Product Description

'American Life' is Madonna's tenth studio album and the follow-up to her 2000 release, 'Music'. It features eleven new songs, including the title track and single along with the Bond theme, 'Die Another Day'. Written and produced with Mirwais - with whom she collaborated with on 'Music' - the albumalso features production work and remixes from William Orbit and Victor Calderone.

Track Listing

1. American Life
2. Hollywood
3. I'm So Stupid
4. Love Profusion
5. Nobody Knows Me
6. Nothing Fails
7. Intervention
8. X-Static Process
9. Mother and Father
10. Die Another Day
11. Easy Ride

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15785 in Music
• Released on: 2003-04-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
Having reinvented herself for the umpteenth time on her last album of jittery electronic effects and shuffling beats, American Life, finds the Queen of Pop in familiar territory and in a self-obsessed mood. Keeping with the Music formula and utilising the talent of French production-wizard Mirwais Ahmadzai has resulted in an album rich in delightful digital disco rhythms, exuberant electro and shattered beats. In the main, Mirwais' magic makes for spellbinding music; unfortunate then that the 44-year-old mum's self indulgent ramblings induce a less pleasurable stupor. The single "American Life" swaggers along with a jaunty cyber strut, while Madge offers us a witty lyrical dismantling of fame and the attendant somewhat soulless "luxuries". It's hard too feel too much sympathy though and her incessant first-person references (nearly 350 of them) begin to grate even before she announces "I am so stupid 'cause I used to be in a fuzzy dream". As well as sarcastic attacks on the fame machine she has so cleverly oiled during her 21-year tenure as music's monarch, Madge is quick to defend her relationship with a sprinkling of odes to current squeeze Guy Ritchie. Subtle and tender acoustic-based moments such as "X-Static Process" and "Nothing Fails" and the string-led beauty of "Easy Ride" add variety while truculent tracks such as "Hollywood" make for a mixed bag, but one that certainly swings in style. --Christopher Barrett

Customer Reviews

Just Don't Bother
Quite simply the weakest Madonna album in her entire catalogue. A collection of mediocre pop tracks that are seemingly spliced together in the a manner that lacks any sort of logic. One can hardly believe that this is Madonna - the most successful female act ever (UK & US)! What a let down. Madonna aficionados will, of course, have to add it to the collection. Fair enough, but if this is not you, just don't bother.

Nothing fails for madge
Music was a successful album for Maddie and sales rocketed as did her drowned world tour(which was an immediate success)this is an indirect follow up from Music(my favourite album)which turns out to be very good.
much in the same vein as Erotica/Bedtime Stories.
there are a few great tracks on this album,with a techno feel ballad approach i love nobody knows me and Mother and Father,they are great and hard hitting tracks on this album which symbolizes her career and her personal life.
American Life and Die Another Day are extremely strong and also provides a strong beat.
Hollywood is basically mocking the stars in Hollywood and the whole fame system.
Nothing Fails and Love Profusion are calm and reassuring tracks.
Im So Stupid has techno written all over it but it is a fun song.
Intervention is by far the best song on the album which talks about her highs and lows and how she has become the star she is.
Easy Ride finishes off the album in an uplifting tone and shows fans that her career was in fact NOT an easy ride.
very good album,while a footnote to the spectacular Music,it got the #1 spot on the charts and remains an indepandant album and a very hard-hitting one that should be respected...all in all a 8.5/10 from me.
track list-
American Life-10/10-fantastic song and extremely deep.
Hollywood-9/10-great style and a retro feel.
I'm so stupid-9/10-very good change of style for this song:).
Love Profusion-9/10-very calm compared to the rest of the album but still great and very upbeat.
Nobody knows me-10/10-symbolizes Maddie's change as she has gotten older and what a great song it is too.
Nothing fails-10/10-a semi-ballad if you will and again very enjoyable.
Intervention-10/10-awesome song,i personally love it loads.
Mother and Father-9/10-a personal song for Madge about how she coped with her mothers death,while contains a strange up beat techno rhythm for a background.
X-static process-6/10-i can't really get into the song but it does have a sense of pace.
Die Another Day-10/10-a classic song although it had to be released early because the film was released in October 2002 with the album released early 2003 but that doesn't mess with the sheer quality of the song.
Easy Ride-8/10-nice ending to the album which shows that her career was certainly not easy.
all in all a very good album and definitely one of her best(just under the fab Music,Like a prayer,Erotica,True Blue,Confessions,and Hard Candy)and more personal than Ray of Light(if not better in quality:/)get it now if you already don't own it!!!

