 Jon Pareles from The New York Times felt that Madonna tried to be honest with the concept of American Dream in the album, but ended up producing songs akin to the "folkie psychobabble" of songwriters like Jewel. James Hannaham from Spin compared the album's introspective themes to her previous albums Ray of Light and Music and also noted Madonna spends much of American Life bemoaning the emptiness of celebrity culture. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian responded well to parts of the record saying "American Life's best tracks make a mockery of virtually all other current pop music" however his conclusive point in the review was that there was not enough of good songs. The Village Voice's Jessica Winter called Madonna's voice "redundant" and commented that "she ironizes'the American dream' only to pitch woo at her English husband and articulate a vague yet fiery frustration with her outrageously privileged station in the world". Ed Howard from Stylus Magazine gave the album a negative review calling the album "about Madonna" instead of American culture explaining, "it's Madonna who, surprisingly, has simply run out of things to say". BBC's Ian Young also gave a negative review, saying that "the tunes are bland and weak, the lyrics are uninspired and self-absorbed and the semi-Ibiza backing music is bare and recycled — and we are convinced that she has lost it."
