American Life
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| American Life | |||||||||||
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| Studio album by Madonna | |||||||||||
| Released | April 22, 2003 | ||||||||||
| Recorded | 2002 | ||||||||||
| Genre | Pop, Electronica, Techno, Dance | ||||||||||
| Length | 49:39 | ||||||||||
| Label | Maverick, Warner Bros. | ||||||||||
| Producer | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï, Mark "Spike" Stent | ||||||||||
| Professional reviews | |||||||||||
| Madonna chronology | |||||||||||
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American Life is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on April 22, 2003 by Maverick Records. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 4 million copies. It was her last studio album to be released under her contract with Maverick.
Contents |
[edit] 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.
Madonna later promoted the album with the remix EP, Remixed & Revisited, and the 2004 Re-Invention World Tour.
[edit] Title, cover and direction
One of the first rumoured 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 revolutionary Che Guevara. 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 pop singer, Björk.
[edit] 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.[1]
American novelty band Beatallica sampled some of Madonna's false song files on their song "Leper Madonna," a mash-up of Metallica's "Leper Messiah" and The Beatles' "Lady Madonna."
[edit] Track listing
| Track | Title | Songwriter(s) | Production credits | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "American Life" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:58 |
| 2. | "Hollywood" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:24 |
| 3. | "I'm So Stupid" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï Additional Production by Mark "Spike" Stent |
4:09 |
| 4. | "Love Profusion" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Nobody Knows Me" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:39 |
| 6. | "Nothing Fails" | Madonna, Guy Sigsworth, Jem Griffiths | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï Additional Production by Mark "Spike" Stent |
4:49 |
| 7. | "Intervention" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:54 |
| 8. | "X-Static Process" | Madonna, Stuart Price | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 3:50 |
| 9. | "Mother and Father" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:33 |
| 10. | "Die Another Day" | Madonna, Mirwais Ahmadzaï | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 4:38 |
| 11. | "Easy Ride" | Madonna, Monte Pittman | Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzaï | 5:05 |
[edit] Commercial reception
The release of the album was a commercial slump for Madonna in the United States, despite the fact that the debut single, "Die Another Day," was a top ten hit, although it was not seen by Madonna, herself, as the debut. The album suffered commercially, in part due to controversy over the first proper 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 album received mixed reviews upon its release, and has sold the least of any Madonna album to date, 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, were it sold 300,000 copies, and at the United World Chart, with 4 million units sold. [2][3]
The second single, "Hollywood," failed to chart in the Hot 100, becoming Madonna's first single in twenty years not to do so. Some claim this happened because many American radio stations refused to play Madonna, because of the controversy surrounding the original video for the previous single. The song was a top-five hit in Argentina, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom and on the United World Chart. 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 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. Beside the flop of all the other singles in the United States, the promotional releases "Nobody Knows Me," and "Mother and Father," became very successful in American clubs, peaking high on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
Despite the fact that only two songs featured in American Life - "Die Another Day" and "American Life" - charted in the Hot 100 chart, the album proved to be a success on the dance charts. It is the only album in history to provide seven top-ten hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
[edit] Singles
| # | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Die Another Day" | October 2002 |
| 2. | "American Life" | April 2003 |
| 3. | "Hollywood" | July 2003 |
| 4. | "Nothing Fails" | December 2003 |
| 5. | "Love Profusion" | December 2003 (Europe/Australia), March 2004 (North America) |
[edit] Promotional singles
| # | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Nobody Knows Me" | October 2003 |
| 2. | "Mother and Father" | April 2005 |
[edit] Certifications, peaks & sales
| Country | Peak position | Certification | Sales/shipments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 3 | Platinum[4] | 70,000+ |
| Belgium | 1 | ||
| Brazil | 1 | Gold[5] | 50,000+ |
| Canada | 1 | Platinum[6] | 100,000 copies shipped |
| Denmark | 2 | Gold[7] | 30,000 copies shipped |
| Europe | 1 | Platinum | 1,000,000+ |
| France | 1 | Platinum[8] | 500,000 copies shipped |
| Germany | 1 | Platinum[9] | 250,000 copies shipped |
| Greece | 1 | Gold | 25,000 copies shipped |
| Hungary | Gold[10] | 5,000+ | |
| Italy | 1 | Platinum | 150,000 copies shipped |
| Japan | 1 | Gold[11] | 100,000 copies shipped |
| Netherlands | 3 | Gold[12] | 60,000 copies shipped |
| New Zealand | 2 | ||
| Norway | 1 | ||
| Spain | 2 | Gold | 50,000+ |
| Sweden | 1 | Gold[13] | 30,000 copies shipped |
| Switzerland | 1 | Platinum[14] | 40,000+ |
| United Kingdom | 1 | Platinum[15] | 300,000 |
| United States | 1 | Platinum[16] | 667,000[16] copies sold, 1,000,000 shipped |
[edit] Personnel
| Madonna | vocals, guitar |
| Michel Colombier | conductor |
| The London Community Gospel Choir | Backing vocals in "Nothing Fails" |
| Mirwais | acoustic guitar, keyboards, programming, background vocals |
| Stuart Price | piano, synthesizers, keyboards, sequencing, programming |
[edit] Production
| Producers | Madonna, Mirwais, Mark "Spike" Stent |
| String engineer | George Foster |
| Assistant engineers | Rob Haggett, Tom Hannen, Jeff Kanan, Tim Lambert, Gabe Sganga, David Treahearn |
| Mastering | Tim Young |
| Programming | Mirwais |
| Choir arrangement | Nicky Brown |
| String arrangements | Michel Colombier |
| Photography | Craig McDean |
[edit] References
- ^ The Smoking Gun: Archive
- ^ Madonna Album Charts and Statistics
- ^ Madonna charts and sale figures
- ^ ARIA
- ^ ABPD
- ^ CRIA
- ^ IFPI Denmark
- ^ Disque En France
- ^ IFPI Germany
- ^ MAHASZ
- ^ RIAJ Certification Awards July 2003
- ^ NVPI
- ^ IFPI Sweden – 2003 Certifications
- ^ IFPI Switzerland
- ^ BPI UK
- ^ a b Billboard – Ask Billboard
| Preceded by Thankful by Kelly Clarkson |
Billboard 200 number-one album May 10 - May 16, 2003 |
Succeeded by Body Kiss by The Isley Brothers feat. Ronald Isley |
