Rocktrospectiva: The Smooth And Powerful "Bedtime Stories" Turns 30

 

Released on 25 October 1994, "Bedtime Stories" was the sixth studio album by American singer Madonna, released after another controversial title "Erotica" and the table book "Sex", and her performance in the erotic thrille "Body Of Evidence" all of three project  received negatively comments from critics and fans alike due to their sexually explicit nature. 

 

So, Madonna decided that she needed to soften her image if she wanted to regain her audience. The first attempt was the ballad "I'll Remember" from the soundtrack to the 1994 film With Honors, and then "Bedtime Stories", her sixth studio album, in which she decided to incorporate R&B elements, and collaborated with Babyface, Dallas Austin, and Dave Hall. She also chose to explore the British club musical scene, where genres such as dub had been growing in popularity, and hired producer Nellee Hooper. 

 

Basically, it's a pop album with elements of R&B and hip hop, exploring lyrical themes of love and romance, but with a toned-down, less sexual approach. In the song "Human Nature", Madonna explicitly addresses the backlash and controversy surrounding her previous projects, whereas title track "Bedtime Story" saw her working with Icelandic singer Björk. The album yielded two top-three singles, "Secret" and "Take a Bow"; the latter stayed at number one for seven weeks on the chart. Follow-ups "Bedtime Story" and "Human Nature" were both top-ten hits on the UK Singles Chart and peaking the No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

Regarding a controversial period of her career, the singer recalled: "I feel I've been misunderstood. I tried to make a statement about feeling good about yourself and exploring your sexuality, but people took it to mean that everyone should go out and have sex with everyone. I decided to leave it alone because that's what everyone ended up concentrating on". Madonna came to the conclusion that she needed to "soften" her image in order to reconnect with her audience. The album was recorded at nine different studios. 

 

Madonna started to work with powerful R&B producers such as Babyface, Dallas Austin and Dave Hall, with the first one, worked on the songs "Forbidden Love", and the ballad "Take A Bow" following her desires to chase lush ballads, then with Dallas Austin she created "Secret", "Don't Stop" and "Sanctuary" and with Dave Hall the sexy "Human Nature" the song "I'd Rather Be Your Lover" was recorded as a duet with Tupac Shakur, in a time Madonna had an affair with the late rapper, but after the rapper became involved in a sexual assault case, she decided to replaced his parts with Meshell Ndegeocello. 

But despite Madonna's desires to had a huge impact on the R&B her voice wasn't powerful enough so, turned to the British club scene, focusing on dub genre thanks to Björk, Massive Attack and Soul II Soul impact, so checked for producer Nellee Hooper and added a certain European sensibility creating the songs "Survival" and "Inside Of Me", Madonna was a huge fan of Björk's "Debut" album and asked Hooper to contacted her to write a track for the album, the Icelandic wasn't a huge fan of Madonna but give a try a created "Let's Get Unconscious" borned out from Björk's criticism of Madonna's aesthetic, and for the final versión became "Bedtime Story". 

 

The album was a blend of pop, R&B, hip-hop and a Madonna record, with lyrics and themes that are "romantic and very reflective". The sequence of the songs is something Madonna paid "particular attention to", as she wanted to create a "truly cohesive" record. The opener "Survival" is a sweetly funky song in which Madonna talks directly to the public and addresses her feelings regarding the controversies in which she was embroiled in the past, "Secret", finds Madonna singing in a husky alto and features an unhurried Memphis soul beat and talks about spirituality and self-empowerment.

 

In the "soulful sass" of "I'd Rather Be Your Lover", Madonna lusts after the unattainable through processes of negotiation, and runs down the relations she would rather not be: a sister, mother, friend and brother, the fourth song "Don't Stop" has been referred to as Bedtime Stories' sole call to the dance floor with bliks of "Everybody" single from 1982 and achoes back to "Vogue" from 1990, next is "Human Nature" is a hip hop-influenced track that begins is a with heavy bass and drums looping. In "Forbidden Love", the album's seventh track, Madonna "dismisses any relationship untouched by taboo", "Love Tried to Welcome Me" is a song that fetishizes rejection, "Sanctuary" quotes Walt Whitman's poem Vocalism, and it is a song that draws inspiration from Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" (1962), and aligns love and death. The ending of "Sanctuary" is linked to the beginning of the next song, title track "Bedtime Story" that unlike most of the songs on the album, which are heavily R&B-influenced, "Bedtime Story" is an electronica-doused track with a "trippy" vibe. and the closer "Take a Bow" is a midtempo pop ballad with "a "'Sukiyaki'"-like Japanese touch".

 

Unlike "Erotica", "Bedtime Stories" received generally positive reviews from critics. considered a warm album, with deep, gently pulsating grooves, as well as the singer's most humane and open, she never sounded as emotionally vulnerable or cerebrally plugged in as she does in, considered so far by many as winning" album and more appealing than that on Erotica, perhaps "Bedtime Stories" is Madonna's most underrated and overlooked work, due to it being trapped between her most controversial album "Erotica" and, arguably, her best "Ray of Light", 

 

 Bedtime Stories Track List: 

 

1. Survival

2. Secret

3. I'd Taher Be Your Lover 

4. Don't Stop

5. Inside Of Me

6. Human Nature

7. Forbidden Love

8. Love Tried To Welcome Me

9. Sanctuary 

10. Bedtime Story

11. Take A Bow