Some herald Madonna’s “Ray Of Light” album as being her career best. Others will tell you her squeaky, club-friendly 1983 debut is the Pièce de résistance of her discography. And whilst there really hasn’t been a terrible Madonna album release in my eyes (I will not hear a single bad word against “I’m Breathless”), none have captured the ‘real’ Madonna more than 1989’s “Like A Prayer” (which still remains as one of Pop Culture’s biggest and brightest proper comebacks of all time), and 2003’s “American Life.” Or at least, the ‘real’ Madonna at the time of recording.

After the hyperactivity of her boot-scoot-loving “Music” era (great songs, awful imagery), Madonna came back into the forefront with a record containing 11 daring, brave and alluring pop songs, with a strong and admirable image; Madonna (now a brunette again; always a sign of serious-Madge taking the drivers seat), as Che Guevera meets a kidnapped Patty Hearst. And underneath the tarnished surface of all the controversy that surrounded the title song and its video clip, there was a record which made Madonna appear to be more of a human being than anything else she had done before; it was a woman, normally in charge, cracking at the seams.

Madonna, for lack of a better term, was having a mid-life crisis (a mental one, not the aesthetic mid-life crisis we would see in years to come). What was going on? What was life all about? Why were we even here? So many unanswered questions from a woman used to getting answers. For all to hear on record. Sure, the album spends most of its time talking about Madonna’s favourite subject; herself, but the context in which this topic is brandied across the album, well, it’s something of a surprise.

Whilst some will argue her rap on title track “American Life” is laughable, I will argue that it is menacing, and to quote Fizzypop’s Paul as to why the song is amazing, “It’s the rap.” Never has drinking soy latte’s or doing your palates seemed like so much fun (with a serious message underlying it all, of course.) Follow-up single “Hollywood” saw the Queen pay her own personal homage to Miss Kittin & Felix Da Housecat’s own image of Tinsel-town, “Madame Hollywood”, whilst “I’m So Stupid” saw her coo, confusingly “please don’t try to tempt me, it was just greed and it won’t protect me. Don’t want my dreams adding up to nothing; I was just looking for, everybody’s looking for something.”

A stylized and slightly neurotic production element to the absolute classic “Nobody Knows Me” was so futuristic it still sounds way ahead of its time, and gave us one of the greatest Madonna on-stage performances to date (2004’s Re-Invention Tour). “It’s no fun but the damage is done; don’t want your social disease.” Some of her greatest and most cutting social commentary lyrics which have since not been beaten; “Nobody Knows Me” remains, in my eyes (as a vehemently passionate and long standing Madonna fan), one of her greatest achievements.

“Nothing Fails”, complete with its stunning acoustic guitar and surprising choir-bound ending, showed Madonna in a vulnerable state. A woman in love, a woman who honestly felt that, with love as her torch, nothing could fail. As she sings “I’m not religious, but I feel so moved, makes me want to pray, pray you’ll always be here… you’re the one,” it’s hard not to pay attention to the startling cracks in what she’s saying. Admitting vulnerability, somehow, made Madonna come across as an even stronger woman than she already was. Or, maybe, a more relatable one?

“Mother & Father” saw Madonna, for the first time, discussing the raw feelings she felt towards her Father after her Mother passed away (albeit in a hilariously brilliant rap, the second to appear on the record), combined with some seriously innovative electronic soundscapes. But behind the falsetto, behind the drum-machine, and behind the dance music, there was a broken little girl telling her story through the form of a grown woman. “I made a vow that I would never need another person ever, turned my heart into a cage, a victim of a kind of rage.” More telling, and descriptive of who this woman is, than any possible interview or tour documentary could portray. And the final minute and 20 seconds are still as goosebump-inducing as they were the very first time I heard it.

American Life was also the home of “X-Static Process” – the first song Madonna would pen with future Confessions On A Dance Floor collaborator, Stuart Price. Vastly different in comparison to the disco-edge of “Hung Up”, “X-Static Process” based itself on an acoustic guitar, Madonna’s voice, and some of the most heartbreaking lyrics in her repertoire. “I always wished that I could find, someone as beautiful as you, but in the process I forgot, that I was special too… but in the process I forgot, that I was just as good, as you.” Amazing.

Moments like the Bond-theme “Die Another Day”, the startling “Easy Ride”, or the gorgeously-crafted “Love Profusion” prove that this is, ultimately, Madonna’s very own “Impossible Princess”; an album which, at the time, not many understood, but eventually many would.

Looking back at everything which surrounded the release of Madonna’s “American Life”; both single and LP, it’s not hard to see where and why it all went so horribly wrong. One slightly political moment on the record branded Madonna as being unpatriotic. The video clip was making waves before it had even aired due to its ‘anti-war’ stance, and after the media debacle that was Dixie Chick-gate, The Queen Of Pop, who had often worked hand-in-hand with controversy, went back on her word and pulled the plug on the American Life video clip. It proved a deadlier move than letting it be; it was too late for the American-faithful who were already viewing her as an anti-Bush poster girl, and the fans were left dumbfounded because, for the first time in her 20+ year career, Madonna had censored herself in fear of going too far. And, perhaps, also for the first time, the fans had lost a little respect for her because of that very move.

It’s just so very unfortunate that all of this happened during the release of what is one of her absolute greatest records to date. Whilst some lost respect, American Life – if this is at all possible – allowed me the room to respect this woman even more. Not just as a pop culture icon, or as a musician and artist, but as a human being. And that, perhaps, is why people just weren’t interested.