A Beautiful Mess: Madonna’s American Life!

The Good: Themes, Moments of voice, A few moments of musical accompaniment
The Bad: Some terrible rhymes, Much of the dance music is insipid, Short
The Basics: An unfortunately erratic album, American Life at least shows some depth for Madonna and manages to be worth listening to!


There are few musical artists in the world (or in history) as big and successful as Madonna. So, when she releases an album that is (comparatively) a commercial dud, it still tends to have the sales record that indie artists envy and Madonna goes back on tour, goes back to the studio, and produces her next work, regardless of the commercial or critical beating the album took. By comparison, I am a virtually unknown novelist and blogger whose published works have sold dismally. My point here is that Madonna easily shrugged off the critical slamming of her album American Life quite a while ago and a defense of the album from me means absolutely nothing to her.

That said, I find myself in the odd position of bucking popular opinion on the topic of Madonna’s album American Life. To be sure, the album is erratic and the inconsistencies in it are positively annoying, but the rebellion against the familiar works for Madonna and her message on the concept album is largely well-considered. American Life is an album that consciously rejects materialism and struggles with the ramifications of massive success while wrestling with lingering childhood issues for the artist (or at least the musical version sung about on her songs). While the album failed to significantly chart a single, the album as a whole ends up being very listenable . . . at least after the first two or three times through (it makes me glad I listen to every album eight times before reviewing them!).

With only eleven songs, clocking out at 49:39, American Life is largely the creative work of Madonna. Madonna co-wrote all eleven songs and she is credited as a co-producer on each track as well. While Madonna does not play any musical instruments on American Life, she provides both the primary and main backing vocals on each track. Given how autobiographical the album appears and how successful Madonna had been leading up the album, one finds it hard to argue that the album is anything but her musical vision for the work.

The weird inconsistencies with American Life start with the music. Starting off as the most banal possible dance album, American Life eventually sheds the pretense that Madonna fits into only the one niche and begins presenting Madonna as pop-rock balladeer. After the electronic percussion-driven dance songs “American Life” (which has to have one of the worst rap interludes in music history), “Hollywood” (which might have been great were it not for the shouted interstitial bit), and “I’m So Stupid,” the softer, more melodic “Love Profusion” and “Nobody Knows Me” stand out. While the album reverts to dance-pop with “Die Another Day,” the substance of American Life is in the middle where Madonna returns to her pop roots as opposed to keeping every song danceable.

It is also on the middle tracks that Madonna’s natural voice comes out. On songs like “Intervention” and “Mother And Father,” Madonna shows both vocal range – going both higher and lower than one might expect – and he voice unadulterated by electronic production elements. And for a change, the listener gets to hear that Madonna has a beautiful natural voice that can make a pretty significant leap in register from soprano to low alto/tenor ranges! When she is not busy singing fast on American Life, Madonna sings low and slow and with a decent emotional range.

What seals the album’s fate for inconsistency are the lyrics on American Life. On American Life, Madonna seems to want to say something deeply personal . . . but she does not seem to know quite who she is or what she wants that statement to be. As a result, American Life loses a lot of its potential punch. For example, on “Nothing Fails,” Madonna sings about how she is not religious (ironically employing what sounds like a Gospel choir as backup on the song), but on the subsequent three songs, she evokes a great deal of religious imagery explicitly calling out to Jesus Christ (“X-Static Process” and “Mother And Father”) and referencing Satan (“Intervention”).

But the anti-materialism bent of American Life is poisoned almost immediately by the song “American Life.” While the song muses “Do I have to change my name? / Will it get me far? / Should I lose some weight? / Am I gonna be a star?” Madonna falls into a pretty banal rhyme scheme with the lines “I'd like to express my extreme point of view / I'm not Christian and I'm not a Jew [For the record, not at all an “extreme” point of view!] / I'm just living out the American dream / And I just realized that nothing Is what it seems” (“American Life”). It’s almost laughable to consider that someone who has wrestled with fame is only just now in her career realizing that there are masks and illusions in her chosen field. Moreover, it’s virtually impossible to sell a song asking if one might become a success when they list off their staff (and it’s pretty extensive!). Note to Madonna: you know you’ve made it when you can afford the three nannies, five bodyguards and the jet. There’s no doubting here . . .

Ironically, it is Madonna’s ability to market that sells the best song on American Life. There is absolutely nothing new about the sentiment or words to “Nothing Fails,” but when Madonna sings “It was not a chance meeting / Feel my heart beating / You're the one / You could take all this, take it away / I'd still have it all / 'Cause I've climbed the tree of life / And that is why, no longer scared if I fall,” she makes it sound surprisingly fresh and new!

Unfortunately, the potentially personal and revelatory album American Life is plagued by contradictions and Madonna’s apparent attempt to remain close to the most marketable aspects of her music. Still, there are enough divergences from the dance/electronica sound to allow listeners to get something truly special and worth listening to out of American Life.

Despite my general aversion to religious imagery in music, the best track on American Life is the solid and enjoyable (though slightly repetitive) “Nothing Fails.” The low point is probably “American Life.”

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Ray Of Light
Something To Remember
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor
I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

6/10

For other music reviews, please visit my complete Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Mostly Melancholy Madonna Gives Listeners Something To Remember, More Or Less...

The Good: Some surprisingly decent and enduring songs, Moments of voice
The Bad: Some truly insipid lyrics, Somewhat narcoleptic overall sound.
The Basics: Madonna's collection - with new tracks! - presents a fair assessment of her singing ability in a thematically moody outing that endures.


As the world eats up Madonna's new album - which I'm still waiting for a copy to review - I decided to follow up my collections of reviews of Madonna's works from last year with a new-to-me album and review. Fortunately, I don't have to discuss the implications of Madonna working with Justin Timberlake instead of Britney Spears (I'll save that for the new album review when I get it), for this album precedes all that by about a decade. Back in 1995, Madonna released a collection of ballads and lighter pop-rock songs called Something To Remember.

With fourteen tracks clocking in at 71:08, Something To Remember is a collection of ten previously released tracks, three new songs and a remix of one of those songs. They vary greatly in lyrical quality and vocal production, yet strangely the album has a musical and thematic unity to it that seems to tap into a softer niche for Madonna. Honestly, right now I'm having a little problem with reviewing Something To Remember. It's a simple problem; there are songs on this album that are absolutely abysmal. I, for example, loathe "Take A Bow." I already know that I'm giving this album three stars and the recommend. My issue is this: I recently reviewed Sara Bareilles' album Little Voice (reviewed here!) and I could not bring myself to recommend it. Bareilles is an actual artist and I respect that a lot, but every song on her album sounded like she was trying to be someone else. Ultimately, that drove me to give the old "thumb's down" to that album. Madonna, who I look at as an amazing businesswoman and less of an artist, seems like she might be getting a free ride by my recommendation. But the truth is, even on her worst tracks on Something To Remember, even as she dominates the slower, softer niche with this collection, she is always, undeniably Madonna. And for anyone looking to hear Madonna hold a note and not obsess over getting listeners to dance, this is the album for you!

