![\"Madonna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/madonna-veronica-electronica-2025-billboard-1548.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShe’s got herself a little piece of heaven. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMadonna on ‘Veronica Electronica’ cover<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarner<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a natural urge for computer buffs to perfect everything because they can, and we were very wary of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSo said William Orbit in a July 1998 interview with Keyboard magazine in which the Ray of Light co-producer unpacked the elements used to make Madonna\u2019s electronic masterpiece, released that same year. <\/p>\n
\n\tBut despite the concern about the songs potentially becoming overly produced into plasticity, there was ultimately enough trust for some of the album tracks to be passed on to other computer buffs, who\u2019d morph them into remixes. These edits were reportedly meant for a Ray of Light companion piece that was never released because of the culture-shaking success<\/a> of the original album, which won four Grammys and made everyone with ears and access to MTV want to dance herky jerky in the club like Madonna did in the title track\u2019s iconic video. <\/p>\n \n\tSo finally today (July 25), 27 years after Ray of Light\u2018s release, Veronica Electronica is officially out. Formed from edits made around the time of the album\u2019s creation, some of these remixes have already been fairly well heard, although they\u2019ve not come out together until now.<\/p>\n \n\tWith remixes of seven of Ray of Light\u2018s 13 songs, along with an unreleased demo of a track that didn\u2019t make it onto the album, Veronica Electronica is named for Madonna\u2019s\u00a0Ray of Light\u00a0alter ego and includes work by club wizards Sasha, Victor Calderone, Fabien and Peter Rauhofer and Orbit himself.<\/p>\n \n\tHere is every track on Veronica Electronica, ranked. <\/p>\n \t\u201cGone, Gone, Gone\u201d (Original Demo Version)<\/p>\n \n\tWhen\u00a0Ray of Light\u00a0collaborator Rick Nowels spoke to\u00a0Billboard\u00a0in 2018 for the album\u2019s 20th\u00a0anniversary<\/a>, he talked about writing nine songs with Madonna over the course of two weeks, three of which (\u201cThe Power of Goodbye,\u201d \u201cTo Have and Not to Hold\u201d and \u201cLittle Star\u201d) ended up on the album (another one went to Italian singer Laura Pausini). <\/p>\n \n\tThis is one of the remaining five, a previous unreleased demo that came out of what Nowels said was her directive to \u201cprepare stuff either really radical or really beautiful\u2026 nothing in between.\u201d \u201cGone Gone Gone,\u201d a skittering yet mournful reflection on a dying love affair, skews toward the latter \u2014 though when stacked up against similar fare on the album, you can see why they left it off the tracklist. Still, it\u2019s a worthwhile listen, and you can imagine how some additional studio wizardry and countermelodies may have turned it into something more substantial. \u2014 JOE LYNCH<\/p>\n \t\u201cSky Fits Heaven\u201d (Victor Calderone Future New Edit)<\/p>\n \n\tVictor Calderone, whose career was catapulted to the next level thanks to his work with Madonna circa\u00a0Ray of Light, brings a relentlessly rhythmic version of \u201cSky Fits Heaven\u201d to\u00a0Veronica Electronica\u00a0that\u2019s a far cry from the ambient, thoughtful electronica on the LP. It\u2019s a revamped edit of the \u201cSky Fits Heaven\u201d remix he created to serve as a B-side for the \u201cDrowned World\/Substitute for Love\u201d single in 1998; the changes are slight but smart, making this version feel less tied to \u201890s rave. \u2014 J.L.<\/p>\n \t\u201cNothing Really Matters\u201d (Club 69 Speed Mix Meets The Dub)<\/p>\n \n\tAustrian producer Peter Rauhofer, who\u2019d go on to remix other Madonna songs including \u201cAmerican Life\u201d and \u201cGet Together,\u201d takes on \u201cNothing Really Matters\u201d under his Club 69 alias. This one is well-suited for the after hours as it chugs along as classic \u201990s electronica, with Rauhofer, who sadly passed away from a brain tumor in 2013, occasionally clearing away the spicy, groovy production to make way for Madonna to declare \u201cnothing really matters\/love is all we need.\u201d Beyond that, use of the vocals are limited to her repeating \u201cthe future\u2026 the future,\u201d which this edit surely sounded like when it was created back in \u201998. \u2014 KATIE BAIN<\/p>\n \t\u201cSkin\u201d (Peter & Victor\u2019s Collaboration Remix Edit)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWilliam Orbit brought a toolbox of influences to Ray of Light, helping Madonna make an album that wove in less obvious electronic subgenres like psytrance, flourishes of which are all over \u201cSkin\u201d alongside the Middle Eastern sounds (the galloping beat, a flute solo recorded by Ray of Light producer Marius de Vries while on vacation in Morocco) that he also delivered. <\/p>\n \n\tOn the \u201cSkin\u201d edit, frequent Madonna remixers Victor Calderone and Peter Rauhofer largely do away with these elements, instead centering their take around a punchy three\/four beat synth that\u2019s essentially the electronic equivalent of jazz hands. This grabby, snazzy moment alternates between long ambient stretches that strip away the original\u2019s warm glow production and put Madonna\u2019s vocals at the fore.