Channeling acid electronica, Kabbalah, and motherhood, Madonna’s 1998 reinvention stripped away the controversy of her past and became one of her most unexpectedly successful albums.

受迷幻電子樂(lè)、卡巴拉教、母親身份的影響，Madonna在1998年脫胎換骨拂去往昔的爭(zhēng)議，創(chuàng)造出她最出乎意料的成功作品之一。

Today is Madonna Day in the Pitchfork Reviews section; in honor of her birthday, we reviewed four of her key records.

今天Pitchfork只評(píng)Madonna的專(zhuān)輯，為慶祝她的生日，我們回顧了四張她的經(jīng)典專(zhuān)輯（《Madonna》《Like A Prayer》《Bedtime Stories》《Ray of Light》）。

There was no reason?Ray of Light?should’ve been such a hit. After the collapse of grunge in the mid-90s, the music industry had begun to lean into the perky pubescence of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. 1998 was the year that “TRL” launched on MTV, and soon after,?Britney Spears?would release her teasing teen debut, ...Baby One More Time, catalyzing a string of young women—like fellow teens?Christina Aguilera?and?Mandy Moore—to overrun the charts with coy love songs. But in the eye of this gathering storm of adolescence,?Madonna, then 39 years old, released?Ray of Light—and it became the best selling studio album of her career since Nielsen began tracking retail, a record it still holds. How did a monastic and austere album about emotional and spiritual maturity by a woman and new mother strike such a chord?

專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》照理不會(huì)大獲成功。90年代中期，車(chē)庫(kù)搖滾衰退后，音樂(lè)產(chǎn)業(yè)開(kāi)始向Backstreet Boys與*NSYNC那樣的青春活力的方向發(fā)展。1998年MTV名下的節(jié)目“TRL”誕生（Totally Requested Live），不久之后Britney Spears發(fā)行挑逗人心的青少年偶像出道專(zhuān)輯《...Baby One More Time》，并推動(dòng)出一系列年輕女性雨后春筍般的崛起，如Christina Aguilera和Mandy Moore，她們含蓄羞澀的情歌鋪天蓋地。然而在青少年偶像風(fēng)暴般蓬勃的時(shí)代下，當(dāng)時(shí)39歲的Madonna發(fā)行了專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》——之后成為她職業(yè)生涯中自Nielsen開(kāi)始零售販賣(mài)后最暢銷(xiāo)的一張專(zhuān)輯。為何一張講述一個(gè)女人同時(shí)也是母親 情感和精神上的成熟，主打尼姑風(fēng)，禁欲風(fēng)的專(zhuān)輯，能引起那么許多人的共鳴？

Madonna was still in full control of the serpentine pop instincts that had helped her masterfully navigate more than 15 years in the business. Her last studio album had been 1994’s?Bedtime Stories, an alluring and accessible collection of mostly R&B, produced, in part, by Dallas Austin and?Babyface.?Bedtime Stories?had been its own soft reinvention after the fetishistic and controversial era of?Erotica, and it was a big deal: the Babyface-produced “Take a Bow” spent seven weeks atop the Billboard charts, her longest-ever run at No. 1. Presumably hoping to recreate that magic, Madonna turned to Babyface again at the outset of the?Ray of Light?sessions. But past success never presumes future performance for Madonna, and she abandoned Babyface after, as he put it diplomatically to?Q, she “changed her idea about the album’s direction.”

Madonna靈敏的流行嗅覺(jué)幫助她在行業(yè)超長(zhǎng)待機(jī)15年后依舊能馳騁樂(lè)壇。她的上一張專(zhuān)輯《Bedtime Stories》于1994年發(fā)行，一張迷人且親民的專(zhuān)輯，部分歌曲由Dallas Austin及Babyfa制作人制作，專(zhuān)輯大體是R&B曲風(fēng)。在充滿戀物癖和飽受爭(zhēng)議的Erotica時(shí)期后，專(zhuān)輯《Bedtime Stories》完成了一次柔軟的重生，對(duì)她來(lái)說(shuō)是舉足輕重的一步：由Babyface制作的《Take A Bow》成為稱霸7周Billboard的冠軍單曲，她奪冠周數(shù)最多的單曲。大概率是想再創(chuàng)佳績(jī)，剛開(kāi)始錄制專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》時(shí)的Madonna再次與Babyface合作。然而過(guò)往的輝煌對(duì)Madonna來(lái)說(shuō)卻不能給未來(lái)打包票，她之后便拋棄了與Babyface的合作，誠(chéng)如Q雜志刊登的她的官方說(shuō)法：“”她轉(zhuǎn)變了專(zhuān)輯方向。”

