Reviews (page 3 of 8)
Doesn't really do it for me. I'm guess it's kinda cool that she's venturing out into EDM but I don't really think she does it justice.
Another pleasant surprise, a pick that initially drew a groan from me that I ended up enjoying. I remember what a big deal everyone made about Madonna changing her sound when this album came out, and the techno/EDM really works for her on this album.
eh. neosporno lijepa pjeva i sve to, a album je čak stislki dosta rasnovrstan. ali sve u svemu bezveze i predugo; vjerujem da madona ima utjecajnijih stvari pa ne razumijem zašto je ovo na popisu
I actually liked this surprisingly a lot. Not too cheesy even though heavy pop
Title track saved an otherwise boring album.
Real boring stuff
Oh wow this is one of the greatest pop records over heard.
Seen the cover graphic, never listened to the album: if I wanted EDM, I wasn't looking to Madonna for it. Look at the song list, I don't know any. ("Top 5 hits" or not - I wasn't following pop/sales charts.) What is the album like? "Just like EDM, only poppy!!" I have slight anticipatory prejudice against the degree of polish - but the production and arrangements really are all well done, credit to William Orbit's skills I assume. So in what sense is it a Madonna album, should it be called a Madonna/Orbit album? (He seems to get writing credit on every track - along with at least Madonna, and up to four other writers per song ...) 'Presumably' Madonna was involved in sound design choices ... She 'presumably' had a lot to do with lyrics? She doubtless did the singing - voice is of course not injected raw into the mix, it was maybe strengthened by training for Evita, it was certainly produced into as much depth and body as money could buy... Any songs stand out? Shanti/Ashtangi is interesting but yoga-ish lyrics unintelligible to 'average' listener, simply connote exoticism, eurk. (Personally I like yoga, but IMHO any 'magic' is in the practice, not recital of the words.) 'Frozen' is entertaining (eye candy video). How to rate overall? Orbit's work is neat, but overall still pretty meh. Feeling generous after some re-listen with headphones, I'll say it's "Good", 7/10.
Solid enough. Never been a big Madonna fan.
Damn, what a great album. Combines a few things I'm not really a fan of into something I really enjoyed. Starts to drag a bit by the end. Felt like it really needed a couple more upbeat tunes to avoid the sun of midtempo stuff rusts fine but samey. Still, a pleasant surprise and can see why it's on the list
Not a fan
Smooth album
This album is at it's best when it's at it's most trip-hop, such as on Swim and Nothing Really Matters (Basically, when the album has a decent pulse). A lot of this is though is pretty boring, repetitive EDM that, while solid, isn't doing much for me. Especially on tracks like The Power of Good-Bye. And then you have a few stinkers like Shanti-Ashtangi that just sound corny coming from Madonna. But I can definitely hear the influence this album has, particularly on artists like Utada Hikaru, although Utada, in my opinion, did it better. Definitely has bangers on her albums whereas there's nothing particularly standing out as a heavy hitting, catchy song on Ray of Light. Album could have used some paring down as well. At over an hour long, it overstays it's welcome, especially with the repetitive music.
Production is great, if the album was 15-20 minutes shorter it really would have helped overall with my score. The back half of the album wasn’t as solid and dragged.
I do enjoy this album, and the Frozen video is as great as I remember it being. I actually like quite a lot of Madonna’s output over the years and this album is as a nice change in direction with William Orbit producing. Certainly added a nice electronic element to her repertoire which had been more pop orientated for much of her career.
Apart from Ray of Light I'm not sure I'd have recognised this as Madonna - that said I enjoyed a lot more than expected
I often read about this as being Madonna's big return to relevance. I like the singles enough, and Ray of Light itself is a great track, but the overall album dragged for me.
The Power of Forgetting This Album Existed
This album is a little too obvious in its efforts to capture the zeitgeist of the late nineties, but mostly this is a highly diverse and well-performed album, spanning everything from trip-hop, to pop, to even some hard-rock riffing. Also, Madonna's voice sounds fantastic here. Unfortunately, there are a string of very poor, slow-moving, hackneyed, melodramatic songs tacked on at the end (the final five tracks starting with Frozen). Not coincidently, the album is just about the combined length of these songs too long. Without them you have a snappy, 8 song, 40 minute album that easily gets five stars. Still, the overall experience was enjoyable. 3.0/5.0: Good
there were some really good tracks on here but unfortunately there was also some really awful tracks as well. there is actually a decent bit of variation on here but not enough to warrant the runtime.
The apotheosis of terrible 90s music. Madonna—the ultimate bandwagon-jumper—in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, produces an entire album of bland electronic club music so shitty it would never get played in a club. I’m mystified that anyone could like this. If you like electronica, this is bad electronica. If you like pop, this isn’t poppy. If you just like Madonna this isn’t a good Madonna album. It’s trash, it goes on forever, and that’s before Madonna starts chanting in Sanskrit or whatever.
This was less interesting than I thought it was going to be. Just sounded over-produced and missing any kind of edge. Takes all the fun out of listening to Madonna.
The title track is still great, and the rest of this is...fine. It feels much longer than an hour.
Could have dropped a couple to tighten it up but love that William Orbit (RIP) production and her pipes are tiptop.
Madonna is the 🐐
I actually enjoyed this more than I expected to, the first half especially
I’ve always quite liked Substitute for Love and Frozen… Never listened to the whole album before and unlikely to again but was a pleasant listen. 2.5 for me, bang in the middle.
New to me, I enjoyed it, especially the opening songs, tailed off towards the end. Two stars. Tom.
I like Madonna but not a fan of this album. Feels like a stab at blending an electronic sound with pop.
I've never found her great but Frozen is a good pop song. Interesting sound. I don't think this is great but I can tell this felt at least somewhat personal. Weak three strong two.
Underwhelming. The production team made a pretty good pop album, although it could be a little shorter. I don't see this as required listening. A high 2.
Ok I’m not gonna lie I didn’t listen to this in its entirety. It’s not terrible which says a lot. But the production is so repetitive that it makes the whole thing rather unremarkable and forgettable. No desire to listen to this again.
Not crazy about it
No soy el mejor cliente de Madonna. Sus discos suelen parecerme un tanto aburridos, pero eso no hace que deje de reconocer el gigante que representa dentro de la industria y la cultura pop. Ray of Light me pareció un disco considerablemente notable, con varios hits y una de mis canciones favoritas de Madonna, Frozen. Pero no puedo dejar de sentir que se alarga un tanto en su duración, tanto el disco como algunas canciones. Aún así, me parece un buen disco, con muchísimo sonido interesante y experimentaciones destacables, así que se va con cuatro estrellas.
Album banger avec des tubes connus
Album très expérimental / mystique Franchement, je l’ai trouvé chouette
Madonna c'est cool mais j'ai trouvé cet album un peu lent et répétitif
fave from my club days. lots of good stuff, but some filler, too
Drowned World / Substitute for Love Ray of Light Frozen The Power of Good-Bye
Madonna's superpower is her ability to see what direction music is going and then she manages to go there and then do that music better than everyone else. She is a trend hopper and I do not mean that as an insult. On Ray of Light, she saw the direction electronic music was going and decided that she could to that music too. Ray of Light is not a short album. Clocking in at 13 songs over 66 minutes, it isn't something a person would necessarily sit down and listen to casually. The last two songs, specifically Mer Girl, are just a drag and go on too long. I do not understand how Ray of Light doesn't have the most plays of the songs on this album. It was all over the radio and the music video could not be avoided. I think this book underrepresents Madonna in some ways. She had some really influential albums earlier in her career but Music is in this book, yet only one album that represents her early work is in here. Ray of Light would be the last album I would include from Madonna and I would include another earlier one. This is a good album, even if I think it could be trimmed by a few songs. Not my cup of tea but I appreciate the music. My favorite songs: Drowned/Substitute for Love Swim Ray of Light Sky Fits Heaven Frozen Power of Goodbye
This feels like she heard sneaker pimps and portishead and wanted to cash in on their popularity. Some nice sounds but nothing here that those other bands haven't done better
I am not a Madonna fan. But this is a good album.