Revelations of a Superstar
Fresh from the success of the "Drowned World Tour", in 2002 Madonna released the James Bond theme "Die Another Day". A slice of severe avant-garde electronica coupled with perhaps the most personal lyrics of her career (at least in her singles career), one thing seemed apparent: after the rhinestone cowgirl of "Music", Madonna was in a very serious mood. That she should come back as such was no surprise, rumors had circulated that Warner Bros demanded several tracks from her upcoming LP be re-recorded in order to appeal to a wider market and declined her request to work with Aphex Twin (a combination which certainly would have been interesting) amid fear of the product being uncommercial. That a political and spiritually aware Madonna was preparing to launch on the world was implicit and it was from this climate that "American Life" emerged. Blending the electronic genius of Mirwais with her most socially conscious lyrics yet, "American Life" was by far the most abstract record of her career, documenting a woman who had turned her back on what she once called "a material world".

"American Life" opens with lyrics reflective of Madonna's many images that have been hijacked and discarded. " I've tried to be a boy, tried to be a girl" muses a woman who in many senses defined and defied masculine/feminine androgyny throughout her career. Intercepting, throughout a harsh electronic back beat, acoustic guitars provide the almost folk chorus centered around her disillusionment with the American dream. Ranking among both her most artistic and socially charged compositions it is powerful in the truest sense of the word. The brilliant pop sensibilities of "Hollywood" see Madonna on more familiar territory simultaneously offering a sarcastic commentary on the fame machine and a melody that is her most catchy since her "True Blue" days. As the title suggests "I'm So Stupid" is anything but a masterpiece. Easily the most unforgiving recording in her entire career the best that can be said is that her contemporaries have done much less interesting work. "Love Profusion" is as clear as a glass of water on a sunny day and despite of its introspective lyrics ("I have lost all illusions", "there is no resurrection") a genuine innocence is dominant which Madonna as been careful to erase from previous recordings. Kabbalah meets French Techno on the excellent "Nobody Knows Me" which erupts like a dance floor time bomb. The sincerity is almost heartbreaking as she sings that only God knows who she really is.

The religious theme is taken to heavenly heights on "American Life's" finest hour: "Nothing Fails". Less a ballad as much as a hymn, Madonna lyrically documents what she has described as her "experience of the Light" with thoughts such as "you washed away my tears". If one thing binds "American Life" it is a genuinity and honesty throughout every track. "Nothing Fails" embodies both qualities supremely and by the time a gospel choir sings the final lines only the stoniest of hearts would not be moved. Amazing. Folk ballad "Intervention", written as an ode to Guy Ritchie, is perhaps the best indicator of how far removed from her Bad Girl past Madonna is on "American Life". An acoustic track that would sound at home on a Neil Young album it fails to reach either the depth or heights of "Nothing Fails". "X-Static Process" blends together subtle Jewish melodic structures and a vocal so mournful that it calls to mind Madonna at her most bleak ("Oh Father", "Promise to Try") yet in its despair it works a peculiar magic. Second standout track "Mother and Father" is a dance floor filler that comes along at just the right time to save the album from entering misery. Both deeply analytical and emotional to the point that it is painful to hear, "There was a time I believed I'd live forever, there was a time that I prayed to Jesus Christ" she sings at which point the full extent of Madonna's emotional damage becomes clear. "Where's the Party?" this ain't. "Die Another Day" is the driven and determined Madonna of old though this time around her destination is not attaining eternal glamour nor world domination but the destruction of her own ego. Film affectionadios will already have met the acquaintance of its steel like relentlessness. Dirge "Easy Ride" features a Jewish key structure and reveals the true preoccupations of Madonna in its candid lyrics. Its climax from acoustic to electronic techno is a fitting close for what is essentially an Avant Garde album.

Regarded as a respective failure (whatever that means) "American Life" is unique in the Madonna canon. A commentary on a modern materialistic world which she was once the proudest symbol of, Madonna lyrically challenges everything from war to TV. From ten years previous (1993: "Sex" book and the "Girlie Show") she is unrecognizable and this time it is more than an image change but a fundamental change in a woman with very different priorities. Gone is the disco pop of old and in its place is a collection of songs that for the first time reveal Madonna in her weakness' and vulnerabilities and as such "American Life" will be forever lost among glitter and controversies of less importance. The woman which emerges here may not be the Material Girl but God-knows she is more interesting.