Chuck L

Madonna's American Life: Any Reviews?

This is the one Madonna album since she started that I am holding off on buying.

The lead single does nothing for me and after the suck-fest that "Music" was, I am very weary.

Anybody here checked it out yet? What's your thoughts.

Al B. C

I thought that was one of her best albums in years.

Oh well.

AndrewD

USA Today gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

"The naughty nymph who breached taboos in 1992's Sex book is back to expose herself again. Brace yourself. This philosophical striptease act is a true revelation.

Aimed more at the head than the hips, American Life, which arrives in stores today, offers an all-access pass into Madonna's psyche. It's not a lurid undressing room but an offstage confessional where the intrepid diva jettisons her jet-setting lifestyle for a spiritual plane."


http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/r...-madonna_x.htm

CraigL

Picked it up today but had it last week. Warning: this review is from someone with over 200 madonna cd's alone.

Helps when you have actual sound files and they're not the crap that MTV put out.

I agree that it's better than Music which was as average as it comes for me (ASIDE from Impressive Instant which was absolutely fantastic).

The album is TOO guitar heavy...and the lyrics are horrible. Madonna is the George Lucas of music. Great music. Great ideas. Revolutionary. Can't write dialogue for shit.

It's definitely growing on me and I have to say that i hated it the first time I heard it. Would I have given it a second thought if i weren't a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Madonna fan? I dunno.

Ray of Light was as perfect as she's ever gotten. It was the perfect blend of mainstream pop coupled with great songwriting and sounds. She needs to drop Mirwais because if she doesn't, I will.

I guess I'm going to leave this up to the individual but it'll be interesting to see how well it sells next week. They were FLYING off the shelves at the Best Buy I bought it at. The gay boys couldn't contain themselves. I guess it didn't hurt that it was only $10.

Pick it up...especially if you're near a Best Buy.

Michael St. Clair

This is the best track related to the album.

http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com/au...t_The_Fuck.mp3

Kevin Deacon

I was going to pick this up today, but because of the above quote I guess I should mailorder this one

MichaelBryant

I just got it today and the album isn't as bad as Music is. Her songwriting has graduated from the second grade level style she used on Music to that of a third or fourth grader on this project. Listening to the lyrics I have come to the conclusion Madonna has always been the media manipulator she has been accused of. Most of the songwriting is very hollow and not convincing at all. Whoever the real Madonna is I am convinced we will never know. Instead she will continue with fake and contradicting personas that she will claim are deep and insightful. I guess it's taken me years to figure out what the average person has probably always known. Most of the songs are good but I don't take them seriously because they are so transparent. The folk songs in particular are so generic I have to wonder why Madonna bothered recording them. The two she placed on the Music CD are much better.

There is one song that breaks into the most cheesy church choir background vocals I have ever heard. It was so bad I had to turn the song off. They are so out of place and come off sounding like a gimmick to infuse the song some deep spiritual feeling. I don't remember the name of the track but you can bet I will never play that one again.

I know it sounds like I hate the album but I don't. It’s just after listening to it I finally realize how fake Madonna really is. American Life is a commercial album badly disguised as a serious message album. Just look at the album art with all the uniformed Madonna military pictures. They are a gimmick that has nothing to do with songs on the CD.

Lee Scoggins

I heard this over the weekend and was very disappointed. The lyrics are just plain silly. After the Music disaster, this only confirms that Madonna has lost it.

American Life is just someone jacking off on the synthesizer. There is no lyrical content.

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

CraigL

keith,

there WAS advance warning...

in fact...there was a HUGE $hitstorm of notice when madonna pulled the video. You couldn't have really expected it to be released with the CD.

If you should be mad at anyone, be mad at the retailer you bought it from.

Aside from my comments when I first got the album, I absolutely adore it and can't take it out of my CD player.
Tracks 3-5 are bliss.

Mikael Soderholm

How true! Ray of Light was perfect, William Orbit knows how to produce a record and bring out the artist's sound, and not necessarily his own (although, to be honest, it DID sound quite a bit like William Orbit as well).

With Mirwais, however, it sounds way too much like him and not enought of the Material Girl herself.

American Life does grow, however, but it doesn't really go into Orbit, so to speak

/Mikael

- "Do you indulge in any form of worship?"
-"Life. I love life, very much indeed."
David Bowie interviewed by Russell Harty, 1973