(SOUNDBITE OF MADONNA SONG, "NOTHING REALLY MATTERS (CLUB 69 SPEED MIX)")
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One of the biggest pop stars in the world has put out a new album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOTHING REALLY MATTERS (CLUB 69 SPEED MIX)")
MADONNA: (Singing) Because of you, you, you, you...
DETROW: I am talking about Madonna. Her album "Veronica Electronica" dropped on Friday. And who better than NPR's Ann Powers to talk about the album and what it says about this mega pop star's career? Ann, welcome back. Always good to talk to you.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: So happy to be here, and I'm ready for the dance floor. How about you?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOTHING REALLY MATTERS (CLUB 69 SPEED MIX)")
MADONNA: (Singing) Love is all we need.
DETROW: So let's start with this. This is not actually new. What is - or maybe I should say, who is - "Veronica Electronica"?
POWERS: Well, "Veronica Electronica" is both a Madonna alter ego and a collection of remixes from her 1998 album "Ray Of Light." So the character is the club kid to the yoga-doing mom that Madonna was in 1998. And the tracks on this record are these really cool remixes of the songs on "Ray Of Light" made by all the DJs she was hanging out with at the time. So while "Ray Of Light" leans toward pop, "Veronica Electronica" is all about the dance floor.
DETROW: What's the best way to think about this character? Like, is there any reality to it? Is it a persona? Is it just, like, channeling a different feel in song?
POWERS: So listening to this album as a whole, all at once, you get to experience what Madonna says it was like for her to be in a club at that time. You kind of basically enter a trance state under the influence of the deejays who are represented by these remixes, like the Welsh DJ Sasha on the remix for the title track, "Ray Of Light."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAY OF LIGHT (SASHA TWILO MIX EDIT)")
MADONNA: (Singing) And I feel like I just got home, and I feel. And I feel like I just got home, and I feel.
POWERS: And it's called the "Twilo Mix" after one of the most famous dance clubs of that time in New York, and it just puts you right in the middle of the dance floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF MADONNA SONG, "RAY OF LIGHT (SASHA TWILO MIX EDIT)")
DETROW: That leads to the question, though - if this has been floating around for a long time, what do fans get from listening to this new album?
POWERS: No, it's a great question. But I think having the tracks all together - it is just a snapshot of Madonna at the peak of her powers. I mean, "Ray Of Light" has emerged as her most important album, even more important than "Like A Prayer," you know...
DETROW: Yeah.
POWERS: ...Or "Like A Virgin." And also this is a snapshot of the late '90s in dance music, when house music was changing, when ambient and trance music were coming in and when the dance floors were just lit with all kinds of really adventurous sounds.
DETROW: There is - there's one song on the album that's not a remix. What can you tell us about "Gone Gone Gone"?
POWERS: Yeah, that's a really cool cut. It was something that Madonna and Rick Nowels came up with a little earlier than the rest of the stuff on this record. And it's this perfect combination of, like, really wide-screen, cinematic sounds and Madonna's more introspective point of view at the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GONE GONE GONE")
MADONNA: (Singing) Begging, pleading. No more emotional violence. The withdrawal into pain.
POWERS: One more thing - I think Madonna's singing on "Ray Of Light" is maybe her best singing. She had just done "Evita." Her voice was in great shape, and it really shows on "Gone Gone Gone."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GONE GONE GONE")
MADONNA: (Singing) Gone, gone, gone. This love affair is over. Gone, gone, gone.
DETROW: You're talking about "Ray Of Light" and kind of it growing in prominence over time...
POWERS: Yeah.
DETROW: ...And the value of listening to all this together. But this new album, this new way of thinking about it, what does it in itself contribute to Madonna's broader legacy?
POWERS: I think it shows us how she is just always on the money when it comes to trends, you know? I mean, she also collaborates so closely with DJs and has throughout her whole career. And some of the names on this record - from Sasha to Victor Calderone to William Orbit, who actually produced most of the original Ray Of Light" - these are people who made a huge mark in dance music history. So it just shows that Madonna is really, really important in not just pop history but in dance music history, as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF MADONNA SONG, "NOTHING REALLY MATTERS (CLUB 69 SPEED MIX)")
DETROW: That is NPR Music's Ann Powers. Ann, thanks as always.
POWERS: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MADONNA SONG, "NOTHING REALLY MATTERS (CLUB 69 SPEED MIX)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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