Absolute banger of the music TV era
Hef aldrei hlustað á þessa plötu í heild sinni áður, en vitaskuld heyrt smáskífurnar oft. Hún kom mér mjög ánægjulega á óvart, þrátt fyrir að ég hafi verið jákvæður í garð Madonnu í gegnum tíðina. Þetta er oftar en ekki ansi flott og skemmtilegt.
Not for me
I'm sorry, Madonna, I wasn't familiar with your game. This is a great album, especially the production. The first couple tracks really set the mood, and Ray of Light is a great single from this. But my favorite by far was Nothing Really Matters. It doesn't even start out as a boring pop song, but wow, around halfway this song just layers more and more on top of itself and it's truly great. And Madonna's vocals are rock solid throughout. I enjoyed this far more than I expected for a pop album. Could definitely return for a full relisten.
Also a very unusual one—some were okay, others were … less so.
Muito bom o álbum inteiro! Dentre as músicas novas pra mim, achei a última a mais inesperada, muito chique!
= the Beatles
Not my cup of tea although I appreciate lots of her other work
I don't want to spend too much time on this one. William Orbit gets a four; Madonna gets a two. Remember when Madonna was cool? At first, she had kind of a pop-dance-punk thing going on. Then she leaned into the dark (for a pop star), erotic mode. She recorded "Like a Prayer" and appeared on SNL's Wayne's World. By the time this album was released, she felt like a try-hard. I know it's standard practice for artists to try to stay relevant by reinventing themselves. But whereas artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, and Michael Jackson led movements through their changes, it feels like Madonna followed. If she was following, at least she was wise to hire William Orbit as her collaborator here. His production is more than solid, if perhaps a little safe. The music sounds great, but there is little challenge in the listening, so, for me, little challenge often translates to little interest. It's Madonna that I really don't like here. I've always thought her voice was pleasant enough if a bit limited. She's a performer first. There's nothing wrong with that necessarily, but I don't enjoy her readings of the songs here. It's far too simplistic and sing-songy, kind of like adult nursery rhymes set to deep house. The lyrics aren't great either. Madonna's name might be on the cover, but I often wanted her to shut up so that I could hear the music. I listened to the album, and I checked the box, but I won't be coming back for more. Three stars.
AND I FEEEEEEL LIKE I JUST GOT HOME AND I FEEEEEEEL AND I FEEEEEEEEEEEL LIKE I JUST GOT HOME AND I FEEEEEEEEEE EEEE AY AH ELLLLLLLL
This is a pretty good electropop album though nowhere near the fantastic joy of her 80s records. “Frozen” is a jam though.
This at least thawed my heart out a little as it went on. I think it took a while to adjust to the mellow mood, but once I did I enjoyed a number of songs on this album. Some of the tunes have good pop melodies that I like about early Madonna, set to somber electronic music. Not too shabby.
A surprisingly good electronic-ish album by Madonna. Then again, it is Madonna. It did drag a bit, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.
So so. Some good some pretty self satisfied average.
Bewildering. Sort of really fucking cool, especially when she leans into the trip-hop. But then we move to the Middle East, which is alright, but also...why, Madonna? Are you really Buddhist? Does your yoga inspire you that much? Should you really be making this? Fave tracks: - Swim - Ray of Light - Candy Perfume Girl - Nothing Really Matters - To Have and Not to Hold
The best Madonna album in her catalogue… fact!
This was my first Madonna album, I had only really listened to her hits beforehand. What an enjoyable album. Each song had a different, entertaining beat. It may be a little too long overall, but it was a fun ride and I can see why she was so popular in the 80s.
Never listened to a Madonna album before and wasn't expecting much but this album really caught me by surprise. Skin, Frozen and The Power of Good-Bye the stand out tracks.
Big 90s energy. I don't quite get the Madonna hype. A few big hits on here don't quite hit for me. Best song Ray of Light. 3
My favourite Madonna album. I enjoyed this stage - I found I could engage with her lyrics and melodies in a deeper way. I'd enjoyed her hits as a teen on the dancefloor in the 80s, felt a little alienated by the raunchy 90s stuff, and then was very happy to have her music back in my life with this. It was the first of her albums that I actually bought, apart from the compilation The Immaculate Collection. You could argue that the album is production over substance - many of the songs can be strummed in two or three chords (not that that's an issue per se) - but I happen to like the chords and melodies, and the clever production works for me, adding interest and atmosphere. A rare album from 1998, when I was quite busy having babies, that I didn't miss completely; in fact, the opposite: I bought the CD, played it a lot, and still enjoy the album now.
I did not like her music back then, and a full listen to this confirms that this is not my preferred music. Further, fuck you for opening the door to a ton of crappy music that has been forced out on us the past few decades. Lady Sabrina Perry Carey sounds just as vapid.
So long!
Madonna is a legend, not really my type of music but I try to not let that count against my ratings.
I hope someone else here has seen Music and Lyrics, the amazingly crap 00s Hugh Grant drew barrymore romcom featuring a singer Cora Corman, who does a slutty Buddhism thing. This album instantly took me there. But also I really liked it - I didn’t know Madonna did this downtempo trip hop beat based electro pop and I found it joyous and mature. May be later a 5.
Her har vi et album jeg har god kjennskap til. Etter et tiår med søte pop-melodier, beveger Madonna seg inn i en verden av trip hop og slowcore. Det er en stil hun nailer så til de grader. Et klasse album som virkelig sementerer Madonnas legendestatus. Top 3: Sky Fits Heaven, Swim, Frozen
Saul is fine for what it is, but I’m not sure why it is on that list. Not particularly cutting edge or interesting or unique.
Having become a mother for the first time and fresh off plenty of acolades for her title role in 1996's 'Evita' (including a Golden Globe for Best Actress), Madonna was at a fascinating point in her career by the late 90s. So, in entering the next phase of her storied career with 'Ray of Light', Madonna turned to electronica, trip-hop and the techno sounds commonplace with popular music of the time, and the results are actually quite impressive. After Madonna had spent the first half of the 90s pushing the envelop beyond her 80s pop stardom with 1992's sexually explicit 'Erotica' (complete with the racy coffee table book, 'Sex'), before attempting somewhat of a course correction with 1994's 'Bedtime Stories', 'Ray of Light' sees Madonna not only in her most relaxed, but also her most daring state. Her voice is quite subdued but always appears to be at one with the music, not needing to lead the sound, but rather complement it. The title track is a joyful romp expressing the glee of spiritual awakening a strong sense of self, 'Candy Perfume Girl' is a seductive alternative number that could be mistaken for a Garbage song (in fact, Shirley Manson and Madonna do sound quite a bit alike), 'Skin' is a deep electronic cut expressing a need for intense physical desire and then you have a track like 'Shanti/Ashtangi' which is a full-blown Hindu Sanskrit prayer expressing inner peace and enlightenment. There's no denying Madonna pulled out all the stops for this record, as it goes in several different directions. In a way, 'Ray of Light' kind of reminds me of David Bowie's 'Earthling' record in the sense it unflinchingly explores and incorporates the popular sounds of the time (in this case, electronic, trip-hop and techno music) into the artist's already recognisable style. While Madonna doesn't exactly reinvent her formula on 'Ray of Light', she shows a clear awareness of the direction pop music is taking and is able to bend it to her will. This approach would ensure Madonna would maintain her relevance well into the 21st century, even among plenty of successors to her female pop crown (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Shakira, J-Lo etc.). Best songs: Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Ray of Light, Candy Perfume Girl, Skin, Frozen
Why, of all the Madonna albums did this one make it to this list? This was terrible. I know that she can do better than this.
