Madonna: Music (Maverick/Warner Bros)
Emboldened by Ray Of Light, a success which owed a lot to William Orbit, Madonna once again recruits a big knob to twiddle around in the studio with. This time it's French clubber Mirwais, who tweaks Maddy's pipes on songs like Impressive Instant, No- body's Perfect and the title track. Orbit is still present on the disco-trance tune, Runaway Lover, and Amazing, which could be Beautiful Stranger Part 2. There's a UK garage flavour on Don't Tell Me, and an Afro-dance feel to Paradise (Not For Me) which is redolent of Metisse, but the sum of Music's parts adds up to nothing much more than a colourful grab-bag of lightweight 21st-century pop, topped by a mediocre two-step tune and tailed by a sugary cover of American Pie. I Deserve It is both a mushy ode to her current beau, Guy Richie, and a look back at the long road which brought Madonna to where she is today. I'm happy that Maddy is content, but from the music on offer here, I think she deserves a nice rest.
Queens Of The Stone Age: R(Interscope)
In the barren landscape of post-grunge America, Queens Of The Stone Age are dragging dirty, drug-fuelled rock'n'roll back from the brink of extinction. Just to be sure you don't mistake them for Barenaked Ladies, the opening track, Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, sets out its pharmaceutical stall with the simple, straightdope verse, "Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, Ecstasy and alcohol" and the cracked-up chorus of "Co-coco-co-co-cocaine." The sleeve warns us that Better Living Through Chemistry contains "subversive elements" and that Monsters In The Parasol contains "hallucinations", but it doesn't tell you that songs like The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret, Auto Pilot and In The Fade are sharp, roughly-carved rock epics, and that Queens Of The Stone Age are the sound of prehistoric punk evolution.
