Reviews (page 7 of 8)
I do appreciate Madonna trying to hamfist her way into any and every genre to varying levels of success. This is a miss, the weird kinda-electronica doesnt quite match her voice, also the lyrics ring pretty hollow and overall its just boring.
2 stars because the music video for Ray of Light is pretty cool. Shoutout the Kabbalah!
Music without point or purpose
Just like I remember it. Probably a little over produced and over hyped....just like the original Madonna.
boring
Could have good songs on this one, probably Madonna’s last decent album, do you need to listen to it before you die? I don’t think so.
i’m in love with the power of goodbye but so many of these songs would just benefit from being shorter. i think almost all of them are over 5 minutes and are slow especially in the second half, nothing to hold my attention to. First half though, if i heard that in the club id definitely be grinding on someone so it really wasn’t all that bad. top 3: the power of goodbye, sky fits heaven, drowned world / substitute for love
Looking back on 90' pop-electronica is like looking back on chrome from sci fi in the 50's/60's. You understand why they might have thought that was the future at the time but know also why it didn't pan out. You are also happy it didn't. The best way I can describe this album is boring, literally the opposite of what Madonna represents within pop culture. Ray of Light was the only song that stood out, it was also the only song I knew coming in and i now see why. I hope we get another Madonna album because this one wasn't it.
There was like one song i liked. It was too slow and long for me to stay interested when the songs never reached heights worth caring for. Her voice is good and I can appreciate not sticking to her earlier styles but this just wasn't it
I suppose that the restraint, song lengths (shortest being 4:27, with an average song length of over 5 minutes), and the general production style (Middle Eastern sounds, and the general electronic instrumentations, etc.) served as some sort of Artistic Statement™ for Madonna, at the height of her popularity. I can only shrug at this though, because the restraint mostly results in a flatness, and, consequently, in the feeling that the songs are overlong, given that they never build up towards any sort of cathartic climax or culmination (individually or collectively). I like Frozen and The Power of Good-Bye well enough (particularly Frozen) but for the most part the album just sounds like it's doing a variation on the same boring song that it starts out with.
This has some crazy electronic sounds going on in the background which I did not expect at all. I looked back at my last review of Madonna and this one is pretty much the exact same. It started out pretty hot but then faded off terribly. Candy Perfume Girl and Skin both stunk and the fact they were back to back was not good. The singing in Little Star annoyed the hell out of me. This one went from a 3 to a 2 really quickly because they last few songs were just awful.
Lentíiiiisimo. Un 2.
I appreciate what she was trying to do but at least on my first listen this was not executed well. The electronic stuff is too soft and the lyrics are too corny and the album is way too long. High 2.
Big fan of this in the day. Doesn’t really stand the test of time.
I don't think trip hop is for Madonna
40. Years. Old.
I actually bought this when it came out. Cant for the life of me figure out why I did, possibly some form of psychological trauma manifesting as audio self injurious behaviour.
Thoughts before listening: Late 90s Madonna with an attempt to modernize her sound with more techno inspired musical style and introspective lyrics. The song "Ray of Light" is an all time great pop song, and in general I'll probably like this album more than I would one of her earlier releases. Review: This came out at the height of my music listening days and I'm kind of surprised by how much I recognize. Nothing quite rises to the highs of the title track, but this is fine. I will say though that the length is a little much at over an hour. These songs all kind of blend together as they utilize very similar beats throughout, and I found myself getting bored. I didn't really like this style of music 25 years ago and I don't really love it now either. 2-stars
A few nice pop hits but too much electro
ouch that's pop and it sucks 2 stars
Madonna albums after 1992 are very mediocre in comparison to her earlier albums! I'm not too sure why this album even made the list Another album where I find myself asking, \"why do the songs have to be this long?!?\"
Eu entendo a fama, mas desgostei muito desse popzinho sem sal
A bit insipid and insignificant . A few oldies are a bit better
It sounds VERY 90s put a beat on something and call it a pop song. Lead single is still a banger. 2.5.
Liked the Y2K sound, but the cheesy faux-spiritual lyrics and overly dramatic orchestral openings to every song got to me by midpoint. All the songs sound the same.
solid album with good and valid songs. some club disco songs that i liked less also stretched and without much cointent imo. 2.5/5.0 ive enjoyed it but theres a few skippable songs for me personally
So far I am not digging this because all of the songs sound the same. Also, I am scared of albums that are this long.
Oh this is a rather dull album.
I guess William Orbit felt he needed to include her singing
Ok until Madonna sings.
I thought this was going to be my first listen. However, I soon realized I have actually listened to this album a ton... My mom used to have this CD and play it in the car when I was very young. It was pretty cool to teleport back to 20+ years ago Once that wore off, I found this incredibly boring... sorry mom :(
I feel like people just pat this one on the back for Madonna doing something different. If it wasn’t her name attached and was someone’s debut I doubt there’s nearly as much acclaim. The electronic elements were cool at the start but even they couldn’t save this album and didn’t sound that different throughout. If that is all that’s special about this album, why not just choose an electronic album that is actually innovative and sounds good from the same time period? I hate these pop albums during the height of CDs that carry on far too long. Rating: 1.8
Another album I wanted to like but just can not do it. There are some highlights like finding the title track isn't just sung by Peter Griffin after a Red Bull. But most of the album just really drags and it isn't what I would listen to Madonna for. This is apparently her highest rated album amongst music critics but not for me. It isn't bad enough for a 1 star but I can't give it more then 2 as I never see myself going back to this. Stand out songs Ray of Light Nothing Really Matters Frozen
The album isn't so great but Madonna is. It feels like a slog toward the end but those first three numbers, I kinda felt like I'd been missing something. But then I remembered how much everyone wanted dance music in the late 90s and I can't get with that. Ray of Light is a strong song.
