"Ray of Light"

Madonna
(Maverick/Warner Bros., 1998)

The Girl Least Likely To Age Gracefully defies the odds and invents club music for grown-ups. Poignant, spiritual, rich with detail, and pumping harder than an E'd-out teenager's fist, "Ray of Light" is a magnificent song about the end of mourning and, thanks to William Orbit's brilliant, original production, a magnificent piece of dance music -- what's the last time you heard a club track with this much guitar? It's also Madonna's greatest vocal performance: she sounds radiant with joy, and her final scream sends the whole thing into the stratosphere.

-- Douglas Wolk