Ray of Light

Ray of Light could be very accurately described as the favorite Madonna of all who hate Madonna, though it should be shocking that people who hate The Queen exist, their existence is an unfortunate reality.

Ray of Light is the least Madonna of all her albums, released just after the birth of her first child and after her conversion of kabbalah, the album brought electronica into the mainstream, and was her first album made entirely without using a single instrument.

The album was also recorded shortly after the completion of Evita, so her voice was at its peak given all the vocal work she did for that film.

The album is also refreshingly uncommercial, it features a song sung entirely in Sanskrit, something very few mainstream pop artists would be able to pull off.

The album begins on a strong if slightly ponderous note, Drowned World/Substitute for Love finds Madonna contemplating fame and everything she has sacrificed. Before launching into Skin and the album's’ title track. The album really finds its rhythm around the middle, with Nothing Really Matters and Frozen being album highlights.

Ray of Light is more of a concept album than a conventional LP, rather than being simply a collection of songs, Ray of Light is truly a record in the truest sense, it feels cohesive and complete, there is a sense of flow and it is a wholly defined piece of art.

The album has a unique sound, and shows Madonna at her most experimental, experimenting with electronica and synthesizers for the first time, the album is soothing and sort of sounds like one is listening to it underwater, everything is softer and slightly more muffled.

Ray of Light is a deeply progressive record and the influences of it are still being heard today, it kickstarted the record industry to embrace electronic music, and it freed mainstream artists from needing to conform to a certain sound, Madonna herself would do well to take her own advice today.

Ray of Light is a hugely thrilling album, and is one that even those most loathing of Madonna will enjoy, it is progressive, original and unique, and it is proof that pop start needn't make generic, conventional records. Ray of Light stands out as not only the best Madonna album, but as one of the greatest pop records of all time.

Production Design of The Truman Show

My previous post focusing on the production design of Tim Burton's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory was reasonably well received, i decided to do a follow up, about The Truman Show. The Truman Show is a film directed by Peter Weir, starring Jim Carrey and Ed Harris. Carrey stars as Truman, a man who lives in a make believe town, where all his actions are filmed, and broadcasted 24 hours a day, on a TV show named The Truman Show, the film revolves around Truman's realization and understanding of the world he lives in, and his ultimate leaving of that world.

The world Truman inhabits is a constructed reality, despite being enclosed in the largest soundstage in the world, it is a universe constructed to look entirely like the world outside. However the town of Seahaven is overly idyllic, the buildings are all clean, well maintained and perfect. The buildings are all unnervingly unblemished, all a bland shade of yellowy-beige and all identical. Seahaven is a town where all the buildings are virtually identical, the town itself is also highly idyllic, all the lawns are perfectly mowed, the pavements perfectly swept. The town is idyllic to the point of even including a harbor and a traditional marble bank. The film makes a clear distinction between on-stage and off-stage environments, on-stage environments are over-lit, overly clean and synthetic looking, off-stage environments, such as the basement of Truman's home, and the room we see behind the elevator shaft.

The interiors of the houses are also highly constructed, garish, bright and synthetic. This introduces the notion that everything is for sale, that this is a designed, artificial world that has been created, the rooms look like the pictures from catalogs for model homes, minus the happy families eating breakfast at the kitchen table. The rooms look highly matched and coordinated, with the tablecloths tending to match the drapes. The characters costumes are also artificial, Truman's wife, Hannah, works as a nurse, and her costume is slightly camp, and highly stereotypical. All of the characters in the film dress in highly archetypal ways, always with perfect hair and makeup, this reinforces the idea that the characters in this film are actors, and that they are playing roles.

The film ends with Truman discovering the truth about his world and existence, and with his decision to leave this artificial reality. The final shot of the film, is Truman standing in front of a door, set into a blue wall, built to represent the sky, up a flight of steps, this iconic image represents Truman's venturing into the unknown, his lack of knowledge about the world outside, but about his understanding that reality is better than the artificial reality that has been constructed for him.