Madonna goes electronica, with predictably underwhelming results. What's the fascination with her anyway? A few good songs and a mediocre voice have sustained a remarkably successful career. Imagine burning a copy of this on CD-ROM back in 1998 - a very special and powerful feeling, doubtless. 'Shanti / Ashtangi' is cringeworthy, I have a strong feeling of secondhand embarrassment for all involved. I feel tainted for merely listening.
Ik heb het geprobeerd maar sorry, niet voor mij dit.
Horrible.
Decent electronic pop... but definitely not my jam
2.5
Instrumentals are cool and vibes are good but this album is fine
Why?
This was just alright nothing to write home about.
She has a good voice, but most of this was really boring. There were some tracks that the vocals just didn't seem to go with the music. I can't see how anyone would say they really liked any of these songs. 2/5
A while back I had a Britney Spears album come up and said that my perception of 90s pop albums was that they have a couple of strong singles and then all filler. I was surprised Spears’ wasn’t like that. This one lives up to my assumption. It’s over an hour long and 80% of it felt like generic club beats. Giving it an extra star to differentiate from Spears though, because at least listening to this one doesn’t feel kind of criminal or something.
I liked the album more than I thought I would. The single, Ray of Light, still grates on my nerves.
Mir zu Electric-Musik-Style: Das können andere besser.
I know Madonna is a major icon to so many people, but this album was just a snoozefest for me. That's not to say I don't appreciate her works, this album was just a dud for me.
I appreciate it more than I like listening to it. The genre pivot / reinvention. Definite vibes of the late 90s/ matrix era. Sounds/ songs that have been buried deep within my brain that I recognize but would never pick out.
Bah, two okay songs and a lot of pretty average stuff.
Couple good songs (leadoff and title tracks), or at least parts of the songs were kinda cool. The rest is too over-produced for my taste.
Quite generic new age ambient. The title track for example is driven by tactless pulsing synth lines that make the song a generally unpleasant experience. Its aged badly and all sounds quite cheesy, but I think there are some decent undercurrents here - you can hear the influence for instance on All Saints' Pure Shores. Skin is intense. We've gone from a beach in Thailand to a Berlin rave. Nothing Really Matters tries to pull us back to SE Asia, but Sky Fits Heaven wants to stay in the cloob. Frozen also sounds so much like Pure Shores - they were really riffing from this album. Fave Tracks: Little Star 2.4/5
It’s an ok album
Hmm not sure on this one. Yet another album I’ve never heard all the way through. Half of it was wannabe ‘dance music’ vibes and she must have made this when she was in one of her cultural appropriation phases and joined Kabbala or whatever it was. Not my fave.
I like poppier, more upbeat Madonna, and I remember Ray Of Light being ever present on MTV when it first came out. This is atmospheric and basic electronica - easy to use as background music at work. Meh.
Never liked Madonna. Ever. This was big at the time, but aged very poorly.
I was bored with this album when it was released but can see how others loved it.
This is lift music for people who think they are better than lift music. Boring, bland, beige album, although Ray of Light is an absolute cracker, and saves the album from being one star.
Joogatunnit ovat saaneet artistin valitsemaan liian seesteisen, tasaisesti rullaavan soundin, ja levyn sävelletyistä elementeistä olisi voinut koostaa parempia kappaleita. Nothing Really Matters iskee oikeaan paikkaan, ja esimerkiksi Skin on yllättävällä tavalla onnistunut. Mutta valitettavasti niidenkin tulisi olla puolitoista minuuttia lyhyempiä kuin Madonnan hengellinen vakaumus näyttää vaatineen.
2/5. Madonna definitely has a powerful and rich singing voice, but I’m just baffled at her love for whatever alternate language she has become so fond of. It’s just flat out strange to me. Also, I thought every song was just so soft and really masked her singing voice at times.
66 minutes of boring self indulgence. Released to universal acclaim? They can keep it.
Każdy utwór trochę za długi
Poop
Long drawn out pop tracks meet diet techno. No thanks. Title track was OK, but there were some real painful ones in here including 11 straight minutes of the "Candy Perfume Girl" and "Skin" back to back.
Vergane glorie, die Madonna! Ze was ooit natuurlijk briljant, maar te veel in haarzelf gaan geloven.
Frozen vind ik nog wel een mooi liedje, maar de rest is echt niet te pruimen
I recognized 1-2 songs from the album. I liked the background music / production, and some of the styles included (e.g. some industrial sounds, some Indian, etc). But I didn't really get into the vocals or the songs in general.
Bit different from what I was expecting but definitely not my cup of tea.
I wrote a review on this last night, but fell asleep before posting because it bored me to death. Just Madonna trying too hard to stay relevant and Frozen is the only song remotely worth listening to. 2/5
This album was kind of hard to get thru. Only a couple tracks seem like the music and the vocals are meant to be together while the rest of the tracks seem like the two are trying to be dominant over each other. I’ve never thought that Madonna had a great voice, (passable, maybe even good, but definitely not great), but her producers and sound engineers in prior albums were keen on how to lay her voice onto the track which is why she had some iconic albums along with her sex appeal, but this album unfortunately does not do it for me. 2
Just not interesting
Madonna?
Best Song: Ray Of Light. Always nice when the titular song is the best song on the album. Worst Song: The Power of Good-Bye. Not only are the lyrics painfully cheesy, she's not even singing them with particular conviction. Overall: Not unpleasant, but it feels too slick and over-produced. Lacking any soul, it ends up just being a boring run through some run-of-the-mill 90s pop. And I don't care if she designed the mill; it's still boring.
Surprised this is on here. Madonna has some great albums but this is a self-indulgent borefest.
