Madonna - Revenge (1998)

Following the release of her compilation album 'Something To Remember' in 1995, Madonna started taking vocal lessons in preparation for her role in the film of 'Evita', and later that year she gave birth to her daughter, Lourdes, and both of these events inspired a period of introspection for her. This was also around the time that she embraced Kabbalah and started studying Hinduism and yoga, and so all of this which was going on in her life helped her see the world from a different perspective. By May 1997 she had started writing songs for her next album, collaborating with Babyface, who had first worked with her on her previous album, 1994's 'Bedtime Stories', and the two wrote a couple of songs together before Madonna decided the collaborations were not going in the musical direction she wanted for the album. She instead turned to musician Rick Nowels, who had previously co-written songs with Stevie Nicks and Celine Dion, and this collaboration produced seven songs in nine days, although one of these displayed the album's future electronic musical direction. Madonna then began writing songs with Patrick Leonard, who had produced many songs for her in the late 1980's, but she felt that Leonard's production would have lent the songs more of a 'Peter Gabriel' vibe, which was a sound that she did not want for the album. Guy Oseary, chairman of Maverick Records, then phoned British electronic musician William Orbit, and suggested that he send some songs to Madonna, and a 13-track digital audio tape duly arrived for her to listen to. With Orbit on board, recording began in early June 1997, with Madonna listening to musical snippets that Orbit was working on over and over until she was inspired to write lyrics, and once she had an idea about the lyrical direction of the song, she would take her ideas back to Orbit, and they would expand on them. The album was recorded over four and a half months at Larrabee North Studio in North Hollywood, California, beginning in mid-June 1997, and was the longest that Madonna had ever worked on an album, as Orbit preferred to work with samples and synth sounds, rather than live musicians, and his computers were constantly breaking down, delaying recording until they were repaired. 

The finished album was a stylistic and aesthetic departure from her previous work, being an electronica and techno-pop record which incorporated multiple genres, including ambient, trip hop, psychedelia, and Middle Eastern music, while also seeing Madonna singing with greater breadth and a fuller tone. Having gone through so many collaborators before settling on Orbit, it's no surprise that there are a number of songs floating around that didn't make the album, particularly those written with Babyface, Leonard, and Nowels, as well as some with Orbit himself. 'Gone, Gone, Gone' is a pre-Orbit recording, sometimes referred to as 'Gone Gone Gone (This Love Affair Is Over)', while 'Like A Flower' was written around this time, but only leaked online in 2003, with it later being given to Italian singer Laura Pausini for her 2004 album 'Resta In Ascolto'. 'Revenge' was one of the early demos from 1997, produced by Greg Fitzgerald and Rick Nowels, and when it leaked in 2002 it was rumored to be a newly recorded song for the James Bond movie 'Die Another Day'. 'Be Careful' was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, and is possibly an early version of the song 'Be Careful (Cuidado Con Mi Corazon)', recorded with Ricky Martin and William Orbit, although Leonard is not credited on the released Madonna/Orbit version with Ricky Martin. 'No Substitute For Love' was the original name for what became 'Drowned World/Substitute For Love' on the album, where it was re-recorded with different lyrics, vocal melody and instrumentation, while 'You'll Stay' is a variation of 'Like A Flower' with different lyrics, and with a lovely stripped-back Latin flavour to it. 'I'll Be Gone' and 'Never Love A Stranger' are two of the songs produced by Babyface before that collaboration broke down, and so once again there are enough out-takes from the 'Ray Of Light' sessions to put together a companion record that could have come out some time in the three years before 'Music' appeared in 2000. Obviously it doesn't have the cohesion of 'Ray Of Light', as the songs were written with a number of different producers, and each had their own style, but there are still some fine pieces on here, in particular 'Like A Flower'/'You'll Stay', and so it's definitely worth hearing.  

Track listing
 
01 Be Careful  
02 Has To Be #1      
03 No Substitute For Love 
04 You'll Stay
05 Revenge
06 Never Love A Stranger
07 I'll Be Gone  
08 Has To Be #2  
09 Like A Flower
10 Gone Gone Gone