Four years ago, Warner Records announced that Madonna, the biggest artist in the label’s century-long history, would return to the fold to personally curate reissues of her back catalog, which has been lying more or less dormant since they parted ways in 2009. The project has, mysteriously, produced little of note aside from a remix compilation, Finally Enough Love: 50 Numbers Ones, released in 2022.
Now, though, Warner is dropping Veronica Electronica, an eight-track EP that assembles new edits of previously released remixes from her 1998 opus Ray of Light, plus “Gone Gone Gone,” a remastered demo co-written by Madonna and Rick Nowels during the album’s early sessions. Far from the visionary companion album—ostensibly overseen by eccentric knob-twirler William Orbit—that Madonna teased in interviews around the time of Ray of Light’s release, this Veronica Electronica, available on digital and vinyl on July 25, feels more like a half-hearted cash grab.
The primary selling points for the EP are a butchered edit of Victor Calderone and the late Peter Rauhofer’s 11-minute pots-and-pans mix of the psychedelic trance song “Skin,” previously only available on a now-out-of-print compilation, and, of course, “Gone Gone Gone.” While the demo’s stiff MIDI beats have aged about as well as Madonna’s Sanskrit shloka on “Shanti/Ashtangi,” the song is lyrically sharp and flaunts the singer’s then-newly limber upper range: “The withdrawal into pain/The result to never need again/Is this love? I think not/I want out.”
The demo for “Gone Gone Gone” has been circulating on YouTube and elsewhere for over 15 years, but it’s a proverbial lost gem with a killer bridge, and it had the potential to become a standout album cut. Its inclusion on Veronica Electronica almost justifies the EP’s lofty price tag.
Listen to “Gone Gone Gone” below:
Check out our ranking of every track from Ray of Light here.
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The problem is that Madonna is popular as performer as well and she is getting older and less attractive.
I have enjoyed recent-years’ releases from her back-catalogue. The digital remasters of early singles are good. And the digital release of original maxi singles with extra mixes has been cool, too. The vinyl-only American Life Mixshow Mix has good edits and a couple of unreleased remixes. I love it but wish it had been released digitally, too. I think Veronica Electronica is similar to that America Life remix EP: a couple of “unreleased” tracks (Gone Gone Gone and the Skin remix) and new cuts of known remixes. At least Veronica Electronica is being digitally released. The vinyl release got expensive recently. I placed my order early and will be getting it at price that is lower than your typical LP vinyl. Hopefully, the vinyl’s price will go down with new pressings.