Immaculately crafted clean, brand-new, gleaming, perfectly packaged pop music - and absolutely bland and boring.
not my jam
It's not for me. It's like trip hop but without any interesting or creative elements
Exceptionally boring. Not my kind of music at all
Disappointing
Frozen is an absolute tune. Rest of it is generally very sub par euro pop/dance
Ray of shite 👍🏾
I was expecting more from the so called “Queen of Pop”. This is a very underwhelming album full of forgettable tracks that blend together into a boring mess. It has wonderful production and arrangements, but everything else is just so bland, the lyrics, melodies, writing. Even the vocal performances were unimpressive. Unimpressed. 2/5
2*
Este estaba en la colección del Geny. Para mí le sobra dance y le falta pop. 2.5.
I was pleasantly surprised when listening to Like A Prayer a few months ago. I never would has considered myself a Madonna fan so that was unexpected, and it leaves me feeling quite optimistic about today’s album. There are a few songs I recognised the names of, so let’s see if the whole album sounds good too! Songs I already knew: Ray Of Light, Frozen Favourites: Ray Of Light, Frozen I’ll be quite blunt with this and say I felt really underwhelmed. The above mentioned tracks stand out as significantly catchier and generally better than all other tracks, which generally feel like filler. In my opinion, every song here except from Ray Of Light and Frozen is completely skippable and forgettable, which is a shame because those two are pop classics.
Makes me sleepy.
Madonna doesn't know who she is at 80 and she really hopes you'll like her music. 🤡 It will break her heart if you don't. 💔 Skin
I really enjoyed Beautiful Stranger which came out around the same time as this album so was looking forward to this. But all the blips and bleeps can't hide the fact she hasn't really got anything to say that's worth hearing. Maybe I just expected too much.
Not really for me but enjoyed it far more than I had expected to
I prefer Madonna's earlier work, although Ray Of Light is listenable enough, it feels more filler than killer. 2.5
I don't think anyone could make something sound more 90s if they tried. This album is so dated and just not good. The songs on here really dragged on.
This is mom music and not the good kind. The kind that you had to listen to on the way back from school after a bad day. Pretty boring overall.
One of those albums where it was like “I guess it’s cool I know what a Madonna album sounds like now.” Other than that it had some interesting moments in the beats and the singing was definitely its own style but I was waiting for this to end. I can see why people would fw this and see the dance beats as a cool change but wasn’t for me.
her best record since Like a prayer
lyrics are kinda tacky
Eh aika tämmönen tyypillisen tylsä nollari-pop-levy. En ihan tajua arvoa. 2/5.
Tracks 1-2 and 4-8 are quite weak. The final track, track 9 is pretty nice with outstanding vocals by Madonna and great accompanying strings. Track 3 is excellent and worthy of being the title track.
All of these songs sound the same and they’re boring.
I mean, okay I guess? But hardly significant, and a weird choice in Madonna's catalogue. Obviously also too long.
A William Orbit album with Madonna guesting. She sounds like she's having fun on the title track. The rest, less so.
Didn't particularly enjoy this album. Rather bland and have never rated Madonna as that great a singer. Not for me
Heard it before?: No Enjoy it?: Yeah, lovely and blissful Favourite song: Track 3 - Ray of Light
2.5
It's not bad, it's just depressingly mediocre. Nothing that hasn't been better by less popular musicians
Didn't love this. Feels contrived and forced to me. There are some high points, but generally left me cold.
Weird album, corny lyrics and very 90s-esque dramatic beats. Feel like the list has been heavy on 90s pop that's pretty mid
first 2 songs i was giving this thing a 1. then ray of light came on. songs a bop. rest of album is trash but get a 2 bc that song
No emotions, no stars.
Good album to sleep to
The music is well made with very nice details in it, but... this album try so bad to Massive Attack and to fit the 90s downtempo vibe that it became a little annoying along the ride, especially with its 1h length. Candy Perfume Girl and Skin are so bad it hurts, it would have fit very well in a 90s Dove soap advertising on television. It might be an important album in Madonna's career, but it's not for me.
Aged like milk 2 I hate this kind of music Wait... "Skin" is nostalgic af. Reminds me of Spectrobes. That game didn't age well either, but I still love it so much. "Frozen" Ok this is pretty ok. 3 Music like this from the late 90s and early 2000s has such a repulsive and disusgting feel to it that I can't put my finger on. Somehow, just, ew.
Some shiny bits amidst the dull moments. Top song: ray of light
A whole hour long?! I have barely ever listened to Madonna, but this ain’t it. The song are boring, to electrical, too much of the same beat over the whole song and they are too long.
Not my thing
Madonna heeft mooie muziek, maar dit album is in mijn ogen niet het beste album. Het heeft leuke rustige muziek die zeker goed klinkt. Het album heeft wel enkele hits voortgebracht, maar die hits klinken beter dan de album versies. Ik zou het album dan ook niet aanbevelen. **
Eccentric garbage
Best: Ray of Light Worst: Little Star
I found it quite boring to be perfectly honest 2/5
I wasn’t a huge fan of this album when it came out, and time has not worked its magic to change that. Next time you listen to it, imagine her singing without the music… And that’s not to say she hasn’t got an amazing voice, she has, just not on this album.
Les albums de trip-hop ne seront plus commentés.
La verdad q este "superpop" zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 4/10
Not my thing
I like Frozen and The Power of Goodbye but the rest of the album wasn't for me.
The title track is a solid pop song. I didn't really hate this album but I was over it pretty quickly. I prefer her earlier material
This was such a muted, bland version of Madonna. The New Age-y, cultural appropriation-y style not only lent itself to no variety but also made her sound any other New Age 90s singer. And there was no reason this album should have been over an hour. The title track was the only song that had any impact...man, was this a disappointment!
Wow, this was a boring album. If this was all I had heard of Madonna, I would have said she wasn't good at all. Just not good.
I remember Ray of Light coming out on the radio and thinking it was bad. This whole album suffers from a sound of overproduction. Madonna of the 80s was so good and this just isn’t good.
