Earth Mother
ST. JOHN’S, NL—For the umpteenth time: Ray of Light, from 1998, is my all-time favorite Madonna album:
She recorded it shortly after completing her intensive vocal training for Evita and after giving birth to her first child. During that time, she was also exploring the Kabbalah, East Indian spirituality, and yoga—though in their Hollywood bastardizations. Nevertheless, these practices helped her maintain her sanity, and that clarity and sobriety were very evident in Ray of Light. As a result, many fans consider it her most beautiful work ever.
Ray of Light’s follow-up was supposed to be a sequel of sorts—Madonna doing more Electronica in a companion piece that was to be called Veronica Electronica. (Veronica is her Confirmation name, and “Veronica Electronica,” the temperate and serene earth mother, was her alter-ego/persona while recording Ray of Light.) But Madonna soon got tired of Electronica and moved on to other interests, and so the project was scrapped.
Fans like me were then elated when it was announced last June 5 that Veronica Electronica will finally be officially released as a remix EP on July 25—although the unreleased remixes included in it, along with many discarded tracks from the Ray of Light sessions, have been floating around the Internet for years.
However, we’d rather have Veronica Electronica as a proper album of rarities from the Ray of Light sessions (such as Like a Flower, Has to Be, and Revenge) than as a collection of remixes.
I, for one, hate remixes. All of them are boring. The only good remixes are the ones by Jennifer Lopez from her 2002 album J to tha L–O! The Remixes. But let me remind you that it was Madonna who literally invented the remix album in 1988:
Nevertheless, I ordered Veronica Electronica on June 5, but this is what I got on July 28—Disappointment #2:
Luckily, I’m in St. John’s at the moment, and copies of the album are available at the record shop. I couldn’t wait anymore, so I bought one:
This is what I think about the release of Veronica Electronica—never mind what I think about the music in it. Madonna is now way too ancient to be molded and marketed by any Svengali, but—if she is serious about resurrecting her dead career and regaining the fame and relevance that she had lost—she still really need to ditch her long-time manager already and hire new and better publicists.
Anyway, whatever peace Madonna had found when she was recording Ray of Light also showed in her outward composure or demeanor then, and so I’m glad that photos from the Ray of Light photoshoots (and the iconic Ray of Light logo) were used for Veronica Electronica.
I do like the album packaging and art of Veronica Electronica:
