This album is so overlooked in comparison to the other Madonna albums. I think it was a really nice album- very soothing to the ears and it has this whole peaceful element to it.

Sanctuary, Love Tried To Welcome Me, Survival, Bedtime Story,- especially.

Secret, Human Nature, Take a Bow, I'd Rather be Your Lover- were great as well.

The only song I didn't really care about was Inside of Me.

Sanctuary

[img:$uid]http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/dcd98cfb9dabcbe3607d771337f23d85/1964.jpg[/img:$uid]

Bedtime Story

Survival

Love Tried to Welcome Me

Forbidden Love

Take a Bow

Don't Stop

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To me, this was her last good album... Check this outtake, from the album, out.

shorttrini said:

To me, this was her last good album... Check this outtake, from the album, out.

Yeah its really good. They didn't include this version in the album unfortunately.

This is an unreleased song called Freedom

suga10 said:

Yeah its really good. They didn't include this version in the album unfortunately.

Not they didn't because Tupac was getting fucked up in the law, and was in the press in a bad way. She didn't want, or need, the bad association, so they dropped his rap and Meshell (who was already playing bass) did her thing on it. I actually like Meshell's more.

Totally agree about it being an overlooked and underrated album. It has a great texture to it. It never really goes off on a tangent or gets weird. It's all very cohesive, and actually addresses some of the bad press she had received for the SEX book ("Human Nature").

There's a couple of mixes of "Secret" from Junior Vasquez which are just epic. That is such a great maxi single.

ernestsewell said:

Totally agree about it being an overlooked and underrated album. It has a great texture to it. It never really goes off on a tangent or gets weird. It's all very cohesive, and actually addresses some of the bad press she had received for the SEX book ("Human Nature").

There's a couple of mixes of "Secret" from Junior Vasquez which are just epic. That is such a great maxi single.

Yeah, it flows really well.

Some of the most creative videos of her career came out of this album era

I love the cool smoothness and flow of the album a lot, but I don't think it's her best album ever, far from it, though most people seem to think so. I prefer her upbeat, fun, pop ones and the edgy ones.

I remember my cousin did a dance to Don't Stop at school a year after this came out, so cute I love that song

That Secret remix in the music video is so amazing, I heard it in the mid 90's and it was great

ernestsewell said:

Totally agree about it being an overlooked and underrated album. It has a great texture to it. It never really goes off on a tangent or gets weird. It's all very cohesive, and actually addresses some of the bad press she had received for the SEX book ("Human Nature").

There's a couple of mixes of "Secret" from Junior Vasquez which are just epic. That is such a great maxi single.

The "human Nature" maxi is also pretty cool

She was going to include this on the album too, its good she left it off ultimately

I love everything about the era, but the actual album bores me. I do like most of the songs (Dont Stop is horrendous though, Survival and I'd Rather Be Your Lover are not much better but I can sometimes be in the mood for them) but the album lacks something.

This is one of my favorite Madonna albums. I prefer it to Ray of Light. Yep, that's right.

Love the smooth flow, the fun factor, the whole Madonna-kinda-sorta-doin-R&B vibe. Just enjoy it beginning to end.

And I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer the Meshell rap to 2pac's.

I want to hear what vainandy has to say

suga10 said:

This is an unreleased song called Freedom

It was a good choice to leave this out.

suga10 said:

She was going to include this on the album too, its good she left it off ultimately

This song, remixed, MIGHT work on Cher. Pretty uneventful though.

Love this album.It flows extremely well from one track to the next.Favorite songs are "Secret","Forbidden Love","Inside Of Me" and "Human Nature".A superb album with only one song that I consider weak ("Don't Stop").

Great and natural follow up to 'Erotica'. I agree that this album had the best videos since her 89-90 ones. I think some fans are put of by the laid back mellow vibe of the album but I love how you can hear the European influences creeping in.

'Love Tried To Welcome Me' is one of my favourite tracks. Great B-Side from this era too with 'Let Down Your Guard.' That's what I love about M, she doesn't stick to once genre, she tries everything.

Would have been interesting to see this album live if she hadn't cancelled the 1995 to do Evita.

Some say this was another 90s "flop" for Madonna, and that's bullshit; the album is underrated and not very well known for younger-casual fans, that's true, but it sold 6 million copies worldwide if I'm not mistaken...

I think it was just a "moderate" hit album in the USA because the mainstream-casual fans saw it as "Erotica Part.2", and other hardcore fans were less than pleased due to the "sell out" production (TLC-like R&B sound, too many ballads, etc.)

It isn't my fav Madonna album of the 90s (Ray of Light), and certainly not my fav Madonna album of all time (though I consider it better than LAV, Erotica, AL and HC) but I gotta admit that it's a solid album (weakest track for me is Love Tried to Welcome Me), more relaxed and warmer than the harsh and/or silly Erotica and with FIVE undisputed CLASSICS: Take a Bow, Secret, title-track, Human Nature, and Sanctuary...

