Madonna: Bedtime Stories [MAVERICK]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing comes in a gatefold jacket with a printed inner sleeve. "Secret" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the album sold more than eight million copies worldwide and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Album.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Printed inner sleeve
• Pressed in the EU
• Lyrics included

About the album

After a couple of very loud years, Madonna did the most surprising thing available to her in 1994: she turned the volume down. Bedtime Stories is a smooth, late-night R&B record, all soft focus and slow burn, and it's aged beautifully.

She went straight to the producers who ruled R&B radio at the time, Dallas Austin, Babyface and Dave Hall, and added Nellee Hooper for a dose of the British club and dub sound she'd fallen for. Babyface co-wrote the lush ballad "Take A Bow," "Secret" pairs an acoustic guitar with a loping hip hop beat, "Human Nature" is cool and pointed, and "Bedtime Story," written with Hooper and Björk, floats off into ambient electronica. Programmed drums, strings and warm keyboards tie it all together.

The album topped the chart in Australia and reached the top five in Canada, the UK and the US, and it's now spoken of as one of her finest. "Take A Bow" stayed at No. 1 in America for seven weeks, her longest run at the top, which was long enough for most of the continent to learn the harmonies.

Also at Kops: more Madonna on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Maverick / Sire / Warner (cat# R1-45767), a reissue of the 1994 album.