Published on Jul 26, 2004
All right, the Che Madonna revolutionary look she donned for her
American Life LP is rather silly, and the Britney kiss was
as embarrassing as Michael Jackson smooching Lisa Marie a decade
earlier on MTV. But for a woman who has undergone countless
transformations, you can forgive some of her over ambitious
failures. Still, some of Madonna’s critics, especially social
conservatives, have made the critical mistake of calling Madonna a
“has-been.” Has-been? Hardly.
American Life is a weak album, but it’s coming off the
strongest one-two punch in Madonna’s lengthy career:
Ray Of Light and 2000’s
Music. And while
Ray Of Light was arguably Madonna’s finest hour, it
occasionally sank under new-agey mysticism because of her gung-ho
embracement of the Kabbalah.
Music represents all of the techno vibe that so works for
Madonna while shaking off
Light‘s occasional self-important bloating.
The album starts off with the instant-classic title track.
Backed up by a fun, cheeky bass line, and an overly feminine intro
of “Heyah Mr. DJ,” the song can bring a spring in the step of even
the straightest Lynyrd Skynyrd-listening alpha male. William Orbit,
the mega-producer behind
Ray Of Light, is on hand for this album, but the majority of
the production work goes to French producer Mirwais.
Music is the loosest album in Madonna’s career. The album’s
freeness enables her to sing a line as hokey as “I like to singy
singy singy/ like a bird on a wingy wing wingy” without losing the
mood of the dirty, grinding beats set in “Impressive Instant.” It’s
moments like these when you forget the singer is that club-going
girl from Detroit in the mid-’80s. And her ability to actually
create a great ‘whole’ album as opposed to a series of great
singles puts her miles above other aging divas, such as Cher and
Whitney Houston.
Music does run into some ruts. When Madonna tries to go serious,
like “I Deserve It” and the lackluster final two tracks, the album
slides. It would have been a much greater payoff if Madonna kept
the bumpy, fun spirit of some of the best tracks on
Music pulsating throughout the entire album. The only
exceptions to this are on “Don’t Tell Me” and “What it Feels Like
For a Girl.” Still, there are at least a half-dozen remixes that
are superior to “What it Feels Like…” The same can’t be said
for “Don’t Tell Me” — the clean, stuttering guitar line is the
stuff of repeat listens. Even after heavy circulation on adult
contemporary radio, the song is still immensely listenable, just
ignore the lyrical corn like “take the black off the crow.”
Madonna’s been through worse publicity than
American Life (hello
Sex book). And with Cher and Tina Turner still selling out
venues when they are in their 50s and 60s, there’s no way Madonna
is going to be leaving the music world anytime soon, much to the
dismay of the Rush Limbaughs and Bill O’Reillys of the world. In
fact, it was around 1998 when the music world was ready to write
off Madonna as a has-been before she dropped
Ray Of Light. Her ability to shock may have waned since the
early ’90s, but anyone doubting her ability to surprise need only
to listen to Music to lay those doubts to rest.