Madonna

Ray Of Light

THE essential Madonna Album

Review Score:

(10/10)
Ever since I bought this album back in 1998, I can understand Madonna as an artist and respect her artistic and musical credibility. From the mellow, density of the opening track, "Drowned World", you feel the direction the album is headed and can understand why this woman writes and performs music. The song is a poetic commentary on fame and how unrewarding it has been for her.

You then voyage into the realm of "Swim", another slower song about the media and their negative effects on society. Then comes the commericially successful title track that was a dance and a raido hit in the summer of 1998, complete with an award-winning video. The track is an upbeat evaluation of how significant and insignificant our actions and lives are at the same time.

The albums tames itself slightly with "Candy Perfume Girl", a rocky, guitar-heavy song with some firey imagery. Next is the tribal and euphoric "Skin" that builds froma quiet moan to a full out orgasmic frenzy of sound, beat, and heat. It asks a question and makes a demand at the same time. Phenomenal.

Next up is "Nothing Really Matters", another American single releases around Valentine's Day 1999. The song is a slower dance song that comments about the lack of value of the materail world. Next is the anthematic mantra "Sky Fits Heaven", a song that has forever made me think about the importance of realizing that there is no day but today and there is no one looking out for me but me. We are briskly swept into "Shant/Ashanti", a sandskrit chant meets yoga workout hybrid. The heartfelt "Frozen" follows which is a song about learning how to accept one's past and hope for a future.

The techno0savvy ballad "The Power of Goodbye" follows discusses the importance of relationships and how traumatic and inspiring they can be. "To Have Not To Hold" follows along the smae lines, but with a tad more of longing for the one that got away thrown in there.

Onto "Little Star" a lullaby for her then baby daughter. Rounding out the set is "Mer-Girl", a creepy, part dream, part acid trip of a song addressing Madonna's mother's death and the impact of death and life.

All in all, aphenomenal album. If any of you have read this entirely too long review and still think of Madonna as a cheeky twenty-something panting to "Like a Virgin" or wanting us to strike a pose, think again. Reinvent yourself, and if you need a hint, I think there is something else you may need to about Madonna.

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