Confessions on a Dance Floor is the kind of album an older Madonna should be making. Instead of chasing current trends, always a few steps behind and all for the goal of creating a subpar version of those trends, she follows her instincts. This leads to an album that has both idiosyncrasies and energy but also sounds contemporary simply by utilizing modern production. In other words, it’s both in and out of time, which makes Madonna feel like an innovator instead of an imitator. It looks more effortless than anything to carry her name after it, and it very well could have been. Madonna needs to be unrestrained to be Madonna.

I’m always hoping that eventually she gives up on aiming for the market and makes music for its own sake, because that’s incidentally the smartest thing both commercially and artistically.