Madonna - Music (2000)

in a way an underwhelming follow up to Ray of Light, some New Jersey vibes, but still a really fun record

much as I enjoy the Mirwais sound, I'm partial to "What It Feels Like For A Girl"

Slight but fun, though some critics prefer it to ROL's self-importance or whatever.

"Gone" is my favorite Madonna ballad from this period, particularly when she mult-tracks her vocals. However, I voted for "Don't Tell Me." Still a jam.

I always loved the album title. Music! Of course it's music! What else would it be?

thanks for introducing me to Cyber Raga

I enjoyed this when it came out. I think this is the last record where she seemed liked the biggest pop star on the planet. I loved all three singles and even the two tracks that were in the running for a fourth. (I think Madonna really wanted "Impressive Instant" and the label really wanted "Amazing" - the latter was a promo in some places, but otherwise neither was released commercially as a single.)

I think this is the last record where she seemed liked the biggest pop star on the planet.

For sure. Confessions a few years later confirmed she was the biggest pop star on the planet if you discount the United States.

"Don't Tell Me" over "What it Feels Like..." The rest of the album does little for me these days.

Voted for Nobody's Perfect (I think it's a masterpiece, or at the very least weird and great).

Overall think this has aged much better than Ray of Light, although there's nothing as good as "Frozen" or "Beautiful Stranger"

few things are as good as "Beautiful Stranger"

went with Don't Tell Me, it truly is a jam

not sure what Mirwais' claim to fame is, but always enjoyed this tune which also is kinda what he seems to have brought to the table for Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W0rc23oxhE

Only time I ever got my name on the cover of the Voice was for a review of this. Guess I'd still go with "What It Feels Like for a Girl," though I do love "Don't Tell Me," song and video. (And agree "Beautiful Stranger" would be the best thing on the album if it were here.)

This was on Rolling Stone's first Top 500 Albums of All Time lists in 2003 and 2005; was that typical of how the record was rated at the time? I don't remember any particular critical fuss about this one.

It sure did get a fuss: it earned a #1 single, her first since 1995; the album hit #1, her first since Like a Prayer. The album ranked #16 on the P&J poll, with "Music" #5 on the singles poll. You can accuse it of coasting on Ray of Light's fumes, but it was a legit smash.

i remember the critics being even more enthusiastic about this one than ray of light! i revisited it today and i really love the texture of it, no one else was cutting up rudimentary acoustic guitar strums into french house and it still sounds dope, but the songwriting is nowhere near the level of ray of light. best deep cut is prob "amazing." singles are still immortal, "don't tell me" -> "what it feels like" is the best part of the album

"gone" is really lovely too, late-everything but the girl vibes on that one

yeah this is a case of production + ideas >>>> songwriting

I know "Don't Tell Me" uses lyrics from (brother in law) Joe Henry's "Stop," but I swore it borrowed the melody from an older Joe Henry song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dltqS8YRRkg

When I mentioned this to Joe Henry some years back he seemed surprised I came to that conclusion.

i remember the critics being even more enthusiastic about this one than ray of light! i revisited it today and i really love the texture of it, no one else was cutting up rudimentary acoustic guitar strums into french house and it still sounds dope, but the songwriting is nowhere near the level of ray of light. best deep cut is prob "amazing." singles are still immortal, "don't tell me" -> "what it feels like" is the best part of the album

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:56 (yesterday) link

I agree with this.

I think the biggest issue with this album from a wide-angle perspective is that it's the first time that Madonna's character just didn't seem very interesting - which wouldn't be an issue for a lot of other pop stars but all of her albums up to that point feel like wondering what's going on behind her eyes is half the appeal. But the album is enjoyable enough to listen to that it survives despite that (contrast with something like MDNA).

Can you be specific about "Madonna's character"?

She found good beats and wrote good to great melodies again for 3/4 of an album on Confessions five years later. I wish in a way she'd released it in 2000 when Stuart Price's creamy Moroder-esque rhythm tracks sounded even more out of time; by 2005 though, weirdly, her American (radio) audience had gone.

I haven’t heard this album in forever, but will revisit fit this poll.

(But I’m probably gonna vote “Don’t Tell Me”)

This album is terrible.

I have have such a soft spot for What It Feels Like…cos of that Cement Garden sample and also I’m sure I remember at the time it was said to be about Britney (but I can’t find any proof of that now, so.) Anyway, Don’t Tell Me was in my Spotify top songs 2022, so, that.

I agree this has something of a 'forgotten blockbuster' feel, but being the title track and Don't Tell Me seems ubiquitous when I was little and my flawed natural response to such things is to always assume they remain so later on. In the case of the title track I'd still wager that to be quite true.

Anyway, great album, but I like - even love - everything Madonna during her second UK commercial peak (roughly 1998-2006; or 1998-4 Minutes). It has the feel of a victory lap after the hugeness of Ray of Light. There's no particular new 'Madonna' to show (the cowgirl thing seems very arbitrary beyond Don't Tell Me) and even the name is deliberately blank. It's the closest there had been to 'just' a Madonna album. And in 2000 that was still more than enough.

