Madonna: American Life

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald Rating: * * )

Madonna's tenth does have one major blessing: no lyric sheet. For without the mix of bleep-pop and acoustic guitars, which propels Mrs Ritchie's 10 songs about her headline life - and one squelchy but forgettable Bond theme - her words alone would achieve something she's never pulled off in her alleged acting career: a laugh-out loud comedy.

That's whether she's contemplating how celebrity is so superficial (the title track, complete with a rap that might interest Missy Elliott's lawyers), how Hollywood is just so superficial (Hollywood) and how she still has issues about the death of her mother when she was a little girl (Mother and Father). These may provoke sympathy among long-time followers, depending on whether the video store gave them a refund for hiring Swept Away.

But really, her attempts to be deep and meaningful behind the Patty Hearst revolutionary-chic cover art, are only part of the problem.

The other is a lack of musical surprises from pop's supposed mistress of self-reinvention. Working again with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzai and various co-writers, it largely sounds like an extension of her last Music, itself a comedown from her 90s musical peak Ray of Light.

There are moments which remind of Madonna the younger, like when the London Community Gospel choir enters stage right on Nothing Fails, recalling Like a Prayer and there's something of the Get Into the Groove era behind the aforementioned pop confessional Mother and Father.

There are some tracks which get past the crippling self-involvement and recall Ray of Light's wider horizons, sense of abandon and spirit-of-the-dancefloor energy. Best among them are the exuberant Love Profusion, the vocoder-voiced Nobody Knows Me and the string-laden grand finale Easy Ride.

Unfortunately, those are the few positives from a star who doth protest too much while the singing the same bleeping tune.

(Maverick/Warner Bros)