Album of the week: Donna Summer

Published on Thursday 19 June 2008 20:56

DONNA SUMMER: CRAYONS **** BURGUNDY/SONYBMG, £11.99

DONNA Summer's commercial comeback could have been a very different, predictable and unchallenging story if she had taken up her US record company's suggestion that she record an album of standards – well, that's all these creaky old artists are good for, isn't it? Stick them in a bathchair and get them to snooze their way through the American songbook.

Fortunately, Summer had other ideas, and they involved her own set of songs. Although immortalised in popular memory as the glamorous, lipglossed disco diva who gasped her way to dancefloor rapture and in so doing brought the sound of the underground clubs into the mainstream, Summer has always embraced a wide variety of styles in her songwriting.

Appropriately, the track which kickstarted the writing for her first album of all-new material in 17 years is called Be Myself Again. It is a heartfelt piano ballad which, on one level, represents the flag of independence Summer is hoisting over Crayons, yet it cannot prepare you for what she pulls off on the rest of the record.

At least half of the tracks launch Summer back onto the dancefloor in credible, contemporary style. It would be optimistic to think that she could ever equal her classic Giorgio Moroder-produced singles for sheer orgasmic bliss and peerless sound, and Crayons does not set any agendas – but neither is it the work of a disco granny, paraded out on the dancefloor like some kind of novelty mascot to relive her sequined glory days.

Instead, Summer fully engages with a spectrum of current pop culture, collaborating with a batch of hitmakers who have worked with the likes of Rihanna, Pink and Lily Allen. If she is at all out of her comfort zone with all this young folks' music, she doesn't show it. In fact, she has succeeded where Madonna, the ultimate disco princess who refused to grow up, has failed in recent years – Summer has produced a consistent, confident and catchy collection, which is also way ahead of the tokenistic R&B airbrushing undertaken by her fellow divas Mariah Carey and Cher whenever they make their blatant appeals to the kids of today.

Stamp Your Feet is an impressive opening slab of modern disco with a dancefloor-friendly lyric which manages to celebrate the rights of the individual, the power of community, defiant resistance and positive affirmation in one simple hook. Just as compelling is current single I'm A Fire – a fluent, hypnotic house track with a Latino piano breakdown which sounds like a surefire club hit.

Having demonstrated that she means business, Summer has fun reclaiming her territory on The Queen Is Back, borrowing from the boastful, self-mythologising tradition of hip-hop and the confident sass of Timbaland-style R&B. But she also strikes a cautionary note on the meaty, driving electro-funk track Fame (The Game). As well as singing from her own experience of the fickle mistress, she is offering her comment on the blood-sucking celebrity culture which has escalated during her hiatus from the limelight.

Mr Music is a loud and proud Madonna rip-off, but Summer is only claiming back what Madge stole from her in the first place. She also proves a match for younger starlets: the sleek, smart electropop of Science Of Love sounds like Sugababes in one of their more switched-on moments, while Rihanna and Beyonc would pawn their designer strappy sandals to get the buoyant title track with its rainbow lyric, dancehall reggae flavour and guest appearance by Ziggy Marley.

With her party credentials sealed, Summer eventually drops the tempo on the acoustic soul strum of Sand On My Feet. It's a pretty formulaic song of devotion, but it is only the first of a number of tracks which dip gleefully into different musical genres. Drivin' Down Brazil is a sunny pop samba, presumably tailormade for her large Brazilian fanbase, while Bring Down The Reign, her Afropop lament for Darfur, is the most blatant message song of the album.

She even takes on a whole different vocal persona at one point, croaking like a possessed Tina Turner on the delta blues/gospel-influenced Slide Over Backwards. It's been quite a musical journey, but it lands back on the dancefloor with the deep house bonus track It's Only Love.

Summer has said that her vision for this album is that "when people hear the music, it will remind them of their youth, their childhood and the joy and wonderment they felt exploring their first pack of crayons". This sounds a bit like a greetings-card soundbite. There is no element of nostalgia to the music on this album, only the sound of a seasoned artist with a fresh lease of creative energy.