She's deep, she's disco

Introspective, confessional albums are not usually concerned with beats-per-minute but, then again, Madonna has never been one to follow convention.

Ray of Light, the Material Girl's first CD since becoming a Maternal Woman, is at once her most personal statement since 1989's Like a Prayer and a headlong dive into psychedelia-tinged British dance music.

The album is bookended by a couple of shockingly soul-baring numbers: The opening track Drowned World/Substitute For Love, a meditative, richly textured ballad in which the onetime publicity glutton claims "I've traded fame for love without a second thought;" and the haunting closing track Mer Girl, where Madonna, in a whispered voice barely louder than the ambient backdrop, describes a dream of her childhood self running away from the house of her dead mother. (She died of breast cancer when Madonna was six.)

You get the impression this pop-culture chameleon is working toward the most dramatic transformation of her career -- into a stable, mature mother for her baby girl Lourdes.

"Looking at my life/It's very clear to me I lived so selfishly," she admits on Nothing Really Matters.

Oh, she's still looking for a little, uh, self-gratification (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) on songs such as Skin and Candy Perfume Girl, but she's also searching for redemption (Swim); a loving lifemate (Frozen) and spiritual understanding (Shanti/Ashtangi). For a record with such emotional breadth and surprising revelations, it's a shame the music falls into just one of two camps: throbbing, trippy disco numbers and majestic, melodious ballads.

The latter are more effective, not just because Madonna's voice has ripened into an expressive instrument, but also because the juxtaposition of serious adult themes and hedonistic dance sounds results in some strange, awkward moments.

Getting down to a song about parental responsibility?

Shaking a booty to a tune inspired by Eastern philosophies regarding the continuum of life?

Trust Madonna, now 38 but still a rule-breaker, to make disco meaningful for adults.

Track Listing 1. Drowned World/Substitute for Love (5:08) 2. Swim (5:00) 3. Ray of light (5:20) 4. Candy perfume girl (4:36) 5. Skin (6:21) 6. Nothing really matters (4:26) 7. Sky fits heaven (4:47) 8. Santi/Ashtangi (4:28) 9. Frozen (6:12) 10. The power of goodbye (4:12) 11. To have and not to hold (5:22) 12. Little girl (5:18) 13. Mer girl (5:31)		Album rating