I LOVE Madonna (part 6 section a)

The Albums

Number 5 (tie): American Life.
American Life saw Madonna collaborate again with Music producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, with whom she co-wrote and produced most of the songs on the album.
As much as I personally love this album, I fully understand why so many did not. This is Madonna at her most self centred, singing about her fame, her life, her loves and her self, and being very indulgent while doing so. But after six US number 1 albums, thirty six US top ten singles and sixty UK top 10 singles, why shouldn’t she be indulgent. It seems her taste of English life and the advent of the 'Pop Idol' generation have left her at odds with the world around her.
A lot of people were turned off and felt she had finally lost her magic with this release, but mainly it was to do with the choice of the first single, the album opener, and its accompanying video. If you criticize a war-time president in America, you pay a hefty price. The Dixie Chicks did, and so did Madonna. US radio would not play her anymore despite the singles that were released being hits world-wide.
But as an album it works. The lead single, with it’s chunky dirty bass beat verse and acoustic chorus sees her looking at her life and fame in terms of the big picture, and she is not satisfied. When she raps about all she does and has many thought she was bragging and were turned off (although bragging about what you have seems very successful in rap music…hmmm) but failed to see the point that materialism has replaced freedom as the American dream.
The next single and track ‘Hollywood’ did not even chart in the US, and is one of the stronger tracks of the album with its melancholy lyrics, and acoustic melody overlaid on Mirwais' famous beats. Madonna herself summed up the song when she said "This song is like a metaphor for me. It's the city of dreams and superficiality. It's the place where you forget about the really interesting things in life. In Hollywood, you can lose your memory and your vision of the future. You can lose everything because you can lose yourself." – Madonna.
The third track ‘I’m so Stupid’ is a little out of place, and sounds more like a B-side than anything. A guitar driven song still reflecting on fame “Please don't try to tempt me
It was just greed, And it won't protect me” go the lyrics which are at time insightful but mainly clunky “I'm so stupid, 'Cause I used to live, In a tiny bubble, And I wanted to be Like all the pretty people.”
Spectacularly understated 'Love Profusion' gets under your skin and from there grows and captures your heart. She sounds overwhelmingly ecstatic and honest on this song about not just loving your lover, but yourself and everyone around you.
Madonna’s favourite off the album, and an experimental dance number ‘Nobody Knows Me” for all it production and technicality seems to be the complete opposite of why she did ‘Ray of Light’. On that album she said she wanted to give soul to techno music. ‘Nobody Knows Me’ is soul free and all about the techno.
After the loud bleeps and twerks of the previous song ‘Nothing Fails’, a lovely little folk ditty about love being a new religion (and I must add that love is the basis for all religion….seems most have forgotten) is a welcome change. “I'm not religious, But I feel so moved, Makes me want to pray, Pray you'll always be here” go the lyrics. The production bleeps to not outweigh the acoustic feel, and just when you are about to drift off into a dream of love you are jolted awake, and your heart soars with elation, for out of nowhere a Gospel choir comes in on the word ‘pray’, and takes the song to dizzy new heights. This really should have been the lead-off single for the album.‘
This is turning out to be the most un-Madonna Madonna album ever as I go into ‘Intervention’ which is a welcome change. A quiet, almost folk song that unless you really listen, you will miss the effect it has. This can also be said for the next track ‘X-Static Process’. On paper this looked like a dance track to rival ‘Impressive Instant’ off the ‘Music’ album. Instead we are met with a intimate duet with herself. “Jesus Christ will you look at me, Don’t know who I’m supposed to be” go the extremely personal lyrics of a truly gracious and beautiful song, tenderly embellished with the lightest of computer-generated touches.
‘Mother and Father’, ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘Easy Ride’ finish off the album. The James Bond song sticks out like a sore thumb on the album, and although musically it fits, it stands out for what it is, the James Bond song. ‘Mother and Father’ on the other hand is the complete opposite of ‘X-Static Process’. On paper this looked to be the albums big personal ballad, in reality it is one of the albums true dance numbers. Like she did before in "Promise To Try", "Inside Of Me" and "Mer Girl", Madonna sings about her mothers death, and how her father dealt with it. But though the lyrics are sad and emotional, the song has an up-tempo dance beat. Madonna's voice is high pitched as if it were a little girl singing about her parents.
Madonna has said of the song “It's a way to free me from the pain for my mother's death, but I'm not asking for a medal for finding my way in life or for compassing for suffering so much. It isn't an excuse like 'I'm like this because I've suffered so much when I was a child.' These excuses are rubbish, because you have to be responsible for all the things you do in your whole life."
And we end with ‘Easy Ride’. Madonna has, for the past few albums, ended them with arguably the best, or most interesting song. American Life is no exception. ‘Easy Ride’, with its karma lyrics, orchestral strings, and just the right amount of technologic interference, stands out as fully accomplished, a dramatic epic of a song.
As an Album ‘American Life’ succeeds. She tries something new and it flows (aside from the James Bond song) not beautifully, like a stream, but with twists and turns like I am sure her life at the time was. It may be self indulgent, but why criticize her for something we are all guilty of.
This is the sound of a woman who is seeing her life from a distance, and realizing that there is so much more that what she has. It is her diary of an album. When you put your honest thoughts and feelings about yourself and life out there, that is when you will be criticized the most and have to be defensive. It may be foolish to some to subject yourself to that, but I would rather think of it as brave.