Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

If you’ve wondered where Donna Summer has been, she’s never really been away. While she didn’t invent the disco genre, she most certainly put a mainstream voice and face to it, one that is still sharp and clear. “Love To Love You Baby” and “She Works Hard For The Money” still get play on terrestrial radio; she has had Number One dance singles in each of the past four decades, including the red-hot “I‘m A Fire“ from CRAYONS, her first release of entirely new material in almost two decades; and she closed an episode of American Idol this season with “Stamp Your Feet,” the first legitimate single off of CRAYONS. Her voice is still strong and clear, her music still contemporary and absent the vocal enhancement that so many of today’s chanteuses require. Oh, and did I mention that she is still smoking hot? Well, she is.

So how is CRAYONS? Fabulous, damn near perfect, a joy in every way. Right at the moment I’m listening to “Slide Over Backwards,” a blues tune, for ghodssake, featuring a slide guitar, harmonica, jew's harp, and Summer, who sings it like she means it, without any pretension or hint of slumming. CRAYONS has plenty of dance music, and the aforementioned “I’m A Fire” is a killer dance track, as is “Stamp Your Feet,” and (with a bit of remixing) “Science of Love.” But Summer has been reworking other genres since 1980 (check out THE WANDERER) and CRAYONS is more than a dance project. “Be Myself Again” is a straight pop ballad that could swerve into dance play with no trouble at all. “Sand On My Feet” is a straight, unadulterated pop track, but better than anything you will hear on an A/C terrestrial station. “Drivin’ Down Brazil,” on the other hand, features samba rhythms tempered with pop trappings, and is also a candidate for terrestrial radio. “Stamp Your Feet,” however, is a good choice for the first single (and for American Idol), an anthemic track about trying, fighting and winning again and again and again. Perhaps the most ambitious track on CRAYONS is “Bring Down The Rain,” which combines western dance elements with African chanting and rhythms.

It is amazing how contemporary CRAYONS sounds without pandering to the sound du jour. It could have been released thirty years ago, and sounds like it was released just yesterday. And Summer carries the whole thing. No featured artists (except for a restrained star turn by Ziggy Marley on the title track), and no cluttered arrangements designed to hide the singers weaknesses (primarily because they aren’t any). CRAYONS just might be the dance and pop project of the year. Just don’t call it a comeback. Summer never left.