2/5
Drowned World/ Substitute for Love - 4/5 Swim - 3.5/5 Ray of Light - 4.5/5 Candy Perfume Girl - 4/5 Skin - 4.5/5 Nothing Really Matters - 4/5 Sky Fits Heaven - 3.5/5 Shanti/ Ashtangi - 3/5 Frozen - 4/5 The Power of Good-Bye - 4/5 To Have and Not to Hold - 4.5/5 Mer Girl - 4/5 3/5
A couple of iconic later Madonna songs, but mediocre supporting tracks.
Outstanding album. I got Music 11 days ago and the ambient electronica trip hop dance pop is still doing it for me. Once again showing why she's one of the best to ever do it. I have a feeling that if she were male and from the UK she would have 6 to 8 albums on this list.
I didn’t love a lot here. Some decent songs like Frozen and Candy Perfume Girl. But overall, just kind of boring for me. Songs were long and dragged.
Partly heard before Saved 4/13 Top track: Ray of Light
William Orbit's repetitive bloop-bleep production is the millstone around the neck of this album, dragging it down to the bottom of the ocean floor despite Madonna's best attempts to keep it afloat.
No. Make her stop.
I think honestly just the novelty of Madonna doing an album like this is what put this album so high up for me. It is a true departure from what I knew her sound to be prior but it works. There are tracks on here that definitely get the blood pumping and honestly just sound really well mixed and inventive. It's cool that she tried to really go outside of her usual style and pay attention to the sound that was around at the time. That being said, the album is not perfect and has a tiny bit of bloat and potentially too many tracks. I definitely like some more than others but I have to say I'm not disappointed and I probably would listen to this again. So right now 4 out of 5 stars. I could see that fluctuating in either direction depending on the rest of my list.
I liked this a lot more than I expected. Ray of Light is really the only song I recognized and I like it, but it feels like it is just a little bit too long. I liked everything on here. I think maybe I should have not overlooked Madonna's music so much back in the 1990s. Overall this is a good album.
Of all of the albums released in 1998 this one sounds the most like 1998.
I don't know what the FUCK a Candy Perfume Girl is, but I want Madonna to be mine. And whatever drugs she was doing in 1998, I want to take a lot of them. She's totally in the zone here. Frozen, the title track, and Shanti/Ashtangi stand out for me, but the whole album is great. There is a flow...an energy... almost conceptual...damn near perfect...dreamy mystic spiritual dance pop... beautiful... unquestionably one of her best. 5
I remember when this album was released and, at the time, thought it was a fantastic continuation of her already established legacy. I wish I still felt that way and had an appreciation for the genre she explored in this era.. but I don't.
Started ok, I thought it would be a three, but got very whiny from midway to the end
5/10 Fav: -
Njen daleko najbolji album. Produkcija Williama orbita je apsolutno savršena, koliko je album utjecajam vidiš po tome što svake godine bude jedno do pet zapaženih ostvarenja direktno pod njegovim utjecajem
This is potentially the high water mark of Madonna's entire career. There are plenty of more well known singles from other eras of Madonna, but this might be the best entire album. She’s more of an artist on Ray of Light than the previous pop princess, or the sad weird quasi-Brit she transformed into later. 4.5⭐️
No
Her voice is good but I just don't like tis style of music. 3 stars or C.
Enjoyed this FAR more than expected. Might go for full marks for the fun of it.
Some new and cool sounds but ultimately kinda boring. I liked hearing this side of Madonna, it is not what I expected.
Was never a fan 30 years ago; time has not changed that opinion.
good album
Starts out strong but peters off toward the end. Love that the opening track is a JG Ballard reference. Love that book
Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this and also in how different it was from the other Madonna songs I’m more familiar with. The Ray of Light song is a banger, testament to Madge’s ability to keep reinventing herself and remaining relevant. Would definitely have this playing at home for a dinner party or for a general relaxation vibe.
it’s ok I guess
Not at all my style
ehh some fun dance songs but overall not my fav from madonna
Lidt langt album.. Nåede første del 3 gange inden jeg endelig fik nosset mig sammen til at få den afsluttet. Der sker ret meget sjovt med stemninger og genre på albummet.
Der er nogle overraskende gode trip hoppede numre på albummet. På disse tracks er der en kølig sound og et mellow feel. Desværre går der for meget disco bangers eller ligegyldig pop i den på for mange af skæringerne.
ray of shite
It's unfortunate that I only ever heard the titular song before and wasn't exposed to this album earlier, because I loved it! Madonna's voice here is wonderfully balanced and controlled, I really dig the eastern-flair on several of the tracks, and as fan of EDM there's nothing here not to love.
I'm very tempted to give it a 2 for being overlong, but it feels like it deserves better even though it's not my jam. 2.6
low 2
Holy snoozefest. Incredibly forgettable Frozens not bad, driving me crazy trying to think which song samples it, more or less the only thing compelling me to come back to this 1.5
Album #40 Madonna: Ray of Light Despite never listening to her full albums, I have been known to enjoy a Madonna hit, particularly Like a Prayer and Material Girl, which are absolute bangers. From what I have gathered, however, this is no average Madonna album. Acclaimed as being the album which took mainstream pop into the next level, at least experimentally speaking. Though not as experimental as some pop of the time, such as Bjork, this album is extremely out there for a record with the level of success that it had. I’m not much of a pop historian, but I can definitely see some influences that have come from this album. One of my favourite modern albums is Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood, which also mixes pop structure with atmospheric and trance-like elements; though not a like-for-like, it is clear that an album like that can flourish due to the popularity of this Madonna album. But legacy aside, the music is also pretty damn good. I wouldn’t say that I fully love this album, but I certainly really liked it. It does go on pretty long, but it never really loses you in the process. The spiritual natures of the lyrics fit well with the lush instrumentals, and result in an experience that has the capacity to elevate one into ascension, though I never quite reached that myself. I wasn’t able to fully embrace myself in the world it was creating, instead feeling more like an observer from a distant planet. So though I am aware that this album didn’t provide the same experience for me as it did many others, I can still say that the experience I had was quite good. Best Tracks: Sky Fits Heaven, Ray of Light, Drowned World/ Substitute for Love Worst Track: Shanti/ Ashtangi Score out of 10: 7.5
A slog, an utter fucking slog. Who decided that this album must be listened to before one's death. Madonna, at least after the 80s, fucking sucked. She should have used the kabbalah to conjure a golem to swallow her whole. I hated this album slightly less than the one after it but I still hated it. Who decided this?
Like the soundtrack to a 90s queer film. Not what I expected from Madonna but enjoyed its energy.
This is great. Just pure joy. What a pop record should be. Very much sleek car showroom dance pop but executed perfectly. I wonder if I was around for this release I would've felt the same about it as I do about Brat, in that it takes all the stylings of dance music and polishes it down to pop sensibility, but unlike Brat I don't feel any personal sense of loss attached to this because I can't even imagine nightlife in 1998. I think repurposing club culture in a buoyant market is a different act to the stagnation and neglect of 2024.
she tried
Something’s having an age in incredibly well, but overall an extremely by vibey project
DNF -Most of this album upset me. I like newer Madonna with more upbeat vibes
Never been a fan of the material girl and this is overlong and overly introspective. But that said, full marks for effort, it does sound half decent, and so in a burst of generosity I have decided to award it a 3. Please don't test me again.
