by Mikey - Each week I preview an album which I think deserves a listen to and if it's worth to buy, I will cater for all tastes of music from R'n'B to Rock, Hip hop and Pop. At the end of the page, you will find all future album releases. On the way, or should I say, in the pipeline the following reviews are in the works for Sinead Quinn, Delta Goodrem, Girls Aloud, Evanescence, and the Manic Street Preachers.
Madonna - American Life
Release Date: April 14, 2003
Madonna has sold hundred of millions of albums (140 million to be exact) and is truly the biggest and most iconic solo artist in the world. Now her tenth studio album looks set to add another illustrious chapter to the Madonna success story. Hailed as her most personal and accomplished work to date, American Life features eleven new compositions, including the stunning Bond theme Die Another Day. Recorded in Los Angeles and co-produced with Mirwais Ahmadzai, American Life follows on seamlessly from 2000's dance-centric Music. Awash with vocoders, stylish neo-electro beats, acoustica and dense, lush orchestration, standout tracks include the intricate, sensual, folk-psych Nothing Fails and Mother and Father.
As a single, Madonna's American Life is both a clever cultural statement and a crushing disappointment. To a clicky cyber strut, she jabs a disapproving finger of fame and the American Dream: "Do I have to change my name, am I gonna be a star", before sarcastically rapping about the things that are meant to make her life complete including a list of everyone on her payroll, Yet for all her wit, the robotic bleeps, beats and squelches stick uncomfortably in her throat.
Like the title track, Hollywood, the video for the song is a cross between Vogue and Express Yourself. Some of the expensive jewellery worn once belonged to the legendary actress Mae West. It tells a bittersweet tale about Madonna's relationship with Hollywood and movies. I'm So Stupid offer sci-fi click tracks and jaded sideswipes at those who aspire to the vacuous lifestyles of the rich and famous - unlike the title track though, they both come with proper, insidious, tunes. This leads into Love Profusion in which she sings beautifully and gives character to the song. Her account of having a personality crisis, Nobody Knows Me, isn't quite so lucky. Merely words that rhyme (badly) spilled out over what sounds like a sequencer was being dropped down the stairs. Nothing Fails, one of my favourite songs on the album, this song definitely has my vote, her vocals on this song are so strong with a backing choir to support the song quite well, and quite cleverly put together. Next up is Intervention and the eerily seductive X-Static Process ('Jesus Christ will you look at me / Don't know who I'm supposed to be') these two records support the rest of the album quite well, they would make great singles, and the vocals on the songs, are pretty strong from Madge.
My personal favourite on the album Mother and Father, which Madonna dedicates this to her parents, in a way this is a song about her parents, which is very uplifting and powerful, which shows her ability in this music business is the best. With the style to content ratio weighed heavily in style's favour, it's hard not to see her one dimensional club tracks as trying too hard to be too clever; especially when teeth grindingly Bond theme Die Another Day body pops into view, and finally Easy Ride as always there is one record that does not match to the rest of the album, this is it, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
In fact, her quiet affection is so compelling that it makes almost anything forgivable - even generic cyborg nonsense. Evidently, Madonna's songs, or at least the ones she puts her heart in, have finally outgrown the shallow confines of the singles chart. So maybe it's time she left the gimmicks and grand attention grabbing artistic gestures to someone else altogether, because she really doesn't need them anymore.
Finally, just briefly to summarise, not her best album but its reasonable and the songs are pretty good, it just doesn't match up to her excellent album 'Ray Of Light'.
8/10
Tracklisting:
American Life
Hollywood
I'm So Stupid
Love Profusion
Nobody Knows Me
Nothing Fails
Intervention
X Static Process
Mother and Father
Die Another Day (From the MGM Motion Picture Die Another Day)
Easy Ride
NEXT REVIEW: Beyonce 'Dangerously In Love'
Future Album Releases
July 21
Kym Marsh - Standing Tall
Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power
Various Artists - Now That What's I Call Music! 55
July 28
The Coral - Magic And Medicine
August 4
Triple Eight - Heavy W8
August 11
Eva Cassidy - American Tune
Lisa Maffia - First Lady
August 18
Alien Ant Farm - Truant
Kosheen - Kokopelli
Stacie Orrico - Stacie Orrico
August 25
Richard X - Presents His X Factor Volume One
September 1
Kelly Clarkson - Thankful
September 8
Abs - Abstract Theory
Limp Bizkit - Panty Sniffer
Lemonescent - Unconditional Love
Elvis Presley - Second To None: The Greatest Hits
TLC - Greatest Hits
September 15
Starsailor - Silence Is Easy
September 22
Dido - Life For Rent
Siobhan Donaghy - Revolution In Me
September 29
Lene - Surprise