Something To Remember is an album marked by drastically different lyrical qualities. Many of the songs have a simplicity to them that works, like "Crazy For You" and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Remix)." Then, there are a few that actually stand out. Madonna articulates a surprisingly vivid emotional landscape, for example, with "Rain." There, despite the obvious rhymes of "rain/pane" and rhyming "rain" with itself, she sings beautifully, "When your lips are burning mine / And you take the time to tell me how you feel / When you listen to my words / And I know you've heard, I know it's real / Rain is what this thunder brings / For the first time I can hear my heart sing / Call me a fool but I know I'm not / I'm gonna stand out here on the mountain top / Till I feel your / Rain . . ." ("Rain").

Moreover, despite the preponderance of lines about memory, I've discovered some of the old songs I have not liked by Madonna grew on me. So, for example, I did not cringe anymore when hearing "And I'll remember the love that you gave me / Now that I'm standing on my own / I'll remember the way that you changed me / I'll remember / Inside I was a child / That could not mend a broken wing / Outside I looked for a way / To teach my heart to sing" ("I'll Remember"). I recall "I'll Remember" as one of those soundtrack songs that was generally better received than the film to which it was attached and being lukewarm to it when it was released. Now, hearing it on Something To Remember, it has moments when it actually seems like Madonna is singing about gaining some sense of inner peace and enlightenment and that is admirable and it comes across well in the song. And "You'll See" actually comes across now as more heartfelt and wrenching as opposed to schmaltzy and commercialized with the intent to generate a hit.

Conversely, "Take A Bow" reminds me of all the times I heard that loathsome track on the radio and wished virtually anything else was playing. With its obvious and dismal lyrics, like, "Make them laugh, it comes so easy / When you get to the part / Where you're breaking my heart . . . / Hide behind your smile, all the world loves a clown / [just make 'em smile the whole world loves a clown] / Wish you well, I cannot stay / You deserve an award for the role that you played . . . / No more masquerade, you're one lonely star / [one lonely star and you don't know who you are]. . ." ("Take A Bow"). With a refrain that rhymes "you" and "true" and "why" and "good-bye" over and over and over again, this is a tiresome song and one that is astonishing the American people latched onto enough to make her longest-running #1 hit. Sigh. It almost astonishes me that I picked that track as the best one on Bedtime Stories, considering how much it bothers me now.

The lyrics are the big problem there, but musically, it does little for me. This is a typical - for this album - slow ballad with minimal production elements and a more orchestral sound. Something To Remember is characterized by ballads and as a result, there is less percussion, less emphasis on the listener moving and more on evoking an emotional reaction. I like that about the album. Unfortunately, it's also where songs like "I'll Remember" fall down. "I'll Remember" sounds less like an emotive ballad when put beside songs like "You'll See" and Something To Remember and more like a movie soundtrack song, which it was.

That's not to say that the album does not have musical diversity. It disguises the fact that it is all slower, heartfelt songs by including tracks like "Crazy For You," which is a slow song that does not feel that way, whatwith its use of percussion, a few strategic crescendos and a few musical lilts in the middle. But, mostly, this is an album that has Madonna with string instruments, like those accompanying her on "This Used To Be My Playground" and "Live To Tell." What keeps the album interesting is that there is enough difference in the sound of the accompaniment and tempo between the tracks, the use of actual melodies and variation in the instruments that accompany Madonna's voice to make it listenable.

Even the new tracks, "I Want You," "You'll See," and "One More Chance" have some musical resonance to them. I don't believe I had ever heard "Oh Father," which is on this album as well, but it is easily forgettable alongside "I Want You" and "You'll See." "You'll See" uses minimal orchestration, but "I Want You" features Massive Attack and is, by their nature, a more produced track. This album balances the orchestral and production elements well and they come together in a wonderfully blended way on songs like "Live To Tell," which use both. The remix of "I Want You" is only marginally different from the original and it's hardly worth putting on the album twice.

The obvious unifying quality to this disc is the voice of Madonna and Something To Remember seems to be an album obsessed with reminding listeners that Madonna has a voice and she knows how to use it when she does not produce over it. She has an impressive range - yes, I never thought I'd write that either - going from husky lower ranges on the moody "Live To Tell" to full-our soprano on "Crazy For You" and "This Used To Be My Playground."

This is true when Madonna's voice is actually utilized for what it is. On many of the tracks, it is clear that it is being blended with production elements to smooth it out or enhance it. And when in doubt, the music competes with her voice, like near the end of "Live To Tell," where Madonna's voice goes softer while the music reaches a crescendo. Nevertheless, this is one of the better examples of Madonna's singing voice and the album's producers picked a decent mix of songs to present her with.

I still like the fun quality to "Crazy For You" and that competes fairly with the more moody "You'll See" as the album's best track. The low point is "Oh Father," if for no other reason than it is entirely forgettable (though there's a special place in the pit of my bowels for "Take A Bow," which I would argue is one of the worst written songs I've ever heard).

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Ray Of Light
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor
I'm Going To Tell You A Secret

6/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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I'm Going To Tell You A Secret: Even An Extra DVD Can't Save This Outing!

The Good: One or two songs/versions
The Bad: Bland video, Uninspired vocal performances, "Live" performance conceits
The Basics: Madonna's tour album is a flat-out disappointment.


I hate reviewing live albums. I loathe reviewing live albums because if the performance on the c.d. is not great and I review the c.d., invariably I'll get someone who pops up to write about how they were at the concert where the album was recorded and it was an amazing live experience. This nightmare scenario replays over and over again in my reviews and I've discovered that Bruce Springsteen fans are especially rabid about that (check out my review of Live From New York City here!) and there seems to be a lack of ability for such fans to disconnect between the performance they remember and the c.d. that was marketed after it. Then again, I get comments when I review some artist's debut where people flame me about how they improve on their subsequent albums. So, sadly, I shall once again begin my review of a live album with the disclaimer that what I am reviewing is Madonna's two disc (one c.d., one DVD) set called I’m Going To Tell You A Secret. This is not a commentary on the concert it was recorded at (save in remarking on the DVD), this is not a commentary on Madonna's overall career or ability to perform a live concert. No, this is just for this two-disc set (I feel so cheap even having to write that).

I’m Going To Tell You A Secret is a fourteen track trainwreck that clocks in at just under sixty-six minutes. The DVD is two hours of watching Madonna move her tour from city to city with limited performance footage in each place. The DVD is billed as a documentary, but it is nothing so cohesive as watching Madonna set up from city to city and there's nothing terribly extraordinary about it. In fact, it becomes so pointless as to include Madonna going to the bathroom and insisting that the camera operator does not want to follow her, which they do. It's very "we're making a documentary" documentary as opposed to something that actually says something or makes a genuine statement. It's not even terribly revealing of Madonna as an artist or human being (though watching her complain to a vocal coach in one of the bonuses over the alterations to her diet her coach insists on is certainly fun). The DVD is not nearly enough to justify purchasing this edition of this album.

