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Madonna Ray Of Light (WEA) HHHH
This is how important Madonna still is: she can do her new single on the National Lottery and wake up Sunday morning with credibility undamaged. Even the Lottery's world-class tackiness can't sully her. Nor can the voluminous black ballgown that rendered her a cross between Joan Collins and a rook. She glowed anyway.
So, nice to find the charisma in working order, but can she still make decent records? Well, yes. All the advance hype about Ray Of Light being her best album since 1989's Like A Prayer is substantially true. It was clear after the sexcentricity of the last studio LPs, Erotica and Bedtime Stories, that the next would have to be markedly different - and it is.
She's done what superstars at a crossroads do - found religion. As the most famous Catholic in showbiz she already had it, but the birth of her daughter awakened, she claims, deeper spiritual needs. `Obviously, that was a big catalyst for me. It took me on a search for answers to questions I'd never...