I love the Mirwais sound (number one in 2000 when electroclash was still embryonic) and Impressive Instant and Don't Tell Me are my third and second favourites but first has to be What It Feels Like for a Girl. Was it in a listicle (for the Guardian?) I saw its sound compared to Saint Etienne? Either way I agreed. Just gorgeous.

Re:Stuart Price its startling how quickly he'd honed the sound that would later make him huge. Nik Kershaw collab Sometimes (from 1999) is the best example.

you even love american life?

probably "what it feels like for a girl", that's one of her best, but i haven't listened to this album in ages. my memory is it's largely just a an inferior sequel to ray of light, much less focused & with weaker songwriting. no idea what was with the cowgirl image, feels like one of many ideas on this album that wasn't as developed as it could have been. listening to bits now it's frustrating - "music" has a great sound but the song just isn't there. weird that it was her biggest hit in years

maybe the cowgirl thing was a nod to the song's Tex-Mex roots? It's referred to as "Electronic Cowboy" here and certainly the acoustic riffs were country before Mirwais worked his magic. https://variety.com/2020/music/news/madonna-dont-tell-me-turns-20-mirwais-joe-henry-1234821405/
One of my favourite songs of the last 20 years. This whole record sounds like she did it for her own enjoyment, most of all.

yeah "don't tell me" is the only song that really feels relevant to the cowgirl image - in the "music" video for instance it's just a weird juxtaposition that doesn't really go anywhere

lol at mirwais claiming to invent folktronica in that piece though, certainly the sound was still fairly novel then but he wasn't the first to do something like that

xps I do love American Life, though it's an admittedly strange love. Every 'flawed' decision it makes (the rapping, stupider than stupid) somehow is central to its appeal - I end up really enjoying music* where as you hear about the singer's confusion and lapse of faith in society/communication/other you can sense it via fucktons of digital manipulation and distortion - particularly on the voice, the aural representation of the boulders they're struggling to pass. It isn't just in just in the cut-ups, glitches and pitch-shifts but in the way a lot of the songs artificially bring her way to the fore, a sort of processed suffocating sfx close-mic. As though the whole thing was collapsing under the weight of it being a Madonna Statement record.

It really adds a pretty crucial dynamic imo. Of course, no doubt helped - nay, spurred on in the first place - that it is incredibly up my street musically and I do genuinely think all the songs are good. And as for the most infamous moment, I can take to it in a not dissimilar manner to the way I enjoy, say, My Teenage Dream Ended. And remember that it's Madonna instead, on a major hit single (from spring 2003! A period I am close to for various personal reasons).

Or put another way - I seemingly have a weakness for much-maligned mid-career albums by major artists.

ah yeah i get that, i can definitely appreciate just how bizarre american life is at least

but i did actually kinda like madame x (also once again with mirwais as her main creative partner) where she's making so many weird decisions that the resulting mess is strangely compelling

vastly prefer american life to this record

Nothing Fails and the Bond song are both amazing. Ding know the rest really.

"Impressive Instant," but "What It Feels Like For A Girl" still brings me right back to 2000 in a flash

Among title tracks from the '90s (or close enough), "Music" has to rank at the very bottom of the list

100% agree.

Is that made worse because of the hubris of the song standing in for "all music"?

What It Feels Like For A Girl

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

unrelated note, but UGH, I had a Citi card for the Madonna presale for Tampa show but didn't want to put another hundred bucks on a credit card knowing I'm not willing to pay it all back now from my checking , I wanted to spread the payments out like a Klarna deal.

then I got too busy at work to do LiveNation presale yesterday and was late getting on this morning and just paid an exorbitant rate for shit seats, granted monthly payments but bleh.

not missing this tho, my mother and I are going.

FWIW, I just got an email that says she added two shows in NYC, so if anyone's still looking, see if she added any at the same venue.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yeah, a likable record. I missed the poll but would've been a superfluous "Don't Tell Me" vote. Capped off a heck of a '90s for her.

I'm convinced by these results

happy to see Music at #3 made me look up the hilariously 2000 video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdz2oW0NMFk

Who the fuck voted for American Pie

not me, but it's better than i remember

actually surprised that "don't tell me" won over "what it feels like for a girl"

Chuck_Tatum
Posted: 11 January 2023 at 16:00:43
Voted for Nobody's Perfect (I think it's a masterpiece, or at the very least weird and great).

did you tho

Seems like something an American Pie voter might say to cover their tracks. Take him away, boys

xpost
I thought I did! Hmm

What it feels like for a girl always sounds slower than I remember, maybe there was a faster remix doing the rounds in the UK at the time

I think you are thinking of the version that they used on the video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYwgG2oyUbA

That mix in the video goes so hard, I love it

That's not what I remember, but it's great!

I don't concern myself with how well music has 'aged' but I do feel Music (along with American Life) sounds more nimble on the ear than the chunky, reverby Confessions*, without ever sounding remotely 'thin'. There was a time in the mid-late 10s when I was making DAW music and I think, unconsciously, it was something like the Mirwais sound (+ when Orbit squares in on that territory on "Runaway Lover") I was after.

*Which I still enjoy a lot, and is (along with Progress) the ideal display of Price's maximalist side.