Veronica Electronica has entered the club.
Madonna’s long-rumored Ray of Light remix album becomes reality today (Friday, July 25), with the project featuring rare and unreleased edits of songs from her 1998 masterpiece.
Remixers on the project include Ray of Light co-creator William Orbit and clubs kings Peter Rauhofer, Sasha, BT and Victor Calderone. Veronica Electronica also includes the original demo of “Gone, Gone, Gone,” a previously unreleased recording co-produced by Madonna and Rick Nowels, who co-wrote several Ray of Light tracks alongside her in the late ’90s.
The rest of the tracklist includes “Drowned World/Substitute For Love,” “Ray Of Light,” “Skin,” “Nothing Really Matters,” “Sky Fits Heaven,” “Frozen” and “The Power Of Good-Bye.”
Released in February of 1998, Ray of Light spent 78 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 2. (The Titanic soundtrack blocked it from the top spot.) It generated four Hot 100 hits with the title track, “Frozen,” “The Power of Goodbye” and “Nothing Really Matters” and won four Grammy awards, including the trophy for best pop album, in 1999.
Ray of Light was of course a major moment for electronic music’s mainstream crossover, with Madonna being the first major pop artist to do an entirely electronic album and thus helping push ’90s club culture onto radio and into pop culture. While Veronica Electronica was originally intended to be a remix companion to Ray of Light, it was shelved due to the success of the album, which ultimately sold more than 16 million copies.
27 years later, the project is out and ready for the weekend. Stream it below.