Careless Notions

Out of all of Madge's albums,  Erotica  is probably most deserving of an extensive writeup, especially given that it's now passed its 25th anniversary (seems hard to believe).  It’s deserving of attention not just because musically it was quite a departure for Madonna, but also because culturally this is probably when she was the most relevant, and when she became the most controversial.  In fact I can’t think of any celebrity operating at this level of prominence who deliberately chose to become this controversial.  Madonna was bold or crazy depending upon your point of view, but certainly not your typical paycheck cashing celeb. You do still hear hints of the old Madonna on this record, thanks to producer Stephen Bray's involvement most likely, but for the most part this record is Madonna using the success of The Immaculate Collection ’s "Justify My Love" as an escape hatch out of the '80s and into the '90s. Part of a multimedia assault on ...

This was the first Madonna record I bought new right on release. I'd read her interview in Vanity Fair shortly before it came out, and that's where I realized she was definitely going to be transcending her earlier work with this album. A buddy of mine said she was going to be grabbing her crotch in one of her videos - Michael Jackson style - based on a shot he'd seen somewhere, but I thought he was nuts. Well... Statues coming to life, stigmata, burning crosses, making out with a black guy...yeah, the haters went totally apeshit. "Like A Prayer" of course was a controversy-driven monster the likes of which nobody had seen before on the pop charts. Introduced via a little morality play of a video , it functioned as a pretty good test of who was bright enough to understand what a metaphor is and who wasn't. More importantly for Madge though, the song itself was unlike anything she'd done before. Improbably gospel inspired, and with that bliste...