American Life

American Life is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on April 22, 2003 by Maverick Records. The RIAA certified it Gold & platinum on July 7, 2003, in recognition of one million shipments throughout the United States, where it has sold 674,000 copies up to November 2008.^[1] It was her last studio album to be released under her contract with Maverick.

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.

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 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.^[2]

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

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 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, where it sold 300,000 copies, and sold four million units worldwide.^[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, 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. 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" (from the soundtrack of the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day) and "American Life" - charted in the Hot 100 chart, the album proved to be a success on the dance charts. It provided eight top-ten hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

"X-Static Process" was released on Decemeber 27th, 2003 in Australia as a radio single. Its B-Side was "Intervention" and would eventually have become a single if "X-Static Process" had reached within the top 10. It peaked at 209 on the ARIA Singles Charts. "Intervention" was to be released in Australia but plans were scrapped and Warner stopped promotion of American Life in 2004.

Singles

Another song on the album, "Die Another Day", was released as a single from the soundtrack of the film Die Another Day in October 2002.

Promotional singles

Certifications, peaks & sales

Personnel

Production

References