Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Madonna, Veronica Electronica

Familiar songs, with more room around the edges

Madonna’s Veronica Electronica returns to the Ray of Light period through club mixes and a closing demo. Read the full story from Kilmorna in Listowel.

Madonna’s Veronica Electronica approaches familiar material from the side entrance. These are songs from the Ray of Light period, reconsidered through club mixes rather than presented as another conventional studio album. Recognition is part of the pleasure, but not the whole job.

On vinyl, the sequence makes a compact proposition: four tracks on each side, with a demo waiting at the end. There is room for electronic atmosphere and sustained rhythm without turning the collection into an afternoon of checking alternate versions against a spreadsheet.

The useful listening question is not whether a remix improves its source. It is what gets brought forward when the proportions change. Here, spacious textures and driving dance rhythms offer another way into the songs’ introspective character.

Released by Warner Records in 2025, this LP looks back towards Madonna’s late 1990s electronic work. That distance need not make it a museum piece. A remix is still best approached as something to play, not merely something to file.

Drowned World / Substitute For Love (BT & Sasha Bucklodge Ashram New Edit) opens Side A, followed by Ray Of Light (Sasha Twilo Mix Edit). Both run beyond five minutes. The opening pair gives the record space to establish its atmospheric, clubward direction.

Listen for the relationship between openness and momentum rather than waiting only for the familiar song to announce itself. The collection’s electronic spaciousness matters alongside its rhythmic drive. A dance arrangement can leave room for reflection without taking its shoes off.

Skin (The Collaboration Remix Edit) comes third, taking the sequence towards more inward territory. That placement is worth attending to: the first side does not simply line up recognisable titles, but offers a changing balance of brightness, atmosphere and rhythmic insistence.

Nothing Really Matters (Club 69 Speed Mix Meets The Dub) closes that side at 5:14. Its full version title is a useful reminder to read past the song name. On this record, the particular treatment is part of the identity.

Side B opens with Sky Fits Heaven (Victor Calderone Future New Edit), then moves to Frozen (Widescreen Mix And Drums). The latter title puts two listening concerns plainly on the table: the scale of the atmosphere and the presence of rhythm.

Frozen belongs to the collection’s darker, more meditative territory. Rather than treating that mood as a pause in the proceedings, listen to how atmosphere can hold attention alongside a dance pulse. Quiet inwardness and club music are not necessarily opposing departments.

The Power Of Good-Bye (Fabien's Good God Mix Edit) follows at 5:23. With the ending now in view, it is worth noticing how much of this sequence occupies a similar span: enough time to inhabit an arrangement, without requiring an expedition.

Across the first seven tracks, the listed running times range from 5:14 to 5:42. That narrow spread gives the programme a practical consistency. Different treatments occupy comparable stretches of attention, rather than one enormous version swallowing the rest.

Then comes Gone Gone Gone (Original Demo Version), the eighth and final track. At 4:29, it is also the shortest. The change of designation matters more than the reduction in minutes: the record closes with a demo, not another club reworking.

That ending changes the perspective without needing a grand reveal. After a run of remixes, a demo asks for a different sort of attention: less comparison between treatments, more curiosity about the song as a piece of work.

Veronica Electronica makes most sense as a companion to Ray of Light, not a replacement for it. Knowing the earlier album gives these versions something to push against, though the combination of electronic atmosphere and rhythmic movement remains an invitation in itself.

For today’s Listowel shelf pull, the appeal is that manageable scale. Eight tracks, two sides, and a reason to listen beyond recognition.

On the shelf today:

Madonna - Veronica Electronica

LP, 2025

Pop

EUR 32.95

Available from The Kilmorna Collection, Listowel

Buy or reserve: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl/madonna-veronica-electronica

Buying vinyl records in Ireland: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl-records-ireland

On the shelf today

Madonna - Veronica Electronica

LP / Pop / 2025

EUR32.95 / Available now

Order / Reserve