The trip hop influenced instrumentation here is really cool actually. I'm just not a huge fan of the very poppy vocals and her lyrics. Also this album did NOT need to be over an hour long.
what fucking ever lol
This album is very much of the time. It's Madonna's attempt at reinventing herself for the time, but it mostly falls flat, with a couple of songs where she hits the mark.
I'm sure many Madonna fans will disagree, but I'm of the opinion that you could cut her career off at her 1990 single "Vogue" and not miss any of her essential tracks. Taken a step further, 1990's "The Immaculate Collection" is the perfect encapsulation of Madonna at her best, and fulfills all of my Madonna listening needs. There may be a smattering of post-'90 tracks that I enjoy, but I can't think of a single one I'd miss if it suddenly ceased to exist. In short, '80s Madonna is the best Madonna. Given that, it shouldn't be surprising that this gets a low rating from me. The title track is fine, and "Frozen" is fine, too, but not even William Orbit's intriguing house-influenced production gets me into the groove like her earlier stuff does.
I know Madonna but haven’t listened to Madonna other than the obvious hits that come on the radio, but as soon as I heard the first couple of songs, I knew that ‘Frozen’ was going to be on this album. Wasn’t terrible but did bore me a fair bit. Would have had it to ‘Beautiful Stranger’ if it was on this one but it wasn’t so that’s that.
An album I’ve never heard yet was very nostalgic. Frozen almost pushed it to 3 stars alone but that wouldn’t be fair. Belter song that thought.
Anyone who thought Madonna had “matured” with “Ray of Light” clearly hadn’t anticipated the state of her Instagram account by 2022. (If you haven’t seen it, stop what you’re doing and take a look. Solid as it is, this album might hit different.) “Ray of Light” is certainly a more sonically adventurous album than Madonna’s earlier work. It might be a little more refined, a little more cohesive, and a little more mature. But does this mean better, or does it just suck all the fun out that I’ve come to expect from a Madonna record? Much has been made of William Orbit’s production in the hype surrounding this album, and how it helped with the reinvention of Madonna. To an extent, this is true: there are some interesting production choices here which place the album more in the 90s EDM boom than the pop world. Things begin in a really promising fashion, with the enticing “Drowned World/Substitute for Love”. The build up to each chorus, layered with subtly shifting instrumentation and beats, really help to sell it. From there, “Swim” is a perfect follow-up: sensual, a little livelier, an emphasis on the spiritual. I was expecting a much more muted, moody record from these openers, so I was caught completely off guard by the album’s title track. “Ray of Light” is just that on an otherwise dark and stormy album- it comes in like a bolt and- remarkably- Madonna’s careering vocals sound wonderful in it. But for me, it’s also the peak of the album. This isn’t great for track 3 of 10, with plenty of longer, more meandering and less rewarding songs to come across the rest of it. I can’t see the appeal at all with “Frozen”, the lead single and one of Madonna’s most famous songs from this period. It feels stumbling around in search of a strong hook or lyric, lost in the haze of Orbit’s production. A good mood piece, perhaps, but hardly single material. “Skin”, “Little Star”, and many others besides, are just mediocre songs dressed up in cutting edge production that is fortunate enough to not have aged as badly as some of Madonna’s other material. That said, it’s “Shanti/Ashtangi” where things really go off the rails. Nobody asked for Madonna to do a whole song in Sanskrit with a vague Indian accent: it’s naive at best and wholesale cultural appropriation at worst. “The Power of Goodbye” is a little better, redeeming the back half with a solid vocal performance and one of the most outwardly emotional songs on the record. Then we end on “Mer-Girl”, which is dark, surreal, even admirable. It’s not exactly a show-stopper, but presumably she was opting for a more low key finish here. I’m very aware that the more extroverted songs grabbed me the most here, so perhaps this album is a more subtle beast or maybe I wasn’t in the right headspace to get into it. It’s certainly an interesting evolution, and these two stars may as well be split across the first three tracks.
Yeah, couple of good singles, lots of moody beats driven crap otherwise
Thought I'd be into this more than I was, seeing as I've heard it about 1000 times in my mum's car.
i generally really like it when pop artists go in a totally different direction, so i was quite disappointed that this fell so flat for me. madonna’s vocals are just uninteresting, and this feels like an album which was either ruined or salvaged in the edit. either way, it’s just not very good.
Some interesting sounds on here like the atmospheric dance stuff, but I just wasn’t into it for the most part.
Its far too long and laden with terrible poetry
I think a lot better artists get looked at more critical than someone like Madonna. She’s a singles star, her albums range from boring and too long to meh, could have been better. I could certainly have died before I heard this.
If I wanted to hear 90’s dance music, I’d just listen to BT.
Madonna. 👽. Didn't give it a proper listen. Didn't get engaged by a song and a half.
Not really my thing
Meh.
Has some good bits but songs are too long and ultimately pretty boring.
My god, out of all of madonna’s albums why would they give us this one
3 pretty good songs, but the rest just felt like forgettable background music to a CSI: Miami lab montage. Not unpleasant, but just not memorable at all.
Never been a huge fan of Madonna, and this clattering production hasn’t aged that well. Some if this is quite pleasant, but it’s no Hamburger Lady.
The songs didn't really work for me. I did like William Orbit's production though. I'd probably enjoy an instrumental version of this album as background music. Ray of Life is the exception which is a great pop song. I've given it an extra star for this track alone.
Erm I'm not sure I actually emjoyed this one that much - should I have done? Just wasn't my thing and found some of them super irritating. Maybe this wasn't the right thing for a dull work day
This is not a bad record, some fine moments! But compared to the rest of this list I feel I have to give a 2.