As for the live performance, it's been a while since I wished I could simply cheat out the review as "meh, this is not worth your time," but I'm trying to write something truly insightful here. I’m Going To Tell You A Secret is not worth your time, whether or not you like the works of Madonna. Listening to this c.d., the listener often finds themselves lost. So, for example, there is the instrumental bagpipe track "Susan MacLeod" which morphs into Madonna's "Into The Groove" and during the bagpipe arrangement, the listener just wonders what this has to do with Madonna. Madonna is not playing the bagpipes. The bagpipes do not naturally segue into "Into The Groove" - in fact, the bagpipes cut out completely and the synths start up to make the transition that had previously only been the drums accompanying the bagpipes leading into "Into The Groove."

In short, this album has a sense of theatrics that are lost in an audio performance. "American Life" opens with helicopter sounds and the soundtrack of explosions and gunfire and it is utterly pointless. On the DVD the video may see (for Madonna's New York performance) the dance routine and video footage that accompanies these sounds. On the c.d., they are abstract noises, completely devoid of context. In short, it means nothing in the audio performance. It is simply noise. There is no music backing it, there is no statement that is made by it, instead its sound. This represents the worst problems of a live album; simply capturing the reality of the moment. In this case, it captures the reality of a moment that is completely lost without the visuals. It's a waste of minutes on this disc.

Similarly, I’m Going To Tell You A Secret opens with possibly the weirdest Madonna track yet with "The Beast Within." This song - not even credited in the section of the liner notes listing all of the songs performed on the c.d. and DVD - is an indescribably bad track that simply describes having the devil inside. With lyrics like, "He is coming with the clouds / And every eye will see him / Everyone who pierced him and all the tribes of the Earth will [? . . .] on account of him . . ." ("The Beast Within"), this track opens the live album on an unsettling and disappointing note. This is a live album opened by Madonna the Cabalist.

That's not to say the entire album is a wash. Fans of Madonna will find a decent version of "Like A Prayer" and it's always fun to hear "Vogue." Personally, after the pointless explosion sounds, I found "American Life" to be one of the best tracks as it accented Madonna's ability to actually sing.

Sadly, much of the rest of the album makes the counterargument. Madonna's "live" presentations of many of the songs have vocals that are virtually identical to her previously released versions. "Into The Groove," "Die Another Day" and “Music” all have vocal presentations by Madonna that vary very little from her album (or radio single) tracks. Sure, there's an intro to Music that makes it flow out from "Into The Groove" well, but Madonna's vocal performance is underwhelming. In fact, the only real difference is when Madonna lets the audience take the refrain, much like Oasis recording the audience singing "Live Forever" on their live album Familiar To Millions (reviewed here!).

The peak of this disappointing set of presentations that sound awfully close to their studio versions comes on "I Love New York," the album's final track. One of the weakest links from her album Confessions From A Dance Floor, this track is so close to the original as to be indistinguishable. Indeed, devoid of the usual "live" conceits, like the sound of the audience, this track might as well be the studio version.

This brings me to the other problem with this album as a c.d. (again, not as a live performance, but rather the recording I am listening to right now). This, possibly more than any other live album I have ever heard, album seems to be obsessed with engineering in the sound of the crowd. While the average listener would likely make a fair bet that a Madonna concert is not a quiet place, the album's engineer seems to be most insistent on convincing the listener of that. Every track - save the final one - is cluttered with the cheers and screams of fans. It's dull, predictable and the listener could live without the "proof" that Madonna is performing live if this is the best they can do.

The counterargument, of course, is that Madonna's accompaniment on most of the tracks is a lot richer - or at least different - than the studio versions. This is generally true, but that alone provides the essential purpose of the audience noise; to provide something different for the listener. The pinnacle of this conceit is Madonna's plaintive request to the audience that they listen closely to the lyrics to John Lennon's "Imagine" (right before she sings it) because "We have to make the world a better place" ("Imagine," track 10). This might have captured a moment that occurred, but it plays poorly and it replays worse. The ultimate feeling listening to it is that this is a self-serving sound byte. I mean, during her show Madonna no doubt did more than ask people if they were having a good time, insist that they dance and tell everyone that the world needs to be made into a better place.

I've often argued that the best a live album can do is provide a different version for music that is either rather produced in the studio or less familiar to listeners. In some artist's cases, the live album may serve as the closest to a "Greatest Hits" for those who do not have compilation albums. Madonna would seem to be an ideal candidate for this, but this disc proves that her entertainment attempts seek instead to recreate the studio experience as opposed to reinterpret it. As a result, we are not treated to, for example, a soft jazz version of "Vogue." No, it sounds almost identical to the radio hit. None of the songs have genuine reinterpretations and as Madonna has greatest hits albums, this compilation is just substandard.

The best track is Madonna's song "Holiday" which seems to be the closest to a reinterpretation of one of her tracks that she manages on this album. The low point is probably "I Love New York," though the opener "The Beast Within" still seems a stiflingly bad choice to open I’m Going To Tell You A Secret with.

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Ray Of Light
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor

3/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Madonna Lives Up To Her Hype With Ray Of Light

The Good: A solid dance-pop album, Generally decent vocals, music, and lyrics
The Bad: Works better as a collection of singles than as a cohesive album
The Basics: Madonna manages to impress me with her lyrics on a series of songs that only seem to fail when she mortgages the emotional resonance to get the listener to dance.


What makes a hit or a hit artist? The latter question may be answered simply by "staying power." Artists who endure are the ones who simply remain in the public's imagination and consciousness long enough and successfully enough that regardless of other trends in music at the time, the artist is able to market their own work. With Madonna's recent Confessions On A Dance Floor which has inexplicably sold 8 million copies worldwide - only the first single broke the Hot 100 in the U.S. - one might be doubting Madonna's relevance. I was recently taken to task after reviewing Bedtime Stories for neglecting to mention "Human Nature" a "hit" that only reached 46 on the Top 100. Regardless of that, Madonna had a commercial resurgence after the lukewarm sales of Erotica and Bedtime Stories (how we may consider 5 and 6 million units sold worldwide, respectively, lukewarm is only because of context), with Ray Of Light.

It's a good album, it's easy to see why it sold 14 million copies in the world, four million in the U.S. alone. Ray Of Light is a thirteen track album clocking in at an hour seven minutes. The album was released as the singles market essentially collapsed and success of singles was tracked by points as opposed to sale of physical singles (which were becoming produced less and less by 1998). Madonna seemed to know how to capitalize on that - I've long agreed she is a brilliant businesswoman - and Ray Of Light (the album) charted four singles in the U.S. and an additional one in Canada and Europe. It's fairly impressive these days when an artist can get three successful singles charting, but with Ray Of Light, Madonna did it. This album saw the mainstream hit singles "Frozen," “Ray Of Light,” "The Power of Good-bye" and the flop "Nothing Really Matters,” which peaked at 93 on the Hot 100, though it went to #1 on the Dance charts.

