Stranger

Was so surprised and thrilled to hear IDSIF played at the main gay club in Helsinki on the weekend! I so rarely hear her played in clubs in London (where I live) anymore, sadly.

In the end I went there with my partner (neither of us had tickets) to see if there might be any returns, as we live just 30 mins from Ally Pally. We asked the people at the reception who were in charge of the venue for the evening if there would be any chance to be seated if seats were left empty. They refused and said it wouldn't be possible as latecomers would be allowed in throughout the event. It's incredibly annoying to see so many empty seats in the end, having been there and been turned away. At least I've got tickets for three shows on the tour AND the album is coming out in 30 mins (champagne is on the ice). AND I turned down a ticket to Graham Norton today in order to spend time with a sick relative. Going through a lot of emotions right now.

Do you guys think there might be any chance of returns at the door if someone who got tickets doesn’t show up? Having difficulty accepting that I won’t be there...

I entered but haven’t received a link. Gutted. Anyone have any spare tickets...?

I thought the song was about the end of a relationship. For me, it's easily the best track of the second half of the album. So beautiful and hauntingly stunning. I hadn't heard the demo before and thought on first listen that the final version was just perfect - the only track on the album to give me shivers (except of course the original Rebel Heart which made me cry on first listen).

Just got home. Waited for hours only to be told that noone who wasn't either a production guest or a priority guest was getting in; why issue tickets? I'm frozen but let's hope at least that the performances are going to silence this era's critics and give the album a much needed push. I would have loved to be there and me and my boyfriend even took the day off work but that's just how these things go sometimes I suppose...

It says on the tickets that not everyone will get in as they issue more tickets than there is capacity for...

I recently got into a facebook conversation about the album and decided to try to articulate my fondness for the album as best I could: I often feel that American Life is the last time in her career that the music genuinely evidences an artist's passion for the work she is making. At times it results in clumsy lyrics (like rhyming 'circle' with 'circle') or in statements that may appear naive to more cynical, less privileged listeners, but viewing that as a consequence of what I feel is a real urgency and honesty to the message she is delivering, coupled with a real willingness to experiment sonically, to me it becomes part of the record's charm. The album has been criticised as self-indulgent, but that's exactly what I love about it: even if at times naive, it is a portrait of an artist looking for meaning, an amazing window into the mind of a super-celebrity without peer, an icon entering a new millennium. Sonically and thematically it's one of the most coherent albums she's ever produced, something which usually only comes out a of the kind of special artistic bond she appears to have shared with Mirwais, with whom she seemed genuinely excited to be stretching the boundaries of contemporary music. In many ways it seems like a very personal project, with less attention paid to commercial demands (according to rumours Warner had her re-record the whole album after hearing more experimental demos of the songs which, according to some reports were closer in sound to the harder Headcleanr remixes later released on the Remixed and Revisited EP). I have to admit to having been somewhat disappointed at the time of its release with the apparent lack of aural evolution from the predecessor, Music, but have since come to appreciate what I now view as a maturing of the sound developed with Mirwais, a collaboration which, to a perhaps greater extent than any of her others, allowed her the joy and pleasure of re-discovering and pushing herself as a musician. Whilst I have enjoyed her albums since to varying degrees, it's this sort of passionate engagement with the outside world and reflection on her place therein that keeps drawing me back to the American Life album and which I feel her music has for the most part been lacking ever since.

As a potential album title yes, but I really like the title "Revolt" that someone here suggested before.

Promise To Try X-Static Process These I think are the only two Madonna songs that have made me cry.

I Don't Give A in Hyde Park has to be up there ("I don't even feel the pressure" couldn't sound less convincing in that moment ) :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYwTEN8LZqo

"Gwyneth Paltrow on having better abs than Madonna" http://www.independent.ie/videos/entertainment/gwyneth-paltrow-on-having-better-abs-than-madonna-29203890.html

I loved it and still do. Just rediscovered it recently. "Who dat be!?" and "I can do that!" are have certainly had longevity in my life...

Amazing footage.

Completely off-topic but For ten years I've thought she sings "dress and go". Just checked the lyrics online, and feel like a flop fan....