 Madonna I usually get on a CD-single kick when the money runs out and it's the only way to provide myself with the illusion that I can still get many CDs, since singles are so much cheaper. I picked this one up because I love the song, and the single was on sale for $5.99 (it's an import). I really wish I thought the whole "Austin Powers" thing was remotely funny, because I like so much of what is associated with it – the soundtracks for both films have been solid, and the action figures are outstanding. But "Beautiful Stranger" is above and beyond the call of duty – it's easily Madonna's best single in a long time, and drives home the point that the lady is truly one of the best pop artists of all time – twenty years into her career she's still capable of cautiously riding trends without seeming like a bandwagoneer. And moreover, her music is as good or better than it ever was. "Beautiful Stranger" is unlike anything you'd associate with Madonna, a crafty blend of 90s production values and 60s musical hooks with one of her strongest vocals ever. It kind of sounds like an outtake from Ray of Light, but only because its bubblegummy nature would have precluded its inclusion on that album – so all hail the mighty standalone single. The single has the standard album version as well as a 10 minute club version which gets pretty deep into the mix, and a radio edit of the club version which is essentially the album version stripped of its frilly 60s window-dressing and tarted up for dancin'. It's great stuff, but at only three tracks it's not the most action-packed Madonna single ever put out. Highly recommended as a keepsake of summer '99, as we were careening toward the millenium and the opening of all our time capsules. I'm surprised there weren't very many holes in the ground from everyone digging up their time capsules, but it's a good thing we didn't need them to use as graves after the robotic thunderbirds destroyed our major cities and left the survivors to feast on the fried corpses of their fallen friends and neighbors. What a boring millenial apocalypse it turned out to be.
Review by Charles Tampon-Padd |