My point in this is that when Madonna reinvents herself, sometimes she does a great job. Ray Of Light is a weird reinvention that brings Madonna back to her dance roots with tracks like “Ray Of Light” and "Nothing Really Matters" and combines them with more mature pop ballads like "Frozen." As a result, Madonna sounds like . . . well, an adult, on tracks like "Swim."

Ray Of Light features Madonna's creative vision as she co-wrote and co-produced all thirteen song. While she does not play any instruments on Ray Of Light, she provides the vocals and they are decent. Indeed, on the album's opener, the slow, sad ballad "Drowned World/Substitute For Love," Madonna's voice is stark, underproduced and in the face of the listener. Honestly, it was hearing this song that I first truly realized that Madonna has the ability to sing.

Moreover, what Madonna is singing on this album is generally more personal and as a result, her ability to emote comes through better. On another of her slower songs, "Frozen," she powerfully and simply sings out "You only see what your eyes want to see / How can life be what you want it to be / You're frozen / When your heart's not open / You're so consumed with how much you get / You waste your time with hate and regret / You're broken / When your heart's not open." Madonna's ability to sing is coupled with poetics that actually say something! Indeed, songs like "Frozen" remind the listener how decent pop-rock music can be when it is well constructed. On tracks like "Frozen," Madonna's purpose is not simply to move the listener into dancing and she effectively says something.

Similarly, Madonna seems to have a better balance on most of the tracks on Ray Of Light than she has on other albums of hers that I've listened to. So, for example, one of the tracks that could have been a hit but was never released as a single, "Swim," has a decent pop beat with minimal production elements. The understated drums and the addition of a flute allow Madonna's voice to come to the forefront. And her song actually says something. "Swim" wonderfully expresses a sense of misery that the narrator is trying to cleanse themself of. Madonna sings "Comets fly across the sky / While the churches burn their preachers / We can't carry these sins on our back / Don't wanna carry anymore . . ." ("Swim") and because Madonna is trying to sing something that means something, she's successful at accenting what is important in her songs.

That's not to say Ray Of Light is devoid of flaws, far from it. The title track, “Ray Of Light,” is more or less your typical pop-dance song that is overproduced and whose purpose is mostly to convince the listener to move their body. But at least that song makes sense. Having listened to the album several times now, "Shanti/Ashtangi" continues to bewilder me. The song is not in English (it utilizes Sanskrit phrases) and it feels out of place and somewhat pointless on this album.

Amid Madonna singing about cleansing, day to day life, expectations of youth imposed by society ("Candy Perfume Girl"), and the importance of expressing the spirit we supposedly all have, Madonna throws in a random prayer song. On other albums, this might be seen as a desperate attempt to make something relevant and meaningful, but Ray Of Light overcomes the limitations of simple pop-rock to actually do that with the lyrics to most of its songs. Indeed, were it not for Madonna's obsession with putting lines like "Looking at my life / It's very clear to me / I've lived so selfishly / I was the only one / I realize / That nobody wins / Something is ending / Something begins" ("Nothing Really Matters") to a dance beat, this album could be a knockout of Madonna's lyrical and musical self expression.

In short, Ray Of Light reveals a Madonna whose only real failure is her obsession with production. "Skin" works fine as a dance track, but it's Madonna's obsession with creating dance tracks here that undermines the strengths of Ray Of Light. For a change, most of her lyrics are solid, expressive and interesting. On several of the tracks, Madonna actually creates a combination of music and lyrics that comes together lushly in a way that suggests she is an artist more than an entrepreneur.

It's ironic for someone with such business savvy as Madonna that when I sit and listen objectively to Ray Of Light, I see an artist who seems afraid. Madonna's Ray Of Light leaves the listener with the impression that she is afraid of producing an album that is all ballads, that is soulful in lyrics and music. She opts for the safe route with much of the album as far as creating dance tracks out of songs that are lyrically ballads.

That's not to say that even all of those attempts are bad. "The Power of Good-bye" is a ballad, which is accented by a strong dance beat behind the string arrangement. There she effectively fuses voice, music and even her desire to create something that can be danced to. "The Power of Good-bye," despite not breaking into the top ten on the Hot 100, remains one of the most potent Madonna hits and it illustrates how commanding Madonna may be over the genre.

So, why is she so obsessed with dancing?

Sigh. Regardless, Ray Of Light is a solid pop-rock album with a number of pop-dance songs and while the tracks may work independently, some of the way the tracks fall along the album cuts into the emotional resonance of the track prior or after. Still, it's the best I've heard from Madonna yet.

The best song is "Frozen," the low point is "Shanti/Ashtangi."

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor

7/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Floppy Concept Album: Erotica Is One Of Madonna’s Failures!

The Good: Decent duration, One or two good tracks
The Bad: Mundane dance sound, A number of ridiculous lyrics, Musically unimaginative, A lot of simplistic uses of Madonna’s vocals.
The Basics: Erotica is anything but musically sensual and it remains one of Madonna’s least impressive albums.


I remember when I was in high school and Madonna was making a huge publicity push. She was promoting her book Sex and in conjunction with that, her album Erotica, so it was a time when Madonna was pretty much putting it all out there. It has taken me more than twenty years, but as Madonna is my Artist Of The Month, it seemed appropriate to pick up and listen to Erotica. While Sex might have been shocking as a coffee table photography book with Madonna and Vanilla Ice exposing themselves in various places and situations, Erotica is a painfully dull album that is forgettable save, perhaps, two tracks.

Madonna created a concept album with Erotica, but instead of being something sensual or interesting, the album is a loosely-connected series of dance tracks and ballads connected by a canned, overproduced percussion line. While there are hints of vocal quality, Erotica does Madonna few services for displaying any real talent.

With thirteen tracks, clocking out 70:27, Erotica is mostly the work of Madonna and her producer Shep Pettibone. Madonna co-wrote each song on Erotica and she is a co-producer for that album. She provides the lead vocals on all of the songs, but she plays no musical instruments on the album.

Instrumentally, Erotica is a banal example of pop music. The songs are mostly dance tracks, though ballads like “Rain” and “Bad Girl” break up the album. There is a simplistic dance beat that connects many of the tracks and that makes the album seem like it has only two or three songs; the vacuous dance music is broken up only two or three times and that makes the album aurally uninteresting. Worse than that, outside “Rain,” there are no really distinctive melodies on Erotica. If one were to try to hum the tune to the radio hit “Deeper And Deeper” from Erotica, it is likely they would quickly get lost; the song does not have the memorability of “Like A Virgin” or “Ray Of Light.”

Vocally, Madonna is shockingly limited on Erotica. While “Rain” has her presenting her natural voice, “Erotica” has her voice produced over to be almost entirely unrecognizable. In fact, the vocals on Erotica are so dull that Madonna even includes a riff from “Vogue” in order to finish off one of the songs! As well, on an inordinate number of songs, Madonna simply degenerates into speaking while backed by a basic percussion track.

