Day 0919 - Music

Madonna "Music" (2000)

I've already gushed on about Madonna's virtues as a chameleonic creative force in my entry about "Ray of Light" (day 869) so here I'll just focus on this album itself.

Following the critical success of "Ray of Light", Madonna had been keeping busy.  She'd done some more acting and released a couple of songs for movies soundtracks ("Beautiful Stranger" for 'Austin Powers' and a cover of "American Pie" for the film 'the Next Best Thing' which she had starred in).   Looking to get started on her new album she teamed up with producer William Orbit again but also brought in French electronic artist Mirwais who had attracted her attention when he submitted a demo to her record label.

The two producers definitely put this release in the electronic zone but their differing styles help set it apart from her previous release and keep things interesting.

The opening, self-titled track has a (for the time) contemporary sound to compete with all the Britneys and Christinas of the time.  

The sort of 'digital cowgirl' vibe of the album (personified by the cover photo with Madonna in a stylish Stetson) is showcased on peppy single "Don't Tell Me" and the sombre alt-country-with-a-beat of "I Deserve it".   "Nobody's Perfect" shows the other side of the album's sound, all slinky groove, synths and auto-tune vocals... it doesn't feel cold though, despite the technology.  It has heart.            

The album closes off with the cover of "American Pie" a cover that feels somehow ill-judged and yet hearing the lyrics from Madonna's mouth, it almost feels like it could have been written for her.

Day 0869 - Ray of Light

Madonna “Ray of Light”

When a long-standing popular artist starts dabbling in the musical fashion of the day, it can often be an embarrassing and ineffective attempt to stay relevant.  I think that Madonna is different in this respect because (a) she works with good people, like producer/remixer extraordinaire William Orbit, and (b) she commits to the new direction.  She doesn’t try and just do what she was doing before but adopting affectations of the genre she’s working with, she fully ‘leans in’ to it and changes her vocal style to suit.

Mads had recently become a mother and embraced Kabballah, which led to a more reflective approach to her songwriting.

There’s the moody, electronic minimalism of album opener “Drowned World” and closer “Mer Girl”.  Lead single “Frozen” is similarly restrained and moody but bursts forth into a beautiful string arrangement.

The euphoric poppy title track almost feels out of place among the other material, but does link into the more middle-eastern sound that is being explored elsewhere on the album.  "Candy Perfume Girl" has a nice funky, loping groove, and there’s a song in Sanskrit "Shanti/Ashtangi".

Though I’m less of a fan of some of her more recent work, with Madonna’ s mixing of genres, her acting work and releasing books ranging from children’s books to books of erotica, I hope that when she does depart the mortal coil that she’s remembered alongside other multi-faceted artistic chameleons like say ,Bowie.

Day 0833 - Antichrist Superstar

Marilyn Manson "Antichrist Superstar" (1996) - got it

I actually found it a little difficult to revisit this one.   I picked it up when I was a teenager, and as with a lot of this sort of angry, nihilistic, twisted music it was a good release for me when I was going through a whole lot of my own stuff.   The off-shoot of that is that this music is now largely tied to some pretty uncomfortable memories.

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor had taken the band under his wing and produced their first couple of releases.   He initially helmed the sessions for Antichrist Superstar too, but was around less in the second half of the process due to his commitments working on David Lynch's "Lost Highway" soundtrack.

The album still has a NIN 'Downward Spiral' vibe to it though with crunchy guitar riffs, roomy drums, bleakness and a touch of ambient treatment to some of the arrangements.   The album starts full pelt with propulsive metal of "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" before seguing into the successful single "The Beautiful People" with its industrial-meets-tribal drumming and simple but effective guitar riffs.

Much of the album has a beaten, feral intensity to it, but the brakes are applied in a couple of places, most noticeably the melodic "Cryptorchid" with its squelchy beats and creepy synths, and album closer (save for the 80+ tracks of silence and the hidden track at the end) "Man that you fear" which almost has a creepy post-apocalyptic triphop vibe to it, like someone trying to emulate Portishead except that person is a crazed serial killer and is unable to hide that in the music.

Musically it is as strong a rock album as you could hope (though trimming a track or two wouldn't harm it).   Apparently there's some lyrical chain throughout the album so that it's kind of a concept album/rock opera, but I never really paid too much attention to that.  All I know is that at a certain time in my life it was the right album for where I was at, but I don't give it many listens these days.

Day 0640 - Like a Prayer

Madonna "Like a Prayer" (1989)

Madonna moved away from her dancey pop music into a more artistically daring form of pop, one that led critics to label it "as close to art as pop gets"

An album born from turmoil, Madonna was dealing with the Catholic guilt bred into her through her upbringing, coming close to the age her mother had been when she died, and having her tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn come to an end.

Madonna funnelled all of this into her work, with an album steeped in sex and God.  As such, it wasn't exactly welcomed by the church.  The Vatican condemned one of her music videos and Pepsi pulled out of promotional deal with her (apparently controversial religious overtones are not welcome, but shallow Kardashian trivialisation of important social movements is fine). 

She had been working to develop a musical with Prince, that didn't end up eventuating, but the collaboration did result in him dueting with her on the song "Love Song" and contributed some guitar and production elsewhere on the album.

The album cemented Madonna's place as pop royalty and seemed to be her working out some residual catholic guilt, opening her up to more confronting projects such as her album "Erotica" and her book "Sex".