Madonna: Were 27 Years Worth It? (★★✩✩✩) and other albums of the week

MADONNA

★★✩✩✩

ELECTRO-DANCE-POP

WARNER

The so-called queen of pop is once again showing signs of life in her recording studio, but in a rather improvable way. If this album is intended to reflect her current artistic moment/interest, things become even more worrying. Added to all this is the expectation aroused by her. The name Veronica Electronica is a sort of artistic alter ego that Madonna herself mentioned in 1998 during the promotion of her extraordinary album Ray of Light , a work that became an icon of her career and a reference for pop in the last quarter of a century (with hits like Frozen , Nothing Really Matters , and the album that gives it its name). The original plan was to release a kind of companion album a year later (1999) with remixes and some outtakes, but the overwhelming success of the original shelved the project indefinitely.

And now she's back, disappointing expectations, starting with its content, as it consists of new versions of remixes already known from the original singles from 27 years ago. The central column is made up of seven remixes, all familiar in one way or another, plus a demo of Gone, gone, gone , a previously unreleased track produced by her and Rick Nowels (the only truly original piece, along with the remix of Skin by Peter & Victor). The soundtrack features William Orbit, who previously served as co-producer on Ray of Light and who here blends pop, electronica, and lyrics together with Peter Rauhofer, Sasha, BT, and Victor Calderone.

PAUL WELLER

★★★★✩

Find El Dorado

POP-ROCK

Parlophone Records

Although Weller says that it is “a new album of deeply personal reinterpretations” and that Find El Dorado is still a covers album (he had already released one in 2004, Studio 150 ), the work is gloriously enjoyable with strains of Noel Gallagher or Robert Plant ( Clive's song ) and songs like I started a joke by the Bee Gees or Nobody's fool by the Kinks.

KOKOROKO

★★★✩✩

TUFF TIMES NEVER LAST

JAZZ-AFROBEAT

BROWNSWOOD

The London septet also solidifies their legacy by varying their sound register in a subtle way. If their debut, "Could We Be More," was brimming with Afrobeat, they now draw on 1980s British R&B, all without losing an ounce of their status as jazz artisans, where they combine enveloping vocal harmonies and rather placid tones.

IRVINE WELSH AND THE THE SCI-FI SOUL ORCHESTRA ★★★✩✩

MEN IN LOVE

DANCE-SOUL-R&B

PORT SUNSHINE

In keeping with his often brilliant and indefinable art, the Scottish writer accompanies the release of his new novel with a self-titled album, which is no mere embellishment: a sound cushion that draws on Motown, disco rhythms or contemporary electronica and with lyrics written by Welsh himself for the sanguine voices of Shaun Escoffery and Louise Marshall.