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Madonna Shined a 'Ray of Light'


Voguerista
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Ray of Light is one of her most important albums ever in her carrer, M took a great evolutionary leap with Ray of Light, with totally autobiographical lyrics, it would have been very different without it, i think that Erotica & Bedtime Stories are like the last chapter of the madonna that everyone knew until then, and 4 years later, without doing tours and with Ray of Light, something new begins

Edited by gonna dress u up (see edit history)
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On 7/4/2020 at 6:07 PM, gonna dress u up said:

Ray of Light is one of her most important albums ever in her carrer, M took a great evolutionary leap with Ray of Light, with totally autobiographical lyrics, it would have been very different without it, i think that Erotica & Bedtime Stories are like the last chapter of the madonna that everyone knew until then, and 4 years later, without doing tours and with Ray of Light, something new begins

So true and beautifully written. Thank you. 

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On 7/2/2020 at 11:44 PM, Voguerista said:

What would Madonna's career have been like without "Ray Of Light"?

i think that is impossible to answer.

her previous albums as well as her life circumstances led to ray of light.

would there be music – and what followed – without ray of light?
i don’t think so.

essentially, it was a chapter of her life journey and reflected her state of mind at the time.

i would have never thought it led to bitch, i’m madonna though :Madonna034:

Edited by nodoman (see edit history)
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32 minutes ago, nodoman said:

i think that is impossible to answer.

her previous albums as well as her life circumstances led to ray of light.

would there be music – and what followed – without ray of light?
i don’t think so.

essentially, it was a chapter of her life journey and reflected her state of mind at the time.

i would have never thought it led to bitch, i’m madonna though :Madonna034:

i wish ray of light whas het latest current circumstance in life 

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One of the best pop albums ever made. It has aged like fine wine - no matter when I've listened to it over the years, it seems to get better each time I hear it. I think this music is very therapeutic, both for Madonna recording/making it and the listener consuming it. The lyrics are also some of her best; she really tells a story and conveys so much emotion in these songs. Especially Little Star - such an endearing song, straight from her heart to Lola. I actually listened this this album a lot while in quarantine; it's such a great album to put on in the evening right before sunset and watch the sun go down.

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  • 6 months later...

My favorite album of her career. The production of this album is fire and very haunting, the ambiance was so hypnotical, very spiritual and she also improved her vocals in this album, thanks to the singing lesson during the making of Evita. I love the diversity of this album. Like Like a Prayer, this album was very varied and the sequencing was incredible well. The album started in her first eight tracks with more up-beat sound, while the five last tracks (or six in the Japan version) was more a slow ballad (Frozen was a transition between the first eight tracks and the last tracks of the album, because i considered a mid-tempo ballad). She have her best re-invention of her career and also this album was her second born of her career. She explored in this album: Dance, Electro, Trip-Hop, Bossa Nova, Rock, New age, spiritual and Asian music in this album. Also the pure sound of her music and the rich arrangements created a sound so much good, very complex and very relaxing. This album makes me happy all the time when i listen this album. Also, the cover and the pictures of the booklet represent perfectly the general ambiance of the whole album.

 

My favorites of this album was Frozen and Has to Be. I have the japanese version, because i was a huge fan of Has to Be, i love how Madonna explored the New Age style with this song and the perfect ending of a album.

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It's a beautiful album, and perhaps one of the most important albums of the 90's.  

I was kind of ambivalent to it in the beginning. It had all of these great songs, and yet at the same time I knew that the old Madonna (the one with the blond ambition and Dita Parlo as her alter ego) was not coming back.

One of her best albums.

Edited by Erlend (see edit history)
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Ray of Light brought guitars back to her music. William Orbit did some nice work there. My favourite Madonna songs feature cool guitars... Burning Up, Dress You Up, Like A Prayer.

It never got as good as it was with the guitars and bass again. ROL with less of the electronica would've been interesting. More of the rawness. Not a fan of her playing guitar though, she takes the fun out of it!

