Yay.

imo - They're all great to classic. This era as well as Ray of Light are her best.

My favorite song is "Inside of Me". I still can't pick out the Aaliyah sample..

Also love how "Sanctuary" becomes "Bedtime Story".

This album came out right as I was starting to like Madonna. I think it is her best (although I sometimes side with "Erotica"...just depends on what I listened to last).

Big Yay.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Love this album!!!

Also this remix of Bedtime Story is a must listen!;

Its a YAY for me...people say its one of her weaker albums but I play it more than I do Music, American Life and Hard Candy.

Survival is a good opening track, Secret is solid, Human Nature and Bedtime Story are obvious classics. Inside of Me is my fave cut off the album, just reminds me of driving in the summer, windows down, warm wind blowing, cruising along...

badujunkie said:

sextonseven said:

I didn't like Hard Candy either. I had the CD for a few months then sold it on ebay.

I love Madonna doing r&b...it's where she is at her most interesting imo.

And I would consider her debut a FULL ON R&B experience...

Her debut album is a masterpiece in my opinion. I even love the fillers! I wish her next album sounded like that, though I doubt it will. Nothing she ever does will top that album. Like a Virgin is definitely my 2nd favorite of hers too.

Tortilla said:

Yay.

imo - They're all great to classic. This era as well as Ray of Light are her best.

My favorite song is "Inside of Me". I still can't pick out the Aaliyah sample..

Also love how "Sanctuary" becomes "Bedtime Story".

By the way, the Human Nature video is one of my faves from her ever!! I love it! She was so fierce!

DaveT said:

Its a YAY for me...people say its one of her weaker albums but I play it more than I do Music, American Life and Hard Candy.

Survival is a good opening track, Secret is solid, Human Nature and Bedtime Story are obvious classics. Inside of Me is my fave cut off the album, just reminds me of driving in the summer, windows down, warm wind blowing, cruising along...

This album seems to be almost evely split down the middle in terms of people being into it or not. I'm still giving it a full listen and will write a review soon.

It was obvious she was getting into European music around this time, half of it feels very American R&B-ish and also European which is probably why opinions are divided. Even M said it was a tough album to make as she worked with several producers and couldn't find a cohesive theme/sound.

The videos from this album are among her best and most stylish I think.

I would have loved her to do a full album with Nellee Hooper.

It's a worthy follow-up to Erotica though, but it lacks the bite of that album. She seemed very defensive and brow beaten in the interviews for this album. I think the backlash to Sex and Erotica upset her far more than she let on.

I'm a huge Madonna fan, but it is probably one of my least favorite records by her. As someone said it's kind of split between American R&B and more European electronica. I tend to enjoy the more European electronic songs like Bedtime Story, Sanctuary, Love Tried to Welcome Me and Inside of Me. It has some good songs, but it also has a lot of songs I skip over more than any of her other records.

definitely yay. it's really grown on me.

dancerella said:

I'm a big Madonna fan and mostly love music from the 80s, so i've never gotten around to this album because I generally don't like music from the 90's. It tends to sound more dated to me than music from the 80's. I'm thinking of giving this album a shot, finally. Wht do you guys think? Is this a good album? I love Human Nature and even Take a bow is cool. How's the rest?

I like it, has a more organic sound that fits with the theme

Erotica had more of an urban feel & them

the videos 4 Bedtime stories the few performances and the NYC bedtime story reading aired on MTV made for hot era and followup

If u can see the videos do so

I think Babyface produced this one

[Edited 11/25/11 20:45pm]

RKJCNE said:

I've never been a fan of much R&B music so this isn't one of my favorite from Madge. I think the singles are fantastic, some of her strongest! but survival is really the only non single I listen to regularly.

the title track is more House / techno represents the album concept well

OldFriends4Sale said:

RKJCNE said:

I've never been a fan of much R&B music so this isn't one of my favorite from Madge. I think the singles are fantastic, some of her strongest! but survival is really the only non single I listen to regularly.

the title track is more House / techno represents the album concept well

Yeah and it's one of my favorite tracks, also the only dance one. I've always thought it was a sore thumb on the album as nothing else is dance oriented.