I was geared to hate this and I had to assess why once I listened. Because I had legitimate reasons to think her pop was mid? Because she was already daring to be an Elder Pop Woman when I encountered her as a teen? On any case, I didn't hate this as much as I anticipated. Well done Madonna. Some of the opening tracks were good fun and Ray of Light itself is a banger. Fell down a bit later on but I'd already deemed it a 3. Turns out you can't get that kinda generational staying power in an industry stacked against you unless you have at least a few songs that go off.
Ok, so this isn't the Madonna that typically comes to my mind. I have a later, messier view, and an earlier 'Like A Virgin' view, but not this. This, musically, lyrically, tempo, is all way more up my street and seems to have a good consistent vibe to it. One of the better surprises here. Almost gave it a 4.
The musical direction on this album from Madonna was a real surprise to me, I did not expect such a variety of influences and a tone quite as atmospheric. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. The standout “hits” are fantastic, but the rest of the album has a darker, ambient vibe to it that is a far cry from the pop classics you come to expect. There’s one major gripe I have though - it’s too bloody long, most of the songs could be cut in half and still be as impactful. I’ve every confidence this would be a 9/10 album for me if it was 45 minutes long, rather than 65.
Over produced 90s pop. Ok, not unlistenable, but not the Madonna album I would expect to be on the list. Maybe it has to do with the ‘club’/ techno vibes on some of the tracks and that being somewhat ground breaking for a commercial artist at the time. Either way, kinda boring but not anger inducing.
Pure brilliance. Best Madonna's album and one of the best in genre
Awful. I'd give it zero stars if I could
150126 16:50 3.5
Pretty standard electronica pop. Not bad for what it is, but I find this genre boring.
I was expecting ass, and I got it. I wasn’t expecting this though. Pretty interesting for mainstream pop.
It also feels like quintessential 90's pop. I get some Cher vibes from Madonna on this album too, but that's just me. I found a lot of tracks to be a little boring, but there are some good tracks on this album that are saving itself from a 2 rating. Top tracks: Ray of Light, Swim, Frozen
I knew of one or two songs off this album before listening and really wasn't expecting much, but I actually thought this was cool as hell. A major departure from most of her previous work but I feel like she crushes it. Ray of Light is a lot more reserved and less in your face than most of Madonna's discography, at least the parts I'm more familiar with. Instead of hornily observing Madonna from afar, I get the feeling from this album that she wants you to join her on the dancefloor and just cut loose. AND I FEEEELLL LIKE I JUST GOT HOMEE
Madonna chameleons into Bjork for this one to good results. Felt like Y2K screensaver music (positive). We're slowly starting to excavate this sound again. Favorite Tracks: Drowned World, Perfume Candy Girl, Skin, Frozen, Mer Girl
I have to apologize to Madonna. I always thought she was more of an icon than a musician. I was dead wrong. This is some of the best art pop I have heard in a long time. The opening track, "Drowned World / Substitute", feels like a blueprint for a lot of FKA Twigs’s work. It pulled me in immediately. It is warm, pure, and powerful. The album weaves in some really beautiful cultural textures too. You hear Arabic leaning instrumentation blended with sleek modern synths on "Nothing Really Matters", then just a track later you get the Hindu inspired atmosphere of "Shanti/Ashtangi". That range over such a short stretch is impressive. "Frozen" gives me chills every time. It is easily the best song on the album and it makes sense that it became one of her most popular. The mix of violins, synths, and percussion creates something almost religious. This is a power album from a power woman. 9/10.
i listened to this twice because i felt like maybe i'd missed something the first time round. i mean - it's Madonna, it's the 90s, it's trip hop, it's a lot of things that i love honestly.... and yet it didn't quite hit for me and i don't know why! having said that there are some all-time bangers on here as well. i can't give this higher than a 3.5 buuuuuut it was generally good. thanks Madonna!!!!!
Listening session: january 13th, while commuting to internship and while getting ready for bed Listened to before: listened to some songs before, but not all Thoughts: I’m more familiar with Madonna’s older work so I was surprised that this had so many electronic elements Favourite tracks: Frozen, The Power of Good-Bye & Drowned World/Substitute for Love
Generic pop.
The album grew on me as it went.. Sounded quite experimental from what little other stuff I have heard from Madonna.
Good album but it tends to drag towards the end
Experimental and interesting, but not enough catchy tunes to listen again.
Madonna almost always hits. This isn't my favorite, but still quite good.
3/10
album with slow songs. i like it.
Anne-Marie, une ex copine, l’avait en CD. J’en suis toujours à me demander si ça a bien vieilli.
J'ai le feeling que Madonna voulait s'essayer au trip hop pendant que c'était all the rage. Un genre de caprice de pop star. Les bouts plus electro/house sont pour moi insupportables. Les tounes plus méditatives trip hop dont celle avec un nom indien sont plutôt plaisantes en background. J'aime la voix de Madonna en général. J'ai aussi appris hier qu'elle était de descendance canadienne française, cool stuff.
Moi je pense que ça mérite un beau 4. Bien aimé ce melange de pop, trip hop, electronica, saveurs indiennes. Je trouve ça cohérent. De plus je trouve le voix de Madonna magnifique.
this did not feel correct. did Natasha Bedingfield write this?
Honestly, far better than I expected it to be! Some good classics on here, and I would give it a 5 star rating if it weren't for how bad Little Star is...
Not a fan
Definitely sounds like Madonna in the late 90s. Empowered middle aged white woman music, not for me.
On hyvä. On siinä nykyartisteilla tekemistä
Hienostihan vetää ja on aina vetänyt. Vähän vanhempia ja omaan korvaan parempia levyjä odotellessa. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ei parhaimmistoa mutta hyvä lätty silti.
Heel erg leuk, heeft echt een slehcte ochtend geflipt naar goed ook. Love it!!
Pvetor griffoni? Flamby guye?
Ikke helt for meg dette. Veldig gloomy og mye likt.
4.4
Sounds like an album by an aging pop star desperate to stay relevant. (Checks notes. It is) Any of the albums by Aromaba would be a suitable replacement.
Mad Donna is pretty chill on this one. Started very disco before becoming more mellow. A strong three stars.
A little too pop/synth for my tastes, it tries too hard. Still a fairly enjoyable listen.
Not bad, not great. I never wanted to turn it off, but I probably won't listen again, either.
This is a hard rating for me. Most of the album sounded like a 80s icon desperately clawing out to maintain relevance, but then suddenly there would be glimpses of experimental brilliance peeking out from behind the pile of burning garbage and I would forgive a lot. I’m sure I heard a bunch of these tracks when this was released but I guess I blocked it all out.. Hurt by the length and uninspiring production despite her vocal talent, 2/5
About in line with what I've heard so far from Madonna as in being surprisingly epic for "pop". Also, did I just get proselytized to for an hour about Kabbalah?
Not something I’d choose to listen to, but well crafted grown up pop. Lots of very much of the time influences obvious, but the songs are strong and her voice has real character
Nice but not relevant over the long term
I think this is objectively a pretty solid album (although it is EXTREMELY of its time and the songwriting isn’t anything spectacular for the most part) but it turns out I just find Madonna’s overall corniness and self-importance too big of an obstacle to enjoy her music.
I was surprised by how much I didn’t mind this.