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I remember thinking they took too long to show her in the "Ray of Light" video ?

Its still amazing. Really captures the excitement and hope for a new century. Pre- 9/11. The Dan O Rama remix videos are so fun too. She looked sun kissed and gorgeous. The little crystals under her eyes. Tandonna is underrated.

Great remixes. The first time we got that signature William Orbit sound on his remix that carried into everything else they did together. LOVE that opera bit she does thats featured only in that specific mix at the very end.

Fabian's Good God Mix of "The Power of Goodbye" is so underrated. 

It was also the very first time we got a Peter Rauhofer remix under the Club 69 moniker. I was obsessed with his Future Mix 1 & 2 compilations. Wanted him to remix M so bad. To get all those remixes from him and for "Nothing Really Matters" (still all time favorite)....just perfection. And the Vikram Mix. And the K&D mix. Can't believe she never performed any of those remixes live.

BT & Sasha's mix of "Drowned World" is still so good on headphones.

It's interesting this was considered her big return to dance music. But if you were a fan or club goer, then you knew M never left the dance floor for very long. Some of her most interesting dance moments happened during the ballad years leading up to ROL. Thanks to remixes of course. She has such a rich, deep career on that Dance Chart like completely separate from the pop stuff.

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An ecstatic hymn to the sky, a liberating cry, a psychedelic celebration of life. Truly madly deeply in love with Ray of Light and I will always be. Inextricably linked to the '90s atmosphere but at the same time timeless, it's the forbidden fruit of a rebirth, it's the shocking marriage between the most famous woman on Earth and the underground world. It's a damned masterpiece. Love apart, in my opinion the power of this record lies in Madonna herself. I mean, the electronic sound gives a divine aura to her new spirituality, but if she hadn't approached to Kabbalah, if she hadn't found peace in her life (just a little bit), ROL wouldn't have been the masterpiece we all know, it would have been only a good electronic album. That's why we can't separate her life from her albums: they represent her evolution as a human being. But let's start with my usual outlandish post about her albums. 

IMHO, this record is the first chapter of her tetralogy about natural elements (hey, sis, we miss the one about aether), in this case water, but it's also the first part of a diptych which portraits Nietzsche's dichotomy about Apollonian and Dionysian: ROL is obviously the representation of Apollonian. Every aspect of this album is a tribute to rationality and equilibrium, from the sound to the lyrics: every feeling and emotion are calm and measured, there's no excess. Plus the sound evocates the presence of light and sun, the most common symbols of Apollo. Along with these sides, it's surprising the religious syncretism this recond contains: the Frozen video is an astonishing reference to different religions, from the Greek one (the dog, which represents the star Sirius; it's also a reference to the Greek afterword, 'cause dogs populated this realm), the celtic one (the crow, a reference to Morrigan, the goddess of fate and death), to the Hinduist one (Kali). What about the instrumentals? Eargasmic, I could listen to them in eternity (please, take back Orbit). 

Finally, I'd like to thank Anne, Sylvia and William to have inspired her for the lyrics. Love you guys, although you all are dead.

Edited by Loki (see edit history)
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On 1/30/2021 at 3:15 AM, Pootz333 said:

I remember thinking they took too long to show her in the "Ray of Light" video ?

Its still amazing. Really captures the excitement and hope for a new century. Pre- 9/11. The Dan O Rama remix videos are so fun too. She looked sun kissed and gorgeous. The little crystals under her eyes. Tandonna is underrated. 

Omg, you said it perfectly. I too love the "innocence" of the Ray of Light video, like "look what's happening technologically! And a new millennium is coming! Life is getting fast and exciting!". Even though I was only 8 at the time I remember feeling that hope and excitement so the video makes me feel all kinds of nostalgia. I can only imagine it's augmented for people who were older. 

A shame that 2 albums later we had to have American Life because that innocence was crushed in 2001. :/ 

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