Sky Fits Heaven: Madonna to Release Scrapped ‘Ray of Light’ Remix EP

Veronica Electronica
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The fitful reissues of Madonna’s back catalogue (following an expansive deal to put her material under her original major label partner Warner Music) are yielding some choice archival fruit with the release of a long-rumored remix companion to her 1998 smash Ray of Light.

The eight-track Veronica Electronica, coming to vinyl and digital music services on July 25, offers new edits of previously released dance remixes to hits like “Frozen,” “Nothing Really Matters,” “The Power of Good-bye” and the rousing title track. It’ll also feature the unreleased demo “Gone, Gone, Gone,” written with songwriter Rick Nowels in the earliest sessions for what became the final album. Veronica Electronica – both a humorous alter ego Madonna considered while making Ray of Light and a potential title for her seventh studio effort – was planned for release in the late ’90s, but was seemingly a victim of the LP’s success, as singles kept spinning off well into the next year. (A whirlwind of personal and professional developments further mooted Veronica Electronica including a starring role in the 2000 film The Next Best Thing, her next album Music, a marriage to British director Guy Ritchie and the birth of their son, and the Drowned World Tour of 2001, her first live trek in nearly a decade.)

Ray of Light was a particular triumph for an artist who’d already seemingly been on every rung of the pop ladder. After scoring a dizzying string of Top 10 hits in the ’80s and ’90s and brazenly challenging expectations with increasingly sexual performances and presentations, the Queen of Pop made some surprise zig-zags in the mid-’90s. 1996 found her in challenging new roles onscreen (as Eva Perón in an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, a role she took voice lessons to perfect) and off (she gave birth to her daughter Lourdes later that year and found faith in Kabbalah and yoga practices). Looking for a new way to reinvent herself on record, Madonna took some songs she’d written with Nowels (a writer or co-writer for Stevie Nicks, Belinda Carlisle and Celine Dion) and longtime collaborator Patrick Leonard and took them into the studio with British electronic producer William Orbit, with whom she also conceived much new material. The results were extraordinary: at a time when most stars her age – she’d turn 40 the year the album was released – were unwilling or unable to chase popular trends, Madonna helped mainstream electronic dance music even further into the forefront and scored two more Top 5s in America with “Frozen” and “Ray of Light.” Moreover, Ray of Light earned Madonna her first Grammy nomination for Record of the Year and her only for Album of the Year; with wins in the Best Pop Album and Best Dance Recording categories, she claimed her first trophies from the Recording Academy for something other than videos. (Those videos were nothing to sneeze at, either: the “Frozen” and “Ray of Light” clips won six MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year for the latter.)

Veronica Electronica is out next month, pressed on the same silver vinyl as recent repressings of her earlier albums. A CD edition arrives October 10.  You’ll find pre-order links start to populate below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Veronica Electronica (Maverick/Warner/Rhino, 2025)

Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Side A

  1. Drowned World/Substitute for Love (BT & Sasha Bucklodge Ashram – New Edit)
  2. Ray of Light (Sasha Twilo Mix Edit)
  3. Skin (The Collaboration Remix Edit)
  4. Nothing Really Matters (Club 69 Speed Mix Meets the Dub)

Side B

  1. Sky Fits Heaven (Victor Calderone Future New Edit)
  2. Frozen (Widescreen Mix and Drums)
  3. The Power of Good-Bye (Fabien’s Good God Mix Edit)
  4. Gone, Gone, Gone (Original Demo)

Original edit of Track A1 from “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” U.K. CD single #1 – Maverick/Warner Bros. W0453CD1, 1998
Original edit of Track A2 from “Ray of Light” U.S. double 12″ – Maverick/Warner Bros. 0-44523, 1998
Original edit of Track A3 from “Skin” promo CD single – Maverick/Warner Bros. (no cat. #), 2000
Original edit of Track A4 from “Nothing Really Matters” U.S. CD single – Maverick/Warner Bros. 44613-2, 1999
Original edit of Track B1 from “Drowned World/Substitute for Love” U.K. CD single #2 – Maverick/Warner Bros. W0453CD2, 1998
Original edit of Track B2 from “Frozen” U.K. CD single – Maverick/Warner Bros. W0433CD, 1998
Original edit of Track B3 from “The Power of Good-Bye” U.K. 12″ – Maverick/Warner Bros. W 459T, 1998
Track B4 previously unreleased

Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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