Madonna: Erotica POLL

Fever
Erotica
Where Life Begins
Deeper and Deeper
Bad Girl
Words
Secret Garden
Rain
Thief of Hearts
Waiting
In This Life
Why's It So Hard
Bye Bye Baby

bad girl is so bad/good

ppl ranking thief of hearts way too low.

' you fucked it up '

lololol

The line between unbelievably great and not so good, for me, falls between "In This Life" and "Why's It So Hard."

Why's It So Hard
Words = In This Life

― Tim F

Ok this just shattered my globe. Tim F, how can someone with such unfailingly exquisite taste prefer "Why's It So Hard" to "Words???" Some facts are in order:

"Words" dances; "Why's It So Hard" does not
"Words" slashes; "Why's It So Hard" plods
"Words" has ear-bending Orientalist sonics, a rap, and a typewriter; "Why's It So Hard" eschews gimmickry (a bad thing in pop music)
"Words" has decent lyrics; "Why's It So Hard" has freakishly godawful ones, quite possibly the very worst in her career
"Words" is one of the better unsung songs on the album; "Why's It So Hard" is easily the worst and should never be sung
"Words" could generate a nifty student paper utilizing Speech Act Theory; "Why's It So Hard" generates embarrassment for Madonna's good intentions
"Words" is not crappy; "Why's It So Hard" is

Tim F, please to explain and help me put my globe back together. kthxbyexoxoxo

"Words" is one of her Great Singles That Never Were.

see?

But I like "Why's It So Hard" too. I'm a sucker for that early nineties shufflebeat, and that keyboard sound.

Deeper and Deeper - probably my second favorite Madonna song after Into The Groove.

Here's how I'd rank them:

"Deeper and Deeper"
"Thief of Hearts" (surm waaay otm; y'all are gay disco/Madonna fans yet you rank this so low??)
"Words"
"Bye Bye Baby"
"Fever"
"Erotica"

Then it stops being disco and a serious nosedive results

"Rain"
"Bad Girl"
"Did You Do It?"
"Secret Garden"
"Where Life Begins"
"Waiting"
"In This Life"
Stephen David Heitkotter
those Jandek spoken word albums
white noise
"Why's It So Hard"

actually i'm relistening now and i have no idea why i put "thief of hearts" so low!

YOU'LL DO IT YOU'LL TAKE IT
YOU'LL SCREW IT YOU'LL FAKE IT
UNDO IT YOU'LL BREAK IT
YOU'RE OVER YOU CAN'T TAKE IT

thank you! you of all people!

i think i confused it with "where life begins", which should be lower

tbh i quite love every song on this album apart from "why's it so hard" (so hideous) so a low placement isn't that meaningful

honestly the only one of the fast songs I'm not crazy about is the title track.

the bassline tho! love that bassline.

"Where Life Begins" starting to emerge as underrated.

can we talk about Bye Bye Baby?

Great bass on that too.

had ever seen the Deeper and Deeper video until now. this song is so good.

Why's It So Hard and Words are both cringeworthy in parts but I kind of like the reggae-house vibe of the former. "Words" I used to think was one of Madonna's worst songs ever lyrically but I like it now more than I used to (also this was before her lyrics completely jumped the shark at the beginning of the 00s).

I picked Secret Garden because the production + her metaphor for wanting a child makes the song great. Since I know more about her personal life than I should it makes the song all the more poignant for me.

surm i love thief of hearts a lot, too. is there consensus that she's singing about herself?

does it matter? If you say she is, then she is.

"Rain". "It Used To Be My Playground" is better than anything on this album though.

Yes, in that there is no song that exists with that title.

Well "This Used To Be My Playground". A wonderful melodic ballad that is and remains the best Madonna/Shep Bettibone moment.

And also the best Madonna song between the "Like a Prayer" and "Ray Of Light" albums, no less.

Interesting. I wonder how this revelation might turn this conversation.

so does everyone agree this is Madonna's best album? (apart from Geir obv)

I don't; for me it's either True Blue or Ray of Light.

Mine are:

Erotica
Madonna
Like a Prayer

i don't think it's her best either. tbh i think that's kind of an over-inflated standpoint.

FIGHTIN WORDS

Madonna is my #3, definitely.

my 2 favorites are Madonna and Like a Virgin.

