{"id":39641,"date":"2006-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/erotica-2\/"},"modified":"2006-02-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-14T00:00:00","slug":"erotica-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/erotica-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Erotica"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

This is the Madonna album history will remember.<\/p>\n

Too many successful artists become parodies of their
\nown success; Madonna looked to the future instead, and risked her
\nsound. Consequently, Erotica<\/i> defines the clich\u00c3\u00a9
\n“ahead of its time,” the album sounding even fresher now in 2006
\nthan it did in 1992, when the world did not have the images it
\nneeded to internalize it (despite the series of truly beautiful
\nvideos it came with). For artists out there wondering how Madonna
\nkeeps on going: look to Erotica<\/i> first. This is the album
\nthat separated her from the pop herd.<\/p>\n

The sound is what coheres the album together as a
\nwhole: a cerebral, machine-produced beat, a whitewashed
\nwall-of-sound more often associated with Bj\u00c3\u00b6rk and Portishead.
\n(Bj\u00c3\u00b6rk would later on collaborate with Madonna on a song in
\nBedtime Stories<\/i> that would not sound out of place either on
\nthis album or Ray Of Light<\/i>.) This is not Madonna and a
\nproducer walled in a studio, creating a world together, and that’s
\nprobably why the album failed commercially. Pop music is didactic
\nin its imagery, or uses imagery so obvious as to be didactic (hence
\nthe endless repetition of hook-up and break-up scenarios).
\nErotica<\/i> in that sense is not pop music; it’s a soundtrack
\nfor a lifestyle.<\/p>\n

The dance tracks “Erotica” and “Thief Of Hearts”
\nexemplify this sound, although this approach is used on the slower
\ntracks as well, creating an ambient trip-hop effect. Everything
\nworks well: “Secret Garden” combines jazz chord progressions into a
\nmachine drum beat to create a soft and unsettling contradiction,
\n“Rain” is one of her best pop ballads to date with its wide open,
\natmospheric feel, “Why’s It So Hard” has a subdued but determined
\ngroove that evokes more anger than all of Jagged Little
\nPill<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The lyrics of these songs are among the best of her
\ncareer, dealing with issues like AIDS, gay rights, and destructive
\nas well as creative sexuality; “Bad Girl” is about the unexpectedly
\nunpleasant aspects of hedonism, and “Where Life Begins” is such a
\nsubtle piece of work that I had no idea it was about female oral
\nsex for about ten years. “Deeper And Deeper” is supposedly about
\nhomosexuality (I don’t see it) but a clearer approach is in “In
\nThis Life,” which combines an unexpected but recognizable
\ncombination of regret and anger at the death and injustice of
\nforgetting of a gay friend.<\/p>\n

This album is clearly a labor of love: there isn’t a
\nsingle bad song among its fourteen tracks (thirteen in some
\nregions). But aside from mere craftsmanship is the question of
\nartistic vision: how did Madonna, in the era of that other
\nreligious-sounding band Nirvana, predict this would be the sound of
\nthe future? Maybe she didn’t; maybe it was dumb luck. Maybe it
\nreally pays to create sound your emotions ring true to, instead of
\ntrying to be contemporary and hip. The world was ready for her by
\nthe time she returned to a warmer version of this sound with Ray
\nOf Light<\/i>, but true history had already been made.<\/p>\n

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