I really like Frozen (song), otherwise boring
In school, I was told that if you want to know what a Shakespeare sonnet was about, all you need to do is to read the last two lines. The songs in this album are the embodiment of that sentiment. Once you listen to the first couple minutes, you've listened to the entire song. I think that the good in this album is how complex the compositions are and her voice, but they're heavily outweighed by how the songs drag on and on. Favorite track: Nothing Really Matters
This is kind of a weird album. I've never heard an album from Madonna in its entirety, but there are a lot of songs that just seem off. This album seems to come from an odd time in Madonna's career, and there are other albums from this time period that I would rather listen to. Highlight: 5.
No idea why this Madonna album made the list
Ihan ok ja muistoja Viva/MTV/Jyrki-ajoilta heräsi. Ei kuitenkaan tajuntaan iskevä
A couple of good tracks. Certainly not something I would listed to on a regular basis. Plenty of forgettable ones too.
2/5 not one of her finest works
It's OK. There's a couple of really good tracks but I did get a bit bored as it went on.
91. Ray of Light - Madonna 13 tracks. I don't mind a bit of Madonna, in fact I quite like some of her early stuff, but this isn't a good album. It's not awful, but it's not far off. I bet even Madge doesn't like this album. 2/5
Vraiment pas mon style j'ai eu de la difficulté à l'écouter et ne me suis pas rendu à la fin. 1h12 pour cet album c'est trop pour 13 chansons.
Eh. Not my thing.
Meh.
Beetje saai album. De titelsong steekt met kop en schouders uit boven de rest van het album
1 or 2 bangers from an old banger
Didn't get all the way through. Too 90s for my taste.
When I started listening to this I thought it was going to be excellent, but became more and more disenfranchised as I worked my way through it. A handful of really great tracks, and plenty of tracks which were similar in sound but much weaker overall. I feel that getting rid of a few of the tracks, and shortening the length of some of the others, would have resulted in a much stronger album. I did really like some of the production and instrumentation (William Orbit's influence), but even that gets a bit monotonous as it's all pretty similar sounding. I think it's fair to say I was bored shitless by the time I got to the end. (2.3)
“Ray of Light” by Madonna (1998) Would it be shocking to say that techno-pop seems artificial? It sounds cool, but where’s the soul? But first let’s deal with the message of this novel collection of songs that beg to be taken seriously. The artist behind this album comes across like the girl in eighth grade who was pretty, but was dismissed by everyone because she was conceited. With lyrics that are often inane (“There's no greater power than the power of good-bye”) and internally contradictory (“Let your judgments go, that’s how our future should be”) she reveals an intensity that lacks humility. The multiple themes are uniformly self absorbed and completely uncompelling. How else does one treat a complaint such as “I had so many lovers who settled for the thrill of basking in my spotlight”? How does a mere mortal relate to such a sadness? Or how about this one: “the students rape their teachers . . . while the churches burn their preachers”? As a burned preacher, I take serious umbrage with that one. I think the message can all be summed up in this truly brilliant line: “Why do all the things I say sound like the stupid things I've said before?” Thank you. We hear on this album some genuinely attractive melodies, delivered with confidence and colored with elaborate if overly artificial electronic pop arrangements. So far so somewhat good. But they are laid down with a stunted creativity that sounds as though her paid collaborators are reluctant to offend her. The result is gimmicky. Whatever power there is in her pleasant enough voice is frequently smothered by dance floor whiz-bang sounds. She has nice control in the lower part of her range (less so upstairs), but it’s often supplanted by the too-heavy effects. This, along with some irritatingly idiosyncratic diphthongs (e.g., “er” sounds like “ewer” and “ai” sounds like “aeeyai”), results in her demotion to the second tier among female vocalists. The bass lines frequently have too much gain and sustain, muddying the sound and at times even clouding the chord changes. It would be more danceable if it were crisper. The exaggerated techno environment puts one the mood for cardio, not dance. Twenty years after its release feel like fifty. The lyrics and melody of “Little Star” are very good—a simple lullaby, beautiful even. Why did it have to be spiced up with heavy traffic techno gizmos? After all, she’s the one who complains (in “Mer Girl”) about “my daughter that never sleeps”. No wonder. Turn down the Moog, Mommy. There are nice eastern influences in some of the compositions and arrangements, but it would have more authentically produced with actual eastern instruments and musicians. Maybe her cultural appropriation budget was limited. I think she either misspelled or mispronounced Vunde gurunam caranaravinde Sandarsita-svatma-sukhavabodhe Nihsreyase jangalikayamane. Change my mind. 2/5
I like this album, particularly Drowned World / Substitute for Love and Swim. I also like the upbeat dance music. Not very consistent throughout.
I have never been a Madonna fan and this album didn’t change that. Critics cite this as the greatest pop album ever? I don’t get it. It was over an hour of sameness with very little to break it up. I’m being generous to give it a 2.
Like most of her albums… they just bang on. Couple of good singles and that’s it. Defo greatest hits kinda artist!
Meh. Didn't really give this one a fair listen. All I really noticed was her voice which sounded great.
Low vibration tonal decency with some rocky guitar licks. Dancy popy too. A bit of yawner in the grand scheme of Madonna. Might be her worst album.
Not really my thing
Lacklustre
Didn't think pop could be so drab. Best track: Ray of Light
Not my favourite iteration of Madonna, a bit too trippy hippy for me! This was Kabalah Madonna and it shows. Best song The Power of Goodbye and Frozen.
Very pop, which isn't so bad, but I don't think I'd come back to this album
Pretty boring. Didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would though. Gave up about track 10
Levyn alussa fiilis oli ihan okei, mutta mitä pidemmälle kuunteli, sitä enemmän alkoi tylsistyttää. Ray of Light -biisin rumpupoljento toi mieleen Rednexin! :D Ylipitkän levyn biisit tuntuivat toistavan itseään ja sisältökin taisi olla jotain jooga- ja itsetutkiskelukuraa. Ei jatkoon, vaikka eihän Madonna nyt kovin huonostikaan laulanut.
