Sep 21, 2005 11:33:47 AM
Ah, a Madonna posting, "...and the award for the best diatribe goes to...":
???
Posted by: mark | Sep 21, 2005 12:53:39 PM
thanks for all the info. madonna is an everevolving true artist that, like it or not, has changed the face our culture today. this album is gonna b amazing. a ti madonna que te valga madre todo lo que digan de ti los envidiosos y mediocres.
Posted by: juan | Sep 21, 2005 2:20:32 PM
I like her. Despite everything I like her. She can't act, she is hardly a great voice, she is without charisma on television, and today I saw her interviewed and she has the gall to feign a Brit accent. But she is an artist. She has always had some concept of evolving her art. She is in fact, the Andy Warhol of her generation; able to interpret and predict cultural intersections. She's been renegade, poet, mother, teacher, student and predictably in the end, wife. And if the definition of a star is someone who you feel compelled to watch, for better or worse, then she is indeed a star....
let's listen.
Posted by: god | Sep 21, 2005 2:36:18 PM
Well said GOD. I know I for one am excited to see her next evolution. People may have been disappointed with the last one, but you have to admire her willingness to experiment.
Posted by: MT | Sep 21, 2005 3:02:40 PM
I'm excited for the crying.
Posted by: Rich | Sep 21, 2005 3:10:28 PM
Yeah well anyone can take and ABBA song and then redo the lyrics to What You Waiting For and call it a song
Posted by: Mac Adkins | Sep 21, 2005 3:13:02 PM
It's not that I don't like her music, I'm just so bored with her image lately. She's become Mommy-Dominitrix with a stiff botoxed forehead (nothing on her face moves in her new commercial). And let's not even talk about her High Church of Hollywood cult activities. Why do stars have to go off the deep end after they hit 40?
Posted by: cafegogo | Sep 21, 2005 4:03:58 PM
Why would anyone care about Madonna anymore? Wasn't she a singer at one time? I heard she did a movie that really stank.
I guess she's one of those people who are just famous for being famous. She certainly didn't have any talent back then, or she'd be better known today.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Sep 21, 2005 10:28:34 PM
Thank you Andy AND Matt :-)
Posted by: demetrius | Sep 21, 2005 10:55:53 PM
YAWN.........
Posted by: James | Sep 22, 2005 12:26:29 AM
madonna stinks
Posted by: vien | Sep 22, 2005 1:46:30 PM
I can't stand her mother - Kabballah and yet I'm an ARTIST thing.So bourgeouis! Pleez.
Posted by: francesco | Sep 22, 2005 8:19:50 PM
Man, Jay Crose that was funny!
It's almost as if you have no respect for music. If we didn't have Madonna music would be much worse than it already is.
Posted by: Kamikaze Camel | Sep 23, 2005 6:23:14 AM