<\/p>\n \n\tA full minute shorter than the original, one of the \u201cSkin\u201d edit\u2019s cooler moments comes at its end when the producers cut up the \u201ckiss me\u201d lyric into a stuttering request that, in a nod to electronica itself, sounds nearly robotic. \u2014 K.B.<\/p>\n \t\u201cFrozen\u201d (Widescreen Mix and Drums)<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the potent rush of\u00a0Veronica Electronica\u2019s first five songs, \u201cFrozen (Widescreen Mix and Drums)\u201d begins the album\u2019s cool-down period. Helmed by William Orbit, the song\u2019s original co-producer, this version of \u201cFrozen\u201d isn\u2019t radically different from the LP version, until it is \u2013 around the 2:25 mark, the familiar sequencing fades out and double-time drums kick in for an almost\u00a0Twin Peaks-esque detour while a lonely horn murmur in the background. <\/p>\n \n\tIt segues back into a slightly more cinematic version of the familiar edit, splitting the difference between two of the \u201cFrozen\u201d remixes that appeared on the original 1998 single \u2013 the \u201cWidescreen Mix\u201d and the \u201cWilliam Orbit Drumapella\u201d version, ultimately bettering both. \u2014 J.L.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe Power Of Good-Bye\u201d (Fabien\u2019s Good God Mix Edit)<\/p>\n \n\tSometimes you want a remix to just smash the original into pieces and rearrange them into something newer and weirder than one might have thought could be assembled. Fabien deftly accomplishes that here, turning the pulsing, lovelorn ballad \u201cThe Power of Goodbye\u201d into a jerky, hypnotic edit that throws the kitchen sink at it by turning twinkling chimes, moody synths, an acid bassline, ambient riffs and more into a densely layered production so full of life and energy that it seems to actually breathe. <\/p>\n \n\tSmartly Fabienn, the producer born Fabieen Waltmann who passed away last year, keeps the track\u2019s gorgeous string section, turning it into a bridge that maintains the emotional impact of the original while also thrusting it far further into the outer regions of electronica. \u2014 K.B.<\/p>\n \t\u201cDrowned World\/Substitute For Love\u201d (BT & Sasha Bucklodge Ashram New Edit)<\/p>\n \n\tIn terms of serving as an introduction to\u00a0Ray of Light\u2019s odyssey-of-the-soul electronica, \u201cDrowned World\/Substitute for Love\u201d is impossible to beat \u2013 but it\u2019s not exactly a party starter. When it was released as an international single everywhere except for the U.S. in late 1998, BT, an American IDM pioneer, and Sasha, a Welsh pro on the live DJ scene, teamed up for a nine-minute revamp that remedied that.\u00a0Veronica Electronica\u00a0includes a new, five-minute edit of that \u201cBucklodge Ashram\u201d remix, which emphasizes the syncopation, adds a sense of propulsion and turns introspection into a shared dancefloor experience. \u2014 J.L.<\/p>\n \t\u201cRay Of Light\u201d (Sasha Twilo Mix Edit)<\/p>\n \n\tA common remixing convention is drawing tracks out well beyond their original length to create more space for experimentation and impact. Here, however, all-time dance god Sasha \u2014 a titan of the scene now and in \u201998 when he made this remix and named it after the legendary NYC club where he was a resident \u2014 accomplishes as much as the original in roughly the same time, but in wildly different fashion. The Welsh producer trades out the shimmering guitar and swaps in layers of soaring synth and a persistent kickdrum, decisions that mitigate much of the original\u2019s golden shimmer and whip up a punchier and sharper-edged mood.<\/p>\n \n\tBut that\u2019s not to say it\u2019s less ecstatic. Smart enough to sidestep predictability, Sasha doesn\u2019t use us the original\u2019s \u201cand I FEEL!\u201d climax, cleverly only teasing it then instead masterfully piling up industrial percussion, whooshing builds, bubbly acid synths and loads of bright little cosmic flourishes for nearly five minutes, until the whole thing punches open into a same kind of blissed out electronic free-for-all that Orbit (who reportedly invited Sasha to do this mix) delivered on the original.<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s of course no way, and no reason to try, to top \u201cRay of Light\u201d \u2014 a perfect, culture-shifting, generational classic. This one simply shapeshifts it, escorting it out of the pop realm, into the progressive house genre and deeper into clubland without losing any of the the warmth, optimism, inventiveness or heart of the original. \u2014 K.B.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.
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