funkydita Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Erotica is maybe my all time favourite Madonna album. The book, singles, remixes, videos and concert package, for me, are almost faultless. Erotica as a track is immense in all its versions, album version, sex book version, WO 12", Underground Club Mix, Kenlou Mix, Madonna's In My Jeep Mix, You Thrill Me, Rain Tapes demo. The era had a real sense of edge, darkness and power to it but with an undercurrent of playfulness and humour that people either didn't get or chose to ignore. At the time the Sex campaign (and M) felt unstoppable, important and massive, you really need to have lived through it to appreciate the magnitude of coverage she received and the downright nastiness of the backlash that followed. I also think she was at her most beautiful during this period; icy, haughty, androgynous beauty is always a winner for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonski43 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Erotica is maybe my all time favourite Madonna album. The book, singles, remixes, videos and concert package, for me, are almost faultless. Erotica as a track is immense in all its versions, album version, sex book version, WO 12", Underground Club Mix, Kenlou Mix, Madonna's In My Jeep Mix, You Thrill Me, Rain Tapes demo. The era had a real sense of edge, darkness and power to it but with an undercurrent of playfulness and humour that people either didn't get or chose to ignore. At the time the Sex campaign (and M) felt unstoppable, important and massive,you really need to have lived through it to appreciate the magnitude of coverage she received and the downright nastiness of the backlash that followed. I also think she was at her most beautiful during this period; icy, haughty, androgynous beauty is always a winner for me. I feel the opposite about it. With the launch of Sex, the massive backlash began and with every subsequent release, her popularity was waning. Singles didn't chart so high or stay around so long and Body of Evidence tanked. I couldn't understand it as the songs and videos were great. However, from a fans perspective, it was great as the record company had to put in more effort so we go more releases, mixes and videos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lymon Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 (edited) I feel the opposite about it. With the launch of Sex, the massive backlash began and with every subsequent release, her popularity was waning. Singles didn't chart so high or stay around so long and Body of Evidence tanked. I couldn't understand it as the songs and videos were great. However, from a fans perspective, it was great as the record company had to put in more effort so we go more releases, mixes and videos! I agree, Sex really tarnished her for a while. The book was very liberal and open about sexuality and I think it was shocking to many people, they weren't ready for it. And Erotica the album is not so much about sex, I can think of a few songs about sex(Erotica, Bad Girl, Where Life Begins, Did You Do It), but overall the album was more a concept album about the types of love than just sex. People judged the album too quickly with the first single/music video, and it didn't change. I truly don't think she regained her top status in the public again until Ray of Light. Edited July 10, 2009 by Lymon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeowly Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 i love this rolling stone 4 star review: It took Madonna ten years, but she finally made the record everyone has accused her of making all along. Chilly, deliberate, relentlessly posturing. Erotica is a post-AIDS album about romance – it doesn't so much evoke sex as provide a fetishistic abstraction of it. She may have intended to rattle America with hot talk about oral gratification and role switching, but sensuality is the last thing on the album's mind. Moving claustrophobically within the schematic confines of dominance and submission, Erotica plays out its fantasies with astringent aloofness, unhumid and uninviting. The production choices suggest not a celebration of the physical but a critique of commercial representations of sex – whether Paul Verhoeven's, Bruce Weber's or Madonna's – that by definition should not be mistaken for the real thing. It succeeds in a way the innocent post-punk diva of Madonna and the thoughtful songwriter of Like a Prayer could not have imagined. Its cold, remote sound systematically undoes every one of the singer's intimate promises. Clinical enough on its own terms when compared with the lushness and romanticism of Madonna's past grooves, Erotica is stunningly reined in; even when it achieves disco greatness, it's never heady. Madonna, along with coproducers Andre Betts and Shep Pettibone, tamps down every opportunity to let loose – moments ripe for a crescendo, a soaring instrumental break, a chance for the listener to dance along, are over the instant they are heard. Erotica is Madonna's show (the music leaves no room for audience participation), and her production teases and then denies with the grim control of a dominatrix. Against maraca beats and a shimmying horn riff, "Erotica" introduces Madonna as "Mistress Dita," whose husky invocations of "do as I say" promise a smorgasbord of sexual experimentation, like the one portrayed in the video for "Justify My Love." But the sensibility of "Erotica" is miles removed from the warm come-ons of "Justify," which got its heat from privacy and romance – the singer's exhortations to "tell me your dreams." The Madonna of "Erotica" is in no way interested in your dreams; she's after compliance, and not merely physical compliance either. The song demands the passivity of a listener, not a sexual partner. It's insistently self-absorbed – "Vogue" with a dirty mouth, where all the real action's on the dance floor. Look (or listen) but don't touch sexuality isn't the only peep-show aspect of this album; Erotica strives for anonymity the way True Blue strove for intimacy. With the exception of the riveting "Bad Girl," in which the singer teases out shades of ambiguity in the mind of a girl who'd rather mess herself up than end a relationship she's too neurotic to handle, the characters remain faceless. It's as if Madonna recognizes the discomfort we feel when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual. A sex symbol herself, she coolly removes the threat of her own personality. Pure disco moments like the whirligig "Deeper and Deeper" don't need emotional resonance to make them race. But the record sustains its icy tone throughout the yearning ballads ("Rain," "Waiting") and confessional moods ("Secret Garden"). Relieved of Madonna's celebrity baggage, they're abstract nearly to the point of nonexistence – ideas of love songs posing as the real thing. Even when Madonna draws from her own life, she's all reaction, no feeling: The snippy "Thief of Hearts" takes swipes at a man stealer but not out of love or loyalty toward the purloined boyfriend, who isn't even mentioned. By depersonalizing herself to a mocking extreme, the Madonna of Erotica is sexy in only the most objectified terms, just as the album is only in the most literal sense what it claims to be. Like erotica, Erotica is a tool rather than an experience. Its stridency at once refutes and justifies what her detractors have always said: Every persona is a fake, the self-actualized amazon of "Express Yourself" no less than the breathless baby doll of "Material Girl." Erotica continually subverts this posing to expose its function as pop playacting. The narrator of "Bye Bye Baby" ostensibly dumps the creep who's been mistreating her, but Madonna's infantile vocal and flat delivery are anything but assertive – she could be a drag queen toying with a pop hit of the past. Erotica is everything Madonna has been denounced for being – meticulous, calculated, domineering and artificial. It accepts those charges and answers with a brilliant record to prove them. ARION BERGER (Posted: Nov 26, 1992) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkydita Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I feel the opposite about it. With the launch of Sex, the massive backlash began and with every subsequent release, her popularity was waning. Singles didn't chart so high or stay around so long and Body of Evidence tanked. I couldn't understand it as the songs and videos were great. However, from a fans perspective, it was great as the record company had to put in more effort so we go more releases, mixes and videos! I meant less so the success of the projects, more how ubiquitous she and they (Sex primarily) were at the time and the fact that the broadsheets, academics, news shows, late night cultural TV shows etc. were dissecting her; she was everywhere and everyone was talking about her. The hype was palpable and ramped up more than before or since, it felt like an unstoppable juggernaut, a beast unleashed and ready to take anyone in its path. The reaction may have been negative but it was deafening. Sex may have been damaging but it's an important and necessary part of the Madonna narrative, it's one of the key projects in making her the icon she is today. Arguably it's also the line in the sand of her career, the closing of a chapter, there's before Sex and after Sex. I adore the whole period and everything about it, her work, look, attitude, the positive message and humour that no one seemed to get. Of course, being a 16 year old rural gay at the time probably has something to do with my affection for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I wont say from where, but at the time I got an advance copy of EROTICA (4 weeks early) and i was mermerized for months. I played that tape out, over and over and over and over. The songs were so dark and naughty and edgy and cool. I even loved the "filler" tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnation09 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Nice Review. "The Best Saved Till Last... Secret Garden ...and one of the best things shes ever done." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I feel the opposite about it. With the launch of Sex, the massive backlash began and with every subsequent release, her popularity was waning. Singles didn't chart so high or stay around so long and Body of Evidence tanked. I couldn't understand it as the songs and videos were great. However, from a fans perspective, it was great as the record company had to put in more effort so we go more releases, mixes and videos! Good point. I never thought of it like that. That the record company had to campaign extra hard; via video & promotion, to sway the general publics views & opinions. SEX was a jagged pill, but Im glad she produced it all part & parcel. The tongue n' cheek humour was something most people didn't appreciate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sglg426 Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I can never get enough of reading the EROTICA DIARIES http://www.absolutemadonna.com/interesting...cadiaries.shtml SAME HERE ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narendra Sen Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 It's raining!! > I'm listening to 'Erotica'!! > "Rain" is beyond perfection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SexPistol Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I can never get enough of reading the EROTICA DIARIES http://www.absolutemadonna.com/interesting...cadiaries.shtml agreed. i love reading about the thought process behind a lot of her stuff. i wish there was more of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lymon Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 It's raining!! > I'm listening to 'Erotica'!! > "Rain" is beyond perfection! One of the best songs she's ever done! I would die if she sang it live again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narendra Sen Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 One of the best songs she's ever done! I would die if she sang it live again. me too!! in 2008, a few days before the tour started (S&S Tour that is), I was so excited when I saw 'Rain' was among the songs to be performed... Then, of course, it was revealed to be just an interlude... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lymon Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 me too!! in 2008, a few days before the tour started (S&S Tour that is), I was so excited when I saw 'Rain' was among the songs to be performed... Then, of course, it was revealed to be just an interlude... Hopefully somebody will request it at a show. She's still doing requests, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narendra Sen Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Hopefully somebody will request it at a show. She's still doing requests, right? I don't think she is, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lymon Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I don't think she is, actually. Dang. I loved requests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsaacHarris Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Dang. I loved requests. I Did Too! Then Again, People were Requesting some CRAZY Songs. In Atlanta, Some Guy Wanted to Hear "Justify My Love" Madonna: That Is NOT A SONG. I SPEAK IN IT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsaacHarris Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Oh My God. I Love These Pics http://madonnascrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/07/erotica.html Thanks Pud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini1313 Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkydita Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Rain: borefest. But great live on TGS with all the vocal harmonies etc. Actually I have to listen to that now. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> The part at 3:40 to 4:30 is just the best. I love the way she sings 'Just my imagination' and then slips back in...so good. Raaaaaaaaaaaaain Raaaaaaaaaaaainnn Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain Rain is what the thunder brings. woohoo! It actually makes me almost like the song. Oh no. The Japanese live version is the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loomer Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Dita is GOD Just when you thought she had exhausted all possible looks, she comes up with something new and the image change here was her most exciting for me. The start of this era was so amazing, even if it quickly turned sour with the backlash - a truly rotten time to be a fan. But at least we had great music and videos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Err i remember being around 8 years old at the time and M was like considered the devil and my mom literally tore the posters off my wall, i cried so hard lol! I always remind her of that now lol Nevertheless, i cherish my copy of the video cassette i taped that Jonathan Ross interview on, sneeking downstairs at 11:30pm...she was sooo hot! Great album too, Deeper & Deeper, Why's it so Hard and Words were instant faves! Also recall the nasty press she got at the time, every review, article was just pure anti-Madge and UK magazine Smash Hits no longer put her on their covers...seems like yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magom Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Her best albumn ever, as my boyfriend says. I just started to become a fan when Erotica came, I actually purchase the album just because was Madonna's, no other reason. But instantly love the dancey tracks and once Rain Video came, became my fav madonna song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oulira Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 This album is also in there amongst my favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loomer Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Err i remember being around 8 years old at the time and M was like considered the devil and my mom literally tore the posters off my wall, i cried so hard lol! I always remind her of that now lol Your "mom"? Aren't you British?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ULIZOS Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I love, love, love, this album. Secret Garden.... OMGGGGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pud Whacker Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 wasnt too dated for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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