Madonna
Ray of Light

THE REVIEW

My writing session for review purposes began more than two months ago with the analysis of Madonna's Erotica, an artist whom I particularly favor among the vast array of stars that the music world absorbs (and sometimes is forced to absorb). This review I am about to present to you, dear DeBaserian friends, concerns the work that more than any other ignited a deep interest in Miss Ciccone within myself. I am speaking of Ray Of Light, dated 1998.

Among the multitude of music material produced by Madonna, Ray Of Light represents, or should represent, the Summa of her artistic journey, a work that succeeded in that very important goal, namely, the widespread critical approval of Madonna and her music, which, especially after the subversive Erotica, had further turned up its nose at that brazenness and excess that Ciccone embodied even in her songs. Finally, after years of not a few disapprovals from the most authoritative music critics and their affiliates, Madonna was able to combine millions of albums sold with acclaims from the stern reviewers of Rolling Stones and others.

Ray Of Light is generally conceived as the most radical "turn" in Ciccone's musical journey: a definite, strong, complete shift from the '80s and '90s mainstream pop (with, of course, various seasonings and contaminations, including R&B, Soul, and Hip Hop (Bedtime Stories), Jazz (I'm Breathless, Erotica), Rock (Like A Prayer) to electronics and derivatives, Trance, Acid House, Minimal, Techno, a genre that had not yet fully entered the mainstream consciousness of artists and '90s masses, except in reference to alternative and innovative bands such as Prodigy and Chemical Brothers who, however, were beginning to have a worthy media and commercial following. The work is, therefore, widely considered as the true "initiator" of that electro/electro-pop revolution that raged for years, especially in the Old Continent, and that today has been warmly embraced even by the United States, traditionally oriented towards West Coast/East Coast Rap/Hip Hop. In the album in question, Madonna sheds the guise of the sadomasochistic mistress of Erotica and Evita to fully immerse herself in a new world where spirituality, religion, reflection, true Life are the essential prerogatives. And the soundtrack of this "new Life," Madonna intends to seek in electronics, ambient, techno, new-wave, in those sounds precisely that allow for an intimate journey into one's subconscious in search of oneself and one's essence, in the pantheistic attempt to merge into one with Nature. An attempt at transcendence, ecstasy, ascendance that offers the listener almost 70 minutes of pleasure for the mind and body.

The architect of this unrepeatable, umpteenth Cicconian transformation is William Orbit, a lesser-known artist from the acid-house underground, creator of innovative melodies, who had already come to Madonna's presence in the days of Justify My Love with the purpose of remixing that scandalous track. Intending to create a homogeneous album consistent with her in fieri state of mind, Orbit could prove perfect for the musical celebration of her spiritual and moral "rebirth."

The musical show begins with Drowned World/Substitute For Love, a track that, while anticipating the new musical direction, does not intend to yet "open the dance," in which Madonna, on ambient, chill-out, and subdued new wave sounds, light and soft percussion and beats, sings the change that her existence has embraced, from the rejection of materialism and superficiality to the joy of having a daughter, a human being to whom to give unique affection and love. Soft and minimal can also describe Swim, in which one rises from sin and inner evil toward a purification of the soul, symbolized by immersion in the waters (I can't carry these sins on my back - Don't wanna carry any more - I'm gonna carry this train off the track - ....Gonna swim on the ocean floor - Crash to the other shore - Swim to the ocean floor).

From repentance to redemption, to ecstasy, to ascension: the title-track Ray Of Light, with its electronic, minimal, techno distorted, and sped-up beats, with Madonna's ecstatic voice screaming almost in a trance state "Quicker Than A Ray Of Light", is the anthem to the heavens of the new Life.

The track that summarizes Madonna's innovation made in Orbit isSkin, in which a frenetic dance floor beat meets electronic, psychedelic, Acid-House, Trance, and Techno sounds that in a good 6 minutes and 20 seconds takes the listener into a transcendental, frenetic, ecstatic world. The same goes for the subsequent Nothing Really Matters and Sky Fits Heaven, danceable, engaging, fast.

From the new dance floor, one returns fully convinced to individual asceticism, ignoring the tribal-New Age-Ambient sounds of Shanti/Ashtangi (with lyrics in Sanskrit), a track that anticipates with excitement the fabulous Frozen, one of Madonna's most sincere and valid melodies, expressing in ambient, chill-out, electronic, almost lyrical sounds a unique and irresistible pathos and sentiment, a convincingly expressed mysticism. I invite you, DeBaseriani, to take a look at the "lyrics" of Frozen "You only see what your eyes want to see - How can life be what you want it to be - You're frozen - When your heart's not open". Particularly valid are the pauses, the continuous interspersing of the melodies that anticipate a hyperbolization of sentiment and expression. Beautiful.

The production of the tracks Little Star and The Power Of Good-Bye features Patrick Leonard, an old collaborator of Madonna from the times of True Blue, Who's That Girl and Like A Prayer, who creates two simple examples of pop more mainstream compared to the rest of the album, but still convincing and sincere. In Little Star, Madonna sings a sort of "lullaby" for her little daughter, accompanied by very soft, New-Wave, almost ambient, relaxing and gentle sounds.

The work concludes with Mer Girl, a very bizarre alternative/New Wave/Minimal melodic track, percussion-free, accompanied by simple and repeated bleeps and "natural" tones, a song in which Miss Ciccone describes her family, particularly her deceased mother, defined with an Anglo-French phrase as a "sea girl". Disturbing drama and sudden carefreeness blend in this piece, creating an intersperse of pathos and emotion, made so by a series of pauses. A decidedly "theatrical" track: "I ran to the forest - I ran to the trees- I ran and I ran - I was looking for me - I ran to the lakes - And up to the hill - I ran and I ran - I'm looking there still - And I smelt her burning flesh - Her rotting bones - Her decay - I ran and I ran - I'm still running today."

From Ray Of Light, electronics and its derivatives become prerogatives in the Queen of Pop's music. With the subsequent Music, Madonna will return to the dance floor and similar scenes, reaffirming that status of Queen Of The Dance Floor, contended by illustrious colleagues like Kylie Minogue or the "Baby Stars" like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Frivolity, carefreeness, playfulness, and fun will far outweigh intimacy's spirituality and reflection. And she will favor a new genius of distorted and minimized sounds, Mirwais Ahmadzai, relegating Orbit to a minor position who, however, will remain for years to come her male"muse" and inspiration for future American Life and Confessions On A Dance Floor, all works that are the offspring of his teaching and collaboration.

This album is a dedication to all those fanatical Madonna detractors who intend to deny the goodness of her art because of its extremely commercial and poppish side: Ray Of Light is the concrete proof that true musical creativity can also concern the pop, mainstream world and the like. To whom can this work be recommended? To everyone, I believe, or better yet, hope.

Madonna - Ray Of Light (1998)

Tracklist:

1 Drowned World/ Substitute For Love

2 Swim

3 Ray Of Light

4 Candy Perfume Girl

5 Skin

6 Nothing Really Matters

7 Sky Fits Heaven

8 Shanti/ Ashtangi

9 Frozen

10 The Power Of Good-Bye

11 To Have And Not To Hold

12 Little Star

13 Mer Girl

Japanese Version 14 Has To Be

Singles:

1998 Frozen

1998 Ray Of Light

1998 Drowned World/ Substitute For Love (No U.S.A.)

1998 The Power Of Good-Bye

1999 Nothing Really Matters