I think Like A Virgin has the biggest gulf in quality between the singles and the album tracks.

i enjoy the buzz-y fluff of Shoo-Bee-Doo and Stay, and all the other trax are golden, non-smashes included (Over and Over, Angel). plus all the remixes of Angel are awes

"Angel" was a top 5 single...?

but obv, i know what u mean. i think the bubbly nothing sort of sound to some of the trax is one of my favorite things about the album, actually.

yea but it doesn't compare to Material Girl, Dress You Up, the title track or Love Don't Live Here Anymore in terms of modern-day popularity or overall recognizability, if i'm not mistaken.

Well nothing compares to "Material Girl" in terms of modern-day popularity, considering that is still what Madonna gets called.

if Madonna would somehow have swapped "Shoo-Bee-Doo", "Pretender" and " "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" for "Into The Groove", "Crazy For You" and "Gambler" then the album would have been 1000 times better at least.

i would venture to guess that a lot of ppl would be far more familiar with Like A Virgin, Dress You Up or even Love Don't Live Here Anymore more readily than they would know Angel. but maybe that's just the ppl i happen to know.

Actually, I don't know too many (straight people) who regard Erotica as anything other than one of her worst. Geir is sadly not alone.

And one of the reasons I think it's her best probably has something to do with the fact that I don't like most of her other albums much beyond the singles.

I'd guess her worst is Something To Remember, which ironically I can't remember a single song from.

i thought that was just a collection of her ballads or something?

Yep, those songs all sounded like stuff she did before.

Shoulda voted "Where Life Begins."

But then "Fever" wouldn't have gotten a vote.

Man, this album.

hehe i would have such a good time with the 2 of u with gin and tonics and this album

so basically the same results as last time.

WHY ISN'T BAD GIRL HIGHER THAN RAIN?

BC RAIN IS EPIC

What a fantastic scenario, surm!

RAIN IS EPIC

If you're a photographer, it may be......

I feel like "Waiting" is definitely the most underrated track on this album. The post-"Justify My Love" production suits Madonna's (then) sultriness so well (plus the drums on this are beautiful) and for what seems like an understated, part-spoken-word track it's actually overloaded with so many different hooks. The way the generic lyrics fit together is just masterly as well, like the "don't go breaking my heart like you said you would / baby you're no good / but I love you like no other lover ever could" bridge - all the internal rhyming. And when the piano chords come in! And the ticking clock!

point taken. her voice! so husky

kind of an understatedly perfect representation of the album's sound

Juzwiak for the defense:

http://gawker.com/5953385/madonnas-pussy-is-the-temple-of-learning-erotica-at-20

What sucks about it is I can't listen to the album now.

Wait, as in you can't right this second or...

"Bad Girl" 2

Wut!?

I don't get people who love this album but don't like "Bad Girl."

btw: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8006663/madonna-erotica-album-sex-book-oral-history

It's one of her finest tracks, IMO... sonically it sounds OTM, too. Great production.

She was really trying to push people's buttons around this time... what other established pop star of the time would have dared to adorn the back sleeve of their latest record with a picture of themselves giving someone a "toe job"? What established pop star would dare do that now, even!?

SHEP: I guess I’m always trying to out-top myself, I told her, the next thing should be bigger than the last. Madonna just turned and looked me straight in the eye. It had been a long time since I’d been star-struck by her, but she was glowing differently now. Shep, she began, no matter how fierce something is, you can’t ever do the same thing twice. She sat down to record the final vocals on Erotica and looked out onto the terrace and into the New York City night. Ever, she repeated.

"deeper and deeper" is prob objectively the best song on this record but i would've voted for "words," love the gallop of the rhythm track and all those whirring sounds. second place "rain" which is an excellent cocteau twins song

lotta great weird bridges on this record

my god "Words"

the best album

BITCH

<crash>

Yes, best album, no discussion allowed

Fever
Erotica
Where Life Begins
Deeper and Deeper
Bad Girl
Words
Secret Garden
Rain
Thief of Hearts
Waiting
In This Life
Why's It So Hard
Bye Bye Baby

― who's always getting head from the commissioner (Eric H.), Wednesday, April 21, 2010 12:20 PM (twelve years ago)

No.

Deeper and Deeper
Bad Girl
Thief of Hearts
Erotica
Words
Fever
Rain
Secret Garden
In This Life
Where Life Begins
Bye Bye Baby
Waiting
Why's It So Hard

"Words" is my top pick -- it sounds like a 4 am drug racket in my head while dancing at a modestly cool gay club in my '20s.

I guess I like "Waiting" a lot better than y'all. Also, while I respect "In This Life" and the inclusion of such a song on a Madonna album in 1992, I usually skip it.

I'm all about 'Bad Girl'

drunk by six!

the best album

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Saturday, May 28, 2022 10:48 AM

you screw it
you fake it