Ray Of Light - Madonna

Madonna Ciccone has been nicknamed the 'Queen of Pop', and is wll known for groundbreaking music releasing themes of music and religion onto the stage with controversy attached. Following the release of her 1994 album 'Bedtime Stories', Madonna took a break from recording music and concentrated on the film production of the musical 'Evita', in which she takes the lead. Following the birth of her first child Lourdes, Madonna wrote the bulk of the tracks on 'Ray of Light', her 1998 album. Its release heralded another 'new' Madonna. As a solo performer, she is constantly reinventing herself for fear of repeating herself within her music. This is evident in this ...  Read the complete review

"Ray of Light" came out in 1998, and it seemed to be heavily influenced by some of the events surrounding her life at the time. Following on from the starring role in the film of "Evita", and her decision to have her baby, Lourdes. (yes, that's the way Madonna does things - unlike most of the rest of womankind, she decides to have a baby). It's a rather more mature album than some of her previous ones. She gets down to basics, universal truths - like religion / relationships, love, loss, communication - and having the baby may well have been partly responsible - it concentrates your mind on the important issues of life. Musically, ...  Read the complete review

"Like a VURR-URR-URR-GIN, touched for the very first time, Does your heart beat next to mine?" Certainly, on the cover of 1998's Ray Of Light album, Ms Ciccone, despite her advancing years, opted for the winsome, come hither image, all pleading and promising eyes, windswept hair covering her gorgeous features, dreaming of progress in the bedroom department, a magical Gypsy Queen, a misty eyed high class Call Girl, clothed from head to foot in a sort of weird blue polythene jumpsuit effort. Wander inside the obligatory CD booklet of lyrics and feast your eyes on the gratuitous sight of Mad Donna, in skimpy see through top, flashing her ...  Read the complete review

After a couple of years of no new material I couldn’t wait to grace my eardrums with the sounds of ‘Ray of Light’. I am not going to bore you with commentary about the good lady, there are plenty of books to read about her...and The Sun has kept us pretty well updated. So briefly, ‘Ray of Light’ was released in 1998 on Warner Bros/ Maverick, and boasts a number of hits. Drowned World/ Substitute for Love, Ray of Light, Nothing Really Matters, Frozen , The Power of Goodbye and Little Star were all released and were hits in the UK charts. The album topped the UK album charts for a number of weeks, and to date has sold over 12 million ...  Read the complete review

I know this isn't Madonna's most recent album - Music being out quite recently - but all the wedding business has made me listen to the CD again and realise how brilliant it is. When I first got it I thought it was a bit weird, a bit odd and so didn't play it that often. Now I've realised that it's a real grower and worth lots of listens. It's common knowledge that Madonna enlisted the help of William Orbit on this album, and the electronic touch is very obvious. Most of the tracks are mid-tempo numbers that really show off Madonna's voice. It just shows how talented Madonna is that she has lasted so long in the pop music business. ...  Read the complete review