Heard it before. Strong late 90s sound, Madonna was really up to date with the trends. In terms of pop music I'd probably prefer to listen to some more straightforwad pop bangers but this is definitely a vibe too. And how nice to end the year with an album released the year I was born 3/5
Interesting to hear Madonna chuck middle eastern, Indian, and dance beats in a bag and shake them up. Some decent tracks. Particularly Frozen stands out as an interracial departure and a well-crafted tune for a batman soundtrack. Probably won't listen to the whole thing again but that one song was nice.
Not really into Madonna's music, and this didn't change my mind. It started out okay, but after Ray of Light (3rd song), it got ... IDK ... boring? Repetitive? I had to quit during Shanti.
Madonna trying to be a bit like Bjork….?
Enjoyed this a lot, great 90s house beats
omg its the peter griffin drinking redbull song this is dope af i love 90s downtempo electronica whatever the fuck. great album people on this site have no culture or class.
I mean it’s fine i like the instrumental but it feels dated
1,5/5 + I was surprised how experimental this album is + the opener really sets a good tone for the album + The happy hardcore influenced tracks were fun + Sometimes I really liked the maximalism in the production... - ... but a lot of times it's just a mess - Skin makes my skin crawl - really don't like Madonnas vocal performances on the whole thing - it's more fun to talk about the album than to listen to it (it's also way too long) - ultimately it is a failed experiment for me Fav: Drowned World / Substitute of Love, Ray of Light Least Fav: Skin, Shanti / Ashtangi, The Power of Good-Bye, To Have and Not to Hold
inégal, la partie club est incroyable mais la partie pop est très mid
This is still really not that great. I will never understand why people find this remarkable.
A better album than her others
Of course it is rated Five Stars even after all these years it Madonna 🩷
I wasn't familiar with this phase of Madonna. I liked it more than i expected. Great dance songs. Probably 4-5 star quality. I give it 3 because it's just not something I will put on
Madonna's Wikipedia page is more interesting than her albums. In all actuality, I did enjoy the beat of two songs. This hasn't been a fun early Christmas gift. Favorite Track: "Shanti/Ashtang".
I never particularly liked Madonna, her vocal delivery between talking and whispering with strange vibrato always annoyed me, this and her attempts to stay trendy (in later works). But Frozen is such a great song, and it's on this album. The album is quite solid, pleasant electronic pop, and her voice sounds decent. My only question is about the track Shanti / Ashtangi. why does it even exist (but who knows, someone might like it). I also read a bit of her biography and was impressed. And it turns out she is the author, or at least a co-author, of almost all her songs. All in all, she's awesome.
I didn't really vibe with this one 1️⃣! Which is unfortunate cuz it was my birthday 🎂.
Some of the songs are fine I guess but I really don’t understand why this album is on this list. I’d have to assume true blue and like a prayer are on here and this isn’t the only Madonna album.
The peaks of this album are very very high but the filler drags it down
Shite!! 2 ⭐️
Madonna is a cornerstone of my introduction to music. My aunt who is 5 years older than me pulled the Columbia House scheme when I was 8 or 9. As part of her haul she got several Madonna albums, the Violent Femmes, and some others. She would babysit us and ruled with an iron thumb. Because of this I listened to a lot of the early (pre Vogue) Madonna on a loop. Of this I did not complain. Her other treatment could be cruel but at least she had good taste. Ray of Light is a really solid album . I am shocked that this was only her 7th album, as by 1998 she had been one of the most popular musicians in the world since the early 80s. This is a great album The title track is the biggest hit but I love "Little Star" the most. The production is incredible and while Madonna certainly did not create this style of music she was still a taste maker as this is much more well done than the albums released at the time that are in the same vein.
Madonna's best album, legitimately a 90s trip-hop masterpiece (edit: I revised this to a 4 because it's very good but maybe not that good)
There critics go again trying to make this more complicated than it needs to be. I am a Madonna fan, and her best works are unquestionably MADONNA, LIKE A VIRGIN, and TRUE BLUE. The rest of her work never sounded as urgent and earnest. Maybe LIKE A PRAYER, but definitely nothing past that. Far too long of an album. Most of the songs don't feel like they have truly great hooks and the only songs with any real sense of cohesion are the dual hits of "Ray of Light" and "Frozen", and maybe the organic bossa nova vibe of "To Have and Not to Hold" They also happen to be the only songs that Madonna sounds like she was having any fun recording. As someone who generally enjoys dance albums, this one feels incredibly....beige. Probably bold for an audience unfamiliar with the genres she is playing with, but tedious for those already in the know. Full disclosure, I have never enjoyed William Orbit's mixes of U2 and Depeche Mode singles either. So maybe it is just a me and William Orbit thing.
This doesn’t do it for me. Madonna’s take on late 90s EDM.
I owned this. A unique album for Madonna. A few very good songs.
I don't like Madonna
I drank a bunch of coffee and tried listening to this album while driving home ended up skipping through 90% of the songs it’s like I get it and cool come back it’s dreamy has techno elements, but if aliens came down to earth, and we had to show them our culture and the best we had to offer art wise this album would not be something that I would put in their CD player. Furthermore, I don’t know why this was included. I would’ve figured that an earlier Madonna album would be better to hear before I die. That being said we probably have like four madonna albums on this list who knows nobody knows except for Zak. Zak cheated and looked.
In the club with Madonna. It would be more fun to dance with her than to have to listen to this again.
Even though I’m not a huge fan of Madonna or where her career eventually went, I have to admit this album was pretty forward thinking for a popstar of her stature at the time. Bringing in William Orbit as the producer was a great call. His work really is the backbone of the album’s success. It covers a range of electronic styles but maintains a cool ambient undertone that feels unique for such a massive pop release. Between Madonna and Orbit, they managed to pull it off.
Jsuis passé au travers mais pas nul
This album is not one that resonates with me. Madonna just isn't something I listen to or ever go out of my way for. I'm just not a fan personally. That being said, this album sits right at the end of the nineties and doesn't feel like it ever left the nineties. I feel like this album is a major influence for some more modern pop, but the album itself is a time capsule for the year 1998. Overall, this album feels like a mediocre sci-fi / rom-com that takes place in a yoga studio film score from someone who has never seen a sci-fi As the album progresses it just get more and more boring..... there is no need for this to be over an hour long. Stand out tracks: Swim - Feels like I'm watching a straight to VHS rom-com. Ray of Light - It's a little catchy and sounds like an anthem for another straight to VHS coming of age or rom com film Skin - The music feels like playing play station 1...... but then Madonna is just kind of singing over it Sky Fits Heaven - is one of my least favorite songs I have ever heard Shanti / Ashtangi - Feels like it does not belong on this album
No ferris wheel, no heart to steal? Now I find I changed my mind? Alone in a crowded room? Were these lyrics written by the target audience? Think how the Beatles grew up over night from their juvenilia in just a couple years. C'mon, Madonna, you can do it too! But not if you insist only upon the techno beat built for dancing in a club being the driving force. So I guess it doesn't matter what the lyrics are or anything else beyond the beat. I have to give her enormous credit for bucking public definitions of acceptability and morality. And I quite like the music here. But if I start listening to the words it falls apart for me.
The singles are good enough and very danceable but the rest of the material is unremarkable. I’m not inclined to ever listen to this again but I’m happy to bop along if Frozen or Ray of Light come on the radio.
Madonna... difficult for me. My dear wife may call me a hater (maybe not, she always assumes positive intent), but my distaste for Madonna has evolved from just a knee-jerk "seriously?" to something more thoughtful. It really boils down to her art. I never much cared for her voice and felt the music itself was always way short of masterful. This album sounds good, fuller and more realized than the work I'm more familiar with. But the emphasis on her singing doesn't exactly help — for me anyway — so this was more of an endurance test than a pleasant experience. But, compared to the assault that was the Mariah Carey album a couple of listens ago, I'd reach for this every time if they were the only two records on Earth. See? I am evolving as a music listener.
