The night was dark and breezy, but not too unbearably frigid considering it was only the third day of March. A midnight album release was something for which only one woman could convince me to postpone my bedtime, and there was something special in the air that compelled me forward. Before the instantaneous nature of the internet took off, entertainment news was still being whispered mostly on television and in print, and I got most of my info from the bible of ‘Entertainment Weekly’ or the purple section of USA Today. Still, word had trickled through about Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ album, and on its opening release day (night) in America, I stood in a line snaking around the Tower Records that once stood on Newbury Street in Boston.
Her voice was booming thunderously on the sound system, and as we slowly advanced around the perimeter of the store, the title track came on and I understood that we were experiencing one of the greatest Madonna moments of all time. ‘Ray of Light’ turns 25 this year, and it still stands as her best album to date. While it’s incredibly risky to put a cap and definitive label on anything Madonna-related (she remains a transfixing and newsworthy woman, about to embark on her much-anticipated ‘Celebration Tour’ honoring four decades of music) it looks likely that ‘Ray of Light’ will remain her best album for a while. Its string of singles alone is legendary.
Lead track ‘Frozen’ had taken the world by mystical storm earlier that winter, an electronic ballad that heralded Madonna’s return to the pop throne she had helped craft in the 80’s, while pushing forward the boundaries of what pop music was, and what it might encompass. ‘Frozen’ was unlike anything Madonna had ever sung before, even if heartache and hope were mainstays of all her best music.
Title track ‘Ray of Light’ could barely be held back as it raced out as the second single. Pounding through the summer of 1998, it sounded a clarion call for pop glory throughout the world and is still one of Madonna’s most beloved bops. That primal squeal of joy at its conclusion is pure heaven.
The ballads are what ‘Ray of Light’ may be most rightly renowned for – including third single ‘The Power of Goodbye’ which absolutely nails the pop song as a cathartic experience. For all her provocative wizardry, Madonna has been one of my favorite artists because of her knack for making heartache and healing resonant through music. Saying goodbye to someone and surviving is a universal undertaking; Madonna sets it to evocative music here, as she does on the entire ‘Ray of Light’ album, and the results are breathtaking.
The final official single in the United States was ‘Nothing Really Matters‘, a song that initially paled in comparison to the rest of the album, but has since advanced in my appreciation. At the time, it felt like a throwback to the earlier Madonna, a little light on message and meaning compared to something like the stunning album closer ‘Mer Girl’ but I’ve come to enjoy its pop magic in the ensuing years. Besides, Madonna is as much about celebration as she is about rumination – probably a bit more-so than the ‘Ray of Light’ album might lead one to believe.
While the album is celebrating its 25th anniversary, it’s worth noting that ‘Ray of Light’ came out about fifteen years after Madonna’s debut. That’s the mark of an artist who is far more than the one-hit… well, now fifty-hit, wonder that many wrote her off to be all those years ago. It’s the mark of an artist in constant evolution, one who is unafraid to try new things and move forward to discover new visions. Most of all, it’s the mark of an artist who has defied the notions of what pop music can be, and what our pop stars can accomplish, and ‘Ray of Light’ remains her most potent and enduring testament to that power.
TRACK LISTING:
- Drowned World: Substitute for Love
- Swim
- Ray of Light
- Candy Perfume Girl
- Skin
- Nothing Really Matters
- Sky Fits Heaven
- Shanti/Ashtangi
- Frozen
- The Power of Goodbye
- To Have and Not To Hold
- Little Star
- Mer Girl
