Wth is this Rolling Stone piece by Andy Greene claiming 'American Life' as one of the "50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists"

[mazzona 80]

26th Place:

Madonna’s output from her 1983 debut LP all the way to 2000’s Music is one of the most impressive runs in the history of pop music. She went through Bowie-like stylistic changes with practically every album but always stayed on top of trends and never lost her ability to generate hits. All of that came to a screeching halt in 2003 with American Life. Released weeks after the start of the Iraq War, the album finds Madonna confronting a post-9/11 world and a desire to move beyond narcissistic desires. “I used to live in a tiny bubble,” she sings on “I’m So Stupid.” “And I wanted to be like all the pretty people that were all around me/But now I know for sure that I was stupid.” These are noble sentiments, but the music came at a time when she was just learning how to play guitar and rap. Her skills at both were rather rudimentary, and her decision to work with French techno producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï (who had been on board for the more successful Music) added yet another element that caused the whole project to become hopelessly muddled when it wasn’t just downright embarrassing. The world in 2003 had little use for Madonna the folk guitarist or Madonna the rapper. When she reverted back to dance music for 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, it was a tacit acknowledgement that she’d made a horrible mistake.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/horrible-albums-by-brilliant-artists-1234672895/

 

Language of the article is overall horrible and demeaning. Another piece of S written by a meh.

[Future Lover 1,004]

While I and many other fans do love and adore this album, I think we've just got make peace with the fact that those outside of her fanbase generally see this as one of her weakest, if not her weakest effort. The general public likely hasn't heard much beyond Hard Candy or maybe MDNA, so of the albums they're familiar with in full, then this is probably going to end up being their least favorite. 

[Velvet Rope 5,932]

I mean Rolling Stone nowadays is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, ageist and overall just massive giant joke of a music journalism cesspit so it's not at all surprising they said this.

[Fabiolous 5,488]

I mean, I love American life but this is a fair opinion. I'm so stupid IS embarrassing. The rap was also pretty bad. And as beautiful as songs like Nothing fails and Xstatic process are, they do sound disjointed next to the heavily electro songs

[thegoldencalf 12,573]

1 hour ago, Future Lover said:

While I and many other fans do love and adore this album, I think we've just got make peace with the fact that those outside of her fanbase generally see this as one of her weakest, if not her weakest effort. The general public likely hasn't heard much beyond Hard Candy or maybe MDNA, so of the albums they're familiar with in full, then this is probably going to end up being their least favorite. 

That’s not true. There’s many people outside her fan base that love the album.

And Rolling Stone has become a complete joke…

[Drownedboy 1,657]

I love American Life, she souded amazing and Nothing fails or Love Profussion or Easy Ride or Intervention are soooo emotional and so goood and so different to other records of her. One of her best albums ever. 

[dankpepe 1,040]

I've been listening to 1 full Madonna album per day every day just as hype for the tour and re-listening to American Life, the production quality is very good. Her voice is so crisp and layered. I wouldn't say it's her best but it's far from her worst.

 

[Future Lover 1,004]

1 hour ago, thegoldencalf said:

That’s not true. There’s many people outside her fan base that love the album

I’m sure there are, but we cannot rewrite history here. It was largely rejected by general audiences at the time and while it’s standing has improved, I’d best most causal listeners would put it somewhere toward the middle. 

It’s continued presence on lists like this, it’s poor scores on Rate Your Music and it’s good but not great scores on Album of the Year—all done by audiences—show that a large part of casual listeners and general audiences don’t consider it to be one of her best. 

And like I said, a lot of the general public stopped tuning in for new music from MDNA forward, so AL will stick out to them as one they’d call weaker since it stands out among the albums they know of her. 

And that’s okay. It’s not an album everyone will love and it’s one of the least commercial projects she’s ever released so of course the devotional will like it more than normies will. 

[Roland Barthes 5,814]

Again, Rolling Stone is now a blog. They sacked the journalists when it was sold and replaced the editor in chief by the one from trashy rag The Daily Beast. Just like Pitchfork, they now hire bloggers to produce content. I'm not talking about articles but content, that is what listicles like this are, they are made to create trafic. That's the world i've left.