It was another song on?Bedtime Stories?that offered the biggest clue into the?Ray of Light?to come: the?Bj?rk-assisted title track, “Bedtime Story,” a new age song on which she sings of relaxing “in the arms of unconsciousness,” and her deepest yet exploration of avant-garde electronica. After ditching Babyface, Madonna sought out William Orbit, an English producer best known for a smattering of understated ambient albums. Madonna liked Orbit, as she said in an unfortunately clumsy way, for “fusing a kind of futuristic sound but also using lots of Indian and Moroccan influences and things like that.” He would end up co-producing every song on?Ray of Light?but one.

《Bedtime Stories》另一首歌可以表現(xiàn)《Ray of Light》世界來(lái)臨的先兆，那就是Bjork操刀的專(zhuān)輯同名曲《Bedtime Story》，一首引領(lǐng)時(shí)代的歌曲，她輕緩地唱道“in the arms of unconsciousness”，是她至今對(duì)前衛(wèi)電子樂(lè)最深入的探索。棄用Babyface后，Madonna找上了以幾張低調(diào)的環(huán)境音專(zhuān)輯而聞名的英國(guó)制作人William Orbit。Madonna喜歡William Orbit，正如她以一種不幸很笨拙的方式說(shuō)道：“在混合未來(lái)風(fēng)音效的同時(shí)，也會(huì)受印度、摩洛哥風(fēng)格影響的東西?！弊詈骔illam Orbit參與制作專(zhuān)輯每首歌，除了一首。

Orbit’s work throughout gives?Ray of Light?a unified tonal consistency, a kind of cohesion that masterworks are made of. He has a light touch with techno textures, both relaxed (flashes of acoustic guitar ground some of the most digitized moments) and danceable—after all, it can’t be a Madonna album if it can’t work in the club. “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” opens the album with bleary sound effects that pulse like the sound of sonar. This submerged quality of sound will become the bleary canvas for the album’s philosophical manifesto, as clear a declaration as can be imagined of the new Madonna that we will meet on the album. Here, she not just embodies her reinvention, as she had done with previous creative shifts, but goes ahead and describes it in full detail. There is no missing the point.

William Orbit的參與自始自終貫穿專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》，賦予專(zhuān)輯一致性，協(xié)調(diào)性，造就一件杰作，還有大師之作必不可少的凝聚力。他對(duì)Techno音樂(lè)超強(qiáng)的掌控能力，做出來(lái)的成品既愜意（原木吉他聲閃爍在數(shù)字化音效的時(shí)候）又可作為舞池音樂(lè)，畢竟不能在俱樂(lè)部播放的專(zhuān)輯就不是Madonna的專(zhuān)輯了。歌曲《Drowned the World/Substitute of Love》在如同聲吶爆炸，模糊的聲效下拉開(kāi)整張專(zhuān)輯序幕，這種沉浸在水中的質(zhì)感，為整張專(zhuān)輯要展現(xiàn)的哲學(xué)宣言墊上了一塊畫(huà)布，專(zhuān)輯中清晰的哲學(xué)宣言中我們也能接觸到一個(gè)新的Madonna。這里她不僅展現(xiàn)了她的重生，正如她在老專(zhuān)輯里也展現(xiàn)過(guò)，這次她走得更遠(yuǎn)，更具體剖析自我，每一細(xì)節(jié)都不容錯(cuò)過(guò)。

In the hangover from the hedonism that was her early ’90s era, Madonna gave birth to her first child, Lourdes and had begun to embrace yoga and the Jewish mystical practice of Kabbalah. Gone is the wry kinkiness and, at least according to her, the addiction to the spotlight, replaced with wisdom and patience and a powerful maternal instinct. “I traveled ’round the world, looking for a home/I found myself in crowded rooms, feeling so alone,” she sings on “Drowned World.” “Now I find I’ve changed my mind/This is my religion.” It is a moving song, arguably the album’s best. In the music video, as she says these last words, she is seen smiling and hugging a toddler who has her back to the camera, a girl we assume to be Lourdes. Maybe those pulsating beats that open the album evoke not so much a world under the sea, but a child’s heartbeat heard through amniotic fluid, or even the sound of this new version of Madonna being gestated. Whatever they mean to you, Madonna, once more likely to embrace a near-naked man in one of her clips, manifests as a publically doting mother right before our eyes.

