The difficult Gypsy in Polythene Phase (Ray Of Light - Madonna)

Member Name: thehud

Product:	Ray Of Light - Madonna
Date:	19/09/02 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Moody, yearning music

Disadvantages: A bit leaden

"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 infamous nipples for all to see and clearly enjoying a private joke.

"LIVING in a MATERIAL WORLD, and I am a MATERIAL GUUUURRRLLLL!!"

She does this sort of stuff so professionally and elegantly, like a peculiarly high class kind of call girl, dropping THAT LOOK from THOSE EYES. Young boys would do well to recall that she's had the last twenty years or so to perfect the act, the grasping of THE PUNTER, promising that she's all yours, to do with as you will, just as long as you're willing to part with the reasonable entrance fee. Beware, however, because there ain't any refunds and this is strictly business.

"I'M KEEPING MY BAYBEE."

Anything you say girl, you're the boss, we're only spectators to your courting of the media machine, standing by, breathlessly hoping that you'll drop your guard and usher us in to your gentle caress, like a Venus Fly Trap, putting your honey on display, but only interested in the snatch of the capture. Beware the Harpy.

"STRIIIIIKE A POSE, THERE'S NOTHING TO IT - VOGUE!!!"

On the other hand...

Madonna has made some of the most memorable, the most credible, the most thoughtful and most thoughtless pop records in the last two decades of the
Twentieth Century, striking out from the post New Wave Floozie who burst onto an unsuspecting world with the insubstantial Holiday, easily dismissed back then as a half hit wonder who would soon fade from view - just like Toni Basil, The Regents, Lene Lovich, Haircut 100 and a thousand other starry eyed hopefuls. Except she never did disappear and if anything her presence grew as time went on, until she became part of the machine, a glimmering star in the pop firmament, a feature of the status quo.

And then boredom and a desperate urge for credibility grew, so that Hanky Panky and working opposite Warren Beatty in the ferociously gaudy Dick Tracey as Breathless Malone just wasn't enough any more and the flirtation with real grown up sex became the route to instant infamy and deeper honour. In Bed With Madonna, not so much a craze but the only thing to claim if you were intent on being hip.

The later period in Madonna's enormous career is the most interesting phase, as Maddy enters a time when she no longer needs to make records when she and Guy Ritchie can live on past earnings and triumphs, when money no longer matters, and it's artistic credibility which is the prize.

For my part, what Ray Of Light began was brought to tremendous fruition by the supreme Music album, but it is a pretty neat treasure in its own right, catapulting Mads into a New Age, all synths and mystical weirdness and a total lack of need to conform in any way whatsoever, opting for breathy, misty eyed performances, religious depths and metaphors and a recreation as Ms Credibility. It's also a pretty wonderful, trance like collection of 'songs' where it's more the atmosphere than the stories which count. I prefer Music, but this evening Ray Of Light is perfect enough for my purposes.

You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, and Ray Of Light is certainly not good time, party music. In fact, it's quite sobering,
gentle and ephemeral.

Of course, you also get the idea that if she could have had one wish, Madonna would have opted to drop twenty years and replace Shirley Manson in Garbage, to become a genuine rock animal, but if such a miracle and a bizarre pairing wasn't on the cards, then forced mysteries and misty eyed tales from the crypt would just have to do.


DROWNED WORLD/SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE
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According to the sleeve, this was written by committee with Rod McKuen, Anita Kerr and David Collins joining Madonna and regular co-writer William Orbit on the creative duties. It doesn't really have too many traces of the obvious danger of creating a camel, and instead plods along seductively enough with some excellent synth effects and atmospheres over easy but sharp drum patterns and nice acoustic guitar picking. Sadly Madonna herself could be literally any pretty, empty headed bimbo singer on this one and she never really lets the foot off the brakes. It's a canny enough song, mind, pet, just nothing particularly awe inspiring, though creates a nice, blissful mood.


SWIM
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In contrast to its predecessor, Swim does cook a nice little recipe, with some strident drums and insistent guitar riffing. Mads is more at home here and comes up with some nice couplets: "Children killing children while the students rape the teachers, comets fly across the sky while the churches burn their preachers." There are a fair few religious overtones with all manner of baptism images and preoccupation with washing away all the sins. Lovely synth and guitar carve out a great mood poem.


