Madonna, who has recently garnered more publicity from her radical religious practices and her children's books than for her music, may change all that with the release of her new CD, Confessions on a Dance Floor.

Madonna's career has taken many turns since she began in the early 1980s. Beginning as a dancer and model, she soon found her calling as a singer, but did not stop there. As many singers do, she continued on to become an actress, then an author, as well as a religious zealot. She has undergone a number of transformations, from sex symbol to mother. Her decisions have often made her the focus of negative publicity, but she always seems to rebound.

Despite the sometimes-unfriendly media, she has bounced back yet again. Madonna's third-rate movie career has not had a negative effect on her first-rate music career. After over two decades of entertaining and creating music, she is still going strong.

Her first album in two years, Confession on a Dance Floor has been greatly anticipated by Madonna's fans. Many speculate it could be her best work since Ray of Light, which came out in 1999.

In this new album, Madonna travels back a few decades and revisits the disco era from which she rose to stardom. However, listeners should not be discouraged by this admission. Her sound may generate some nostalgia for some of her veteran fans, but newer admirers will most likely enjoy the techno style she has returned to.

All of her songs seem to be encompassed by a "vintage disco" aura, something that suits Madonna well as a nonconformist. Madonna definitely puts a lot of herself into her music. As one of her songs, "Like It or Not," says: "This is who I am, you can like it or not/ you can love me or leave me, 'cause I'm never gonna stop."

"Hung Up," the first single released from the album, is one of the catchiest songs to hit radio waves in some time. Over a driving beat and melody reminiscent of something out of an early video game, Madonna repeats the phrase "time goes by so slowly," possibly alluding to the fact that she never seems to age. Like Dick Clark, Madonna only appears to look younger as years go by.

The song may not be the epitome of captivating lyricism, but Madonna makes a diamond out of coal by crafting a surprisingly layered dance number. Shades of European techno intermingled with hip-hop inspired beats are enough to put any listener into a trance on the floor.

Madonna personalizes it more by including some of her songs, chanting in both English and foreign languages. Listeners will also hear a lot of repetition of lyrics, which is a common device used in techno music. For the most part, her songs are upbeat and each song transitions wonderfully to the next, making it ideal for college dance parties where people are either (a) too lazy to put in a new CD or (b) really love Madonna.

As is evident by the title, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna's aim was to get back to her dancing roots in this album. Listeners will definitely get the urge to get up and dance to the tracks on this CD just as people did in the clubs over twenty years ago when her first album came out.

Thankfully, dancing and clubbing have never seemed to lose their style over the years and Madonna's new music is sure to find its way to dance floors in no time, which is where it is meant to be — entertaining a whole new generation of listeners and widening her fan base even more.

Because of the dance vibe Madonna's latest music simply oozes, throngs of clubbers around the world will likely embrace this disc. Madonna has once more proven her prowess for creating top-notch pop music, something not everyone in the music business can tout.

— Ryan Gauthier contributed to this article.