在90年代享樂(lè)主義時(shí)期影響下，Madonna生下她第一個(gè)孩子Lourdes，開(kāi)始學(xué)瑜珈，進(jìn)行猶太神秘的卡巴拉儀式。婊氣的譏諷都一去不復(fù)返了，至少據(jù)Madonna所說(shuō)，對(duì)聚光燈的沉溺已被智慧、耐心及強(qiáng)大的母性本能所取代。在歌曲《Drowned the World/Substitute of Love》中她唱： “I traveled ’round the world, looking for a home/I found myself in crowded rooms, feeling so alone,”然后又說(shuō)“Now I find I’ve changed my mind/This is my religion.”?。多催人淚下的一首歌，也許是專(zhuān)輯里最好的歌。MV中當(dāng)她唱完時(shí)，我們可以看見(jiàn)她微笑著擁抱一個(gè)背向鏡頭的小女孩，我們認(rèn)為這個(gè)女孩就是Lourdes?；蛟S專(zhuān)輯開(kāi)頭那些均勻震動(dòng)的節(jié)拍構(gòu)建的并不是一個(gè)海底世界，而是可以從羊水中聽(tīng)到的孩子的心跳，或甚至是一個(gè)新Madonna在孕育的聲音。無(wú)論這些聲音對(duì)你有什么意義，曾經(jīng)那個(gè)在MV中擁抱鮮有衣物遮蓋的男人時(shí)的Madonna，向我們展示了她溺愛(ài)孩子的母親的一面。

Reinvention, thanks to the template that Madonna set, is almost a cliché ritual in pop, like a motion that must be gone through for every star who needs a hook upon which to hang their new album. So too is self-discovery: How many times have you heard an artist claim that this album, the newest one, is her or his “most personal one yet”? But on?Ray of Light, Madonna is so all-in committed to her metamorphosis that it’s hard not to believe her. “Nothing Really Matters” is a Buddhist-lite song about living in the moment and discarding the selfish motives of stardom. Even the notable love songs on the album, like the transcendent “The Power of Good-Bye,” are about turning away from the chaotic romantic entanglements that once characterized her public life and lyrics. “You were my lesson I had to learn,” she sings, as if all the turmoil she sang of on past albums had just melted away.

重生，正因Madonna開(kāi)創(chuàng)的先河，重生在流行樂(lè)壇中已經(jīng)是過(guò)于濫用的儀式了，每個(gè)明星要發(fā)布新作品時(shí)都以此當(dāng)噱頭宣傳，像是必走的流程一樣。自我探索亦是，大家也聽(tīng)過(guò)很多次“這是我迄今為止最私人專(zhuān)輯”這類(lèi)的話了吧。但在專(zhuān)輯《Ray Of Light》中，Madonna如此全心全意的專(zhuān)注于她的轉(zhuǎn)變上，使我們很難不信服她。歌曲《Nothing Really Matters》是首佛教般冷淡的歌曲，講述活在當(dāng)下，拋棄為名而生的自私動(dòng)機(jī)。盡管專(zhuān)輯里幾首最顯眼的情歌，像出類(lèi)拔萃的歌曲《The Power of Good-Bye》，都是講述著擺脫混亂的愛(ài)情糾葛，這曾是描繪她聚光燈生活的特征和歌詞。“You were my lesson I had to learn”她唱道，好像她在過(guò)往專(zhuān)輯里提到過(guò)的混亂也隨之無(wú)影無(wú)蹤。

With what’s happened to the culture since, it’s easy to bemoan Madonna opening up the floodgates of this airy, sacred lifestyle:?Ray of Light?has to be in some ways to blame for Goop and the countless other millionaire celebrities—everyone from Jessica Alba to Dr. Oz—who preach the gospel of wholeness and wellness, sanctimonious and Instagram spirituality. And yet, on?Ray of Light, Madonna sounds so confident and alluringly in control of her powers, you might be able to overlook the more dubious moments, like “Shanti/Ashtangi,” in which she recites a hymn in Sanskrit over a techno-pop beat.

