Latest offering from America's favorite mom

Check out Ray of Light sound clips at
The Planet of Sound.

By Jason Heller

Madonna's strong suit has never been originality. She's a star because she knows how to provoke you, and no one is as good as her at picking a trend and redefining it as her own.

Ray of Light, riding the coattails of the latest wave of electronica, is nothing terribly original, but it's easily the best set of songs she's done since Like a Prayer. The opener, "Drowned World/Substitute for Love," fades in with some dreamy keyboard textures and some computer bleeps that don't really have any place in the song. But when the infectious trip-hop beat rolls in, and then the majestic guitar swirls enter mid-song, it's easy to forget the deliberateness of the Material Girl's conversion to the newest-latest electronic music world (courtesy of her new British collaborator William Orbit). The melody is engaging enough to overwhelm any doubts. Such is the case with most of the album. Most songs never get past a slow-boil mid-tempo pace, but the best are utterly enveloping.

The first single, "Frozen," traces a coldly haunting Björk-like melody over a wide-open beat, with almost tolerable lyrics. It all swirls together in various echo patterns at the end of the song. Magnificent. It's the new Madonna sound: slower, more contemplative. This stuff is warmer than her punchy '80s triumphs, but a bit tentative.

Unfortunately, faster songs such as "Candy Perfume," "Skin," and "Sky Fits Heaven" can't be saved by a producer's techno-wizardry. They're droning throwaways, failed dance track experiments that could well have been left off the album entirely. The only up-tempo track that really succeeds is "Nothing Really Matters," a melodically fascinating grind that nicely updates Madonna's '80s dance sound, but with the dippy lyrics that the song title suggests.

The lyrics are more problematic than usual for Madonna on Ray of Light. With the birth of Lourdes Maria, Madonna has found a new, albeit poorly defined spirituality. "Sky Fits Heaven" offers up empty gems like "I think I'll follow my heart/ It's a very good place to start." "Shanti/Ashtangi" is an unconvincing yoga chant that sounds more like Kraftwerk than the Maharishi. "Little Star," a meditation on motherhood, first apes the melody of "Seasons of Love" from Rent, then manages to come up with lyrics than are even more inane, if that's possible. "Never forget who you are/ Little Star." Madonna's kid isn't going to forget who she is anytime soon.

Even with its shortcomings, Ray of Light is often engaging and occasionally brilliant. It's neither as triumphant nor as confident as Like a Prayer, but it's seductive and passionate enough to be worth hearing. Madonna's not the force that she used to be, but her brash rock 'n' roll spirit lives on. She can hide behind electronica chirps and sing about spiritual rebirth all she wants, but she's still our Material Girl.

Back to A&E...