Madonna fawns over a true love on “Nothing Fails” and “Intervention.” “Nobody Knows Me” gives a plug for self-improvement, and calls TV a waste of time. “I’m So Stupid” repents of shallowness and greed.
On “X-Static Process,” the soul-searching artist seems to be addressing the Lord (“Jesus Christ, will you look at me”), yet wraps with the blasphemous line, “In the process I forgot that I was just as good as you.” She claims there is no resurrection (“Love Profusion”) and puts her faith in Kabbalah on “American Life”(“This metaphysics s— is dope/And if all this can give me hope/You know I’m satisfied”). Profanities and obscenities earn the disc its parental advisory sticker. “Die Another Day,” the theme song from the popular James Bond film, relies on Psych 101 jargon and Freudian imagery to titillate listeners. On “Hollywood” she sings, “I’m bored with the concept of right and wrong.”
As if trying to downplay her image as the poster girl for hedonistic erotica, Madonna spends much of this disc waxing spiritual. But her New Age theology won’t offer young fans a single ray of light. American Life suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus is, which sets it adrift on a number of levels. Don’t buy American.