American Life is a subtly drawn concept album that offers political commentary alongside Hollywood satire. After working with Ahmadzaï on Music, Madonna decided to stick with the “futuristic folk” sound that they had created on the previous album. The politically charged lyrics are better interwoven with Nord Lead synthesizers, over-filtering, and country samples. While producing American Life, Ahmadzaï includes a few acoustic guitars, which pair more intuitively with anti-war proclamations, and ultimately gives the album a smooth and consistent foundation.

Madonna also sounds more comfortable in her second attempt at “futuristic folk,” and opens up lyrically in ways she hadn’t since Ray Of Light. The key difference is that although the album is introspective, it lacks the spiritual references that had been present in various iterations across her career. In American Life, she is self critical and equally as scathing of the music industry, but doesn’t indulge us in the higher wisdom she found from yoga/Kabbalah/an ancient text you probably have never heard of because like, it’s super rare.