Madonna Lets the "Music" Speak For Itself!
Music (2000)
1. "Music"
Opening up with her best pop hit in years, "Music" is the epitome of dance floor ecstasy. It's fun, stylish with an infectious electronic beat and Madonna singing about the joys of music. It was a big club anthem and Madonna's last #1 hit, but she sure reminded people that she was still the Queen of Pop with this mainstream dance sensation.
(B+)
Opening up with her best pop hit in years, "Music" is the epitome of dance floor ecstasy. It's fun, stylish with an infectious electronic beat and Madonna singing about the joys of music. It was a big club anthem and Madonna's last #1 hit, but she sure reminded people that she was still the Queen of Pop with this mainstream dance sensation.
(B+)
2. "Impressive Instant"
This song definitely has that classic euro-pop/techno sound of the late 90s/early 00s when songs like "One More Time" were popularizing the scene. The beat is really bizarre and trippy, with such unusual beats incorporated and the way Madonna's vocals are augmented at times. It's a really cool listen for that alone as it's another pretty irresistible dance track.
This song definitely has that classic euro-pop/techno sound of the late 90s/early 00s when songs like "One More Time" were popularizing the scene. The beat is really bizarre and trippy, with such unusual beats incorporated and the way Madonna's vocals are augmented at times. It's a really cool listen for that alone as it's another pretty irresistible dance track.
(B+)
3. "Runaway Lover"
This techno/dance track is...fun! Nice beats and creative arrangements that you come from Madonna's continued experimentation with the genre. Its a song about man who doesn't stick around to the women he proves to be unfaithfully too, it makes for sort of feminist song but with an electronic edge. All around, very enjoyable.
(B)
This techno/dance track is...fun! Nice beats and creative arrangements that you come from Madonna's continued experimentation with the genre. Its a song about man who doesn't stick around to the women he proves to be unfaithfully too, it makes for sort of feminist song but with an electronic edge. All around, very enjoyable.
(B)
4. "I Deserve It"
Hmmmm, after so much techno/electronic driven music, it's nice seeing an acoustic type vibe with this song with some electronic sound cues but overall, it's just Madonna's voice against a cool guitar melody and nice beat. I really like it for it's uniqueness alone. It does make for a bizarre yet quite beautiful song that only Madonna could come up with. Cool!
(B)
Hmmmm, after so much techno/electronic driven music, it's nice seeing an acoustic type vibe with this song with some electronic sound cues but overall, it's just Madonna's voice against a cool guitar melody and nice beat. I really like it for it's uniqueness alone. It does make for a bizarre yet quite beautiful song that only Madonna could come up with. Cool!
(B)
5. "Amazing"
It's not like "Amazing" isn't, but it isn't. It's just a fun dance/techno song and doesn't make much an impression. Doesn't really linger in my mind after I listen to it. Honestly, once the last track started playing, I literally forgot about it. Which is kinda bad, but doesn't make it a bad song, just an ultimately forgettable one. Wow, that opinion might come back to haunt me, isn't it.
(C-)
It's not like "Amazing" isn't, but it isn't. It's just a fun dance/techno song and doesn't make much an impression. Doesn't really linger in my mind after I listen to it. Honestly, once the last track started playing, I literally forgot about it. Which is kinda bad, but doesn't make it a bad song, just an ultimately forgettable one. Wow, that opinion might come back to haunt me, isn't it.
(C-)
6. "Nobody's Perfect"
Look at Madonna, all ahead of the auto-tuned pop era. Sure, Cher was the first to bring auto-tune to pop music but it was T-Pain who made it into a massive trend, not Madonna surprisingly. But here, it's used well enough but doesn't differentiates itself from other auto-tuned pop. I do like the meaning behind the song in the embracing of imperfection but it's not really memorable, just decent.
(C+)
Look at Madonna, all ahead of the auto-tuned pop era. Sure, Cher was the first to bring auto-tune to pop music but it was T-Pain who made it into a massive trend, not Madonna surprisingly. But here, it's used well enough but doesn't differentiates itself from other auto-tuned pop. I do like the meaning behind the song in the embracing of imperfection but it's not really memorable, just decent.
(C+)
7. "Don't Tell Me"
I was waiting the whole album for this one! This is creative pop music with a country guitar loop, a cool beat, moving violin playing and an all around strong production. Its all makes for such a great pop song and the video that accompanied it was superb. The cowboy theme and fine choreography couldn't have been better executed. This is some fun electronic-pop and the best since "Music" to achieve that...and even better! The best track so far!
(A-)
I was waiting the whole album for this one! This is creative pop music with a country guitar loop, a cool beat, moving violin playing and an all around strong production. Its all makes for such a great pop song and the video that accompanied it was superb. The cowboy theme and fine choreography couldn't have been better executed. This is some fun electronic-pop and the best since "Music" to achieve that...and even better! The best track so far!
(A-)
8. "What It Feels Like For A Girl"
Wow, this has a cool dark disco beat and while there are other versions of the song, like the video's version. I really enjoy this version's vibe. Madonna's somber vocals captures the song's message of the female struggle, not to mention double standard society created. I like it, simply for the beat alone as you can groove to it and can't help but agree with Madonna.