Interesting
Not sure what this services deal with the 90s is, but one thing we clearly disagree on is the importance of 90s music in the grand scheme of all music.
Really not sure an hour of 90s Madonna is needed but wasn't too bad
Lentíiiiisimo
Didn't love it, pretty boring and couldn't get through most of the album.
whatever, not something I would ever listen if it wasn't on this list.
That was.... something. Not really digging it. Not a great vocal performance overall and the music sounds like what you hear in a dark, smokey club with during a drug trip scene in a movie that has an epilepsy warning due to all the flashing lights and quick camera movements. That is a generalization, since there were moments that broke away from that, but that’s the overall vibe I got Favorite tracks: “Frozen”
Disliked
Interesting ethereal and ambient music for the first half of songs, but then got a little too clubby and overproduced for my liking. Highlights: Drowned World/Substitute for Love Swim
All sounded the same.
Not for me thanks
Was ready to like this but couldn’t. Too busy being cool and contemporary instead of writing banging pop tunes
Not aged well - Madonna is really for singles not albums.
5.5/10
Two songs don't make album great
ambience
Why must I hear this before I die?
Horrendous, had to split it into two to get through it. Lazily using a general ambient electronic sound that never goes anywhere, then stretching out to over an hour of runtime. Madonna can't really sing, the lyrics are the real sweet spot of being odd but not interesting. No redeeming features.
Ray of Light has a fun tune, but the rest of the album is weird. I don't want to jump on the "1 star, rubbish" bandwagon, but I can't give it more than Like A Prayer, which at least contains a genuinely good song. Here, wildly overproduced, trance nonsense. Shanti/Ashtangi is particularly perverse.
Better than "music", didn't actively hate this one. Not as good as "like a prayer", and the bar was low. There is this kinda disco/dance music bass line throughout this. Knew Ray of light and frozen, the latter of which is ok I guess. 1.5 and that's possibly generous
Definitely could've died without this one.
Had to stop midway, sorry ..
Yeah, I’m not feeling this one chief first ever Madonna album. I don’t think this is the best work seven studio albums maybe I should start at the first that’s not how the cookie crumbled with this project. Very slow very airy not the mood for right now. I’m sure I will find a project that I liked from Madonna, but this one is not it.
Not good. I love a lot of Madonna music, but not this album
1. love - 1 2. zuuim - 2 3. light - 2 4. girl - 2 5. zkin - 1 6. nothing - 2 7. zky - 2 8. zhanti - 1 9. frozen - 2 10. pouuer - 2 11. hold - 1 12. ztar - 0 13. mergirl - 1
to me this mid-late 90s electronica is a deeply dated sound that is simply odious. a note from wikipedia, "madonna pursued a new musical direction with english producer william orbit, which resulted in a much more experimental sound," which if you may recall (you don't, but you may) i rated orbit's 1993 album "strange cargo III" a solid one star. so, you've got that mind-numbing semi-orientalist "spiritual" sound with madonna (whose voice is lovely at least) singing about "mystical" themes across the longest most repetitive tracks i've heard in my life. insufferable.
Prefer her older stuff
This album is bad. Ray of Light is the only redeemable track, and even that one irritates me a bit. It will always confound me that this list will have several albums from the same artist that I apparently need to "hear before I die". And they'll throw a garbage album from them on there instead of expanding into other artists. It's criminal that Sublime did not make the list. Anyway. this album is awful.
Real boring stuff
Not a fan
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.
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.
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.
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.
Started ok, I thought it would be a three, but got very whiny from midway to the end
Not at all my style
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
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?
DNF -Most of this album upset me. I like newer Madonna with more upbeat vibes
Awful. I'd give it zero stars if I could
I was expecting ass, and I got it. I wasn’t expecting this though. Pretty interesting for mainstream pop.
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
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.
This doesn’t do it for me. Madonna’s take on late 90s EDM.
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.
This was intolerable
Did not listen
Something interesting but still not good
What an absolute chore of an album to sit through
Steaming turd
Really not for me this one.
Nothing here of much interest. Unremarkable voice with Unremarkable songs.
How?
Madonna past her prime for sure. There is some decent dance music in here, but other than that I don’t need it much.
Yet again she proves she is rubbish.
Producers and musicians working overtime to make Madonna relevant. Most dated compression and voice is still buried in the mix - that's very telling about the vocals. What the fuck is with the racist song? I went in with an open mind musically but after one song it's clearly just generic, nothing, reactive music. Also in general Madonna is a shit person and fuck her for what she said about Sinead O Conor.
not my thing
I love Madonna's 80's work. I hate late 90's electronic music. I didn't like a single song here. 1 Star.
Boo
Dull (apart from when she started talking in sanskrit which just confused me)
This isn't a good album. Madonna changed pop music and this album made some car commercials. It's not there lyrically, it's just bland techo pop musically, it's just not good. Huge wiff with this one. I don't understand why it's on the list. She has so many better albums, I swear this one made the cut off her name alone.
man i truly do not get this one. it's not that i don't like madonna. it's not that i can't appreciate electronic music. i just feel like this album is so flat and uninteresting. quite frankly, it's boring! the highs here are so mid and the lows are low. who the hell is going to madonna for eastern influenced music anyways? not only that, the production sounds so lifeless and dated in a bad way. madonna's vocals are not great and do not stand out at all. this could have been anyone singing these songs. if you played me most of this album out of context, i don't even think i would recognize that this is madonna's voice. i genuinely do not know what i'm missing. maybe you just had to be there. i'm glad she tried to branch out. it doesn't work for me. a lot of this album feels like it should be played at a clothing store circa 2002. the gap chic
Not her best work
I listened to this album a lot when I was a kid. I liked Ray of Light, and it's still an okay dance jam. Candy Perfume Girl freaked me out back then too. It's a pretty boring album and the songs are too long. Most of her vocals feel strained and emotionless. The lyrics are kinda poetic but most of the time they don't say anything, it's just like a "philosophical" word salad. I definitely don't think anyone needs to hear this before they die 😂 was it influential? As far as I know, not really. Maybe it introduced a lot of white people to new age spiritualism and self care? 🤷♀️
Can't do it, can't get through this album.