The production is better than the material. I liked the single well enough when it came out, but today it felt a little flat.
My favorite album from Madge. This album came out with a bang at the time and really was peak Madonna.
Enjoyed this seems like a less known album but sill solid
Not for me. With exception of the title track, the songs all bled together into an hour long trance-y adult contemporary blur.
Una Madona que quiere ser muy eterea y dar mensajes de paz y amor y bautizando su epoca discotequera, de la que podemos ver como empieza a surgir, un poco experimental tambien, no conocia ninguna cancion pero ha estado guay el disco. No tengo gran cosa mala que decir, simplemente se me queda un poco corto, le falta algo. PD: NO ME ACORDABA DE FROZEN, ALTO TEMA, lo que necesitaba para ponerle el 7
Buen álbum de Madonna.
Ray of light is fantastic but the rest of the songs fell flat and were rather unremarkable
Mapping Madonna's pop sensibilities onto electronica and ambient sounds results in an incredible album (and directly leads to my favorite song from the last 33 years of her career on her next album, what it feels like for a girl).
This was one of the first albums that E and I agreed on for road trips.
Surprisingly good Madonna album... Or is it a William Orbit album feat. Madonna?
Beautiful voice for sure, but not a great album
Good enough. Some nice songs but a lot of the same vibe.
Probs not Lasted 3 minutes 12 seconds Not me cup of tea
# Playlist Track - Ray of Light # Notes - What a fun and engaging album. I'm old enough to remember this playing on MTV, but I didn't pay too much attention at the time. You know, metalheads can't enjoy Madonna. - Pretty solid tracks, awesome energy. Bit of letdown on the tail end, but it's still a very good time. Recommend.
I am too tired to put much into this, but it was better than expected…I have never been much of a fan. It was too long, though. Three stars.
One of those albums you forget is playing.
So like I understand what she was trying to do but I don't think she did it all that well. I wish I didn't listen to this because now I don't know what to think of mid career era Madonna. I only know her as bubblegum 80s pop and washed up old cringey lady trying to remain relevant. 2 stars because Ray of Light continues to be a bop.
We all thought Madonna was ancient when this came out, but she was younger than I am now. I liked this album in 1998. It was a cool departure from her earlier work and I enjoyed the nods to trip hop and other electronic genres that I hadn't been too familiar with. This was my first listen since around that time and I found the record to be really interesting musically, even though Madonna's vocals seem a little distant and disaffected. The album has a lot of strong songs, but could use a little bit of editing. I'd give 3.5 if they'd let me, but closer to a 3.
There are good technical notes, but nothing about this is actually interesting or makes me want to have listened to it.
Boring and repetitive. Give me some real female singers like Aretha or Linda or Janis. If she hadn't been wearing her bra on the outside, we never would have heard of her. Flash over substance.
Very sexy, very cool.I like how shes Indian for a bit.
The title track is easily the strongest, but this whole album was a lot of fun - Madonna (and her production team) are firing on all cylinders here. The electronic aspect is ethereal and hypnotic in all the right ways. I listened on a long drive and this album helped me lock TF in
This was intolerable
very good
Did not listen
did not know Madonna had game like this
Fine album.
Da-Faq! Madonna doing Bjork for a last ditch attempt of feeling relatable and relevant in her seventh studio album in 1998🤢🥴
The third song is a meme song and that threw me off. Peak late 90-s dance themes. It's fine.
3 songs in, knew the third. First two were certified bops.
Would have rated higher if instrumentals were better. Great vocals.
(69/100)
Good
Few good tracks, repetitive, dated, 90s. backing was uninteresting but madonna is a good singer
Can’t believe I’ve never listened to the full album before, loveeee
Highlights: Nothing Really Matter, Ray of Light, Skin, Sky Fits Heaven. In a nutshell: rave music, without the drugs. This was Madonna's most ambitious album to date. Mystical, layered, complex technopop. Easy to digest new age vibes. If three quarters of the songs were trimmed to under 4:30 then we'd have a tidier record here. Overall: 5/10
has some cool stuff in it
3.5
2.5
I actually have not heard this album in probably a good 10 years or more and I must say I think it aged better with me than I thought it would. The main thing I think I really like about this album is that she uses the Techno and electronica more is a simple basis for the background. It's not just musical motifs running over and over, and they're behind some well-written songs. The album starts off incredibly strong with "Substitute for Love", "Swim" and the title track. And others that really drew me is "Nothing Really Matters", "Sky Fits Heaven" & "Frozen" which I like to a lesser extent but I think really shows a great marriage between the Techno World and straight pop songs. Too deep Cuts I was really impressed with were "Shanti/Ashtangi", which I kind of actually enjoyed the overall spiritual feel of the music that went along with her Kabbalah teachings, and "Mer Girl" which is a strangely morbid song for her and I think she actually did it well I'm actually not used to her going that dark. It almost makes me wonder what it would sound like if she did an entire album that way. There are a few songs in there that come more to the electronica side than I really get into but I don't think it pulls away from the overall feel of the album. 8.75
A few really good songs, the rest ismiddle of the road. 3.5 stara
More than any other Madonna album, it sounds like an album -- a singular creative vision. William Orbit is a really interesting fit for her and it ends up kind of being her coolest album since he debut. It's a bit long and some of the tracks don't quite work for me, but there's some of her best stuff here -- "Drowned World/Substitute for Love", "Swim", "Frozen", "The Power of Goodbye", and the title track are all really good. 4 stars
2.5
Trancey dancey, hippie dippie Kabbalah klaptrap. Ray Of Light the title song is ok I guess but the rest of it is more like Ray Of Rubbish!
Sounded nice but was long and made me feel sleepy. High 2z
Very similar to the other Madonna album we just had. Why the fuck does Madonna get two albums that sound the same released two years apart but we can’t have both homework and discovery? Dude who made this list is actually geeked
Madonna’s Ray of Light has a reputation as The Great Reinvention, a forward-looking electronic pivot that supposedly reset her artistic compass in the late 90s. Listening now, it’s easier to hear the ambition than the impact. The production is sleek, global-club-ready, and unmistakably tied to its era; you can practically feel the glow sticks and hear the lingering echoes of big-room trance. It’s polished, confident, and perfectly engineered for the kind of nightlife where you shout-sing your feelings at 1 a.m. on a sticky dance floor. But stacked against her earlier work, the emotional core is thinner. It doesn’t have the melodic punch of her prime, nor the raw pop instincts that made her a generational force. The record aims for transcendence but often lands closer to “pleasant vibe,” which is fine—just not the kind of thing that defines a career. Still, there are flashes of something deeper: moments where the electronics, the vocals, and the shift in attitude click. It’s a thoughtful and well-executed reinvention, even if it doesn’t reach the highs of the records that made Madonna Madonna. A solid listen, and a respectable artistic turn—but not peak-era material.
1.77
Giving generic rating. I just can't.
Very repetitive techno music.
It's the Madonna version of Massive Attack. Frozen has been stuck in my head for days. "mmm mmm mmm If I could melt your heart..."
Hadn't really listened to much of her stuff besides the main radio plays: this was better than I'd expected. A good voice, well arranged.
Liked this more than I thought I would...