The unfortunate boredom of Erotica continues into the lyrics. The title track starts out the concept album with a Sex-promoting idea that is hardly as sexually-charged as the title might suggest. “Erotica” is a musical storysong that creates the concept of sexual exploration in a weird singsong way. With the lines “My name is Dita / I'll be your mistress tonight / I'd like to put you in a trance / If I take you from behind / Push myself into your mind / When you least expect it / Will you try and reject it / If I'm in charge and I treat you like a child / Will you let yourself go wild” (“Erotica”), the album opens feeling salacious, not sophisticated and not sexually relevatory.

The most emotional song on the album is “Rain.” Despite somewhat simplistic rhymes like “When your lips are burning mine / And you take the time to tell me how you feel / When you listen to my words / And I know you've heard, I know it's real / Rain is what this thunder brings / For the first time I can hear my heart sing / Call me a fool but I know I'm not / I'm gonna stand out here on the mountain top” (“Rain”), “Rain” still manages to capture a beautiful sense of loneliness and longing that is universal. While other songs might try to play with sexual themes that range from obscure to the offensive (for those who are offended by such things), “Rain” stands out as remarkably accessible.

But “Rain” is the exception to the rule, though. Instead, most of the songs have lines that rhyme the same word with itself and have little lasting value. So, when Madonna sings “You're a thief of hearts and now you'll have to pay / How many licks does it take? / You're a thief of hearts and now you'll have to pay / Which leg do you want me to break?” (“Thief Of Hearts”), the listener pretty much just groans and hopes the next track will be better (to be fair, “Words” is mildly better than “Thief Of Hearts”).

Erotica is one of the least-inspired concept albums to ever hit the racks and it is unsurprising that few songs from it appear on Madonna’s many compilation albums. It’s a generally poor album, easy to avoid.

The best song is “Rain,” the low point is the insipid “Bye Bye Baby.”

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor

2.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Stories Unlikely To Satisfy Are Madonna's Bedtime Stories

The Good: One or two lines/songs
The Bad: Vastly overproduced, Some predictable lines, Songs run together some
The Basics: In a dismal album comprised of pure pop auditory sludge, Madonna succeeds in putting the listener repeatedly to sleep.


As I gear up for a bit of a rush of Madonna's music - I have two more albums by her on my desk to listen to - I am forced to contemplate the idea that despite the fact that I've heard songs on the radio by Madonna that I've enjoyed, I've yet to dig one of her albums. She came close to impressing me with Music and fell tragically short of even a reasonable performance with Confessions On A Dance Floor. So, when I picked up Bedtime Stories, Madonna's reinvention from 1994, I knew two of the tracks and all I recalled was that it seemed like a particularly uninspired period in Madonna's career.

Bedtime Stories is an eleven track album clocking in at a little over fifty-one and a half minutes and it's the album that brought the world Madonna's hits "Secret" and "Take A Bow." Only one track on the album is not co-written by Madonna and every track is co-produced by the artist. Madonna does not play any instruments on Bedtime Stories.

In truth, there aren't a lot of opportunities for instruments on this album. The engineers and programmers are listed above the few instrumentalists on this work. There is a lone guitarist, two bass players, a drummer and keyboard player, and a synthesizer and drum machine programmer. There are five instrumentalists and five engineers. This is a highly produced album. To wit, seven of the eleven tracks contain samples. This is a rather assembled album.

Sadly the album sounds assembled, like it was constructed in Dr. Frankenstein's musical laboratory. Part of the problem is Madonna's voice. Madonna has some vocal talent . . . somewhere. It's not on this album. The closest the listener gets to her natural voice is on "Take A Bow," which has minimal production on her vocals. But her hit "Secret" is lush with reverb, a humming that harmonizes with her vocals to give the impression of being an undertone to her voice, and a sound that, quite simply, does not sound like her natural voice.

"Secret" is not alone for the vocal problems. That hit is followed by "I'd Rather Be Your Lover," a pure pop song that contains such bloated background vocals by Madonna one wonders why she bothered to have Me'Shell NdegeOcello appear on bass. I mean, what's the point of having a guest bassist on a track where you're doubling your vocals, including a dippy rap sample, and singing some of the most insipid lyrics of any pop song in history? Sure, they're labelmates, but . . . . oh. That might be it.

Regardless, "I'd Rather Be Your Lover" is pure pop candy with terrible lyrics. With four people taking writing credits for the song, one might think that they could come up with something better than lines like "I could be your sister / I could be your mother / We could be friends / I'd even be your brother / But I - I'd rather be your lover . . ." ("I'd Rather Be Your Lover"). Were that not bad enough, that song is followed by a dance number that repeats the lines "Sing la de da de" ("Don't Stop") - I kid you not.

Pop music has any number of redeeming artists who work solely within the pop medium. It has artists who create songs that take the singsong mold of pop, even the most sugary tracks, and manage to make it good. For the life of me, I'm not coming up with any right now. Madonna's various compilation albums have a tendency to capture the history of pop music for the years encapsulated on those albums, but Bedtime Stories seems so predictable and pop that it's unchallenging.

In short, there's nothing to come back to here. This album is one concept; light dance-pop that is light on lyrical meaning, overproduced and does not capitalize on any discernible talent of the artist whose album this supposedly is. Madonna feels assembled and packaged on Bedtime Stories. This is an album of "Madonna the Product," not "Madonna the Artist." That's my story and I'm sticking to it, because I want to believe there is something that makes the masses continue to come back to this artist. I know I've liked songs of hers and I suspect there is an album out there of hers that can wow me. Bedtime Stories is not it.

Instead, the irony of this album is that the one track that was not written by Madonna stands out as one of the better tracks. Murky like much of the rest of the album with its overbearing synthesizers, Madonna sings a track co-written by Bjork called "Bedtime Stories." Madonna's impression of Bjork is pretty decent, putting the usually annoying and ethereal sound of Bjork into a lower vocal range, making the lyrics comprehensible.

The song, ostensibly about falling into an altered state or falling asleep may well be the only pop song about the simple act of drifting off that isn't about drug use. Madonna's voice comes through surprisingly well on lines that were not written by her when she sings "And inside / We're all still wet / Longing and yearning / How can I explain how I feel" ("Bedtime Stories")? Sadly, far too much of the song is the repetition of the line "Let's get unconscious" for "Bedtime Stories" to pull itself up into even remotely listenable range.

This entire album, relying on synthesizers and samples, is one experiment in hypnotic pop and it succeeds when viewed through that lens. The problem is, it's not interesting. Moreover, after ten hypnotic songs that essentially blend one into another over multiple listens, the listener is smacked with the obvious ballad "Take A Bow." I've no real complaint with that track, other than that it's lyrics seem predictable to me. And the vocals are overproduced. I could stand to hear an acoustic version of this track.

Beyond that, much of the album is auditory sludge. The thing is, unlike other outings, like Confessions On A Dance Floor, this seems to be the purpose of the album. This is supposed to be a sleepy, murky album that puts the listener in a trance. In that regard, it succeeds. The problem is, it's a novelty that wears off rapidly. Who wants to be unconscious listening to music all the time?

