The dancefloor is not just a place,” Madonna intones in a breathy voiceover near the start of One Step Away, a new track that strongly recalls her 2000s electronic heyday. “It’s a threshold. / A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.” Good for the Soul doubles down on the message, while another half-dozen tunes concur: dancing, as Madonna has it, is Love Without Words.
Celebrating the dancefloor is hardly a novel idea. Many artists have made the point that dancing is so much more than a superficial pastime but a means of escape, connection and reinvention. Also, it’s an excuse to get messy – not least Madonna herself, on tracks such as Into the Groove (1985) and Vogue (1990).
Recently, it’s been hard to move for all the body-jacking music that has been pumped out since the pandemic by a slew of mononymous, or near-mononymous, stars: Dua, Kylie, Beyoncé, Gaga, Charli and Twigs, for starters.
Full review available at The Observer