自從專(zhuān)輯面世后造成的文化沖擊后，很多人或許會(huì)埋怨Madonna開(kāi)創(chuàng)的這種無(wú)憂無(wú)慮、非世俗生活方式的流行：某種程度上，專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》要為一下人事物負(fù)責(zé)，電商Goop，無(wú)數(shù)來(lái)自從Jessica Alba,到Dr. Oz這樣地方并成為百萬(wàn)富翁的名人——宣揚(yáng)信仰的完整與富足，偽善Instagram式的精神生活。然而，在專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》中，Madonna聽(tīng)起來(lái)很有自信，自我力量掌控的模樣十分迷人，你可能會(huì)忽略一些比較迷惑的時(shí)刻，如歌曲《Shanti/Ashanti》中她在Techno-pop節(jié)奏下，用梵文背誦贊美詩(shī)。

Madonna had recently taken voice lessons for her role in the musical?Evita?and, as she put it about her work prior to improving her technique, “There was a whole piece of my voice I wasn’t using. And I was going to make the most of it.” Her newly trained voice explodes out of the speakers on the title track, the character of her upper register suddenly like crystal. Though “Ray of Light” is “a mystical look at the universe and how small we are,” it’s also just one of the strangest songs in history to ever become a radio smash, a sugar-high piece of acid-club psychedelia. She also exposes a certain vulnerability that had not been on display in the heady days of?Erotica. “Mer Girl,” which closes the album, is a tender psalm about the death of her mom. It ends the album on a remarkably reflective and unresolved note, while also pointing to the reason Madonna has needed to be so many different people across her life to begin with: “I ran and I ran,” she sings. “I’m still running away.”

當(dāng)時(shí)Madonna為她在電影《Evita》扮演的角色接受了聲樂(lè)訓(xùn)練，她談到為工作提高自己的嗓音機(jī)能時(shí)說(shuō)：“有一整段聲音我從未使用過(guò)，我得最大程度地利用好它?！?，比起提升技術(shù)，她更在乎作品的成果。在專(zhuān)輯同名曲《Ray of Light》中，她煥然一新，訓(xùn)練過(guò)的歌聲從音響中爆發(fā)時(shí)，高音區(qū)的質(zhì)感霎時(shí)變?yōu)樗О?。盡管歌曲《Ray of Light》用神秘的眼光探討宇宙以及我們的渺小，它也是史上最古怪的電臺(tái)熱單之一，?一首甜度超標(biāo)的迷幻舞曲。她也展現(xiàn)了從未在令人陶醉的Erotica時(shí)期流露的脆弱，專(zhuān)輯結(jié)尾曲《Mer Girl》是關(guān)于她母親去世的溫柔贊美詩(shī)，這首歌以一種令人深思和迷惑不解的音調(diào)收尾專(zhuān)輯，也指出為何Madonna從生命伊始起就扮演不同的角色。“I ran and I ran,” 她唱道?“I’m still running away.”。

Madonna played a large role in reopening mainstream American music to the club sounds of Europe in ways that have reverberated since. You can hear?Ray of Light?in artists as disparate as Britney, who worked with Orbit years after Madonna on “Alien,” to the adventurous producer and vocalist?Grimes, who called?Ray of Light?a “masterpiece.” It is important, in 2017, to reveal something serious about yourself and the world through your work if you are a pop artist, and much of this can be traced back to?Ray of Light,?not to mention?Janet Jackson?and?George Michael, who in the years before also made ambitious and weighty records.

Madonna在歐洲Club音樂(lè)重新接受美國(guó)主流音樂(lè)方面的扮演了重要角色，影響經(jīng)久不衰。你可以在不同的藝人里聽(tīng)到《Ray of Light》的影子：如Britney Spears你都還能在她與William Orbit合作的歌曲《Alien》；熱衷挑戰(zhàn)的制作人，歌手Grimes稱贊《Ray of Light》是件杰作。在當(dāng)今2017年，一個(gè)流行藝術(shù)家如何用作品認(rèn)真地向世界表達(dá)自己的想法是非常重要的，這些作品很多都可以追溯到專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》上，更不用提Janet Jackson和George Michael在幾年前也曾做過(guò)的野心和影響后輩的作品。

