Product description
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Madonna's never really been a musical trendsetter; she's a trend
champion. She's always felt an affinity with underground culture,
but not until her soul-searching trip-hop breakthrough Ray of
Light had this love been the sole mainstay of her albums. On
Music, she's inducted the cool funk of Parisian electro-pop as
the latest addition to her musical court, abruptly closing the
chapter of the movement's niche status. Here, French DJ Mirwais
Ahmadzai takes on the majority of production credit, with Light's
William Orbit billed on two tracks; the result is a collection of
songs that often links arm-in-arm with Franco-techno groups
ranging from Daft Punk to Air. Madonna relinquished unprecedented
production control on Ray of Light, which resulted in the best
album of her career. On Music, she does the same, dividing the CD
into three distinct voices. Orbit's train-track-clacking drum
loops churning under citrusy trance ("Runaway Lover" and
"Amazing") shimmer for the headphone set. When Ahmadzai diverts
from his pure-play French-style club burners ("Impressive
Instant" and the title track), he employs several temporarily
fashionable gimmicks such as vocoder effects ("Nobody's Perfect")
and spacious keyboard work combined with acoustic guitar ("I
Deserve It"). Lyrically, Madonna's introspection and love songs
are some of her most . Given the surrounding context of
the album, "I Deserve It" is an outright folk song, and on "Don't
Tell Me," she forgoes precisely enunciated singing for the aching
plead of an emotive R&B crooner. For a second time, instead of
exploiting an of-the-moment subgenre, she immortalizes it. And in
doing so, she simultaneously draws massive mainstream attention
to a deserving class of dance music and raises the bar for Top 40
pop. --Beth Massa
.com
----
Madonna's never really been a musical trendsetter; she's a trend
champion. She's always felt an affinity with underground culture,
but not until her soul-searching trip-hop breakthrough Ray of
Light had this love been the sole mainstay of her albums. On
Music, she's inducted the cool funk of Parisian electro-pop as
the latest addition to her musical court, abruptly closing the
chapter of the movement's niche status. Here, French DJ Mirwais
Ahmadzai takes on the majority of production credit, with Light's
William Orbit billed on two tracks; the result is a collection of
songs that often links arm-in-arm with Franco-techno groups
ranging from Daft Punk to Air.
Madonna relinquished unprecedented production control on Ray of
Light, which resulted in the best album of her career. On Music,
she does the same, dividing the CD into three distinct voices.
Orbit's train-track-clacking drum loops churning under citrusy
trance ("Runaway Lover" and "Amazing") shimmer for the headphone
set. When Ahmadzai diverts from his pure-play French-style club
burners ("Impressive Instant" and the title track), he employs
several temporarily fashionable gimmicks such as vocoder effects
("Nobody's Perfect") and spacious keyboard work combined with
acoustic guitar ("I Deserve It"). Lyrically, Madonna's
introspection and love songs are some of her most . Given
the surrounding context of the album, "I Deserve It" is an
outright folk song, and on "Don't Tell Me," she forgoes precisely
enunciated singing for the aching plead of an emotive R&B
crooner. For a second time, instead of exploiting an
of-the-moment subgenre, she immortalizes it. And in doing so, she
simultaneously draws massive mainstream attention to a deserving
class of dance music and raises the bar for Top 40 pop. --Beth
Massa