American Life
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American Life is the ninth studio album and sixteenth recording by Madonna, released in 2003 (see 2003 in music).
Album information
American Life is considered to be one of Madonna's riskiest albums both artistically and commercially. Songs on the album are a mix of acoustic and techno music. The lyrics are about her coming to terms with her fame, her own life, and the illusion fame and fortune give you, and that love, over matter, is what brings fulfillment. Mirwais Ahmadzaï (who produced her 2000 hit album Music) came back on board to produce it.
The album suffered commercially, in part, due to controversy over its lead single, "American Life". The video for the single was filmed in the run up to the second Iraq War, and its content was deemed unpatriotic by early reports. This was quickly picked up in the media, which gave the impression that the album was anti-American in content. This was controversial amongst Madonna fans since she is known to never back down. With the pull out of this video - it seems that she was forced to do something she is known to not do; give in.
Madonna decided to withdraw the video, and issued the following statement:
- "I have decided not to release my new video. It was filmed before the war started and I do not believe it is appropriate to air it at this time. Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video."
Album sales aside, American Life was a success on the U.S. club scene. It is the only album in history to provide seven top-ten hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
The album did better in countries which did not support the Iraq war, especially in France where the album reached number 1 and sold more than 500,000 copies.
Songs from the album were performed as part of Madonna's Re-Invention Tour.
Track listing
- "American Life" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:58
- "Hollywood" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:24
- "I'm So Stupid" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:09
- "Love Profusion" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 3:38
- "Nobody Knows Me" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:39
- "Nothing Fails" (Jem, Madonna, Sigsworth)- 4:49
- "Intervention" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:54
- "X-Static Process" (Madonna, Price)- 3:50
- "Mother And Father" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:33
- "Die Another Day" (Ahmadzaï, Madonna)- 4:38
- "Easy Ride" (Madonna, Pittman)- 5:07
Recording process
Madonna started recording American Life in late 2001 after filming Swept Away with her husband Guy Ritchie in Europe. While recording the album in London, England, Madonna was also working on other projects such as her West-End appearance in the play Up For Grabs, which put the recording of the album on hold from May to July 2002. Madonna also did some more film work, filming her cameo-appearance in 2002 for the James Bond film Die Another Day.Recording of the album was finished in London and Los Angeles in late 2002.
Collaboration
American Life saw Madonna collaborate again with Music producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, with whom she co-wrote and produced most of the songs on the album. Ahmadzaï is also credited for doing most of the programming and guitar-play on the album.Madonna also collaborates again with Guy Sigsworth, with whom she had worked on Music. Madonna co-wrote the track "Nothing Fails" with him and British singer-songwriter Jem Griffiths. Sigsworth previously worked with Madonna on "What It Feels Like For A Girl."
Michel Colombier also collaborted with Madonna, after he previously worked with her on some of the string-arrangements on Music and "Die Another Day." Colombier is responsible for all the string-arrangements on American Life and conducted "Easy Ride", "Nothing Fails" and "Die Another Day".
Two new collaborators also worked on the album. Stuart Price, with whom Madonna would later work in 2005 on her album Confessions on a Dancefloor co-wrote the song "X-Static Process" and Monte Pittman co-wrote "Easy Ride". Both musicians had previously worked with Madonna on her "Drowned World Tour" in 2001.
Title, cover and direction
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 with guns. Her hair was dyed dark brown and on the cover of the album Madonna is wearing a beret and is an almost 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.
The 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.
Downloads
Internet users, fans and the general interested public had some difficulty downloading songs from American Life before and after its release. Most of its songs could not be successfully downloaded from online music stores due to many false copies distributed by people associated with Madonna. Once downloaded, the songs 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."Sales
The album's sales were noticeably low in sales in the US in comparison to other Madonna albums. It debuted at #1 with 235,000 copies, but in week two, dropped to #8 with 84,000 copies. The next week, it dropped to #17 with 50,000 copies, and the week after that, it fell to #29 with 32,000 copies. In four weeks, it sold 403,000 copies. It fell out of the Top 50 after just four weeks.Personnel
| Madonna | vocals, electric guitar |
| Michel Colombier | conductor |
| The London Community Gospel Choir | |
| Mirwais | acoustic guitar, background vocals |
| Stuart Price | piano |
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 |
Chart performance
| Chart (2003) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Australia albums chart | 3 |
| Austria albums chart | 1 |
| Canada albums chart | 1 |
| Europe albums chart | 1 |
| Finland albums chart | 2 |
| France albums chart | 1 |
| Germany albums chart | 1 |
| Greece International albums chart | 1 |
| Hungary albums chart | 3 |
| Ireland (Éire) albums chart | 1 |
| Mexico albums chart | 1 |
| New Zealand albums chart | 2 |
| Norway albums chart | 1 |
| Portugal albums chart | 10 |
| Spain albums chart | 2 |
| Sweden albums chart | 1 |
| Switzerland albums chart | 1 |
| Turkey albums chart | 1 |
| UK albums chart | 1 |
| USA Billboard 200 | 1 |
| USA Billboard Top Internet Albums | 1 |
| Billboard 200 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| Chart position | 1 | 8 | 15 | 26 | 49 | 51 | 72 | 93 | 89 | 103 | 125 | 139 | 150 | 188 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| Australia | Platinum |
| Austria | Gold |
| Belgium | Gold |
| Brazil | Platinum |
| Canada | Platinum |
| Europe | Platinum |
| France | Platinum |
| Germany | Platinum |
| Greece | Gold |
| Hungary | Gold |
| Italy | Platinum |
| Ireland | Platinum |
| Mexico | Gold |
| Nederlands | Gold |
| Norway | Gold |
| Singapore | Gold |
| Slovakia | Gold |
| Spain | Gold |
| Sweden | Gold |
| Switzerland | Platinum |
| Thailand | Gold |
| UK | Platinum |
| USA | Platinum |
| Venezuela | Gold |
| Madonna |
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