RKJCNE said:

I've never been a fan of much R&B music so this isn't one of my favorite from Madge. I think the singles are fantastic, some of her strongest! but survival is really the only non single I listen to regularly.

the title track is more House / techno represents the album concept well

Traveling without logic or reason

Traveling in the arms of unconciousness!

:

Yay!

I agree that some of the best and most creative songs/videos of her career came out of this era. As a whole album though I like the concept she was going for, I don't enjoy it as a whole album, I only hear Madonna on some of it.

What about that David Letterman interview?

Who came up with 'Bedtime Stories' first, who copied who? Sheila E or Madonna?

There is a reason Madonna asked Björk to deliver a song and she chose it as the title track for this project. Like Hard Candy, this was a project to re-invent herself, to 'update' her sound, even though most of her albums integrated the current dance and underground influences

And mostly this works, to me, as a casual Madonna fan and hardcore music fan.

This project works better than Hard Candy, exactly for the reasons JoeTyler pointed out earlier; it was a stepping stone to some of her best work; I rate the follow up Ray Of Light as my favourite Madonna album, just cuz it manages to make Madonna sound natural while using electronics and synth.

But as an album it's indeed too bland to interest me as an album lover due to the overly R&B mellowness. I'd rather she'd taken on Björk to do the entire album.
This is often a 'fault' of her albums; they do not work as longplays, but are rather a compilation of her often genius singles (Human Nature) and throw away filler.

Hence my love for Ray Of Light, that feels like an actual album.

But, to answer your question; it's not yay or nay; it's MEH. (grin) It ain't yay cuz as a whole, the album's bland, but it's not nay cuz there are some GREAT songs on there; Human Nature, Bedtimes Stories and Secret are on my list of favest Madonna songs.

Those last 3 are definitely some of her greatest. I agree Bedtime Stories appeal to casual fans the most. People who didn`t care for Madonna and preferred r&b and hip hop loved it for Take a Bow cause Babyface was hot at the time and years later think it`s a great Madonna record while I think it`s her weakest despite being a fan of that type of music too.

OldFriends4Sale said:

RKJCNE said:

I've never been a fan of much R&B music so this isn't one of my favorite from Madge. I think the singles are fantastic, some of her strongest! but survival is really the only non single I listen to regularly.

the title track is more House / techno represents the album concept well

honestly

looking at this...

F.U.C.K. G.A.G.A.

badujunkie said:

sextonseven said:

badujunkie said:

I love Madonna doing r&b...it's where she is at her most interesting imo.

And I would consider her debut a FULL ON R&B experience...

Full on R&B? I definitely do not consider songs like Borderline or Lucky Star to be R&B at all.

are we hearing the same shit? i would ...

i can totally 100% see Deneice Williams, Patrice, Stephanie Mills, etc doing any of em from the first record, minus Burning Up.

Those songs on Madonna's first album sound like R&B at the time of release when that sound was becoming popular. And I agree that Borderline reminds me of Let's Hear It For The Boy very slightly just for a sec, I actually thought that a couple of days ago when it came on. R&B turned slow in the 90's, so Madonna did too.

And I thought nothing of Gaga when seeing those images, just Madonna. That video is one of Madonna most creative of her career and very artistic. I wish Mark Romanek was still making videos...is he?

alphastreet said:

I wish Mark Romanek was still making videos...is he?

Movies, these days.

That's good. I just did a search on him actually. He did a fabulous job directing Johnny Cash's remake of Hurt

badujunkie said:

sextonseven said:

badujunkie said:

are we hearing the same shit? i would ...

i can totally 100% see Deneice Williams, Patrice, Stephanie Mills, etc doing any of em from the first record, minus Burning Up.

Those are pop songs. And if any of the above artists were to record them I'd say they were trying to crossover.

interestingly,the song "Holiday" was offered to Patti LaBelle but she turned it down."Borderline" would have surely gone to someone like Phyllis Hyman or Stephanie Mills if Madonna had not recorded it (those artists were also working with Reggie Lucas at the time).

SoulAlive said: