Music

by

Madonna

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On her last outing Madonna wowed both critics and the public alike. By brilliantly combining electronic beats with strong melodies on Ray of Light, Madonna took pop music in a bold, new direction. Madonna's new album Music picks up where Ray of Light left off, but ultimately this album will not be remembered as adventurous as its predecessor. Madonna sticks with the same formula that made Ray of Light a critic's darling, and that's certainly not a bad thing.

It would be easy to be misled by Music's first single and title track. The single Music, currently in heavy airplay on radio stations around the country, is a quirky, fun little number with simple, easy-to-digest lyrics. It brings to mind some of the happy-go-lucky music of Madonna's past. Music the album, however, sometimes gets deeply personal and strangely moving at times. It is older, wiser Madonna that we find here, one we can relate to and empathize with. "Many miles, many roads I have traveled, fallen down on the way," sings the one-time Material Girl on "I Deserve It." Suddenly Madonna doesn't seem so much like a glamour icon here as much as a world-weary soul-searcher.

Style-wise the album is still punctuated heavily with electronic loops and beats. "Impressive Instant" is an incredible sonic whirlwind, and "Runaway Lover" is headed straight to the dance floor. There is however more use of acoustical guitar here though than on Ray of Light. For the first few seconds of "Don't Tell Me," you would think you were listening to a John Denver song until staccato beats punctuate the song to a magnificent effect. There is heavy use of vocal manipulation (ala Cher's "Believe") throughout the album. Sometimes this is distracting, as in "Nobody's Perfect," a beautiful ballad that suffers from over-production.

On Music, Madonna continues here collaboration with electronic-mastermind William Orbit, as well as bringing in French artist Mirwais to produce some songs. On this album though, we the audience are more familiar with electronica thanks to Ray of Light, so nothing seems as new and shocking as than on that album. Most of the songs are heavily produced with beats and synthesizers, but they rarely mask the underlying melodies and emotion.

All in all, Music is another highly accomplished effort from Madonna, and one of her best albums. High-tech wizardry aside, this is still very much a Madonna album- sometimes light, sometimes challenging, but always entertaining. "Selling out is not my thing," she sings on "Gone," and she hasn't. More a continuation of her foray into electronica than a new effort, this album makes a nice bookend to Ray of Light, and it certainly deserves a spot in your CD collection.

I've been a Madonna fan since 1983 and I'll tell you this--I'm a fan, but I'm not a "yes-Madonna" fan. That is, I don't rate EVERYTHING that she makes 5 stars, which I find incredibly irritating when it comes to buying music. All musicians make great, good and okay albums and okay is what "Music" is all about.

First of all, if you're looking for another "Ray of Light" look again. Whereas "Ray of Light" was a great album, "Music" doesn't necessarily hold up. Toted as French-techo, this album is unique, but mostly acquired taste in my opinion. It truly sounds as if she was influenced by Cher's "Believe" album with the synthesizer-enhanced vocals and pops and squeals. It's not bad, it's just not that great.

The strongest song is pretty much "Music" which quite frankly has been played to death on the radio. The rest of the album I find that I hit skip, skip, skip looking for something good to leave on and suddenly the album is over. That isn't necessarily a good sign of a great album. "What it feels like for a Girl" isn't bad, actually is pretty good, although I prefer the suped-up techno version played with the banned video (which is being released on DVD -- more on that later.) The other one song I like is "Impressive Instant" which is because I like the dance-techno style and quite frankly get bored with Madonna's ballads because she really hasn't had one with much depth since "Take a Bow." Other than that, "Don't tell me" is okay, but the only other song worth listening to. The rest is pretty much forgettable.

The worst about this album would be the number of songs and the jacket content. She REALLY skimped on the number of songs as well as there's almost nothing on the jacket aside from diva-like posed pictures. There isn't any lyrics or even real personal messages -- just facts and of course, "Go to this website!" which bugs me. Madonna used to be about artistic expression, but I'm beginning to believe that she is now about money. Comparing to the quality of "Like a Prayer" which even had patchouli oil mixed with the glue to give the disc jacket a "church-smell" to it, this is a huge disappointment. "Like a Prayer" was a work of art--music and content-wise. "Music" is not. Basically, "keeping it simple" means getting more money out of you for a cheaper disc. Very disappointing as well as feeling taken advantage of.

So what do I recommend? Listen to it first before buying it. In fact, go download the MP3s somewhere (and don't feel that you're "cheating" her out of a profit because her whole album was on Napster for two months and ended up becoming the biggest selling debut of an album she's ever had...interesting, isn't it?) If you like what you hear, go ahead and buy it. If you like the techno version of "What it feels like for a Girl," go buy the DVD, which has the audio track on it rather than the album.