DaytonDailyNews.com

First off, this is the mostly aptly, perfectly named new album I've heard in a while: Madonna's confectionary blend of sassy musical sugar and heavy dance beats couldn't be called anything better.

We'd been hoping Madonna would extend her hot-and-sweaty retro-flavored dance groove for a while longer; she ram-jetted back into commercial oomph three years ago with "Confessions on a Dance Floor," on which she remixed everybody from ABBA to herself into a swirling, dizzily hypnotic CD bursting with club-ready tracks.

She squeezed two good live albums from it, suggesting she might be up for continuing down that road. But then again, since when has Madonna been predictable?

So it was good to see her hook up with a solid lineup of producers — in fact, the best in the butt-shaking business these days: Danja, Pharrell Williams and Timbaland. Toss in a couple of cameos from Justin Timberlake and Kanye West, and you've got a hit-maker.

The first single, "4 Minutes," sums it all up: It features Timberlake's sidekick vocals, Timbaland's propulsive pump-and-grind, a save-the-world message from Madonna and a killer riff pieced together from marching-band horns played with back-alley raunchiness. If you took Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" and ran it through a hip-hop meat-grinder, you might come close.

Madonna's lyrics flit quickly in and around her usual themes: doing right by your fellow humans; having lots of sex with as many of them as possible; and wrestling with old Catholic guilt for doing too much of the second and not enough of the first. The fact that she can write 'em in way that makes nearly every song sound both accessible and so immediately familiar that you can sing along with it the first time around is a little bit magical.

Magic? Madonna? Who woulda thunk?

Grade: A-

iPod picks: "4 Minutes," "Miles Away," "Candy Shop," "Give It 2 Me."

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