No thanks
Did not enjoy this. Slop music. It’s a waste of her beautiful voice to be on these tracks.
Kabbalah? Really?
The word for when bile backs up into your throat and you can taste it and you think that you’re going to vomit is “waterbrush.” Madonna gives me waterbrush. As such, did not listen. I refuse to contribute even a fraction of a penny to her undeserved wealth.
1,5?
Ok, let me tell ya what "Like a Virgin"'s about.
Memo to all late-90's albums: you are too long by 1/3. Maybe this was the start of more dance influence in pop music but doesn't make it any more enjoyable for me personally. 1.5 stars
How dull. I remember one or two songs from whenever this was released - I assume they were singles that got a lot of airtime. I don't ever want to hear it again - but most of it, I could hear again without realising I'd heard it before.
This album was one hour and six minutes too long
That time when Madonna reinvented herself as a one hit wonder
Sorry, Madonna
Took a break after Candy Perfume Girl. Turned it off for good during Shanti / Ashtangi. It’s not me, it’s you, girl.
I know this was a more experimental album for Madonna, but didn't do it for me. At all. Some interesting sounds and melodies, but overall, not wowed by this.
I would have given it 0 if I could, the most inauthentic piece of crap I’ve ever heard
Techno-Pop sounding like the soundtrack for a Disney movie that was way to sad and weird to make it to theaters.
Ray Of Light is a mix of songs that were way better than expected and some of the worst music I’ve ever had in my life. The opener Drowned World is great… on the other hand at some point, she sings in what I’m guessing is Hindu. It’s offensively bad. Also a lot of uhhhist uhhist uhhist EDM 3.7/10
Great opening. There are great swathes of this I really don't like.
Why? An hour of late era Madonna. Listen. I’m less than 100 albums into this thing, but I can imagine there won’t be any death metal, minimal thrash metal and very few interesting oddities. Hell, even jazz has been elusive and I thought this list would be rife with new jazz discoveries. I’m already mad at this album. I haven’t heard it and I believe this shouldn’t be here. My initial belief is that there are 1000 albums released IN THE PAST 10 YEARS that surpass the value of this, but only Madonna can prove me wrong. Now that my biases are on full display. Take it away, artist past her glory. She’s in her Julie Andrew’s era. That’s probably the gayest thing I’ve ever said. This is Microsoft headquarters elevator music in 1999. Is it too late to request a substitute for this album? I don’t know what to say. When an album is trying to be this understated, there is nothing to review. People get so wrapped up in making music that is so gentle and so palatable, that they forget to prepare something to fucking listen to. This is nothing. Hell yeah brother. Attach the laser beams to my roller skates pal, I’m putting down my orange pop and rippin’ out on the rink. I then fall in a heap and am trampled by 350 middle schoolers on an activity field trip. I am rushed to the hospital with a suspected concussion and broken clavicle. That’s how this song FEELS. I asked for SOMETHING in the previous track review. This is something, alright. This is a complete atrocity. War crime. Inoffensive water based cell phone ring tone underneath an ex pop star on quaaludes. Lyrics written with a cynical sneer by some moron writer who churned out 200 plus pop tunes that year. Oh buddy. Commence the club banger. This would be playing in the club in a movie funded by Madonna and John Travolta. It’s actually not the worst song but in a completely ironic way. Pretty funny. Does anything matter? Madonna certainly seems to think nothing does. Why oh why did she continue this pursuit then? The worst so far. MAKE IT STOP. As we enter the “middle aged white lady has spiritual awakening” portion of this album, I just want to remind all white people that while you may think your own culture is “boring” or “uncool,” it doesn’t mean you get to latch yourself to someone else’s. Develop a personality and while cultural appreciation and self-education should be encouraged, whatever this is truly fucking sucks. Back to Michigan, faded pop diva. We’ve recovered from our mid-life crisis to return to our mid-album crisis. Frozen. Uhhh. Something about the movie, uhhhh errrr uhhh fuck. How about just BADonna. Saved it. The power of good-bye is truly the greatest of powers. Imagine saying goodbye to this piece of trash album? I can picture it like I’m walking into an idyllic cloud kingdom. God how I pine for that future. Hold music for a suicide hotline. They had to change it out as it decreased call volume for the wrong reasons. I thought it was over. Two songs. That’s it. I can do it. Fuck I almost forgot how to dream. Thanks Madonna. I owe you one. I’ll repay it now, with a tip: retire. Quit. You’ll make more in a month than I’ll make in a decade off of Spotify royalties alone. Travel the world. Hug your loved ones. Burn your albums. Just stop perpetuating this. Let’s get a song about a monstrous lab creation where a girl is turned into an aquatic beast!! A “MerGirl” if you will. This will be cool right? Oh. It’s a whisper pop song belched out by an aged former star with a whiff of spiritual nonsense that ultimately goes nowhere and provides nothing? Who could’ve seen that coming? Nerds love this album. Maybe it’s not me who hates music. This album is a collection of near silent, yet not silent enough pseudo songs. It’s gruel. It is flavourless sustenance for people to ignore in waiting rooms, car dealerships and bad movies. Just there to coat the walls like slimy, outdated wallpaper without any sense of kitsch or whimsy. Oddly racist club tracks in amongst a sea of washed out nothingness. An attempt at producing oceanic atmosphere ends up the waterlogged corpse of a career that while never musically capable was at least somewhat alive. 0 HIGHLIGHTS: smoke billowing from the eyes of a cursed token. Gods consume the dying seconds of each passing hour. Floating heavenward adrift in purgatorial anguish, the steam rises from an endless ocean. Searing the once faithful few as their loyal vessels melt into the endless expanse of human suffering. Penance is paid.