RAY OF LIGHT
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Blissful, marvellous, wonderful pop music and a real highpoint of the album this, with throwaway references back to the Sixties in its circular, rolling feel and acoustic guitars, but the throbbing compelling rhythms a
nd textures of the synth are what really makes things, along, of course, with Madonna's voice and attack, great, great stuff which saw this as a cult hit single and set the mood for the excellent Beautiful Stranger nonsense from Austin Powers. Huge shards of electronic noise and battering drums leave you with little option but to lie back and think of England. One of Madonna's finest moments, even if there was more composition by committee (five of the buggers this time). Still, it goes to show that these approaches can pay off occasionally. This song is how George Harrison would sound if he had discovered synths instead of sitars.


CANDY PERFUME GIRL
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Twitchy sinister synth and muted guitar usher in this one, before electronic percussion picks things up and sets an intoxicating framework within which Mads has plenty of room to roam and explore with delicious singing. It's a bit of a plodder, but the music really creates a wonderful, restless atmosphere which is never gentle enough to relax to. This one would not have sounded out of place on the first Garbage album and sports definite overtones of Stupid Girl mixed into things. Love it to death.


SKIN
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Hushed and blissful, whispered and textured, moody and undulating, a perfect piece of electronic pop, where the standard over the top electronic rhythms are reined back and interwoven skilfully to fit the melody rather than corrupting and overwhelming it. It never gets you jumping out of your chair, but that?s not what this album is about. It's all about understatement, hints, rumours and pastel shades. Make of it what you will, but enjoy the mood.


NOTHING REALLY MATTERS
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This is one of the more uptempo offerings on show here, owing its life and pace to the solid, reliable electronic rhythm track, and its interest to the whimsical ad hocker
y of the synth stabs, burbles and squeaks. Great, nonsensical, hippy dippy rubbish it may be, like the effort of someone who's had a joint too many, convinced that this is DEEP, MAN, but somehow it still makes sense with its tinkling piano and pop folk vocals lines, a bit like the Nolans on acid.


SKY FITS HEAVEN
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More twiddly synth lines, thumping (but always understated) electronic drums and a total religious trip. Instant Karma gonna get you. Disposable, pretty bland fare, but at least it doesn't hurt your head.


SHANTI/ASHTANGI
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I always hate it when they sing in another language, but certainly this is good stuff, with Mads coming over all Female Maharishi. Great distinctive treatments and beautiful rhythms, with those crazy Indian drums. Of course, it generally means tup all when they start to deal with such cultural exploitation but it's got enough about it to make you want to come back again and again.


FROZEN
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Huge, sweeping strings, muted synths, almost hushed vocals and big, echoey moments made this a thoroughly listenable hit single. It's unashamedly slow in pace, but builds some great atmospheres and dynamics. The electronica is actually quite mannered and indulgent if you listen to this song too many times, but certainly the first time you experience Frozen it's a great song. I remember her performing this on the National Lottery Programme, with wistful, dry ice presentation and sleeves right down to her fingers, all balletic and Romany and Elf like. She looked like she was auditioning for the part of Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings, when she'd been better off as Sauron's bit of stuff. It's a great romantic piece of nonsense in reality, but certainly effective and thoroughly addictive, even at more than six minutes.


THE POWER OF GOOD-BYE
>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Insubstantial and a touch annoying. Bland, hippy words, and the music is done much better elsewhere. It leaves you pretty unmoved.


TO HAVE AND NOT TO HOLD
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Simplistic, catchy, but toned down sub-Depeche Mode melody and rhythms. Nice, and easy to listen to, its rhythms nag away at your brain and get you loving it despite yourself.


LITTLE STAR
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Bleeping synths, clipped, stunted vocal phrases, moody rhythms, a ticking, clicky bottom bit (if you know what I mean). Nice, pleasant hippy nonsense about butterflies. This from the girl that sang about being a Material Virgin who wanted to go on a package holiday. Still, all part of growing up.


MER GIRL
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After a few sub-standard tracks, this is more expansive and powerful and we forget the butterflies to consider instead things altogether darker: "I ran to the cemetery and held my breath and thought about your death ... I'm looking there still and I smelt her burning flesh, her rotting bones, her decay." Belying the subject matter, the music is gentle, dream like and enticing. Therein lies the strangeness of Madonna - a supreme pop sensibility coupled with a burning desire to stretch and achieve critical credibility.

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