Ray of Light
Review Score: 








(10/10)
This 13-track CD was released in March 1998, and is, by a long way, Madonna's best album. It had been 4 years since her previous album Bedtime Stories, and in that time her music had diversified and improved, her voice had become stronger, she'd gained newfound insights through parenthood and spiritual searchings, and most crucially, she had teamed with cutting-edge producers to give Ray Of Light an up-to-the-moment "cool" factor her records had been lacking since the worldwide #1 hit Vogue a long 8 years earlier in 1990.
And what good songs she came up with! Frozen is great - a minor-key tune with an impressive icy blue-black video and some great remixes (I particularly like the Stereo MC's remix of this track). As the first single of the Ray Of Light campaign, Frozen did very well in the UK and Australia. Ray Of Light is a sensational fast track with a clubbing/dancing feel and a brilliant fast-motion video (one of the best pop music videos ever, in my opinion). Even better is the opening track Drowned World/Substitute For Love where Madonna's changed priorities and wise insights come to the fore. This is so good. It leads into the groovy track Swim, with superior production. Nothing Else Matters is a pop song that was lifted to the next level of effectiveness with interesting production and modern whizzes and electronic whirrs overlaid. The rave-y track Sky Fits Heaven is also really good and has fast beats and the same "travelling..." bit that is in her 1995 single Bedtime Story. I didn't particularly like Candy Perfume Girl or Mer Girl , but they did grow on me somewhat and stand as unusually warped Madonna lyrics, while the Hindu-sounding Shanti-Ashangti hints at Eastern spirituality. Her ballad side comes out in soft tunes The Power Of Goodbye, To Have And Not To Hold and the happy song Little Star (written for her daughter).
Ray Of Light deservedly won Grammy Awards for Best Pop Album in early 1999, and saw Madonna re-emerge as a force once again in pop and dance music circles, an amazing 15 years after her initial breakthroughs into the scene with Holiday and the Madonna album in 1983. Who would have predicted that the former disco dolly would still be at the top after so long?!
5 stars
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