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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 intimate. 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.
--review by Beth Massa, Amazon.com
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