"Impressive Instant" will get even the stodgiest of boys on the dance floor and "Runaway Lover" takes the momentum and spins another crisp (if slightly repetitive) club tune. William Orbit returns to contribute "Amazing," an even more souped up variation on the melody of "Beautiful Stranger."

There's also a lot of electronica ballads on the CD--and it's in the context of these ballads that Madonna has made the most progress. Her weakness has traditionally been shallow lyrics; regardless of what emotions she tries to conjure, Madonna always comes off as slightly pretentious, coolly arrogant, and almost never genuine or warm. But Mirwais solves this problem by eliminating the electric contortions on these slower tracks and leaving Madonna's voice naked and credible against the synthesizers.

Another song I can't seem to shake is the number eight track, "What It Feels Like for a Girl," which comes off as a lyrical counterpoint to Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants." In the latter, of course, the blond teen queen sings of boys who can please their girls by "knowing exactly" what they want. Madonna doesn't sympathize: "Good little girls they never show it / When you open up your mouth to speak / Could you be a little weak? / Do you know what it feels like for a girl?

Who knows where Madonna goes from here? Who cares? She's been so successful, so consistent, so spectacular with her risk-taking that we never have to doubt the quality or the thought put into each one of her ventures. Critics, of course, have made a career out of predicting her doomsday. And she's made a career out of proving them wrong.