I always say it's "not one of my favorite Madonna records."

I was so excited when it came out, and I think "Swim" is a great tune. I also love "The Power of Goodbye" and "Candy Perfume Girl." But overall...I've never understood why people act like "Drowned World" is the second coming of Christ. And "Mer Girl..." well, not my thing. And "Shanti?" Don't know...her vocals feel too low in the mix, the sound recording quality leaves something to be desired, it's a little pedanic in its spirituality. But I do love the psychedelic influence that Orbit brings. And it's most commonly referred to her as her best album, it won the most Grammys, finally won her respect from the critics...And I've played it front to back before and I really think it's well-sequenced...I dunno, I just can't quite give it up because it doesn't really feel fun like most Madonna records. And the title track...I'm pretty much over. Hasn't aged well.

Those are my thoughts.

Yours?

I think it was the greatest album of her career. I mean if you look closely at the album, you would think this is Like A Prayer of the 90's! She stripped away the cold sexuality of Erotica and matured as an artist and mother. The production was enduring and the techno grooves were mindblowing. Vocally, I couldn't believe she was sounding this great. With tracks like Swim, Ray Of Light, Nothing Really Matters, Frozen, and The Power Of Goodbye, she proved that she was still the Queen of Pop.

It's actually not my favorite album of hers, but vocally it's easily her best. It spawned some rather cringeworthy live performances though, (ROL from VMAs)

DWSFL is probably one of her best written songs and ROL is in my top 5 favorite tracks.

jayaredee said:

that's because it was studio work that made her sound so great.

love the production. love what they did to her voice. ADORE 'frozen'. i used to listen to that cd a lot.

sallysassalot said:

That and hours and hours of vocal lessons preparing for Evita. She even sounded stronger on the "Something To Remember" tracks.

when ray of light came out i thought it was her most brilliant work. almost ten years later...i still really like it but it doesn't shine so much for me anymore.

the sound is very dated, which is no real big deal because so are most of her records. she's always changed with the trends and tides, its why she's lasted. however, in hindsight, it comes off as a very superficial, quasi-spiritual record. i don't know how to explain it other than it seems like vadge is saying, "hey, look at me. not only can i be a sexual provocateur but i can also be religiously, philosophically, and spiritually conscious." in other words, it comes off very insincere all these years later...sort of like the art student who went vegetarian or buddhist for a few years to get "street cred" from his artsy college friends only to go back to his/her "normal" ways after school.

i don't listen to it nearly as often as i once used to but every now and then it's just what the dj ordered.
[Edited 4/15/06 12:36pm]

sallysassalot said:

I don't find it superficial at all. She had just had a baby. Her newfound peace and happiness even came through in her appearance. Even the angle that she approached the music from was different, as if she was glad to go wherever the muse took her. Perhaps with "Beautiful Stranger" and "Music" coming right on its heels, it looks like just another phase. But I think the 'spirituality' at that time was genuine and not something she just put on as a trend. A lot of people were doing some serious soul-searching near the end of the 90's.

'Ray Of Light' is my second favorite Madonna album.It's a dazzling masterpiece from beginning to end.I remember buying it the day it was released,coming home and putting it in the CD player,and being totally mesmerized by it.I played this CD everyday for,like,6 months or so.Even though Maddy had already established herself as a "serious artist" several years earlier (with deep,introspective albums like 'True Blue' and 'Like A Prayer'),this is the album that really made the critics take note.Madonna was no joke,and this album confirmed it.Even the Grammy folks had to wake up and give her the awards she deserved.Songs like "Drowned World/Substitute For Love","Frozen","Sky Fits Heaven","To Have And Not To Hold" and the title track are some of the most impressive songs she has ever recorded.These songs put most of her 80s singles to shame.

Notably,this CD was released the same year that Lauryn Hill released 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'.Both albums have alot in common....deeply spiritual and introspective with alot of interesting twists and turns...not your average late 90s pop music.

silverchild said:

Exactly.Also,with this album,Madonna proved that she wasn't interested in just making the same album over and over,like so many other pop artists.She could have played it safe and made 'Bedtime Stories Part 2',but she went in an entirely different direction.'Ray Of Light' was a huge risk,but it certainly paid off.

GangstaFam said:

I agree,'Ray Of Light' comes off as very sincere and heartfelt to me.People always assume that she is always "re-inventing" herself,or going through a temporary "phase",but in reality,she is growing and maturing...shedding layers (like most of us do as we grow older).'Ray Of Light' reflects the changes she was going through at the time.I know it may seem superficial to some people,but to me,'Ray Of Light' is the most personal,honest album she's ever done.

Ray of Light is an awesome Cd. The ONLY Madonna album I've ever purchased.


Smooches;)

Her greatest work.

i believe people think its her best record because it was so surprisingly different, and not necessarily because it really is her best. it certainly sounds like no other madonna record. but does that make it "her best?" the lyrics really aren't that deep and its not like she penned them herself anyway. the lyrics from sky fits heaven were taken, in part, from a gap ad for crying out loud! and why does it take up to five people to write one song?

in the end, i suppose all of this best album talk is totally subjective. i just think with bjork at her zenith at that time and the bristol sound being very popular (massive attack, tricky, portishead, etc) at the time, there's nothing "best" about jumping on that ship. madonna ALWAYS has her finger on the pulse of what the public wants and, in true form, she was dead on with this record.
[Edited 4/17/06 8:14am]

I'm not Maddie, so I couldn't possibly give anything more than speculation as to her sincerity in Ray of Light. And, let's face it, when has Madonna ever been convincingly sincere about anything? When has she ever been a musical pioneer? When has her sound, her look, her inspirations, ever marked anything other than what could be reasonably argued as passing fancy and skillful borrowing? Yet even amid the artifice that possibly did indundate ROL, there did seem to be a sort of catharsis in her here... even if she wasn't solely at the wheel.

