Madonna: Erotica POLL

rain, w/ deeper and deeper and erotica trailing behind

thief of hearts was my childhood favorite, of course

I won't do it. I just can't do it. This album is too close to pick one.

I know we've done this one before, because I proclaimed my (unpopular) hatred of boom-cha-boom-cha house music's infiltration of Top 40 radio in the very early '90s.

And YOU started it: Put Your Hands All Over My Poll: The Madonna "Erotica" Poll

This album needs to be polled at least once a year.

I see I voted "Fever" last time, so I'll have to vote for a different track this time around.

"Bad Girl," song and video.

My polls should be called Thief of Memory.

I know we've done this one before, because I proclaimed my (unpopular) hatred of boom-cha-boom-cha house music's infiltration of Top 40 radio in the very early '90s.

Yeah you were a flaming jerk on that thread. (Actually, I thought you were a troll at the time but apparently that was incorrect.) Which is odd because I've never seen you act that way again. Your hatred of house was reaching Ger-like proportions. Has it subsided any?

Anyhoo, meant to vote for "Deeper" in the last poll so I'm doing it now.

I can't explain it. I enjoy music of all kinds, from all continents and peoples, but the construction and hallmarks of turn-of-the-'90s house music sparks a visceral reaction in me that turns me into an instant asshole. That's why I'm staying out of this thread... uh, starting now.

Sometimes I'd like to hope that knowing house like I do makes me a little more tolerant of those who live, I dunno, Creed. Sometimes it's just in your DNA and there's no reason to reason it away.

Obv, the justifiable reason to dissent from the praise for this album is to hone in on Madonna's ostensible opportunism, but I guess I'd bet she was into the scene enough that's sort of a hollow argument.

Rain

"Did You Do It?" should be in the poll! (though I wouldn't vote for it). It's unfairly despised. After a whole album where Madonna shows us her perceptions of sex - taking on a whole series of sexual personae and situations - it's interesting that the angle is flipped for the only time ever and we get Madonna's perception of how people perceive having sex with her. Maybe it's unnerving then that she's portrayed in the most objectified and degrading terms (but I guess she's trying to make a point with that, which fits in with the rest of her message on Erotica.). It also sets up a great contrast that makes her total retreat into herself and her need for pregnancy all the more potent and understandable in the following/closing track. And as a bonus: she's referred to as Campbell's soup (wtf).

More interested in ranking em:

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

deeper and deeper
bad girl
erotica
secret garden
in this life
waiting
where life begins
bye bye baby
fever
rain
words
thief of hearts
why's it so hard?

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.

heard a smooth jazz cover of "fever" at work last week.

(followed by renditions of "songbird" and "please please please let me get what I want")

heard a smooth jazz cover of "fever"

That's why I love the Erotica version so much. It's just a 100 percent aggressive desecration of the original's musicality but inverts its sexual chemistry into a whole 'nother Kinsey pinpoint. Equal and opposite type thing.

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

otm.

I'm not too crazy about True Blue's album tracks either. LAP has a couple of album tracks as good as its singles.

there was a good long while where "White Heat" was my favorite song on True Blue

Come on baby, MAKE MY DAY

My Top 3 Madonna are:
Like a Prayer
Ray Of Light
Like a Virgin

Honorary mentions also to "Music", "Madonna", "True Blue" and "Confessions On a Dancefloor", all of them great albums.

I'm not too crazy about True Blue's album tracks either

They aren't all good "Scooby Doo" being quite horrible even), but "Surrender" is one of my favourite tracks on that album.

No wonder the typical RYM poster is stuck in the early 90s btw. You have to be stuck there to think positive of "Erotica". It is extremely of its time. A time that is now luckily long gone and hopefully will never return. The early 90s were one of the worst ever eras for music. Absolutely horrible.

What copy of TB do YOU own?

xpost

What copy of TB do YOU own?

Aren't they all alike? Except for the remaster (which is the one I own) sounding better and containing a couple 12 inch mixes in addition?

what are "Scooby Doo" and "Surrender"?

Hmm... Sorry. Read that as "Like a Virgin".

As for TB album tracks, I do like "Jimmy Jimmy". But the rest were a bit weaker, surely.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

why's it so hard to poll one another?

deeper and deeper really is am amazing song

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