(B-)
Wow, this has a cool dark disco beat and while there are other versions of the song, like the video's version. I really enjoy this version's vibe. Madonna's somber vocals captures the song's message of the female struggle, not to mention double standard society created. I like it, simply for the beat alone as you can groove to it and can't help but agree with Madonna.
(B-)
9. "Paradise-Not For Me"
Ok, Madonna? Paley Vu France? Yes, I know that's not how you spell it but you know what I mean! So, this song, ummmm, it's kinda like "Justify My Love" but not nearly as good. Is it a song about Madonna denounce a perfect society in exchange for a heavily flawed one we live in? Maybe, but I don't know the song for the most part is all kinda...just there. Kinda meh.
(C)
Ok, Madonna? Paley Vu France? Yes, I know that's not how you spell it but you know what I mean! So, this song, ummmm, it's kinda like "Justify My Love" but not nearly as good. Is it a song about Madonna denounce a perfect society in exchange for a heavily flawed one we live in? Maybe, but I don't know the song for the most part is all kinda...just there. Kinda meh.
(C)
10. "Gone"
This is a nice country-eqse ballad. Yeah, that's all I have to say about it. Madonna sounds good, but I kinda feel like this song could have been done by any rock/country artist at the time. Feels kinda generic, even with the lyrics touching upon the desire to no be here whether physically or emotionally. It also kinda just abruptly ends...which is...kinda...anticlimactic. Which a song, especially an ending track shouldn't be! Yikes, maybe I don't like this one as much as I thought.
(C-)
This is a nice country-eqse ballad. Yeah, that's all I have to say about it. Madonna sounds good, but I kinda feel like this song could have been done by any rock/country artist at the time. Feels kinda generic, even with the lyrics touching upon the desire to no be here whether physically or emotionally. It also kinda just abruptly ends...which is...kinda...anticlimactic. Which a song, especially an ending track shouldn't be! Yikes, maybe I don't like this one as much as I thought.
(C-)
Hmmmmm, "Music". Not a bad album by any means. But I would be lying if I said, I'm really disappointed. While the 90s may have not been the most successful decade of her career, it was arguably her most creative and daring with multiple eras showing a new, innovative side of Madonna with each album. "Erotica" was a sexually explicit yet very strong album musically that for the first time showed how far a female artist could push her sexuality in pop music. "Bedtime Stories" has some of the most organic and enriching R&B music I've ever heard with some awesome electronica thrown in a bit. It showed a softer, more artistic side of Madonna that peak with "Ray of Light". Her crowing achievement and one of the best albums of all time! So how do you follow that up entering the new millennium?? Well, apparently, Madonna had no intention of recording a new album this soon after "Ray of Light". She was ready to go touring to promote that album but after the massive success of it, the record label want Madonna to immediately go back into the studio and record a follow-up with the same techno/electronica sound. Madonna complied, recorded the album with William Orbit again and released "Music" nearly two years later but...the results though. Not bad, just not nearly as strong as what Madonna and Orbit did with "Ray of Light". Then again, how do you top an album THAT good?! It's nearly impossible. Madonna obviously new that. She was at such a good place in her life that it's hard to recapture that radiant essence. So with "Music", we get a more up-beat, fun aspect to the techno/electronica sound with country, rock and folk music incorporated into it. It makes for a good sound overall, but nothing that stands out from other artists doing the same genre at the time. The imagery for the album had a country/cowgirl theme, which was cute and I think "Don't Tell Me" captures that perfectly! "Music" is a great title track, infectious, so fun and really captures how intoxicating the techno/dance genre is. The rest of the songs are hit and miss for me. Some are great, some aren't so much, some are surprisingly forgettable, which I haven't said about Madonna's music yet. Honestly, I don't think Madonna's heart was completely in the "Music" (ironically). The album did manage to be a great follow-up commercially though, being her first chart topping album since "Like A Prayer". It sold 3 million in the US but 15 million worldwide as well as going #1 in many countries which Madonna has become a pro at this point in her career. The eventual "Drown World" Tour was worth the wait and I feel Madonna was completely in it for that tour because that's where she wanted to be in the first place. But to reiterate my first point, this is not a bad album and is good, but I find while researching other opinions of it, it's probably the most divisive among her fans who either love it or hate it. It kinda falls in the middle of her discography apparently. The one that was there but not much to talk about. Yet critics loved it and some regard it as one of the best albums of all time (really Rolling Stone??) Were people so high and impressed by "Ray of Light" that they blindingly gloried it's much lesser successor?? Hey that rhymed! "Music" though, was all about the music for Madonna as she continued to simply be about the great video and live performances with little to no controversy this era outside the video for "What It Feels Like For A Girl" being banned from MTV until midnight but she's been there and done that. I don't know. I feel like this is her weakest musically yet. But apparently, Madonna at her most weakest is still pretty darn good, with songs that still capture her pop edge and unapologetic charm. But what do you guys think? I'm actually the most curious about other fans' opinions on this one! "Ray of Light" is just such pop perfection that I think the coming albums are just gonna be one disappointment after another but we'll see.
"Entering the new millennium with the same style she perfected with her last album, "Music" is hardly the electronica epic that was her 1998 masterpiece. But it's still pretty good pop music with some great gems thrown in like the techno organic title track and the country dance-pop "Don't Tell Me".
(B-)
(B-)
Comments
Post a Comment