Bedtime Stories

by

Madonna

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"Bedtime Stories" was Madonna's follow-up to "Erotica," an album so cooly received that it started a nasty backlash against the singer. So, it's not surprising that she comes across as a bit defensive on a couple of tracks: on "Survival" she promises that she's "gonna be living to tell" and she lashes back at her critics in the dynamite "Human Nature." Elsewhere, "Bedtime Stories" was her most self-reflective album at the time, and it's also her most r&b-sounding disc since her debut. Dave Jam Hall, Dallas Austin and Babyface all supply the onetime Material Girl some solid beats and rhythms that wouldn't sound out of place on a Mary J. Blige album. The hits, "Secret" and "Take a Bow" show up here, but other tracks of note are the infectious "Inside of Me" (a tribute to her late mother) and "Don't Stop," which should have been released as a single but wasn't. This album didn't flop upon release, but it sold less than it deserved to, mainly because people were looking for a "Vogue 2" in this record. Nonetheless, "Bedtime Stories" is a straight-up r&b record that deserves a second chance.

Bedtime Stories has to be Madonna's most underrated work. It's truly breathtaking to hear her music transition from smooth, authentic R&B to the electronic and totally brilliant Bedtime Story. With the exception of the title track, this is probably Madonna's most dated album, as she co opted the predominant R&B sound that radio formats at the time were beginning to embrace. Despite this, Bedtime Stories stands as a testament to Madonna's fierce savvy and brilliant pop sensibility to style any genre of music to her liking and project it with such authority to make it thoroughly her own.