Music (Madonna Album) - Music Structure and Lyrics

Music Structure and Lyrics

"The first time we cut vocals, my headphones had a little reverb, but there was none on the board when they recorded me. At first, I was mildly freaked out. It sounded so raw. But then I got into the intimacy of how the vocal was presented. In fact, I got into it to the point where I insisted that there be no effects on my vocals anywhere on the album, regardless of the producer."

Madonna about the vocoder's vocal distortion on the song "Nobody's Perfect".

Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani described the album as having a "more experimental direction". With The Face magazine, Madonna explained her inspirations behind the songs and the music of Music. She said, "This record, more than any other records, covers all the areas of my life. I left off partying on Ray of Light. But I'd just had a baby, so my mood was complete, like wonderment of life, and I was incredibly thoughtful and retrospective and intrigued by the mystical aspects of life." "Music", the title track is the first featured on the record. Starting with Madonna's androgynous voice saying "Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on, I want to dance with my baby". Above this lyric, Madonna's voice electronically manipulated asks "Do you like to boogie woogie?" The lyric "I wanna dance with my baby" may further reinforce a connection with gay listenters. According to Santiago Fouz-Hernández in his book Madonna's Drowned Worlds: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations, "Music" is a 'disco anthem, and the beat commands to get up and dance'. He also said that the song is an expression to her public the and it is one of Madonna's cathiest singles of her career. The second track "Impressive Instant" is a club-savvy stomper marked by futuristic keyboard lines and vocals that dark from distorted, and robotic passages. Madonna claimed that the song was the most hardest to write. Madonna sings, "I like to singy, singy, singy, like a bird on a wingy, wingy, wingy", with childlike abandon amid a vibrant, celebratory swirl of electronic keyboard riffs and thumpy dance beats.

The third track, "Runaway Lover", is a trance/house rave track. It is one of Madonna's collaboration for the album. The following track, "I Deserve It", is an acoustic-framed track that is anchored by a hip-hop inflected groove. Madonna said the track "has the strangest juxtaposition of this folky, simple song and this highteeh, ominous synth line." The song lends weight to rich, introspective lyrics, such as the chorus lines: "Many miles, many roads I have traveled, fallen down of the way/Many hearts, many years have unraveled, leading up to today." "Amazing", the fifth track, is a vibrant tempo-shifter that opens with a soft, music-box-like keyboard/string flourish. The song has been compared by Madonna with "Beautiful Stranger" (1999), saying that the reason because she fighted with her record company to cancel the release as a single, was because its similarity. The sixth track, "Nobody's Perfect", shows ethreal vocal and dreamy keyboard. The following track and second single, "Don't Tell Me", was written by Joe Henry, Madonna's brother-in-law. He performed and released the track, originally named "Stop", on his 2001 album Scar. His wife Melanie sent a demo of the track to her sister, who liked it and recorded her version. It is framed by soft acoustic guitars and subtle keyboard lines. The eighth track and third single, "What It Feels Like for a Girl", comments on female role-playing in society. The following track, "Paradise (Not for Me)", has lyrics sang in French, and the lyric "I can't remember, when I was young, I can't express if it was wrong" reflected an artistic palette, "encompassing diverse musical, textual and visual styles in its lyrics." Musically, it draws influence from Edith Piaf. The song was also in Mirwais Ahmadzaï album, Production. The tenth and final track on the album, "Gone", contrasts acoustic guitars with electronic elements. Soulful vocals give depth to such striking, eautionary lyrics as "Turn to stone, lose my faith, and I'll be gone."