If I have one major gripe with?Ray of Light, it’s a certain dissonance that this born-again Madonna causes in me that other reinventions did not. As a young gay man, I had been ennobled by Madonna’s earlier hedonistic pride, excited by her exaggerated glamour (though also aware of its problematic aspects: her provocative image, particularly in the song and video “Vogue,” heavily cribs from black and latino gay culture) and defiant sexuality. There are times I feel a bit confused listening to?Ray of Light?as she all but dismisses her prior escapades, referring to them as a “silly game” on “Drowned World.” Perhaps it’s unfair to lay this responsibility at her feet, but I had always felt that Madonna’s liberated vision of life, in part, reflected my own, a life that, because of any number of circumstances or choices, might not involve kids and a family and red brick home, or any of the traditional domestic and spiritual touchstones venerated on?Ray of Light. This is not a knock at her, really—life is complicated and filled with phases, something that Madonna’s career has come to symbolize.Maybe, too, it’s nice to have a fantasy of peace after the tumult that is our twenties and thirties, even if it’s mostly just that: a fantasy. I’m certainly not there yet, but it’s perhaps reassuring to hear Madonna—content on the other side of chaos—let us know that all the breakups and late nights and insecurities will someday culminate in stability.

如果我對(duì)專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》有什么不滿的話，那就是只有這次重生的Madonna震感到我了，其他的重生產(chǎn)物都沒(méi)有。作為一個(gè)年輕的同性戀者，我被她早期享樂(lè)主義式的驕傲所鼓舞，對(duì)她夸張的奢華，具挑釁性的性感行為感到激動(dòng)（盡管也注意到有問(wèn)題的地方：她在特別是《Vogue》MV里的極具侵略性形象是從黑人或拉丁裔的同志文化中偷來(lái)的）。有時(shí)聽(tīng)專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》會(huì)讓我感到困惑，因?yàn)樗龓缀醴穸怂八龅某龈裥袨椋诟枨禗rowned the World》中稱這些事只是"silly game"。也許把責(zé)任推給她有些不公平，不過(guò)我總一直覺(jué)得Madonna的對(duì)生活解放的憧憬，在某種程度上，反映了我自身，盡管我不可能有孩子，家庭，紅磚砌的房子，及任何專(zhuān)輯《Ray of Light》所推崇的傳統(tǒng)家庭觀，精神境界。這不是要攻擊她，只是因?yàn)槿松軓?fù)雜，具不同的階段，一些Madonna事業(yè)所象征的事物?；蛟S，在二三十歲的喧囂過(guò)后，能有一種平靜的幻想也是不錯(cuò)的，即使它基本上只是一種幻想。我還沒(méi)到那一步，不過(guò)聽(tīng)到她滿足于背離混亂，告訴我們所有的深夜分手，不安感終將以穩(wěn)定告終時(shí)，或許是能安心的。

Of course, we know how it ultimately ended. Just one album later, the disco-tinged?Music, Madonna would admit to feeling trapped by the quieter life. “I feel like an animal that's, like, ready to be sprung from a cage,” she’d tell?The Face?at the time of the release of?Music, which, with its winking attitude, helped her keep up with the vampy Britney, by then fully ascendant and coming for her crown. “I’ve been living a pretty low-key domestic existence and I miss things.” So much for all that. For a brief shining moment with?Ray of Light, Madonna became Her Holiness, the sage of synth pop. And the world heeded the call.

當(dāng)然，我們都知道最終的結(jié)局。僅僅是一張專(zhuān)輯后，略帶迪斯科味的專(zhuān)輯《Music》問(wèn)世，在《Music》剛發(fā)行時(shí)，Madonna對(duì)The Face雜志坦言：“承認(rèn)自己被靜謐的生活困住了，像只從牢籠里蓄勢(shì)待發(fā)要跳出來(lái)的猛獸?！边@種反復(fù)橫跳的態(tài)度，幫助她更上了青春橫溢的Britney Spears的步伐，當(dāng)時(shí)絕對(duì)的頂流人物?！斑@些年我一直低調(diào)地過(guò)著家庭主婦生活，我很懷念過(guò)往?！弊罱K總結(jié)，在短暫閃耀的《Ray of Light》時(shí)期中，Madonna成為她自己的教皇，synth pop圣人，全世界都在留意著這一呼吁。