Word: madonna
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Material mom, faux East Indian princess, club-hopping sugar mama--Madonna moves from phase to phase with lunar remoteness. As on her last CD, Ray of Light, she continues to navigate her way through electronica, this time with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzai. Less adventurous than Ray, Music is more consistent. Madonna has to work hard to summon real emotion, but a few songs, including the skittery Don't Tell Me, manage a dry pathos. Locked in orbit high above mere mortals, she still has the power, on occasion, to turn our tides...
...every time Madonna makes a movie: What are they thinking? For the answer, let's turn to the plot of "America's Sweethearts," in which fictional filmmakers hide the harsh truth in order to push their product. The overwhelmingly liberal denizens of Hollywood realize that the FTC report on marketing violence has provided the Democrats a springboard for some good old-fashioned family-values campaigning. Standing on a family-values platform is like casting Richard Gere in a movie. It doesn't guarantee a hit, but it's a decent bet, and even the most hotheaded limousine liberal will...
There's also a lot of electronica ballads on the CD--and it's in the context of these ballads that Madonna has made the most progress. Her weakness has traditionally been shallow lyrics; regardless of what emotions she tries to conjure, Madonna always comes off as slightly pretentious, coolly arrogant, and almost never genuine or warm. But Mirwais solves this problem by eliminating the electric contortions on these slower tracks and leaving Madonna's voice naked and credible against the synthesizers...
...number eight track, "What It Feels Like for a Girl," which comes off as a lyrical counterpoint to Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants." In the latter, of course, the blond teen queen sings of boys who can please their girls by "knowing exactly" what they want. Madonna doesn't sympathize: "Good little girls they never show it / When you open up your mouth to speak / Could you be a little weak? / Do you know what it feels like for a girl...
...knows where Madonna goes from here? Who cares? She's been so successful, so consistent, so spectacular with her risk-taking that we never have to doubt the quality or the thought put into each one of her ventures. Critics, of course, have made a career out of predicting her doomsday. And she's made a career out of proving them wrong...