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Your opinion on Erotica?


50ft Queenie
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The music videos, remixes, looks/photo shoots/fashions are perfection. It deserved to be a full visual album.

I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion here, but it's my one and only gripe with the entire era. I really don't like "Bye Bye Baby". And feel the MTV performance that year was a big missed opportunity to do something really big, shocking, and memorable. I like the performance. I get the androgynous thing. That's great. I don't think it's terrible by any means. But the other singles are in a different league. And there were other album tracks that would have made a much bigger bang.

Also, side note no one ever really talks about just how big "Deeper and Deeper" was. Even with all the backlash during the era. I remember everyone loving that song. Maybe it's cuz I was a kid in gay old NYC. Imagine how a song like that would have done with no backlash at all. 

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8 hours ago, Pootz333 said:

Also, side note no one ever really talks about just how big "Deeper and Deeper" was. Even with all the backlash during the era. I remember everyone loving that song. Maybe it's cuz I was a kid in gay old NYC. Imagine how a song like that would have done with no backlash at all. 

Sadly, "Deeper and Deeper", "Rescue Me" and "Gambler" are forgotten masterpieces.

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You know what? So many great albums came out in 1992. Some of my favourite ones in fact. It was a truly unique time; grunge, shoegaze, stoner rock, sludge, britpop, industrial and indie were making huge strides and emerging as their own genres and blurring the lines between indie and mainstream. 

 

What Madonna was doing with Erotica was pretty brave; taking those underground sounds and making it commercial with the themes she wanted to explore, but it was still only a small fraction of what was going on in the musical landscape of 1992.

 

Madonna's contribution to that zeitgeist shouldn't be ignored in terms of sexual politics and aesthetics, but I would question, musically, did Erotica have an equal impact? I think the title track itself is perhaps the most interesting song with its bassline, Eastern flavours and dominatrix themes. As with all Madonna albums, there are usual fillers sequenced between dance tracks, ballads and downtempo songs. The album explores genres such as new jack swing and deep bassy blues with the help of Andre Betts, but is let down by the laxed production by Shep Pettibone on other songs that make the album feel lackluster. 

 

Whilst Erotica is an album praised by many fans and does have its merits, for my tastes, it offers far too little for its total runtime of 75 minutes. 

 

For those curious about what else 1992 offered, here are some of my favourite releases:

 

Manic Street Preachers, Generation Terrorists

Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes

Curve, Doppelganger

Ride, Going Blank Again

Tool, Opiate

White Zombie, La Sexorcisto

Jesus and Mary Chain, Honey's Dead

Godflesh, Pure

L7, Bricks Are Heavy

The Cure, Wish

Skinny Puppy, Last Rights

Ministry, Psalm 69

Sonic Youth, Dirty

Morrissey, Your Arsenal

Morphine, Good

NIN, Broken

The Prodigy, Experience

Siouxsie, Twice Upon A Time

Nirvana, Insecticide

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1 hour ago, PatrickSamuel said:

You know what? So many great albums came out in 1992. Some of my favourite ones in fact. It was a truly unique time; grunge, shoegaze, stoner rock, sludge, britpop, industrial and indie were making huge strides and emerging as their own genres and blurring the lines between indie and mainstream. 

 

What Madonna was doing with Erotica was pretty brave; taking those underground sounds and making it commercial with the themes she wanted to explore, but it was still only a small fraction of what was going on in the musical landscape of 1992.

 

Madonna's contribution to that zeitgeist shouldn't be ignored in terms of sexual politics and aesthetics, but I would question, musically, did Erotica have an equal impact? I think the title track itself is perhaps the most interesting song with its bassline, Eastern flavours and dominatrix themes. As with all Madonna albums, there are usual fillers sequenced between dance tracks, ballads and downtempo songs. The album explores genres such as new jack swing and deep bassy blues with the help of Andre Betts, but is let down by the laxed production by Shep Pettibone on other songs that make the album feel lackluster. 

 

Whilst Erotica is an album praised by many fans and does have its merits, for my tastes, it offers far too little for its total runtime of 75 minutes. 