My major complain? well, the dated sound, it's like a trip to 1993-1994-1995 all over again, and the whole project feels like, well, a sell out move. It's Madonna tryin' to be a Blue Eyed Soul/Modern R&B Female Singer...and that was...ehhh...moderately cool ... I accept/embrace Bedtime Stories as a rare/unique R&B project, but I'M GLAD she left this sound behind...

It improved the sales of Erotica in the US but not in other countries like the UK. Generally it went down kinda unnoticed in Europe, "Secret" was a decent hit but the rest of the singles flopped, I believe "Human Nature" was the first proper Madonna single release that failed to chart in certain European countries. She didn't fully rebound there from Erotica until the Evita soundtrack. It's one of her least successful albums in the UK, I believe it outsold AL & HC with less than 200k and we know 90s album sales were a lot bigger in general... It's interesting that while ROL further improved her US sales, it wasn't that big of a jump (plus her airplay got a lot worse) unlike in several other countries where ROL surpassed even the LAP levels.

I don't doubt that there were fans back in 1994 who didn't like it because they disliked the Babyface and TLC sound in general but I'm convinced the "sellout" division-obsession for Madonna most likely started after 1998 when the hardcore fanbase was drumming up the excuses why ROL can't be as huge as Celine or Shania or why Music was trampled on by Britney.

She left this sound behind like any other sound she did since then, some a bit slower (Mirwais) but I don't see how is this any different than being one of her albums in her discography, she's known from jumping around trends/sounds. At the time this was the only available for her because dance music was relegated to eurodance one hit wonders and she couldn't risk to make a full electronica album inspired by Bjork just yet. Also, the ballad stuff started during Erotica already so recording a song like "Take A Bow" wasn't that out of line for her.

I liked the marketing campaign behind this album.After Erotica and the 'Sex' book,they were trying to tone down the raunchiness.I recall a promotional ad for the album that said....

Madonna wants to tuck you in with her new album.That's "tuck" with a T

SoulAlive said:

I liked the marketing campaign behind this album.After Erotica and the 'Sex' book,they were trying to tone down the raunchiness.I recall a promotional ad for the album that said....

Madonna wants to tuck you in with her new album.That's "tuck" with a T

I remember the term 'user friendly' being thrown around a lot too.

johnart said:

suga10 said:

This is an unreleased song called Freedom

It was a good choice to leave this out.

I like it more than that other outtake "Love Won't Wait". Thanks for posting those suga10; I never knew about them.

The jam heah

The absolute fave

robertlove said:

ernestsewell said:

Totally agree about it being an overlooked and underrated album. It has a great texture to it. It never really goes off on a tangent or gets weird. It's all very cohesive, and actually addresses some of the bad press she had received for the SEX book ("Human Nature").

There's a couple of mixes of "Secret" from Junior Vasquez which are just epic. That is such a great maxi single.

The "human Nature" maxi is also pretty cool

Yeah, I don't hate it, but I love the "Secret" maxi better. The "Bedtime Stories" maxi is pretty good too.

funkpill said:

The jam heah

The absolute fave

This was the SHYT!!

suga10 said:

She was going to include this on the album too, its good she left it off ultimately

If that doesn't sample The Spinners "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love", it comes damn close. It's not great, though, and not up to snuff with the album, which is ultimately pretty dark. That being said, it's probably my favorite album. As others have said, very cohesive and never gets off track. "Don't Stop" is pretty weak (which is surprising....it's the closet thign to to proper dance track on a Madonna album and it fails!). Not as bad as "Can't Stop", though. Maybe she shouldn't use the word "Stop" in tracks anymore.

VinnyM27 said:

"Don't Stop" is pretty weak (which is surprising....it's the closet thign to to proper dance track on a Madonna album and it fails!). Not as bad as "Can't Stop", though. Maybe she shouldn't use the word "Stop" in tracks anymore.

Don't Stop a weak track? That's just pure pop perfection. I wish current pop bands could write choruses as catchy as Don't Stop...

I think she started off wanting a straightforward R&B/Soul/Hip-Hop album but she started to get into European acts like Massive Attack, Bjork and Everything But The Girl and wanted to go in that direction too after most of the songs were done. That's why she had Nellee Hooper and Daniel Abraham go back and remix a few of the songs. She probably wishes she'd just made the whole album with Nellee in the first place.

suga10 said:

This is an unreleased song called Freedom

that ma sawng!

JoeTyler said:

VinnyM27 said:

Don't Stop a weak track? That's just pure pop perfection. I wish current pop bands could write choruses as catchy as Don't Stop...

I think "Don't Stop" sounds kinda filler-ish the obligatory song about dancing.She should have replaced with one of the superior outtakes,either "Your Honesty" or "Let Down Your Guard".