3/5
It s an out and out pop album. It is no Like a Prayer but it starts off well with the first track up until Ray of Light, which was a was a massive hit at the time, but then rest goes into this like synth pop rubbish. The only real positive I can give it, is that it is well produced. If simple pop is your thing, then I am sure it is a good listen, but even the pop is not great. There are better pop albums from that same time that are far superior to this. 2.5 stars
Strange… you know how some albums from your youth don’t hold up when you go back and listen years later? I actually enjoyed this one MORE now than I did at the time! Madonna in her enlightened spiritual stage was actually pretty interesting.
As a fan of 90s dance music, I loved this album. Madonna shows us exactly why she stayed relevant for so long in an ever changing pop scene. The ethereal vocals, high energy beat, and soulful lyrics make each song a treasure. Vibes of pain and longing mixed with hopefulness hit you right in the heart. A truly wonderful album and definitely worth your time.
wahrscheinlich das album der neunziger! toller sound!
Ja die Madonna. Eher nicht meins aber diese Platte gehört zu den besseren.
Great pop album, dont get all the hate for it, which is probably for the wrong reason. It was quite experimental at the time and i like how she stepped away from the more simple hits in earlier albums. 4.5 stars
Madonna went in a completely new direction with this one. Another banger CD my mum would’ve cranked in the family SUV in the mid 2000s.
Ray of Light is decent, the rest of the album less so. 90's Madonna no thanks
Meh, it was ok. Ray of Light had some nostalgia. The rest was fine in the background, but nothing I want to seek out in the future.
I wasn't expecting this at all, but I've got to say, it's excellent. An intriguing fusion of 90s euro-trance, trip hop and downtempo; it's clearly ushering in influences from the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead, Culture Beat, Goldie, Björk, Ace of Base etc. but it somehow manages to blend all of them into something unique and thoroughly engaging. One of my all time favourite bands in The Gathering released "How to Measure a Planet" during the same year, where despite the album's generally more prog rock-oriented leanings, Ray of Light surely must have been on their radar to inspire their shift in direction towards similar forms of electronic which are showcased here. There is a mystical, even spiritual thread running through a fair portion of the album, most pronounced in a track such as "Shanti / Ashtangi", with drips and drabs of Middle Eastern instrumentation on a track such as "Skin". The album also has a very personal feel to it, with themes ranging from the birth of Madonna's daughter and of struggles such as heartbreak, but delivered in a more sophisticated manner than your typical pop fare. I can't believe that a Madonna album has been one of my favourite discoveries along this process so far, but here we are. It's going to be purchased.
Did not expect that at all from a Madonna album. I expected Taylor Swift-esque stuff but instead got Bjork-esque. Not my usual cup of tea, but not bad overall.
Much alike the last one, which was a similar era of her career, its for sure carried by the production but damn it is great production. I love the elements of trip hop and jungle with the sampled drum breaks. and the glitchy synths are also great. I definitely think the slightly more abstract ones are better, rather than the more straightforward dance ones, like the ray of light song. I feel like she was inspired by a bunch of people, I'm pretty sure I once read that she tried to work with Aphex Twin, maybe that was on this. Parts also feel heavily Bjork-inspired, which I feel like are the best bits. I feel like the lyrics are quite dire though, alike the last one I don't think she really has anything to say at all. I think if the production wasn't so good, it would be totally dreadful. This is probably just as good if not a bit better than the last one but its too long. Favourite songs: drowned world/substitute for love, swim, candy perfume girl, skin, probably some more I missed. Overall around 6/10
I thought I'd like this more than I did
Madge does disco .not very well
No es para mi
I am by no means a Madonna fan but this was a surprisingly pleasant listen. The well-known songs are better than I remember and the others fit well.
The title track is great and the mix of electronica and pop was obviously very influential. But this style of artificial electronic synth and beats sounds cold and sterile to me and is at odds with her emotional singing. I do like the mix of influences across the track list though.
this was good! knew a couple of songs on it. a breath of fresh air really as i hadn't really listened to her in the past. i liked her!
Dance beat with a trance like beat perfect dance club rhythm
I didn't expect much from late 90s era Madonna and it met my extremely low expectations. Some good beats here and there that are reminiscent of the time period. The title track is a bop and sticks out like a sore thumb in a sea of mediocrity. I know she has her highlights but this ain't it.
I didn't think I'd like Madonna album - I did like Madonna album, hooray for progress and growth this is good. It was a bit long, but I'd merrily re-listen.
26 years on it still manages to sound totally unique. It's like a journey through a dreamy, chrome-covered utopia from a distance future.
Gutes Madonna Album mit „Frozen“ und „City of light“.
I managed to make it 915 albums into this project before I got my first Madonna album, and so far, her work has been a mixed bag to me. I gave Music 2 stars, but Like a Prayer was an absolute banger, and I gave it five stars. I think I only know the title track off of this, so I’m not really sure what the rest of the album is going to sound like. As long as it’s far off from what Music was like, I think I might wind up liking this. Ray of Light wasn’t in the same ballpark as Like A Prayer, but thankfully it was still better than Music. I’m definitely more partial to Madonna’s pop hits from the eighties and early nineties, but it was still cool to listen to this, just to hear what else she’s capable of doing. I thought Ray of Light was well produced, and I liked that each song brought something different to the table in terms of sound. For someone who’s not an electronica artist, I think it shows Madonna’s talent that she was able to create an album with so much variation. When it comes to the lyrics though, I just don’t care about Madonna’s ‘spiritual journey’ with Kabbalah. What a terrible time that was in the late nineties, when every celebrity was dabbling with Kabbalah. As much as I like Madonna as an artist, I think she’s a bit of a narcist, so this album’s lyrics feel like a late career rebrand disguised as a spiritual awakening. P.T. Barnum would be proud though. While this album does have a few excellent songs on it, most of it is just fine, and only “Shanti/Ashtangi” was truly putrid. “Drowned World/Substitute For Love” was a great opening track, and it did a great job of establishing where this album was going to go musically. The guitar, bass, percussion, and vocals all sounded really good, and I wasn’t expecting something so gentle. “Ray of Light” is excellent as well. I love how it maintains the overall gentle sound of the album, but it still has a truly dance-worthy sound to it. The beats are never overpowering, but they do a great job of driving the sound of the song. I really liked that piano melody on “Sky Fits Heaven” as well. This song didn’t have the same dance music sound as the title track, but it was still really beautiful. “Frozen” was excellent as well, and possibly my favorite song on the album. It’s a beautiful song, and every musical element comes together really well. The softer sound was really haunting, and even with a pretty long run time, every second of it was worth listening to. I loved the atmosphere that “Frozen” created, and “The Power of Good-Bye” was an excellent follow-up to it, keeping that same sense of atmosphere. From there though, the album mostly limped along to the finish line. I think I would have enjoyed this album a bit more had it shaved off three songs or so. I wasn’t wowed by this, but it made for a pretty enjoyable listen.
Album seems self-indulgent. Most of the instrumentation sounds synthetic. Not a fan.
Frozen brings it back
I blame Gustavo Cerati for getting me into this exact flavor of electronic music. It's very relaxed, but still has some nice energy to it. Sometimes the sound of the album starts to feel pretty similar, though.
it's madonna, no surprises here.
Didn't know any outside of the (awesome) title track and Frozen (which is also amazing). The rest is OK, I don't think I'll listen to this one again specifically, but I'm still glad I did.
I'm not even sure I would consider this Madonna's best album, so it's hard for me to say it's a great album. I'm starting to see patterns in how the original author decided which albums to put on the list and which not to put, and I feel (pun intended) that this was added in an effort to recognize how electro music made its way into more mainstream popular albums. Sure, I'll take it, but this is the late 90's, so it doesn't feel as important to note. Overall, not bad, but not amazing either. Pretty mid.