[Pretender1978 992]

LOL what a piece of bad and ill informed "journalism" Madonna did not touch a guitar while recording any of AL so if the guitar playing is rudimentary blame Mirwais who has played the thing his whole life Just as you can't talk about Erotica without taking about the sex book, you can't not mention the AL video and the major backlash she experienced. Also Americans should really stop talking about "the world" when they mean their own little narrow minded continent, Europe was in full electroclash and folktronica mode at that time. Still AL wasn't anywhere near as succesful as it should have been

[Brendanlovesu1 11,875]

when was the last time rolling stone was relevant lol

[Ari Interactive 275]

American Life for me is an Okay album

What's horrible is MX. The Autotune is Suicide 

[madaboutM 474]

My favorite part of AL is “Nothing Fails” and it wasn’t even written by Madonna. I still remember Jem, its Welsh writer, on a radio interview pondering with surprise why Madonna got a writing credit on the song when she basically only changed a word or two. 

[Levon 2,223]

They call her "brilliant artist". After all, that's quite nice. Somehow.

[MDNA22 1,163]

Yeah is not as strong as Music or Confessions - but is a masterpiece compared to MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X

Nothing Fails, Love Profusion and Easy Ride - fantastic 

Paul Oakenfold, Sander K and Stuart Price remixes of Hollywood - all fantastic 

Live version of Nobody Knows Me on the Re-Invention Tour - fantastic 

Vocals and engineering on the album great too - even if the production is a bit sparse

[Jackie 8,023]

She took a massive risk with such a departure of what her brand was - dance - this was very folk, raw, stripped back and mixed with electronic appliqués.

Commercially it was a totally failure - but I don’t think it’s a bad album - I really like it - I just think it’s such a departure of her brand.  

It didn’t help also that she was attacking the American institution - she’s lucky she survived - Dixie chicks did it and “died”.

[Sultrysully 2,864]

Garbage article.  People who "cant", often criticize.  

[Ayham 5,471]

[milingo83 7,158]

31 minutes ago, Jackie said:

She took a massive risk with such a departure of what her brand was - dance - this was very folk, raw, stripped back and mixed with electronic appliqués.

Commercially it was a totally failure - but I don’t think it’s a bad album - I really like it - I just think it’s such a departure of her brand.  

It didn’t help also that she was attacking the American institution - she’s lucky she survived - Dixie chicks did it and “died”.

A failure of 5 million copies in 2003 (when cd was at begging of their commercial low).

[Jackie 8,023]

Just now, milingo83 said:

A failure of 5 million copies in 2003 (when cd was at begging of their commercial low).

In the context of Madonna it was yes - in America, the first week opening sales were her lowest ever.  I agree though perhaps that wasn't the best way to phrase it - 5mil is bar far not a failure, any breakthrough artist would be over the moon with those sales!

[Fabiolous 5,488]

20 hours ago, Pretender1978 said:

LOL what a piece of bad and ill informed "journalism" Madonna did not touch a guitar while recording any of AL so if the guitar playing is rudimentary blame Mirwais who has played the thing his whole life Just as you can't talk about Erotica without taking about the sex book, you can't not mention the AL video and the major backlash she experienced. Also Americans should really stop talking about "the world" when they mean their own little narrow minded continent, Europe was in full electroclash and folktronica mode at that time. Still AL wasn't anywhere near as succesful as it should have been

Madonna wrote most songs by herself on her guitar before meeting with Mirwais. Except for Nothing fails which was written by Joe Henry

[Blue Jean 15,103]

19 hours ago, Levon said:

They call her "brilliant artist". After all, that's quite nice. Somehow.

That is true

[Blue Jean 15,103]

8 hours ago, milingo83 said:

A failure of 5 million copies in 2003 (when cd was at begging of their commercial low).

It was a flop for a mainstream pop artist as big as Madonna. And critically panned.

I don’t really understand why because it’s a great album. As someone else said, it’s better than her last 3 albums. I think a lot of it hung on the lead single which even though I love the song, was not a good choice. I specifically remember the song itself being torn to shreds when it came out. Having said that I also remember Die Another Day also copped a lot of criticism. More so as it was being evaluated as a “bond theme song” and was a bit too left of field for that audience.

[Blue Jean 15,103]

8 hours ago, Jackie said:

In the context of Madonna it was yes - in America, the first week opening sales were her lowest ever.  I agree though perhaps that wasn't the best way to phrase it - 5mil is bar far not a failure, any breakthrough artist would be over the moon with those sales!

I think you are right, it did ok internationally and produced a few hits in a lot of territories. That’s why the overall sales are not so low. But in America it was the start of radio completely ignoring her.

[Blue Jean 15,103]

23 hours ago, thegoldencalf said:

That’s not true. There’s many people outside her fan base that love the album.

And Rolling Stone has become a complete joke…

They are not a reputable publication anymore. Do they even print physical copies or just online click bait?