Madonna - American Life
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Music CD Cover
Artist: MadonnaEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics
Published: 2003
CD Release Date: 2003-04-22
Music Label: WEA/Reprise
Product features:
- Madonna - American Life Brazil Import
- American Life
- Hollywood
- I'm So Stupid
- Love Profusion
- Nobody Knows Me
- Nothing Fails
- Intervention
- X-Static Process
- Mother & Father
- Die Another Day - from the MGM motion picture Die Another Day
- Easy Ride
Free Music Notes for American Life
Free Music Review: An American stunner
Hit: 5 Stars
American Life is a true trooper. Surpassing even Ray of Light in its cohesion, Madonna's most infamous album is also her strongest. Forget the highly publicised criticisim it has received - never has Madonna been so bold and entrancing at the same time. Never failing to be innovative, she here takes it to the extremes alongside producer Mirwais Ahmadzai, who also co-produced her 2000 album Music. But Madonna sadly is a victim of her own image, and this album even more so, for it became the worst-received album of Madonna's career. All image and commercialisation aside, though, there is much to like, to say the least, about American Life.
We kick off with the infamous title track, "American Life". While the ever-more infamous video was never aired, replaced by a weaker one (while still appropriate in a way), the song in itself is deceptively profound. Subtly criticising the shallowness of American high society, Madonna instantly shows that she's going no way but hers for this album. Mirwais' hard synth sounds pound on you throughout, apart from those moments when you get lost in the chorus, a surprising guitar strumming, where Madonna states that she's "living the American dream". The intended in-your-face amb flows throughout, climaxing in the closing rap segment. Undeniably, when the song draws to a close, one is thinking harder.
We stroll into "Hollywood", whose lyrics are as deceptive yet clear as "American Life"'s. Careful to stay in the background, Madonna asks the listener whether Hollywood really is the great place it's made out to be. All this is accompanied by Mirwais' flawless guitar arpeggios and windlike sounds. Certainly at this point of the album, we learn that it is not all societal confrontation; "Hollywood" is a beautifully crafted song, both delicate and powerful at the same time.
Following is "I'm So Stupid", and if you think you are about to get a rest from the pointed finger, you've got another thing coming. Madonna openly admits to her having been "stupid, `cause I used to live in a fussy dream". Furthermore she sings that "everybody's looking for something". The song, with its cut guitar arpeggios and sounds courtesy of Mirwais, attributes to the statement perfectly.
The listener is prompted into "Love Profusion", and if you had second thoughts for the first three tracks, you certainly won't now. A beautiful acoustic guitar number with perfectly situated keyboard sounds and haunting backing vocals by Mirwais, completed by Madonna's singing of wanting a solution "and a love profusion", this song is sure to mesmerise you like only Madonna can.
"Nobody Knows me" verges on being paranoid, but we all feel like that, and certainly Madonna must, whose practically every move is put under the magnifying glass. The most computer-orientated track yet, its hard beats accompany Madonna's stand that while it's frustrating to be misunderstood, she doesn't care what the world thinks of her. You can hardly get bolder.
But all boldness and stands vanish with the next track, the entrancing "Nothing Fails", a love song dedicated to her husband Guy Ritchie. There are subtle confrontations found, in the lines "I'm not religious, but it makes me want to pray" (underlayed by a gospel choir), but this song certainly doesn't fail in ranking as perhaps the most beautiful track American Life has to offer. It is not a coincidence that even the critics have praised it as the standout song from the album; Madonna strikes gold with Guy Sigsworth's old melody, uplifting it to great heights, expressing the power of true love.
Next is my personal favourite, "Intervention". Starting out as a simple guitar-arpeggio stroll, one is not sure what to expect. But then the chorus appears out of nowhere - one of the catchiest choruses I've ever heard from Madonna - and sweeps you away with it. Here, Madonna sings of encouragement and courage, assuring the one she sings of that she knows that "love will change us forever". Essentially, how love changes things. Adonned with an appropriately subtle and self-interpretative title, "Intervention" casts all doubts of the album's integrity into the deepest abyss. This is pure musical perfection, as beautiful as "Nothing fails", but in its own way.
The guitar theme continues, and softens even more, with the entirely strummed "X-Static Process". This simple melody can be looked at in many ways, but essentially it's an expression of how love can make you forget who you are, as well as how you are just as good as the one you love. It's the simplest song in terms of effects; it's almost entirely strummed on an acoustic guitar, and is co-written by Stuart Price, with whom Madonna would go on to produce her following album Confessions on a Dance Floor.
We cut to a more serious tone with "Mother and Father", where Madonna confronts, with the most direct lyrics on the album, the loss of her mother, and her resulting anger at her father. The guitars vanish and the keyboard sounds are as confrontational as the lyrics. Again we hear Madonna "rap" rather than sing, as she states, very plainly, how her mother's loss affected her.
Anyone who has seen the (then) latest James Bond film will immediately recognise "Die Another Day", a strong, catchy tune with cut symphony segments. A song never failing to inspire hope, Madonna takes the title of the movie and says how there's "So much more to know", and that it's "Not my time to go". Certainly it's worthy of the Bond name, but as a stand-alone song, it still is a real killer. Apparently most think so, as it was the most successful single off of American Life, and revered as the best Bond song since Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill".
Things draw to a close with "Easy Ride". This thoughtful song constitutes almost certainly the lyrics with the most depth and space for self-interpretation that this album has to offer. Madonna sings of how she wants to work for her life - wise words to close the album with, accompanied by clever lyrics of "When I touch the ground I come full circle". The cut symphony of "Die Another Day" is still present, but in a totally different sense. The easy-going melody, which the title fits, zooms out what I, after the sound of the violins fades out, feel is Madonna's most underestimated effort.
Don't listen to the critics - it may have been met with unjust criticism (largely responsible to her stance with the title song), but American Life, while remaining certainly Madonna's most uncompromising album to date, is also the strongest that she's conjured up. It certainly isn't for everyone, but hey, when has Madonna ever been? She shows here, once again, that there is more to her musical prowess than you can deduce at a glance. She completely goes her own way, to the max. And in that lies her great strength as an artist.
Madonna has created another work to be proud of; an album of songs that do it all - confront you, soothe you, sadden you and inspire you. And the pondering lyrics, no matter how simple or complex they are, are the bonus that Music, sad to say, lacked. American Life certainly is much more whole an album, good as Music is. It's even as thoughtful as Ray of light. But American Life definitely cuts the most impressive image. Well done, Madonna. You deserve it.
American Life Poster
Madonna's first album in three years. Includes the title track for the controversial video, 'American Life', as well as 'Die Another Day' from the MGM motion picture of the same name. 11 tracks plus enhanced material (Madonna extras). Produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzai. Maverick. 2003.Judging by her current pose, the Material Girl has mutated into the Military Girl. Indeed, this time out Madonna launches an assault on the miscalculations of her past while also airing her grievances with a troubled world. Madonna has always jumped on trends, but, for the first time, she leaps and falls as she revisits the minimalist synth-pop that she helped define in the ?80s and raps like Debbie Harry about lattes and nannies. She also divulges career and personal missteps that her audience recognized all along, and had already forgiven--or embraced. With the exception of the entrancing Bond film theme "Die Another Day," the music doesn't measure up to 1999's Ray of Light and '00's Music. And while Madonna has never been a stunning wordsmith, there is a distinction between the introspection on those albums and the self-absorption of American Life; the lyrics here often put one in mind of a cathartic letter one writes but never mails. --Beth Massa
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