Effortless changing style - again! (Bedtime Stories - Madonna)

Member Name: josh_debbarman

Product:	Bedtime Stories - Madonna
Date:	09/05/02 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: elegant r&b sound, warm silky vocals

Disadvantages: , a mite bland at points

This album was released in 1994 and is very different from Madonna's previous albums. It has a very strong R&B theme to it, and it is very slick and moody. She collaborated a lot here with Babyface, and it shows.

Survival is a catchy little R&B number, and it is quite obviously about her tough time during the backlash following Erotica/Sex, as she addresses the public. The theme is similar to the much earlier 'Live To Tell' though the styles are obviously worlds apart., this being a dance track of medium pace rather than a ballad. The vocal is very strong, being double-tracked and harmonised. The rhythm of the song is very strong, but the strong bass synth of her earlier is conspicuously absent, ensuring that sound was very contemporary. The lyrics revolve around polarised qualities: up/down, heaven/hell, angel/saint etc in the context of survival regardless of the experiences she goes through.

Secret is more bluesy track, with Madonna singing in a deeper register. In it, deeply unhappy Madonna finally learns the secret of happiness - namely that it lies in one's own hands - from her new lover. The song is introduced with acoustic guitar and flashes of wah-wah (the latter of which recurs later in the song in the form of a solo). The first chorus is supported with strings and then percussion kicks in. There is a good example of contrary motion between the descending guitar chords and the ascending string line. The song has plenty to keep one interested in it, including a good section of harmonising at the end. This is a very cool and laid back track, and deservingly a single.

I'd Rather be your Lover starts off rather strangely and almost brusquely and out of tune in a trip-hop style, and leads into a swingbeat chorus. The chorus is lyrically an odd affair in places ("I'd even be your brother"), but the rest of the song makes more sense - even a small section of rap in the middle by cameo singer Me'S
hell Ndegeocello (one of Madonna's signings to her record label Maverick). A gritty feeling is added by vinyl cracklings of the drum sample, underpinned by a grinding and busy five-string bassline which gives the song its sound. The song is supported with samples from Lou Donaldson and the Isley Brothers. The song is about how Madonna will do anything to be the lover of her chosen, though she doesn't fully understand him. She revisits the theme of happiness being up to oneself too. A bit of an acquired taste, but it can be appreciated if one can get past the initial strangeness.

Don't Stop at first place sounds like a pretty good dance song, but the good intro is lost soon to a rather repetitive chorus with weak lyrics "feel it in your body, sing la-di-da-di", which begins to grate. The verses are more interesting, though cliched as they compare dancing to sex. Despite some nice instrumentation, it's quite a forgettable song, and perhaps the low-point of the album. Though it is under five minutes in length, it sounds overlong, and it might be one that you skip when listening to the album.

Inside of Me is a sensual and softly spoken song about the memory of a lover who is now gone...but who comforts Maddy whenever she thinks of him or looks at his photo which she keeps next to her bed. Or is it about her mother? Uh-oh, it's Maddy being deliberately ambigious again! This could be Madonna's 'Electra Complex'. The breathless little-girl vocals very cute and the slinky sexy theme is accentuated with bass slides, dark strings and saxophone. The points where the drum fades to leave just her voice is particularly gorgeous. This is one of the highlights of the album.

Don't be fooled into thinking that Human Nature is a cover of Michael Jackson's classic - this is an altogether angrier, more bitter song. In it, Maddy blasts her former lover, sometimes with scathing sarcasm - "oops, I didn'
;t know I couldn't speak my mind, what was I thinking?". The inspiration for this song was the backlash Madonna received after Erotica/Sex - Madonna is in fact attacking the press and her detractors in general - and a typical stanza is "you punished me for telling you my fantasies, I'm breaking all the rules I didn't make", "oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex, I must have been crazy" and "you're the one with the problem". She even implicates hypocrisy: "I'm just like you", "just look in the mirror" and "oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about you" and also double standards "would you like me better if I were a man?". She is most certainly unrepentant ("and I'm not sorry, it's human nature". A great number with a superb kinky (catwoman suit, whips and fondling!) video, but not one for the kids, as there is some 'naughty language' and imagery. The music opens in a trip-hop style with heavy bass and drums looping to the accompaniment of Madonna whispering "Express yourself, don't repress yourself" (which became something of a motto amongst Madonna fans). The singing style Madonna uses is very nasal (in a Nineties soul way), something that would have sounded awful in any other song, but fits absolutely to the theme and sound of this song. "I'm not your bitch, don't hang your shit on me", she admonishes. Yes ma'am. In fact, she uses three voices in the song, sometimes simultaneously: the nasal voice, the whispering voice and a sung backing. All three blend together very effectively in a masterful song.