I tried my best
1.5 thought it was gonna be worse but it was till a really weird combo
This was bad. Like really bad. What was the formula here? Madonna does madlibs over generic Dance Dance Revolution-type beats? Lyrically, this is one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard. The production ranged from bland to jumbled, at some points sounding like they were just randomly hitting a keyboard to see what stuck. I am left with more questions than answers: why was this included on the list? How did Madonna get so big making music like this? What was going on in the 80s? I’d rather grab a beer with Stagger Lee than listen to this pile of garbage again.
Not going to dignify this with a response
sigh, it was okay
Weak pop, 1 Star sorry lady
Nothing worthy of more words than this.
Gave it a listen, regretted that decision.
Don’t like Madonna
To me this just feels like Madonna interpretation of various parts of the 90’s. The singing is like Celine Dion and the production is like The Prodigy. It’s like someone put “make me an edgy late 90’s album but with dramatic, heartfelt vocals” into CHATGPT. It’s like a boomer’s interpretation of late 90’s music. It’s like Disney trying to make Star Wars or Amazon trying to make LOTR. You can’t adapt it if you don’t understand the subject matter. I am interested in hearing more Madonna on this list for her earlier stuff. This is far from her best though, and should not be on the list.
I really don't want to listen to this one, I don't like Madonna at all
No thanks
Really didn't like it - it feels like it was designed to play in a very crowded fancy club that people go to just to say they've been. Not a fan
Booo! Hissss!
NO
Fucking hell that was painful. I don't like Madonna. Why are people waiting for this person to come out 3 hours late and sing this trash live... 1.5 stars and hoping I never have to listen again...
Utterly generic.
Meh
When this popped up, I remembered how much I hated that Ray of Light song and was fully prepared to hate the album. As it was I didn't hate it, just disliked it and was prepared to give it 2 stars. Then 'Little Star' came on and I thought - nah, 1 star.
Gross. Not pop. Not upbeat. The guy is an obvious attempt to add SOMETHING for the radio. The cultural appropriation is up front in every track. This sucks in almost every way.
Worst first song on an album I’ve ever heard
Ok beats, bijna air achtige instrumentaties op Swim, vocals volgen wel niet perfect Ray of Light BEGON mooi maar wat is deze beat opeens, chorus wel catchy, maar mix zit niet bijzonder goed? Bass super muddy, sommige synths pijnlijk hoog in de mix Skin heeft redelijk tacky lyrics, beats zijn te 90's, ik moet dit skippen Vieze synth op Shanti, is heel cringe
Boooooring. I couldn’t even make it through the first track without dozing off.
1.4 - Honestly got a bit annoyed listening to this. Not sure if that's cos I was feeling generally irritable, but felt like it was random sayings over techno-pop.
I mean, this sounds fine. I can see why plenty of people like it. But I couldn't wait for this to be over. Every song overstayed its welcome, and they weren't that welcome to begin with. Good for Madonna for evolving her sound, and good for the people that like to listen to this. I'm sadly not one of them.
Holy snooze fest this is just LONG. At first I really liked the electronic sound of this album but lost interest really quickly when there was no variability and nothing that engaged me. I was also clocked out by track 11. If you're going to make a 66 minute album at least give me a reason.
Noget af det kedeligste pop/electronica jeg nogensinde har hørt. Forstår ikke rigtigt hvordan hun (eller, den her type musik) var så populær engang. Men I guess hun heller ikke bliver talt om så meget længere
Madonna sucks
1.5 i remember at least one of these songs being overplayed on the radio
Should Madonna be on this list? Probably. With this album? Certainly not.
Very dated pop music - like mall store music.
Madonna’s vocals are the least interesting part of this album. The electronics are fun, but nothing groundbreaking that I haven’t heard before. Way too long for what it is.
Dette er det første albumet vi har hatt her som jeg genuint misliker. Dette er det jeg liker minst med Madonna og det jeg liker minst med 90-tallet i ert og samme album. Det er kjedelig pop. Det er seigt, det har null glede. Nesten villig til å kalle det pretensiøst. Til å være en artist som alltid har fått creds for å henge med på trendene så syns jeg dette var urovekkende utrendy og bare kjedelig. «Frozen» den mest kjente låten her, er en 6-minutter langgørrkjedelig funeral-dirge av en poplåt. Fuck Madonna, fuck dette albumet. Det verste vi har fått så langt.
It's like being stuck at the world's lamest rave.
It may be a genre-defining departure for Madonna, or some production masterpiece that shook the musical world into the 2000s, but that does not excuse the fact that this album is so BORING. We're not talking not my cup of tea boring, but that kind of shit that grew out of favor for a reason as the years went on. None of the beats here stick in your mind as none of them are catchy, the slick nature seems like a total relapse of everything pop music had learned earlier in the decade with the rise of grunge, and I just straight up don't care as I'm listening to the point of anger. And at over an hour long despite the slim thirteen track length, why would I bother? That's not to mention the fact that Madonna does nothing here. Her voice is inoffensive but not notable, and I cannot imagine she's the one who made all of these "futuristic" backing tracks, leading me to believe the only praise this album tends to get from music critics is those who already love William Orbit's style and want to praise this boring "choose your car!" sounding shit. Feels like a crime this can be considered trip hop because putting this and acts like Björk and Portishead in the same sentence seems like blasphemy. Bleh.
Brutal stuff. So boring
Frozen and nothing really matters are nice pop tunes. Ray of light has not aged well.