The Material Girl turns spiritual (Ray Of Light - Madonna)

Member Name: music-mad

Product:	Ray Of Light - Madonna
Date:	31/05/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Polished and meaningful electronic pop

Disadvantages: Not disposable enough for some, not sophisticated enough for others

"Ray Of Light" is the 7th album by Madonna and was released in 1998. It won 4 Grammy Awards, marked a change in musical style and helped revive the Material Girl's career. The musical style is mainly electronic with production work by William Orbit; digital sounding effects and interesting samples are usually present in the background of the tracks. The lyrics are introspective dealing with topics such as: love for her daughter, new beginnings, the death of her mother, materialism and relationships. The tempo is varied with a few up tempo dance tracks; most are mid-tempo tunes and the last track "Mer Girl" has a complete absence of any beat at all.

I enjoy the reflective and meaningful lyrics present in the album that show a more intimate side of Madonna, although they are never going to win any awards. Overall the tracks are fairly consistent, melodic and contain good production by William Orbit. The album sleeve contains the track lyrics, which is an additional bonus.

The album kicks off with "Drowned World / Substitute For Love" - a tranquil and reflective tune helped along by piano tinkles in the background - and the following track "Swim" continues along similar lines with a memorable humming backing vocal. Upbeat dance tracks inject some energy into the album as the halfway mark is approached; "Skin" has very distinctive samples from what sounds like an Arabic bazaar and "Sky Fits Heaven" is filled with electronic bloops and squiggles.

"Shanti / Ashtangi" is particularly striking as it is sung completely in Sanskrit. It consists of 2 mantras:
- Om shanti shanti shanti which is a prayer for peace
- And an Ashtanga Yoga mantra that pays homage to Patanjali who compiled the Yoga sutras.
The unusual nature of the track is likely to polarize opinions - I personally find it refreshing and the saturation of Hindu inspired samples throughout maintains my interest.

"Frozen" is an album highlight for me containing sweeping strings, a brooding melody and a middle-eastern theme but there are question marks about its originality. It was banned from Belgium because the opening four-bar theme plagiarizes "Ma vie fout le camp", composed by Salvatore Acquaviva of Mouscron.

The album ends with the weird and twisted "Mer Girl" - a beat-less track describing how Madonna is running away from her dead mother incorporating dark lyrics such as:
"And I smelt her burning flesh, her rotting bones, her decay.
I ran and I ran - I'm still running today."
This is probably intended to be a catharsis for her because it certainly doesn't make for easy listening and is an unusual end to the album - not a track you will be leaving on repeat!

In summary: this is a more reflective electronic pop album with sufficient variety and meaning to justify a listen if you haven't already. "Ray Of Light" is also far superior to her most recent efforts in my opinion.

[Also reviewed on Ciao and Epinions]

Summary: Certainly worth checking out