Ray of Light

有人说这是麦当娜最为成功的一张专辑，它使许多讨厌麦当娜“物质女孩”风格的人不得不对麦当娜另眼相看。1998年麦当娜推出《Ray of Light》，实验了新的音乐风格，她原本以为反映不会太大，但出人意料的是这张唱片迅速登上了排行榜的首位，并自此共4次荣获白金奖。并且被公认为是电子音乐的巅峰之作。“Ray of Light”（光线）在90年代末期改变了Madonna以前流行舞曲的风格，成为了Madonna继“Like a Prayer”之后销量最大的唱片。 这张专辑揉合了时下流行的电子舞曲元素，如Trip-Hop、Bass等，营造一种科技与未来的迷幻空间。这张唱片的制作是威廉姆-奥比特(William Orbit)，这是她自1994年的专辑《给孩子上床前讲的故事》(Bedtime Stories)以来第一次以全新的衣着、形象亮相，表明“物质妈妈”(麦当娜的别称，由其名曲“Material Girl”而来)已经与新的舞蹈音乐的风格完美地结合起来了，将传统流行音乐的风格推向一个新的领域。很明显，就象她的《Austin Powers》中的2首单曲一样，奥比特的努力使“Beautiful Stranger”迅速走红，并为麦当娜赢得了最佳电影MTV音乐电视奖，麦当娜又重新获得了新生。专辑使麦当娜得到当年最佳流行专辑、最佳舞曲以及最佳音乐录影带3个Grammy奖项。

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Returning to pop after a four-year hiatus, Madonna enlisted respected techno producer William Orbit as her collaborator for Ray of Light, a self-conscious effort to stay abreast of contemporary trends. Unlike other veteran artists who attempted to come to terms with electronica, Madonna was always a dance artist, so it's no real shock to hear her sing over breakbeats, pulsating electronics, and blunted trip-hop beats. Still, it's mildly surprising that it works as well as it does, largely due to Madonna and Orbit's subtle attack. They've reigned in the beats, tamed electronica's eccentricities, and retained her flair for pop melodies, creating the first mainstream pop album that successfully embraces techno. Sonically, it's the most adventurous record she has made, but it's far from inaccessible, since the textures are alluring and the songs have a strong melodic foundation, whether it's the swirling title track, the meditative opener, "Substitute for Love," or the ballad "Frozen." For all of its attributes, there's a certain distance to Ray of Light, born of the carefully constructed productions and Madonna's newly mannered, technically precise singing. It all results in her most mature and restrained album, which is an easy achievement to admire, yet not necessarily an easy one to love.