American Life

For the single of the same name from this album, see American Life (song).

American Life
Studio album by Madonna
Released	April 22, 2003
Recorded	June 2002-January 2003
Genre	Pop, electronica, techno, dance, pop rock
Length	49:39
Label	Maverick, Warner Bros.
Producer	Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, Mark "Spike" Stent
Professional reviews
Allmusic link The A.V. Club (negative) link Blender link entertainment.ie link Entertainment Weekly (B-) link The Guardian link NME (7/10) link Robert Christgau link Rolling Stone link Slant Magazine link Stylus (F) link Yahoo! Music UK link
Madonna chronology
GHV2 (2001) American Life (2003) Remixed & Revisited (2003) Singles from American Life "Die Another Day" Released: October 22, 2002 "American Life" Released: April 8, 2003 (US) April 14, 2003 (Non-US) "Hollywood" Released: July 3, 2003 (Europe) July 8, 2003 (US) "Nothing Fails" Released: November 21, 2003 (Europe) "Love Profusion" Released: December 8, 2003 (Europe and Australia) March 16, 2004 (North American)

American Life is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on April 22, 2003 by Maverick Records. The RIAA certified it platinum on July 7, 2003, in recognition of one million shipments throughout the United States, where it has sold 674,000 copies. It was the 32nd best selling album worldwide of 2003^[1] and was her final studio album with Maverick, marking the end of a 20 year recording history. Despite strong critical success, it remains the lowest selling studio album of her career.

Album information

American Life was mostly composed and entirely produced by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï. The two had previously collaborated together on the studio album Music (2000). Other songwriting collaborators on the album were Monte Pittman, Stuart Price, British singer-songwriter Jem Griffiths and Guy Sigsworth, who had previously worked on the song, "What It Feels Like for a Girl," from the Music album. Composer Michel Colombier, who previously worked on some of the string-arrangements on Music also contributed. Colombier is responsible for all the string-arrangements on American Life, and conducted "Easy Ride," "Nothing Fails," and "Die Another Day."

Madonna started recording the album in 2002, after filming the movie Swept Away. While recording the album in London, England, she also worked on other projects, such as her West-End appearance in the play, Up For Grabs, and filming her cameo-appearance in the James Bond film Die Another Day. Recording of the album was finished in London and Los Angeles in late 2002.

American Life is often considered a concept album with its recurring themes of the American Dream and materialism. The themes reject the reputation Madonna held in the 1980's with her hit "Material Girl". Despite the record being commercially unsuccessful, it was critically acclaimed by many reviewers for being a new direction for the singer and the incorporation of acoustic and synth in many of the tracks.

Madonna initially promoted the record by playing the songs at smaller venues on the American Life Promo Tour. She later supported the album with her worldwide Re-Invention World Tour in 2004, subsequently releasing the remix EP Remixed & Revisited

The album is Madonna's second album to bear a "Parental Advisory" label (the only other albums to do so being 1992's Erotica and 2007's The Confessions Tour).

Title, cover and direction

One of the first rumored titles of the album was Ein Sof, which Madonna had mentioned in an interview with Larry King in October 2002, during the promotion for Swept Away. "Ein Sof" is Hebrew, and means "no end." In early 2003, it was revealed that the working title for the album was Hollywood (a song on the album), until the final title, American Life was confirmed on February 10, 2003.

In mid-January 2003, in Los Angeles, the photo shoot for the album was done by photographer Craig McDean. McDean had already worked with Madonna for the portfolio for Vanity Fair magazine in October 2002. According to unconfirmed reports, the photo shoot cost $415,000. It had a military theme, with Madonna posing in dark greens and blacks, combat boots, and holding guns. Her hair was dyed dark brown, and on the cover of the album, Madonna is wearing a beret and is almost a copy of the famous image of Che Guevara. In an interview to the Italian version of TV show Top of the Pops she said that the choice to emulate Che's image was because she likes what he represents and was feeling revolutionary when she wrote the album.^[2] Because of the paramilitary theme, the dyed hair and the artistic composition, some see a parallel between the album cover and the infamous news photo of kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

French design-team M/M Paris were responsible for the artwork of American Life. M/M Paris is a partnership between Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak. The duo are perhaps best known for their collaborations with Icelandic musician Björk.

Downloads and website hack

To counter illegal Internet downloads of the album's songs both before and after the album's release, Madonna's associates created a number of false song files of similar length and size. Some of these files delivered a brief message from Madonna saying "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" followed by minutes of silence. Other dummy files included Madonna quasi-rapping, "Thought you'd sneak past me, didn't you? Thought you'd get by me, now didn't you?" and an endless loop of the line "I'm drinking a soy latte, I get a double shoté, it goes right through my body and you know I'm satisfied" from the track "American Life."

Madonna's website was hacked, with a message appearing on the front, saying "This is what the fuck I think I'm doing...," followed by download links for each of the album's songs.^[3] It is unknown who hacked the website, although many investigations lead that the hacking was a result after Madonna leaked faked song titles, as it was a prank to insult Madonna's way of counter-attacking illegal downloads.

American novelty band Beatallica sampled some of Madonna's false song files on their song "Leper Madonna," a parody combining Metallica's "Leper Messiah" and The Beatles' "Lady Madonna."

Track listing

Additional notes:

• "I'm So Stupid" and "Nothing Fails": Additional Production by Mark "Spike" Stent.

Commercial reception

The release of the album was a commercial slump for Madonna in the United States, in part due to controversy over the first single, "American Life". The anti-war content of its music video was interpreted as being unpatriotic, making Madonna withdraw its release for American music channels. She issued a statement saying she did so because she believed it was not appropriate to air it at that time, and that she did not want to risk offending anyone who could misinterpret its meaning. The song reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #37.

The album received mixed reviews upon its release, and sold the least of any Madonna album worldwide. American Life debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 241,000 copies sold in its first week; it was her second consecutive number one debut, and her fifth number one overall in the United States. It also peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, where it sold 300,000 copies, and sold four million units worldwide.^[4]

The second single, "Hollywood", failed to chart in the Hot 100, becoming Madonna's first single in twenty years not to do so. The song was a top-five hit in Argentina, Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The next single, "Nothing Fails", also failed to chart in the United States. It peaked in the top-ten in Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Italy and Spain. "Love Profusion", the album's final physical single, peaked in the top-ten only in Canada, Greece and Italy. It missed the top-ten of the UK Singles Chart by just one place. Despite the flop of all the other singles on the pop chart in the United States, the promotional releases, "Nobody Knows Me" and "Mother and Father", became very successful in American clubs, peaking at #4 and #9 respectively on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. American Life became the first album to achieve seven top-ten songs on this chart.^[5]

Singles

"American Life" The single was panned by music critics. "Nobody Knows Me" The track reached #4 in the U.S. Dance chart and was later performed in the Re-Invention Tour. "Nothing Fails" The song failed to chart in the U.S. and was Madonna's lowest charting single in Eurochart Hot 100 since "Another Suitcase in Another Hall". "X-Static Process" "X-Static Process" was one of the few praised songs from the album.

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Promotional singles

Certifications, peaks and sales

Personnel

Production

References

http://www.madonna.com

http://iomusic.com/Bands_and_Artists/M/Madonna/