Motherhood, vocal lessons and a uniquely talented
\nproducer-collaborator (as opposed to a simply “hot”
\nproducer-collaborator) has resulted in the crowning jewel of
\nMadonna’s formidably-experimented career.<\/p>\n
This album uses electronica as its playground, done with the
\nhelp of sound engineer William Orbit who had previously elevated
\nthe ass-dragging “Justify My Love” into a more cerebral and
\nsensuously textured remix. Although the themes are more diverse,
\nit’s not a huge departure from the freely experimenting spirit of
\nErotica<\/i> . But this time she hasn’t bitten off more than she
\ncan chew.<\/p>\n
The ready-to-explode club hit title track has some major
\ntextures going on (and on and on) to make the sound eager to be
\ndanced to, radioed and remixed. I can hardly type this with all the
\ndancing I’m doing to this song; it has an engineered sophistication
\n“Vogue”, in my (former) opinion her best dance track, regretfully
\nlacked. Divinely-textured “Sky Fits Heaven” might as well be a
\nb-side; both tracks are undoubtably electronica.<\/p>\n
“Frozen” has an Enya-like quality with its moving strings and
\nMadonna exploiting a new exquisite vocal range. The lyrics aren’t
\nup to par with the rest of the album but such is the price for
\nbel canto<\/i>; note that she’s compensating lyrics for music
\nwhen it was usually the other way around. Bjork would be proud of
\n“Skin”, an epic landscape of desire “Bedtime Stories” didn’t quite
\ngrasp.<\/p>\n
Her ballads have a new enhanced feel resulting in songs which
\nare Madonnally radio friendly without a hint of regurgitation. “The
\nPower Of Goodbye” and “Swim” are Sarah McLachlan in quality but
\nwith that distinct melodic stamp of Madonna Ballads. “Little Star”,
\na lulluby to her daughter, is exquisitely crafted in the tradition
\nof “This Used To Be My Playground” and “Rain”. Touched with a
\nlittle sythnthesizer magic, of course.<\/p>\n
World music influences echos everywhere throughout
\nRay Of Light<\/i>, but it’s most obvious in the tracks “To Have
\nAnd Not To Hold” and “Shanti\/Ashtangi” (the latter sung in
\nSanskrit). The ambience is exotic but not devoid of Madonna and
\nOrbit’s efforts at bringing the melody into a level of purity
\nunheard of in a Madonna album until now (don’t even think about “La
\nIsla Bonita”).<\/p>\n
What to make of the astonishing imagery of “Mer Girl”. I know I
\nshould say something about it but I choose to leave this for you to
\nponder over.<\/p>\n
Austere, remarkably underproduced and without half the hooks
\nBedtime Stories<\/i> was artfully tailored to,
\nRay Of Light<\/i> shows obvious progress even for Madonna. Like
\nErotica<\/i>, every spin makes it better. My advice to those
\nEurodance fans is to just keep playing it; because underneath all
\nthat electric pizazz, the lady can still make a groove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5663],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38801","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-madonna","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38801"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}