Lourdes had been born. Maddie was at the beginning of a satisfying new relationship. She had found some solace, if not commitment and profundity, in spiritual exploration. She'd finally proven to herself she could achieve the artful respectability of Evita. And I think that for the first time she was keenly aware that her old-hat antics of sex-and-glam from the lackluster two previous albums (not counting Something to Remember) were stale and unnourishing... both to herself and to listeners.

She obviously gave the evolution of her sound some thought. She gave thought to what she wanted to say, and how she wanted to present herself at that point in her life. It'd have been great if she were a Prince who could do everything herself, or a Joni Mitchell who could weave amazing verse. But she's never been celebrated as an artistic genius on that level - and there's good reason for it. Instead, she smartly found talent and inspiration -- from Gap commercials to the old, forgotten hippy band that wrote the inspiration for "Ray of Light" -- who could support her vision... and together they nailed its execution more effectively than anything before or after Like a Prayer. And certainly better than anything that's come after ROL.

As for why I wouldn't consider Like a Prayer her best? I think it boils down to syncronicity. LAP, which certainly gives ROL a run for its money, was released at a type in my own life when I could intellectually appreciate the introspection, hope, expectation, romance, pain, empowerment, regret, etc. found therein. But ROL arrived at a time after I'd actually experienced these things... and had been either fulfilled or chewed up and spit out. The angst from all of that, and the sort of remedy offered in the message of ROL, even if Madonna didn't discover, create or even truly exemplify it on her own, was really what I (and obviously the bulk of her fanbase) needed at that point.
[Edited 4/17/06 19:09pm]

Ray Of Light was my first Madonna album. I was a closet fan of hers but when I heard the song Ray Of Light, it was what I needed at the time. That the only video of hers at the time that I stopped and watched everytime it came on MTV/VH1. I was shocked that I really liked this CD. It was like going through a journey and it was real cool. I came "out of the closet" and just called myself a fan after that one.

.
[Edited 4/17/06 10:18am]

How do we feel about holes in our head made by a blunt object?

I think there's some good stuff on there("Power of Goodbye" especially) but overall it leaves me cold. Her style of singing is overly mannered and this was the beginning, iirc, of her 'British' accent. This album lacks the element of 'fun'. I much prefer Music. I like Madonna when she sings dance anthems, not when she tells me how to live my life.

absolutely love it, and it is probably her best album.

this thread reminds me...

I need to buy a new copy of this CD! I've worn out the original copy that I bought in 1998

btw...am I the only one who thinks that they released the wrong singles from this album? The first two singles ("Frozen" and title track) were fine,but these should have been the next singles...

"Sky Fits Heaven"
"Drowned World/Substitute For Love"

those two songs are much more exciting than "Power Of Goodbye" and "Nothing Really Matters".I suppose "Skin" could have been a fifth single.

I disagree. I don't think those songs would have fared well as singles. Power of Goodbye was a great single because it was a contrast to the other more upbeat singles. I think she picked the right songs for radio.


Smooches;)

DavidEye said:

i thought the exact same thing. those songs were begging to be released. they are some of my favorites off ROL.

interestingly,Warners were seriously considering releasing "Skin" as a fifth single.The single was gonna include a B-side called "Hands Down".For some reason,this single was cancelled.

The song I like the most from Ray Of Light is the b-side, "Has To Be".

Very overrated album. Drowned World is one of the most boring songs ever. Some of you seem to be under the misapprehension that personal revelation and autobiographical content automatically makes a song good. It doesn't. If it did we'd all be bowing down at Pink's feet. Also Madonna's vocal style on this album is too damn polite. She sounds like she thinks Andrew Lloyd Webber's still in the room. In the 80s her recorded vocals had a certain soul to them Just listen to her voice on Papa Don't Preach for example(of course when you heard it live it was another matter, but you learned to ignore that).

whoknows said:

Aren't we?

I think it's one of Madonna's best works,but that doesn't necessarily make it one of my favorites, if that makes any sense. There are a lot of songs on it that I really like, but the album can be difficult to listen to at times. Unlike Like a Prayer, which had a much more organic and soulful sound, the production on Ray of Light can be a little overwhelming and exausting if I'm not in the right mood.

I'd probably rank it somewhere around 5th or 6th in my list of Madonna CDs.

I loved it when it came out, but in my opinion it hasn't aged very well.

I think that if you took the best tracks off ROL, Music, and AL it'd make up for the spottiness of all 3 records and would be one KILLER Lp.

"Swim"
"Ray of Light"
"Candy Perfume Girl"
"Skin"
"Sky Fits Heaven"
"Power of Goodbye"
"Music"
"Impressive Instant"
"Nobody's Perfect"
"Paradise"
"Hollywood"
"I'm So Stupid"
"Love Profusion"
"Nobody Knows Me"
"Easy Ride"

That record would be HOT!