 

For those curious about what else 1992 offered, here are some of my favourite releases:

 

Manic Street Preachers, Generation Terrorists

Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes

Curve, Doppelganger

Ride, Going Blank Again

Tool, Opiate

White Zombie, La Sexorcisto

Jesus and Mary Chain, Honey's Dead

Godflesh, Pure

L7, Bricks Are Heavy

The Cure, Wish

Skinny Puppy, Last Rights

Ministry, Psalm 69

Sonic Youth, Dirty

Morrissey, Your Arsenal

Morphine, Good

NIN, Broken

The Prodigy, Experience

Siouxsie, Twice Upon A Time

Nirvana, Insecticide

Danmmm man, a lot of those albums you listed are some of my favorites, music was greatest in the 70's and 90's in my opinion, the 80's was a huge downtime for rock and roll with terrible groups like Bon Jovi.

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There is one thing that Erotica achieved that happens once in a very long time - once in lifetime.

The ability to make people rethink the weight of judgment - 

That maybe all these judgments are way too heavy - maybe its time to let them go for both ends - they are way too oppressive.

That thing gave Erotica a reason to exist.

It was a fair freedom cry. 

if we get a rear view - maybe its the most colorful tribute paid to movies.

The cinephile Madonna met the Bombshell : she was there already showing her expertise.

what another golden era! 

 

 

 

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On 12/21/2021 at 1:18 PM, beautifulkiller said:

in desperate need of a good remaster - love the album - hate the way it sounds so tinny 

Have you heard the master version on Tidal?  It really is an improvement in quality. For all her albums (the WB ones anyway - none avail for MDNA and Rebel Heart).  

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  • 2 months later...
On 12/22/2021 at 3:12 AM, EgoRod said:

My favourite from the day it came out.

What stands out with this album is the amount of writing, the lyrics. And how emotional and personal they get.

It's raw and powerful. Erotica, Waiting, Words and Secret Garden my top choices. But I love Thieves, Fever, Deeper, Bye , Bad Girl... interestingly, Rain is not the one I like the most. it's a great song, video and lyrics, I just not into it that much.

It does'nt bother me Did you do it and it makes sense why is there but I will always crave Goodbye to Innocence.

This is literally the exact thing I would say, from start to finish.   This album is Perfection.  It's my favorite record by anyone, ever. 

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for me it's also an album rooted to fail commercially. comerical pop acts get so big and you can't sustain that when you're not the new acts anymore. by the time like a prayer album came out it was clear singles off madonna's albums weren't going to become hits based on her name alone like the true blue/who's that girl commercial peak. 

 

like a prayer singles had to be pushed and many just didn't connect in the way people expected. oh father, dear jessie, keep it together and the cancelled pray for spanish eyes. 

 

her next album was lucky to miss out the "flop" label (i'm breathless) as vogue and it's being kind of a soundtrack. the next record being a greatest hits was a mop up excerise to get the casuals to buy her who wouldn't normally buy a madonna album.

 

erotica was always going to be the release the press and industry would call her fall from grace. i think madonna knew this so used it as an opportunity to really go for it. the biggest criticism she ever faced was people saying she was using sex to sell. so why not release an album and book about sex and fetishes. everyone's talking about madonna being a vile sex obsessed whore so she took the idea of sex in pop and made an album about it.

cold, calculated and not primed to sell. it was genius

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Erotica has serious problems. This is my favorite era of her career but I am not delusional and I can see that this cd has serious problems and needed way more work just like the Sex Book and Body Of Evidence too. 

 

Her music up until that point was flawless, I love all the 80's songs but the Erotica singles were miles ahead, she took a massive leap with them, but the rest of the album is unsalvageable. 

She recently posted her stream numbers on spotify and I was shocked but not surprised that after 30 years, Erotica is still the least played album, and it is thanks to the horrible non single songs.

The fact that something like Goodbye to Innocence or Shame were left out speaks volumes. 

To prove my point I made a playlist of what it should have been like: 

 

This is my Erotica album and I listen to it almost every day. 

 

 

 

 

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