Forbidden Love is another slow, slinky, sexy and sensual song with Babyface providing partly-whispered, partly-sung backing vocals. It is about a crush Maddy has on a man who is off-limits - hence 'forbidden love' - and she knows it's not right, but she doesn't car
e. The track is carried mostly by the vocals as the instrumentation is sparse, but strings do come in at the midpoint of the song to brighten the sound somewhat. At this point, Madonna whispers a piece of genius lyrics "rejection is the greatest aphrodisiac". The song stylishly fades to Madonna improvising vocals over the intro.

Love Tried to Welcome Me is a more solemn song where a depressed Madonna reflects on how she can't find true love ("I am usually drawn to sadness...and loneliness has never been a stranger to me" and "instead of spring it's always winter, and my heart has always been a lonely hunter"). The opening to the song is by means of lush strings over which a nylon guitar plays some lead phrases. Wind chimes also sporadically bless the track, which is dominated by drum machine and orchestra. It is a pleasant song where Madonna's different voices are again layered, but maybe a tad overlong.

Possibly the most interesting song on the album, Sanctuary is a wierd in a similar mould to the later 'Frozen', in that it is very ambient. It is very powerful and evocative, and has the air of being of a magic spell being cast on the target of Madonna's affections...and the power seems to grow as she chants more often than sings, echo being added to the effect. Seeming to be set in a prehistoric setting, the song opens with assorted odd noises, distant strings and bits of guitar sets. The song then settles into a slow dance groove with minor bass. The electric guitars used feature a slowly opening and closing wah-wah peddle, and there are some very intruiging intervals. The lyrics jump into religious mode with quotes from Walter Whitman poems 'Leaves of Grass' and 'Motherless Daughters' "surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or shall follow, as the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, around the globe". A truly intruiging song which is sh
amefully overlooked in my opinion.

Bedtime Story opens by flowing straight from the ending to the previous track. Another ambient piece of electronica, this song is another wierd one, leaving you unsure what Madonna's on about half time. Not surprising as it was co-written by the wierd woman herself - Bjork. It's actually a hymn to the joys of unconsciousness and a rejection of constraints of reason and language "today is the last day I'm using words...leaving logic and reason to the arms of unconsciousness...words are useless, especially sentences, they don't stand for anything...let's get unconscious Honey...". The music is very acid house, based over a skeletal synth arrangement over which Madonna groans, with prominent drum machine and machine handclaps - a very addictive blend. Madonna sings in a very subdued manner, with a twist of the East in "how can I explain how I feel?". Towards the end, the mixing is impressive, messing around with the stereo sound so that the lead synth moves between the channels - one for the headphones! The song ends abruptly with "and all that you've ever known, try to forget - I'll never explain again".

Take a Bow is a classic Madonna song - an extremely successful song that Americans in particular liked, though Europeans were less keen. A slow and rhythmic recitation, Maddy 'commends' her lover on his acting ability, and says that he ought to get an award. This doesn't refer to any acting aspirations, but to his relationship with her. He broke her heart and it's time to end it all...very sentimental. Musically, there is more than a hint of the Far East here, with oriental pentatonics and exotic chop-suey strings. The verse is sustained by a long descending chord sequence with a few odd twists. Backed and produced by Babyface, it bears all of his languid and laid-back style. Lyrically, it contains quite a few cliches, also drawing inspirati
on from William Shakespeare with "all the world is a stage and everyone has their part". As stylish and beautifully performed as it is, it lacks the final stage of emotion that would make it a great track, and it is perhaps a trifle over-long. I think it fits better in 'Something To Remember' (Madonna's greatest ballads collection) rather than here, where it jars with the preceding ambient title track.

Erotica may not have notched up the dollars like her previous outings but Madonna shouldn't have taken it so personally. In this 'recovery' album, the former sex freak decides to change direction and become a little more sedate. However, the hip-hop feel from Erotica is still there, though it is smooth and silky rather than gritty. It is interesting as a sign of her search for a new identity, but many people will not like the R&B theme to it. Others will and still others won't see it as true R&B (I think it's a much more elegant version of this popular music form). Regardless of which is true, there are pointers here to future directions with two spiritually-enhanced electronic flavoured tracks 'Sanctuary' and the title track. Both are beautiful and soothing. Though 'Bedtime Stories' is an impressive change in style, it is probably still viewed as the moment when Madonna came close to CONFORMING. How shocking!

Summary: