Erotica Madonna

One of the indisputable facts of life in the 80’s was that Madonna was sexy, it was as certain as acne, awkwardness and the knowledge that we would all likely die in a nuclear war started by some idiot in a far off hotspot.

Although I could never say I was a big fan of her songs, like many young men in my cohort I was a diligent consumer of her video output and always willing to discuss the content of the songs or videos. By the end of the 80’s it seemed to be a given, Madonnas music and sex were inseparable, I knew it, my friends knew it and even Misters White, Orange, Blonde, Pink, Blue & Brown knew it, as they discussed the true meaning of Like a Virgin in the opening scene of 1992’s Reservoir Dogs.

But in case there was a tribe somewhere in the Amazon that was not aware, in 1992 Madonna decided to point out to the world what I had previously thought was the bleeding obvious. There was to be no ambiguity, she released an album called Erotica  This was accompanied by a book called Sex, which I remember being sealed in silver colored plastic to prevent tightarses like myself flicking through it at Angus & Robertson on the way to the train. 

How does the album stack up all these years later? Was it any good then? I’ve already mentioned I’m not her biggest fan but I will admit some of her songs have grown on me over the years. Not this collection though, from the opening track through to the last there is a sameness about it, it’s Wikipedia listing suggests that it’s a concept album but that appears to be a bit of a stretch. The title track will be familiar to most, driven mainly by a drum track(as is most of the album), this is the first track on the album that uses spoken word and it should be the last. It’s a useful technique in songs but maybe too much of a good thing, the other jarring production technique on this is the sound of a needle dropping on vinyl at the start. It just doesn’t fit with anything else on the album. 

The second track is a cover of the tune made famous by Peggy Lee,  Fever. Cover songs are great if they add something new to the tune. This cover adds a new appreciation of the ability to skip tunes. 

More spoken word and drum machines on Bye Bye Baby, Where Life begins, Waiting,Thief of Hearts, Words, Rain, In this life and Secret Garden, that is correct more than half the album has spoken word tracks. Madonna has become a beat poet. It’s too much and I think it detracts from the other lyrics. Maybe this is the concept part of the album.

So what tracks do stand up, Deeper and Deeper is the most Madonna song on this album and wouldn’t be out of place on her other work, in fact it self references her own work in repeating vocals from an earlier hit Vogue. It’s an upbeat number and well sounds like a Madonna song. This is quite honestly the only track I would want to listen to again.

Waiting reappears later on certain versions of the album as the backing track for Did You do It? A hip Hop track with uncredited vocalists highlighting Madonna’s ability to appropriate whatever musical style she chooses. It’s a good track but like a Bali watch it only looks good until you put it alongside the real thing. 

The best thing I can say for this album is that I have listened to this album multiple times so that you don’t have to. I understand it was likely a change of direction for Madonna, perhaps it stretched her creatively, perhaps it’s popular with her fans. My suggestion if you are from that long lost Amazonian tribe or for some bizarre reason have never heard Madonna’s music that you start elsewhere.