Mandatory Madonna: The Electronic Maternal Masterpiece
Written: Feb 11 '04 (Updated Feb 13 '04)
Product Rating:
Pros: Just read the review.
Cons: It was hard to review it because it's that good.
The Bottom Line: Easily, this is one of the best albums I own. A personal, soul-baring effort all over amazing electronic beats. In my opinion, Madonna's best work ever.
To begin this review, I'd like to let you know that it's very difficult for me. I've written 6 Mandatory Madonna reviews already and it's been fairly easy to do. But I think Ray Of Light is a tough beast to conquer.
Madonna released Bedtime Stories, the relaxed R&B album, in 1994 to big success. The album had four big singles, and brought Madonna back to the mainstream after a backlash. After the success of this album, Maddy decided to take a different approach and began the opera Evita, a film which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination and a few successful singles. But the real kicker was her pregnancy. After her daughter Lourdes was born in 1996, Madonna had a brand new outlook on life, finding religion in the mysticism of Kabbalah and finding a new kind of love in her child. And what better time to get into the studio.
Ray Of Light kicks off with a hollow electronic chord structure along side the sounds of a distant wind. With the quiet, male voice beckoning us to "Listen.", there's nothing else you want to do. Maddy's vocals are raw and personal - she sounds nothing less than lost. A gentle beat comes in on the chorus, where Madonna gently questions "Should I wait for you? My substitute for love. My substitute for love." The lyrics are hardly literary, but they are sincere and blunt, which makes them poignant. "I had so many lovers who settled for the thrill of basking in my spotlight... I never felt... so happy." An acoustic guitar blossoms in, and the arrangement gets heavier through the bridge where Madonna passionately cries "No ferris wheel, no heart to steal, no laughter in the dark! No one night stand, no far off land, no fire that I can spark!!" It just keeps building and building until it quietly resolves itself with "This is my religion."
A few gentle strums of the guitar and a few trancy effects and beats bring us into Swim, Madonna's political foray into lyrics. "Children killing children while the students rape their teachers. Comets fly across the sky as the churches burn their preachers." The beat is heavy, and sounds almost aquatical, which only works with the lyrical content. Maddy's gentle "Mmm"s are melodically perfect, being catchy and easy to sing along to. The song reaches a high point on the bridge, where she urges "Let the water wash over you, wash it all over you, swim to the ocean floor. So that we can begin again, wash away all our sin, crash to the other shore." The production is at a high point, the content is terrific, and it's a dang catchy song.
The first guitar line of Ray Of Light is instantly recognizable. It's gentle and subdued until a techno beat comes crashing in to bring us one of Madonna's best songs of her career. It's a whirring carnival of awesome effects and poignant lyrics. It's at its best when she simply repeats in the chorus "And I feel like I just got home." Apart from the awesome, religious lyrics, the song's got an awesome beat, which you can't help but dance to. But above that is the melody, which even with the dancefloor friendliness of the song sounds somewhat moving and smooth. Madonna's voice isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be. She throws all of her emotion into the lyrics and it shows throughout the entire track. "Quicker than a ray of light, I'm flying." Incredible.
The tempo comes down again as we go into a darker mood with Candy Perfume Girl. A deep, heavy beat and simple chords bring us into a moody melody and lyrics which don't make much sense. Madonna coos over the effects and sounds absolutely fitting. The production builds up towards a quiet, but amazingly fitting interlude, then comes right back in full swing. "Rush me, ghost you see, every center my home, fever steam girl, throb the oceans." No one said it had to make sense. This one is definitely hard to take, and takes quite a few listens to grow on you, but eventually it will. It's got a great catchiness and by the end you'll be gently bobbing your head along and singing "Did I lie to you? Candy perfume girl!"
The dark mood doesn't give us a second to relax as the low key intro and Madonna huskily singing odd lyrics to bring us Skin. Okay, it's a little bit dark, but at least it's got a funky dance beat. After the empty intro, we've got an awesomely effective base thumping tune, with Madonna singing strange, mysterious lyrics. "Do I know you from somewhere? Why do you leave me wanting more? Why do I all the things I say sound like the stupid things I said before?" Her voice echos in and out throughout strange effects that anywhere else out sound ridiculous, but they fit into this song so strangely it's perfect. Madonna's voice longs and reaches incredibly at the bridge, as she pleas "Kiss me, I'm dying! Put your hands on my skin!" It's hard to describe all the whirring, bubbling, echoing effects here, but just know it works. And it rocks.
It's time for Maddy to get retrospective again on the next dancehall anthem, Nothing Really Matters. It starts out with an eerie intro accompianing her voice, making a very effective way to lead into a simple dance beat, with Madonna's terrific lyrics strangely slow and fitting. "Looking at my life, it's very clear to me, I lived so selfishly, I was the only one." While this one is a bit strange to listen to, with gentle piano like melodies and record scratchy effects popping up out of nowhere, it's probably the most radio-friendly thing here. And it's a dang good track at that.
*whiiiiiir* Okay, I can't describe the effect, but whatever it is, it brings us into Sky Fits Heaven. The beat in this one is simply throbbing, reminiscent of some of her older work, but completely fresh with bubbling electronic effects. It sounds pretty formulaic until the oddly optimistic sounding chorus. "Think I'll follow the sun, isn't everyone just travelling down their own road, watching the signs as they go... think I'll follow my heart. It's a very good place to start." It breathes life into this track, which just gains momentum and more momentum as it goes, and reaches the ultimate anticlimax with as the effects deteriorate and skip before our eyes. It's incredible.
The dark, heavy, throbbing beat opens up the next track, Shanti / Ashtangi. I can't tell you much about the lyrics because they're in some language I have no idea what it is, but I could type them out anyway. Thankfully though, the booklet includes a translation and it's a song very simply about the religious revolution. Since you can't understand it though, I'll just let you know about the music. The production is ace here, with layers upon layers off eccentricity behind Maddy's honest delivery of what only she could actually understand. She gently repeats the same phrase over and over, with a mystical chorus backing her up. Even if you can't understand it, it's still an interesting listen, and grows on you more and more as it progresses.
But Madonna reaches a new level of freakin' majeakin' awesome on the lead single, Frozen. A whopping six minutes and twelve seconds of mystical, intriguing, and just damn good music. It starts with orchestral chords and an indescribale effect popping in. Then there's Madge. She sounds so incredibly honest here, so sincere, and her lyrics are amazing. "Mmm, if I could melt your heart... mmm, we'd never be apart... mmm, give yourself to me... mmm... you hold... the key." she gently delivers on the chorus, which is just as catchy as all hell. It's such a complex song, with effects you don't even know are there until you've heard it a thousand times. The most amazing thing is how it's like a ballad, but you can still dance to it, and there's nothing out there much like it. I don't say it much, but this song is damn near perfect, and quite possibly my favorite Madonna song of all time.
After that, this album could definitely use something radio friendly, and Maddy delivers with the amazing The Power Of Good-Bye. This one is a little bit out of place, being surrounded by spinning electronic beats, but it still couldn't be on any other Madge album. Anyway, the melody here is just moving. There's no real reason, it's just beautiful, and it's hard to describe why, but it rocks. Being the most obvious ballad here, it still doesn't lose out on Orbit's awesome effects, with blossoming electronic sounds and a hint of acoustic guitar bouncing around behind Madge's honest vocal. This CD is notorious for having awesome, energetic bridges, and this song has one of them. "Learn to say goodbye... I yearn to say goodbye..." she shamelessly sings over a terrific string arrangement. Even if it's less-experimental, it's still fantastic.
After going for the radio friendly sound, the CD takes a turn with the simply weird To Have And Not To Hold. It's got the standard electronic effects, but has a bouncing middle-Eastern beat and melody, subdued to sound lost and distant. That goes hand in hand with the lyrics. "Your eyes, they go right through, and yet you never do anything that makes me want to stay." It's odd to hear on such a dark, eerie track Maddy simply sing a reduntant "Ba ba da ba ba ba." This one is a bit much. At first listen, it's just too weird, but after a few more spins, it's catchy and intriguing, and makes for a good listen.
After that, things need to get a bit more optimistic, and Maddy delivers on her touching ode to Lourdes, Little Star. The effects are strange, with that typical whir and even what sounds like police sirens. It's weird, but perfectly placed and makes this song work even better. The melody is so catchy. At first, this seems very cliche, but you'll notice how it gets stuck in your head. "You are a treasure to me, you are my star. You breathe new life into my broken heart." It's a touching, simple ode to her child, and Madge sounds absolutely sincere on this sweet track. I notice this one's often overlooked, but I love it.
What sounds like some weird phone noises repeat strangely to open up the closer, Mer Girl. The effects kick in sparsely, as they sound like they are saving themselves from this oddly scary track. They are hollow and empty, much like Maddy's personal vocals. "I ran from my house that cannot contain me. From the man that I cannot keep. From my mother who haunts me, even though she's gone. From my daughter who never sleeps." Of all the difficult songs, this is easily the hardest to listen to. It's bitter, strange, lost. It never gains a direction. There is never a well defined beat, or melody. It sounds experimental and weird. And it's perfect. When you listen to it, the lyrics are perfectly represented by the production. There could not be a better way to close this album than with Maddy's confessional, accapella, beautiful lines: "I ran and I ran. I'm still running away."
Ray Of Light is a pill that is somewhat hard to swallow. While it does have its share of mainstream melodies, the majority of this album consists of William Orbit's mesmerizing electronica and Madonna's subdued personal lyrics. The first time you listen to it, it's suprising to say the least, and almost unlikable. But it grows and grows on you with each spin to become a personal testament to everything that is Madonna. And it's brillaint.
As far as Madonna albums go, I would, without hesitation, say this is my absolute favorite. Not only is it my favorite Lady M album, it's damn near close to my favorite album ever. Mandatory - absolutely. More like essential. I don't think I'd be the Madonna fan I am today without this album. Da Vinci had The Mona Lisa. Madonna has Ray Of Light.
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