Something interesting but still not good
Not a Madonna fan
The trip-hop/shoegazey/electronic vibes really work for me here. Music is cool, I like Madonna's vocals. Sweet album!
Well done generic pop garbage with Madonna's name on it.
Certainly the best of Madonna. Nice and unexpected surprise, some really good trip hop production but also with some fillers. If only it was sung by someone with a better voice.
Over under 1 kilo of coke used to make this album
- Ist ein sehr spezieller Sound - Der Gesang ist irgendwie recht ruhig, aber im Hintergrund und mit der Melodie geht sehr viel ab 😂 Topsong: Ray of Light
Like all the Madonna projects we’ve had on here so far, this one is very respectable and falls just short of something I’d call fantastic. Even if the production on this one is right in my wheelhouse. “Swim” has one of many great vocal refrains, with the ‘we can’t carry the sins on our back’ line. “Ray Of Light” has an even better hook thats made this song worth its popularity. “Sky Fits Heaven”, more like This Song Fits Me with that late 90’s 4 on the floor kick turning this into a soft trance anthem. “Shanti / Ashtangi” gave me some questions I need answered. Is this respectful and chill in eastern culture? So many artists use the Indian word for peace and do their ommmm Shantiiii’s. I really liked how Zedd did it in his most recent album. But is this all good? I genuinely don’t know. This original version of “Frozen” is absolutely wonderful with its breakbeats and mellow yet dramatic atmosphere. It unfortunately escapes me, but somewhere there’s a really good remix or lift of this vocal thats more club-oriented. Lastly, “Little Star” is a sweet song clearly meant for her child, and the album probably shoulda stopped here. I felt like “Mer Girl” was exactly when I started to tune out. For my tastes personally this is a 4/5, William Orbit did a killer job on the production, Madonna’s voice is as good as ever. But maybe there’s a bit of meandering here and there. It’s a project that feels a bit stuck between needing to make sure it holds onto its pop essence while experimenting with these other sounds of trip-hop, trance, and eastern music. It isn’t a perfect marriage of the two in totality, but it’s solid over all. 3/5? 4/5? Tough call.
Not bad
This sounds weirdly glossy and plastic. The pumping synthetic beats and mild electronica makes this sound like background music in a late 90s sci-fi TV series about a group of women hackers or something. It sounds like a product made to fill time as opposed to being actual heartfelt art. Also all these tracks are way too long. If they were the classic 3-minute pop song I could understand, or maybe if they were extended, developed tracks I could understand, but as it is they all pootle around for twice as long as necessary and overstay their welcomes. Shanti / Ashtangi was by far the most interesting track.
What an absolute chore of an album to sit through
8/10…art pop / dance pop
Prelude to the new millennium 3/5
Here's Madonna entering middle age and, for the first time, seeming aware of time’s passing. The album’s sub-Debut electronica and spiritual searching marked a turn inward after decades of provocation and reinvention. Earlier incarnations - the streetwise provocateur of Like a Virgin, the art-house sensualist of Erotica, the stylish ironist of Vogue - are still cool now precisely because they were anchored in irony, control, and surface. Ray of Light, by contrast, tries to sincerely make Kabbalah cool and misses. It is the first Madonna persona that feels dated not because it failed necessarily, but because it was genuinely felt: a woman approaching forty seeking transcendence in yoga, motherhood, and ambient soundscapes. Fair play to her. Perhaps it’s the middle-brow of it all, perhaps it’s the late-90s, perhaps it’s the title of the first song, but it feels faintly Ballardian: the ego dissolving into a vast, flooded psyche. Like J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World, Madonna’s vision is one of submersion — fame and identity melting into dream, light, and liquid. The ecological apocalypse in Ballard’s novel becomes, in Madonna’s hands, a personal one: the collapse of celebrity into humanity, into herself. Yet the mix of not quite contemporary electronics and very of the time mysticism now feels tethered to the self-conscious spirituality of the late 1990s. That’s Ballardian too - the datedness of the future. At the time, Madonna was able to coast on the coolness of uncoolness or to elevate the uncool with the residual cool she had. But the Sex and the City style euphoria of Ray of Light now seems as out of touch as Sex and the City. Of course, the opposite of a Drowned World is a frozen one and Frozen remains the best track here. 2 For me, here is as dull an album as almost any we have listened to so far. Madonna is an unremarkable singer but even a good singer would struggle to hold a listener’s attention with the pedestrian melodies on offer. Aside from the title track and maybe Frozen, both of them a couple of minutes longer than they deserve to be, this was absolutely brain-numbing. 1.5/5
Madge going dross go on gal
#156/1001. My favourite Madonna album, easily. For me everything that came after is her trying to reach this album mixed with trying to reach the 80s mixed with trying not to get old. All the electronics start sounding the same, a bit too new agey - for me the album is not really experimental - unless of course if you compare it to her previous work or what was happening at the top ten at the time. But yes, we did have electronica artists in the mainstream, and also artists like Björk and Beck creating big hits mixing electronics, pop sensibility and weird shit. Or artists like Prince -while not heavily using electronics - still constantly redefined what a pop song / hot 100 hit might sound like. But the beauty and genius of Madonna and Orbit in this album is that you mix a quite a simple song and melody and layer electronics, instruments and all droning and circling around the main melody, creating a sound which is meditative, easy to approach, interesting and at times instant dance floor classics.
2.3 I'm sorry, but her magnum opus? It was pretty shit. It felt like Madonna staying to relevant by copying Bjork but failing to understand where the magic behind Bjorn lies. 64 minutes is extremely unnecessary. Opener and closer are fine, but the middle is so bloated full of ideas that go out like a damp squib.
I was previously familiar with Madonna but not this particular album. This album surprised me. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this is quite a departure from her more pop-oriented material I knew previously. There are a lot of ambient and electronic elements that I found pretty enjoyable. While the album did seem awfully long, I would listen to it again.
Must have been a crazy time in her life.
Way, way too long and just not that good.
Well... damn. This album is so good and it was such a huge departure for her. I didn't appreciate it enough when it came out but I can sure appreciate it now. 5 stars. I want to buy this on vinyl.
I think Madonna is a much better entertainer than musician. I'm no fanboy, and I don't think any of her music is great. But this album was very influential and definitely deserves to be on a list of albums to listen to. Credit goes more to William Orbit (the producer) than to Madonna, but regardless, the result was important. I see where another reviewer wrote, “These songs sound like a hundred other songs that came out around this time—there’s nothing really innovative or different about it.” This couldn’t be much further from the truth. I’ll grant that the sound had been explored by others, but it was mostly underground. According to Wikipedia: Ray of Light has been credited with bringing electronica into global pop culture. The Los Angeles Times noted that “aside from occasional breakthroughs such as Fatboy Slim, electronica wasn’t totally mainstream fare when Madonna released Ray of Light.” Until the album brought the genre to the top of the charts, “techno and electronica had, for years, been the music played at so-called raves, hugely popular, illegal underground parties taking place in abandoned warehouses and deserted areas on the outskirts of towns all around the world.” AllMusic editor Liana Jonas stated that the album’s title track “brought mainstream attention to electronica, which ascended from its underground status to wild popularity in the early 21st century.” The Observer’s Daryl Deino called Ray of Light “a risk-taking album that helped define mainstream electronic dance music.” In terms of influence, this album was significant. Most of that credit goes to William Orbit, but Madonna still had to choose to work with him. Musically, I’d still only give this three stars, but to suggest that “these songs sound like a hundred other [hit] songs that came out around this time” is just wrong.
it's nice!
Honestly some decent soft pop.