Saturday 21 July 2012

GUEST SPOT #44 - Madonna "Ray of Light"

This weeks guest post has been submitted by Bryn!

Madonna - 'Ray of Light' 


So it's 2012 now, and Madonna is out on tour with yet another new album. Even considering that Madonna put her first single out thirty years ago, somehow it's still difficult to believe that 'Ray of Light', which represented her most drastic self-reinvention up to that point, is now nearly half her career ago. That turning point in 1998 brought a lot of new people into Madonna's fan circle. I hadn't ever really been crazy about her, but at the time I was well into the style of William Orbit, and when I first heard 'Ray of Light' on the radio I just knew the song had something to do with Orbit. That his presence is felt so strongly both on the song and throughout the album is a credit to it, and was something so very different from anything Madonna had done before. The song came out on CD (remember those?) in May, and I pretty much spent the entire summer with it on repeat. This was very out of character for me; I had never really been a Top 40 kind of girl and 'Ray of Light' gave me hope that chart music could actually be decent. Obviously radio pop has taken a lot of twists and turns since that fateful summer, as has Madonna's career, but this will always be a standout song for me, and pretty much takes me right back to 1998 every time I hear it.

 

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GUEST SPOT #44 - Madonna "Ray of Light"
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21 July 2012 at 07:08

Thanks Bryn for the guest spot! I've always been a Madonna fan really since the 80's, you can't argue with her back catalogue, some timeless pop songs! You have to admire her and the way she reinvents herself each time creating new trends as she does. She's completely bonkers though, as her latest foray shows, I'm not so sure if I want to see her arse anymore. Anyway William Orbit's inclusion in this album was a stroke of genius, this as well as Candy Perfume Girl (with it's EPMD Hip Hop beat) being my favourites. Thanks for sharing the memories!

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21 July 2012 at 13:02

Good call Bryn. This single and the accompanying album were very popular round my neck of the woods as well. This no doubt says more about William Orbit than Madge for me too as I've never been a huge fan, but I can remember these tunes being like a breath of fresh air at the time. Good to hear this one again, thanks for posting.

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24 July 2012 at 10:12

Good call, Bryn! I'd forgotten how much I loved this track. I started to really like Madonna again when this came out, god was it really that long ago! A weird coincidence too, I just listened to William Orbit's The Best of Strange Cargo. I'm becoming quite the fan. Thanks for posting!

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24 July 2012 at 10:19

Even Old Pa likes Madonna....and good choice too!!

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