I looked over a good amount of the countless threads dedicated to this album, but none of them quite convey what I'd like to share. A little background: I was born in 1986, the youngest of 3 siblings. Very early on in my life, I was listening to music, and quite frankly, the kinds of music I was hearing should not have been accessable to a 4 year-old. In 1992, my parents seperated. It was a pretty bad situation, and my pops moved out and lived about an hour from us. He lived in Seaside, NJ in a small apartment, and I remember being in the place and looking through this weird collection of cds that I even knew then my dad did not own! This, my friends, was the day I had access to Prince's music for the very first time, at a ripe age of 6 no less. Each cd had this person "Terri's" name written in the top left corner of each cd insert. Obviously this woman turned out to be my dad's new girlfriend, and she got word I was asking about the Diamonds & Pearls album since my first introduction to the man was the title track's video. Before I even met the woman and could form an opinion of my own of her, she told the old man to give me the record, and this copy of Diamonds & Pearls is still in my collection (she also had PR too, but I snagged that one later on once I really became into P's stuff). Sorry to get off topic, but you could say that she was the one that planted the seed and was the one responsible for me talking to you right now.

ANYWAY, if you were to ask my siblings and I about our first step-mother, we would all give you very different opinions. Since Im the youngest, she took me under her wing, and taught me a whole lot about being open to and appreciating all kinds of music. And looking back now, her cd collection was DOPE. Really eclectic, classic stuff (I also got Duran Duran's Wedding album and Bowie's "Changesbowie" compilation album too). About a year or two later, I was looking through the collection again and found "Erotica". I knew a little about Madge then, her performance of "Bye Bye Baby" at the 93 VMA's in particular. But what really caught my eye was the fact the album had the "dirty sticker" on it aka the Parental Advisory. Being as young as I was, having an album with that sticker was compareable to hiding a porno under your mattress. But you know what she did for me? Because she was so into opening my musical-mind, she RIPPED THE COVER OFF, told my dad the songs with the cursing were skipping, and she put that fucking album into my overnight bag to take home with me. It was one of the nicest things anybody has done for me, and I proceeded to play that album out pretty hardcore. The whole album just sounded so fresh and dark to me, and Madonna eventually turned out to be my very first crush (And I WILL get to that later). The pics of her in the album's booklet are still so sexy, my Lord. I eventually played the album out and it became just another one in my collection.

Skip a couple years to 2000, and Im a 14 year-old kid pumped with crazy hormones that would talk to any girl I could. I eventually hooked up with this girl that was getting into Madonna pretty majorly, and she didnt get to Erotica yet on her journey. Being the oppurtunist, I told her I had it and would happily give it to her (a decision I regret now), and Erotica enabled me to experience some....um, "firsts" with this girl. Great times.

Well, now Im 28, I havent spoken to my hook-up girl in forever, my step-mom and dad divorced in 04, and Im without an album thats pretty important to me. I recently started up a blog focused on music, and decided to do a 180 and reviewed "I'm Breathless" to shake things up. And it got me thinking about Erotica and how I havent listened to it in forever. It had me feeling pretty nostalgic and meloncholy. So I went on Grooveshark and got the whole album, and have been listening to it on the regular now for about two weeks, and Jesus Mary, its incredible!! Going back to it after acquiring seasoned ears has been amazing, and a good chunk of the album has aged beautifully, but not all of it. Her cover of "Fever" was my favorite on Erotica back then and still is now, and I forgot how soul-shakingly sexy it is. Her voice makes me shiver on it literally. And now that Im older and learned about the Sex book being released the same time as the album, the title track has become a little stale to me considering the nastiness she was doing in the book (the picture with the dog is STILL wild even for 2015's standards!). But "Deeper and Deeper", "Bye Bye Baby", "Bad Girl", and "The Secret Garden" are all just incredible songs that still sound relevant today.

Since Madonna looks upon Erotica with a little regret since it was over shadowed by the book, what do the serious Madonna fans on this forum think of it? Where would you rate the album within your favorites? Also, what do you think of her image during this era too? Because if you ask this 28 year-old heterosexual male what I think, Madonna never looked sexier and hasnt topped it. Before she chopped her hair off and looked like Lori Petty later on, she just had it really going for her during this era and while googling her photos of this time, Ill save you the details and just say I got pretty excited. And now that Ive re-acquainted myself with this cornerstone record from my earlier years, how do you feel when you look back upon it?

I remember being so disappointed in Madonna during this period. Before, she was provocative, but it always had a point to it. The SEX book was shock just for the sake of shock. I didn't like it. The picture with the dog was funny though--nothing sexual about it.

However, the backlash against Madonna at the time was gross and disgusting. She didn't kill anybody or rape children. People were always looking to bring her down and now they had their reason.

That said, the album Erotica is just incredible. It just wasn't marketed correctly. I love the songs "Rain," "Deeper and Deeper," and "Waiting." She was bashed for the album then, but it has become a classic and deservedly so.

It was a different time in American history lol right around when President Clinton almost got fired for a blowie.

.

Is "the dog" picture the chess (edit Backgammon ) photo? Was that from SEX? I thought it was from a Vanity Fair article.. Meisel?

.

I have a framed poster of her from this era/shoot, absolutely breathtaking.

.

[Edited 1/16/15 12:37pm]

TheGoldStandard said:

It was a different time in American history lol right around when President Clinton almost got fired for a blowie.

.

Is "the dog" picture the chess (edit Backgammon ) photo? Was that from SEX? I thought it was from a Vanity Fair article.. Meisel?

.

I have a framed poster of her from this era/shoot, absolutely breathtaking.

.

[Edited 1/16/15 12:37pm]

No BUT this picture is one of the ones I saw on Google earlier that just took my breath away over her beauty. Seriously, shes just flawless here. The other dog pic Im talking about is where shes on all fours, and theres a dog about half-way under her with the dog's second half of it's body sticking out and its alluding (to me at least) that shes gonna partake in a 69 with fucking Scruff McGruff. And shes barely wearing anything besides an absurd rabbit tail. Just really over the top stuff, but thats her shtick really. Id post it myself, but its pretty grimey to me so just do a search for it and youll know exactly what Im talking about when you see it. I get that the Sex book was tongue-in cheek but damn..lol. Theres another pic of her and Naomi Campbell thats super hot too (and not the one with Big Daddy Kane). But I should also admit that I personally have never flipped through the book myself, so maybe the picture Im talking about was an outtake or something? Im no expert when it comes to Madonna, so please correct me if im wrong.

[Edited 1/16/15 13:31pm]

Great read. Thanks for sharing. I love 90s Madonna. There was this sexy, stylish, adultish vibe that I dug. Superb videos with great filmmakers, two kick ass tours, and three great movies (Dick Tracy, A Leagure of their Own, Evita).

And, even though I adore I'm Breatheless, Bedtime Stories, and Ray of Light, to me, Erotica (along with Justify My Love, which I include in my Erotica compilation) is my favorite album from Madge. Everything about that era, even the SEX book which I still have inside it's celophane wrapper, is superb to me.

I just listened again this morning to several cuts

I LOVE how the jazziness/vocal training of I'm Breathless/Dick Tracy influenced this project, i decided (everyone talks how Evita influenced the vocals and vibe of ROL, but the jazz-standard sentiment of IB crosses over and is felt on "Fever," "Where Life Begins," "Secret Garden" - others)

i go back and forth btwn this and Bedtime as my fave M album

those LYRICS - " a heart that will not harden..."

"i wish i knew the color of my hair" (aka i want a baby)

BRILLz

When the 'Erotica' album came out, you have to consider the bigger picture of what the world was like then. It was October of 1992 and Madonna, in my opinion, was just a wee bit ahead of her time. Think of it this way, Bill Clinton was elected in 1992 and was to begin his presidency in 1993. I think the world was still operating in a very conservative mindset at the time 'Erotica' and the "Sex" book came out. If we knew then what we know now, about how far we've come in human rights, AIDS, the GLBT community, the notions of sex being accepted in general (i.e., S & M, bisexuality, nudity, etc.) the entertainment industry, and even knowing Madonna more (her legacy, her catalog of music, her future aspirations, and ultimately her impact on the generation)... I think these projects would have been better received.

Instead - it is only through the passage of time and all that has transpired since - that sheds light on these. Was it her best work, certainly not. But now, 23 years later, we can appreciate them more. I think they do hold up to standards and have made an impact. Look at how she's influenced a whole new generation of girl-singers to be dramatic, be controversial, and to push buttons! And another point to consider is how much the range of music was changing at the time. Admit it, 1992 was kind of a mixed bag of changing styles. We were moving into more of an R-n-B sound, rap music was becoming popular in the mainstream, and the emergence of grunge-rock was being played on the radio. That left very little room for former "pop" stars 0f the 80's to seem relevant. Madonna did what she does so well: she reinvented herself and gave us a different side we hadn't seen before. And for that time period, in hindsight, I think she succeeded.

Eh. IMO this song/album weren't at all "sexy," nor was she during this period. It's sexual, but not "sexy." Everything about Madonna's Erotica period (the music, the videos, her image, her antics) seems very dark, clinical, petulent, quasi-menacing and slightly depressing. Madonna had always been a button pusher, but never seemed this cold before. It was like she was bent on pissing people off for the sake of pissing people off, not to convey any real meaningful message through boldness and blunt imagery that something like "Like a Prayer" did. Madonna was sexy as hell during her "Justify My Love" period, it had the erotic warmth of Skin-e-Max late at night...but "Erotica," to me, was some warped, sexual dungeon shit that IMO was more disturbing than sexy. On the surface that era had little redeeming value. Now, of course, there was some here and there...but the way it was presented made it almosy impossible to see if you weren't trying.

That being said, though the Erotica album itself isn't her best work, it is one of those albums that oddly builds up reverence after the fact to the point where years later you can resolve whatever issues you had with it at the time and appreciate certain things about it. Sort of like Michael's Dangerous (which at the time I thought was utter crap, but with time has steadily ascended to a very respectable level.)

[Edited 1/16/15 19:00pm]

for many years,if you asked me,I would say that Erotica is my favorite Madonna album.

I now think that Ray Of Light is my favorite,but Erotica would be a close second.

Erotica is a great album but I would think that it was so important to your formative years it might remain your "go to" album for her for the rest of your life. I'm fond of her 80s albums for this reason, but I'd have to say in recent years, my "go to" album is Confessions On The Dance Floor.

It was very significant in my life..dare 2 say the best album 4 me ever, considering that moment of my life when I first listened 2 it. It will always have a special place in my heart!

It's a pretty big dip in quality to go from Like A Prayer, follow through with the Vogue / Justify My Love singles (skipping over the rest of the Dick Tracy nonsense), and ending up on Erotica.

.

I think the Andre Betts stuff has aged really well, particularly "Waiting" and "Secret Garden". Some of the Pettibone stuff...not so much? Especially "Words" and "Thief of Hearts", right next to each other...it always sounded like the same song.

.

Some songs are easy to admire but not to love: Bye Bye Baby (clever! But kind of boring) Fever (Sexy! but kind of boring) Bad Girl (pretty / boring). The lyrics for "Where Life Begins" are awful, almost turning the sexy slinky music into a joke of puns. We can pretend that "Did You Do It?" doesn't exist, right?

.

For me: Erotica - Deeper and Deeper - Waiting - Rain - Why's It So Hard - In This Life - Secret Garden = great stuff.

[Edited 1/17/15 12:33pm]

one of Madonna's best videos came from this album

"Bad Girl"

I really love erotica, and ray of light, they are both brilliant start to finish.....

SoulAlive said:

one of Madonna's best videos came from this album

"Bad Girl"

It's so odd that this song came out of the same sessions as "Erotica". It's like that song's antithesis, undermining every lyric or idea as being "bad", "blue", and "not happy". You know, like when you (gasp!) smoke too many cigarettes??? And then...no!...kiss a stranger?!?! And the video! Apparently Sex really does = Death in 1992, whether we're talking HIV or not.

.

In her brother Chris' book he wrote about how uncomfortable she was with sexually provocative images at the start of her career, and she didn't intend to bare all, being a Catholic. He wrote that it wasn't until the Playboy pictures got published that she decided to become sexually provocative. Who knows if it's true, but you can hear some struggle with it on Erotica. It's really not a sex positive record.

[Edited 1/17/15 17:40pm]

[Edited 1/17/15 17:40pm]

purplethunder3121 said:

Erotica is a great album but I would think that it was so important to your formative years it might remain your "go to" album for her for the rest of your life.

You hit the nail on the head 100% with that one. Besides The Immaculate Collection, its the only record of hers I went out of my way to go back to because of my dumb decision to give a girl I liked my copy of it just so I could roll around with her a few times lol. All the others after Erotica was released? Meh, Ive heard some songs here and there besides the singles but nothing caught me like Erotica. The last album I heard front to back was "Confessions.." and it was at a family gathering and I dont remember who put it on, but it didnt impress me very much. I appreciate and respect Madonna for being as fearless as she is in terms of changing her sound and image as much as she has, but it doesnt mean Im all over it though either. She will always be my bae though no matter what, and given that her last boy-toy was super younger than her,...I may have a chance then

I was also doing a little more thinking about when exactly I came across Madonna first, because the 93 VMA's wasnt exactly my intro to her. I was huge into Dick Tracy when it came out 90 (I even dressed up as him for Halloween), and only knew her as Breathless, the sultry blonde. I had no idea she was already a superstar at that point, and then I recall seeing the video for Vogue a little bit later. Then, I remember my parents (in what could be one of our last family outings together) took us to see "A League of Their Own" when it came out too. And I also remember seeing and enjoying the videos for Material Girl and Express Yourself, especially, but my fire wasnt lit until Erotica for sure. Not that this recollection of mine really means anything to my general point of this thread, but I guess just consider this me thinking out loud and trying to remember when my heart was stolen by her lol.

My favorite Madonna era, and album. I also think she looked her best during this era.

TheResistor said:

Everything about that era, even the SEX book which I still have inside it's celophane wrapper, is superb to me.

Thanks for the input. Seems to me you're one of the hardcore Madge fans on here I was trying to reach out to with this topic, so I appreciate you taking the time. But are you saying you have a copy of the book thats 100% unopened? If so, I'd imagine that could be worth some pretty significant coin! So if there ever comes a time when you could be in financial dire straits, Madge could save your ass if you sold it! But Id imagine you bought 2 copies so you could open one up to read and display on your coffee table?