Not I!

The best track may well be "Take A Bow," if for no other reason than it sounds different from the other tracks on the album. The low point is the unmemorable "Forbidden Love."

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)

3/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Two Songs Not Worth Diluting Your Collection With, But It's Okay: "Nothing Really Matters."

The Good: Good enough lyrics and voice on the tracks
The Bad: Music dilutes message, SHORT, Nothing unique on this disc
The Basics: With only two tracks, "Nothing Really Matters" presents no new material and rather unextraordinary tracks with what it does eke out.


Still smarting from the whopping I took in the ratings on my review of the three-track single "Sour Girl" (reviewed here!) back in the day when I wrote for another website, I decided to push my luck and review another short work. After all, I will find out what it takes to review a work that is only two songs long and get a positive feedback! To take on this challenge, I picked Madonna's ultimately mediocre single "Nothing Really Matters."

With two tracks, "Nothing Really Matters" clocks in at nine and three quarters minutes and is an utter waste of space and time, even for fans of Madonna. I write this because compact discs are designed to hold over seventy-four minutes of music so the point of buying any c.d. single is sketchy at best, made even worse by artists who do not release anything new and different on the single. This disc includes the tracks "Nothing Really Matters" and "To Have And Not To Hold."

"Nothing Really Matters" (the track) is a pop-dance number that laments the consequences of life. It mortgages any real message it might have - i.e. that actions are futile and ultimately life has no consequences because everyone dies - by presenting that message with singsong lyrics and a dance beat musical accompaniment. So, while the message of loving oneself and finding joy through yourself - not through others - is honorable, Madonna presents it with lyrics that are downright simple. Take the refrain, with its singsong rhythm with lines like "Nothing really matters / Love is all we need / Everything I give you / All comes back to me," ("Nothing Really Matters"); it lacks impact.

There is no sense of genuine consequences here. So, while the song opens with the declaration that "everything's changed," it does not seem like a momentous change, especially if the singer declares right off the bat that nothing mattered to her growing up. So, how can everything change if after the supposed change, she reaches the same conclusion she began with?

This is because "Nothing Really Matters" is designed for sound, not lyrics. This is a triumph of Madonna's style over substance. While on albums like Music (reviewed here!) this might have led to a draw, on this short work, it's a clear and glaring detraction. The simple, silly lyrics are accompanies by a heavy bassline, banging drum sounds and synths that are simply designed to get the listener to dance.

In contrast, "To Have And Not To Hold" starts with a softer sound, highlighting Madonna's voice over the very-produced backing instrumentals, which include bells, synths and a drum machine. The problem with this track is not that its purpose is to get the listener to stand up and dance, but rather that it suffers from the same writing weaknesses as "Nothing Really Matters."

"To Have And Not To Hold" is another song that could have genuine resonance, in this case because Madonna is singing is slowly and with clear and clearly expressed passion. The sentiments of loss and yearning are wonderful, but the sentiments do not equal the lines. In short, it's clear Madonna has something here to say that she cares about, but the lines just do not express the concept well enough to engage the listener.

Plagued by some ridiculously simple lyrics, "To Have And Not To Hold" is repetitive and feels like it was written by a tween girl. Madonna sings "To love, but not to keep / To laugh, not to weep / Your eyes, they go right through / And yet you never do / Anything to make me want to stay / Like a moth to a flame / Only I am to blame . . ." ("To Have And Not To Hold") and the rhymes are so predictable and obvious that I found myself cringing, even on the first listen. It doesn't matter how softly or with how much passion one sings a song, when half the refrain is "Ba ba da ba ba ba," the song is pretty weak and not expressing a genuine emotion with enough finesse.

"To Have And Not To Hold" is essentially a subpar pop ballad and it feels just like what it is.

Having not even heard Madonna's album "Ray of Light," I would recommend it over this single. Both tracks appear on the album in the same form as they are on this disc, making it completely worthless as a single. The best singles, like Oasis's "Don't Go Away" (reviewed here!) present new material or reinterpretations of other works. The worst singles, like this one, simply give album cuts from a work and nothing else.

At least the title is not a misnomer. In this case, this single does not matter, except, I suppose, to die hard collectors. It's a shame because Madonna wrote and co-produced both songs, so one suspects that if she was trying to create even a single that was going to endure, she could have made something worth buying and given the listeners a b-side that was unique. At least, it saves the casual listeners from buying this.

For other Artist Of The Month reviews, please check out my reviews of:
50 Greatest Hits - Reba McEntire
@#%&*! Smilers - Aimee Mann
Luck Of The Draw - Bonnie Raitt

4/10

For other album and singles reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It Certainly Sounds Like Music, But It's Not Enough To Recommend This Madonna Album

The Good: Some decent, well-mixed pop songs, Moments of voice
The Bad: Derivative of other works, Some very lame lyrics, Not useful c.d. liner
The Basics: In a razor decision, Madonna's Music provides such a dual-personalitied musical presentation that it's impossible to recommend.


Having recently panned Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor (reviewed here!), I felt like I ought to give the reigning Queen of Pop another chance to impress me, as if I had somehow misjudged her last endeavor. To that end, I found her album Music, recalling the title track single, the hit song "Don't Tell Me" and vaguely remembering hearing "What It Feels Like For A Girl." Music had been praised and I suppose as a pop album, it deserves some. Music is a very strong pop album. Reviewing it in the larger context of music in general, as someone who listens to, appreciates and reviews music from classical to pop, rap to folk, it ended up as a razor decision for me. So, it's ultimately an average album, but very indicative of where pop-rock music (and Madonna) was in 2000 when it was released.

Music is a ten-track album clocking in at 44:33 and seems designed around selling the title track. Music (the single) is the first track and the liner notes for the c.d. are all pictures of Madonna in a cowgirl get-up with lines from that song around her. Pictures of Madonna with rhinestone encrusted jeans so low they are almost falling off her reminds one of just how silly the trend was.

Music is an infectious tune with heavy bassline and synth tracks designed to get the listener to dance. It is a song about the effect good music can have on a listener and it does what it sets out to do; it ingrains itself in the mind of the listener such that even years later, the lines and melody are perfectly recognizable. If you've seen the video, odds are you would remember that as well (watching Madonna stuff a stripper's g-string with bills does seem to resonate). My point with this is that Music (the single) is the epitome of pop music in its somewhat vacuous "style over substance" presentation, but Madonna does that very well.

Unfortunately for Music (the album), the emphasis on the first track and it's purpose is diluted almost immediately by "Impressive Instant." The second track uses the same formula, including lyrics about dancing to music ("Let the music take me / Take me where I want to go") that make it simply seem like the ugly stepsister to Music (the single). This sets the album up poorly because Madonna makes some decent musical leaps on this outing, but the first three tracks use the same insipid formula to create pop-dance songs that soon wear thin on the listener. The album, therefore, opens with the feeling that Madonna had a single idea and just kept milking it for all it was worth . . . and then some.

Then, the listener is hit with "I Deserve It," a slow ballad that uses some of the same production elements (like synthing over Madonna's voice at times) to sing about loss. She sings wonderfully about being imperfect and struggling to find love, with lines like, "Many miles many roads I have traveled / Fallen down on the way / Many hearts many years have unraveled / Leading up to today" ("I Deserve It"). So, while she is still using a drum machine and some quiet production elements including her own voice melding as the background vocals, it sounds fresher and newer than the prior tracks. This track also used synthesizers and an acoustic guitar, creating a softer sound.

That is continued two tracks later with the album's superlative song, "Nobody's Perfect," a slow, sad track begging to be reconsidered by a lost lover. "Nobody's Perfect" is an intriguing song in that it uses pop-rock production elements, including obscuring Madonna's voice a number of times by altering her voice and has some of the most predictable rhymes in the history of pop music (she has sad/bad, true/you, etc.) and a refrain that just keeps repeating, yet she makes it work. Honestly, I ought to hate this song for the rhymes in the lyrics, but she constructs the song with such a simple, direct message and theme that it works. This is a melodic begging and it grabs the listener in a surprising way.

"Nobody's Perfect," "I Deserve It," and "What It Feels Like For A Girl" are a trifecta of quieter, generally better written or better conceived songs than the rest of the album. So, while "What It Feels Like For A Girl," might have some of the more predictable rhymes, like "Nobody's Perfect," it manages to be a generally quieter song than most of Madonna's tracks and makes a statement. The song explores the simple insecurities of growing up as a girl with all sorts of dual expectations and Madonna sells the concept well as a fresh pop song.

Sadly, though, much of the album is derivative of other Madonna works. Even without having a broad knowledge of Madonna, a casual listener will hear a song like "Amazing" and realize it sounds virtually identical to the radio hit "Beautiful Stranger" that supported the second "Austin Powers" movie and was a significant radio hit the year it was released. Madonna reinforces the idea from early in the album that she's milking her old (or current) material for all it is worth as opposed to truly growing and stretching consistently. Music (the album) might well be a concept album that declares "I can try something new, but when I find what I like, I'm only stretching in those two new directions!"

And I do put a bit of "blame" on Madonna here. For all the critiques of Madonna as a businesswoman (I tend to think regardless of her music, she's a brilliant businesswoman), Music is very much an expression of Madonna's artistic abilities. She co-wrote all ten tracks, as well as co-produced all ten songs. It's hard to argue that this is not Madonna's vision, art and statement. As a result, it's easy to say that Madonna's Music creates a weird combination of repetitive, infectious pop melodies the likes of which have not been heard in some time and slow, careful, introspective tracks that sound a lot more like they could have been coming from Sarah McLachlan than Madonna.

Who will like "Music?" Anyone who likes pure pop. There is a sugary quality to much of the album that reminds me of the current charting success by Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape (reviewed here!). Unlike that album, I felt the weird conflict in music styles and repetition of some of the pop standards that make Music (the single) so successful to be disappointing. I suspect those who have a broader range than just pop will feel the same and might want to avoid the album (or simply get it out of a local library for a spin, if they feel compelled).

I will say that Madonna seems to know how to end this album. With "Gone," the album actually resonates and naturally returns to the opening track (if you have your player on repeat). It's a nice cool-down from a sometimes too aggressive dance-pop album.

The best track is "Nobody's Perfect," but by the time "Runaway Lover" - the worst track - played, I was pretty much ready to pop the disc out.

For other Artist Of The Month reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Femme Fatale - Britney Spears
Any Day Now - Joan Baez
Hits And Rarities - Sheryl Crow

5/10

Check how this album stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Music Review Index Page for a comparative listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Mary Had A Little Amp, The Listener Chose No

The Good: Some decent tracks
The Bad: Some lame tracks, terrible execution of the stated concept
The Basics: Disorganized and esoteric, Mary Had A Little Amp fails to live up to its promise and offers instead a poorly executed musical experience.


I'm out. I began this month with the pledge to alternate my media reviews with non-media items and I'm out. I've no more electronics, no cars, no restaurants, no beauty products, no obscure household items left to review. Until I return from the trip I'm about to take, I'm all non-media'ed out! :( With that in mind, I sat down with a new disc that came across my desk called Mary Had A Little Amp. Every now and then as I explore a musical artist whose body of work I'm looking to review, I come across a weird citation for them. So, for example, when I hunted down the works of Liz Phair some months ago, I found her as the primary artist cited for Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits (reviewed here!). Similarly, as I looked around for the many works of Madonna, I found Mary Had A Little Amp.

The by-line for Mary Had A Little Amp is "Music's Biggest Stars, Childhood's Greatest Songs." Because of the subjective nature of a disc that features Moby, Roseanne Cash, and Graham Nash alongside Madonna, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson and R.E.M., I'll not dispute the first part. This is a pretty impressive collection of musical artists. Where the concept fails is with the second part. For all that it is or is not, Mary Had A Little Amp is hardly "childhood's greatest songs."

I write this because I was once a child and I loved listening to music. When I picked up this disc, the only songs I knew from childhood were "Pure Imagination" (many will remember Gene Wilder singing it in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"), "The Rainbow Connection" (from "The Muppet Movie"), and "When You Wish Upon A Star" (from "Pinnoccio," I believe). Outside that, only three of the tracks were songs I had heard as an adult. Graham Nash's classic "Teach Your Children," R.E.M.'s esoteric "We Walk" (which I had only heard for the first time earlier this year on their Best of the I.R.S. years album - reviewed here!), and "Little Star" a Madonna song from her Ray Of Light c.d. Out of fourteen songs, three were covers of songs I knew from childhood and three I encountered as an adult. This is hardly "childhood's greatest songs."

Indeed, there is a distinctly un-childlike take on several of the songs. Opening with Maroon 5's version of "Pure Imagination," the listener feels more menaced than enlightened. Maroon 5 uses reverb, creepy keyboards, and stark percussion to create a "big room" feel that has an undertone of sinister to the sound of the song. It's wonderfully dark in this presentation, but hardly wonderful for children.

Similarly, I can only believe that the musings on conformity that are struck out by the Blue Man Group and Dave Matthews on "Sing Along" are included because of the singsong rhymes presented in the song. After all, lyrically, it is an innocuous song as Matthews sings "If I pretend to be strong / Will you play along" ("Sing Along") over and over again. The thing is, he sings it with the voice of The Man, crushing individuality with conformity. This has a march quality to it that is draining, foreboding, again menacing.

That's not to say the entire album is not geared toward children. The Dixie Chicks do an upbeat sounding rendition of "The Rainbow Connection" that is wonderfully articulate and fresh. With the use of the pedal steel in the song, it takes on a distinctive flavor that is less stark than when it's been presented other times. And there's nothing wrong with Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was) performing "Baby Mine." It's a quiet, sad tribute to love or a child and from an adult perspective it's beautiful, though likely to go over the head of preschooler (this disc was produced to benefit preschool education).

I'll admit I winced hearing the Indigo Girls making animal noises on "Wild, Wild Party In The Loquat Tree" that were reminiscent of the B-52's "Rock Lobster." It's a fine folk tune, but again, not one I'd heard before nor would consider one of childhood's greatest songs.

And some of it is just plain pointless. Madonna's "Little Star" is a rock ballad that did not stand out on Ray Of Light and doesn't blow the roof off this disc either. "We Walk" is a weird R.E.M. tune, but also far too obscure to be considered much by children. And even my favorite track on the album, Moby's "Anchovie" a techno recreation like the many Moby has made in the past, doesn't inspire the listener to turn the disc over to a child.

Ultimately, this is a hit or miss collection of singles that vary greatly in sound and quality. We have the wonderful folk melody "Teach Your Children" which closes the album which has the utterly unmemorable "Gentle Breeze" (performed by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson). You have Madonna's pure pop following on the Dixie Chick's country-slanted classic. The best songs reinterpret classics (like Maroon 5's creepy "Pure Imagination"), the lesser songs seem to simply be songs culled from artists that have singsong lyrics.

Indeed, checking out the liner notes, most of these songs (judging by the copyright dates) are available elsewhere. I'm not knocking the concept of either famous artists presenting childhood songs or a benefit to raise money for preschool education. The problem here is this mix. It's completely inconsistent. It is mixing recognizable songs from childhood (like "When You Wish Upon A Star") with (apparently) whatever work an artist was willing to donate to the cause (like Madonna's "Little Star") with songs that don't really relate to children ("Sing Along").

A good mix that has a theme comes together, this one does not. While it may have various styles on it: from country to techno, pop to folk, rock and roll to classical, the arrangement has to flow, one song to another in a way that makes the album come together. This does not. Cover song abuts quirky original work, folk follows folk follows folk, it's not well assembled.

Because some of these tracks may not be available elsewhere, die hard fans might have to pick this up. As a service, this is what the disc contains:
"Pure Imagination" - Maroon 5
"We Walk" - R.E.M.
"The Rainbow Connection" - Dixie Chicks
"Little Star" - Madonna
"Sing Along" - Blue Man Group featuring Dave Matthews
"Baby Mine" - Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was)
"The 3 R's" - Jack Johnson (it's a recycling jingle!)
"Anchovie" - Moby
"Life Line" - Nancy and Ann Wilson with the Brian Wilson Band
"Gentle Breeze" - Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson
"Wild, Wild Party In The Loquat Tree" - Indigo Girls
"How To Be Strong" - Roseanne Cash
"When You Wish Upon A Star" - Joe Henry
"Teach Your Children" - Graham Nash

Unfortunately, this disc does not execute what it promises and even without its stated purpose, it does not hold together as a meaningful musical collection. The best track is "Anchovie," the weakest part song is "Gentle Breeze."

For other compilation albums, please visit my reviews of:
Millennium ‘80’s New Wave Party - Various Artists
An Inconvenient Truth Soundtrack
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?: The Music Of Pete Seeger - Various Artists

3/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Reinvention Does Not Guarantee Quality - Madonna's Generic Dance Album: Confessions On A Dance Floor (My New Artist Of The Month!)

The Good: Succeeds in creating dancable songs.
The Bad: Songs lack substance, Nothing to write home about in lyrics, voice, production, music
The Basics: Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor is a musical leap into utter mediocrity for this performer.


If anyone could resurrect disco, it would be Madonna and with Confessions On A Dance Floor, there are moments that she appears determined to try. Every few years, Madonna reinvents herself by taking on or challenging the establishments of pop music - whichever is more profitable for her at the time - and she has been largely successful. Now, though, it's hard not to postulate that Madonna's luck may have run out.

Confessions On A Dance Floor is a twelve-track pop-dance album that is perhaps the least inspired Madonna album yet. With its emphasis on production and dancibility, the tracks blend one to another with a quality that is less cohesive and more indistinct. In short, after the first track, the album becomes generally one long, blase track that is as unexciting as it is uninspired.

If Confessions On A Dance Floor is a concept album, i.e. using the dance floor as a confessional, then the work fails with a hard-to-sell concept. Creating an all-dance album is a difficult sale to me regardless, but in the case of Madonna, one hopes for a certain level of quality. After all, she wouldn't have survived so long were it not for something that tapped into the collective unconscious (other than the prepubescent desire of Middle America to see her naked).

The failure then, outside of unity of form and the lack of definition between tracks, is primarily in the lyrics. One of the particularly witless songs on Confessions On A Dance Floor is "I Love New York," which made me ashamed to even be listening to this album. Madonna opens the song with, "I don't like cities / But I like New York / Other places make me feel like a dork . . ." Granted, there are not many things that rhyme with York, but c'mon! I shudder. The song continues to make terrible associations - rhyming mad and sad, heat and street and suggesting "If you don't like my attitude / Then you can F [yes, that's how SHE phrases it!] off / Just go to Texas / Isn't that where they golf. . ." I've lived in New York state my entire life and I think this song is just stupid (and cruel, I mean, come on Madonna! No one deserves to be condemned to Texas!).

The thing is, "I Love New York" is not alone on Confessions On A Dance Floor. None of the songs pop with quality lyrics. Many are downright unbearable. Madonna wrote or co-wrote the entire album, so this responsibility falls on her. Has she lost her edge? Perhaps. As a concept album, this fails - and I'll continue using "I Love New York" as an example - because it is not terribly confessional. Okay, Madonna's character for the album loves New York City. Big deal. How is that remotely confessional? How does that reveal anything intimate, integral or even noteworthy?

With the exception of a few songs, notably "Future Lovers," "How High," and "Forbidden Love," the songs are not confessional. They reveal nothing of significance. They are contradictory - "Jump" states that you can't grow living in one place after declaring New York City is the only place to make the singer happy.

So, we're left with a failed concept and a dance album. Switching over to the music, the album is no better off. Madonna creates an album that is solely production. They are all keyboards/synthesizers and beat machines. The first single from the album, "Hung Up" uses some sampling as well. The thing is, it's perfectly possible to make a dance-pop album using just synths and drum machines and make the tracks different and distinct. There can be some musical variety even with such limitations.

Confessions On A Dance Floor, however, is not that type of diverse listening experience. Songs sound alike, the tracks blend together and Madonna's vocals persist within a similar and familiar range. There is no challenge here, there is nothing that stands out after the first track that screams "This is different!"

Madonna has endured and she can survive a failed album. This is certainly that failure and one hopes when she reinvents herself next, she will have something that is distinct, interesting and well-written.

The best song for the concept of the album is the musings on fame found in "How High," though the best track might well be "Hung Up." The rest is utter garbage.

For other, former, Artist Of The Month works, please visit my reviews of:
"Jackie's Strength" (single) - Tori Amos
The Collection - Alanis Morisette
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner

2.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing.

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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