{"id":289095,"date":"2025-11-29T04:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289095\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T04:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T04:08:11","slug":"madonna-bedtime-stories-the-untold-chapter-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289095\/","title":{"rendered":"Madonna ‘Bedtime Stories \u2013 The Untold Chapter’ Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Released on the heels of 1992\u2019s criminally under-appreciated Erotica<\/a> and its accompanying coffee-table book, Sex, Madonna\u2019s Bedtime Stories<\/a> served as both a course correction and an image rehabilitation for the artist. If the album, which outsold and out-charted its predecessor, isn\u2019t widely remembered today as the comeback story that it was, it\u2019s only because its success was eclipsed by 1998\u2019s much-vaunted Ray of Light<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Bookended as it is, then, by Madonna\u2019s imperial phase and eventual renaissance, Bedtime Stories is often overlooked altogether, but it arguably finds her at her most vulnerable\u2014and most human. She candidly explores self-love (\u201cSecret\u201d), self-reproach (\u201cLove Tried to Welcome Me\u201d), and self-preservation (\u201cSurvival\u201d). She sings of her late mother as if she were a long-lost lover on \u201cInside of Me\u201d and intertwines existential death and physical desire on \u201cSanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from \u201cHuman Nature,\u201d her clapback at the media, and a transcendent performance of the Bj\u00f6rk-penned \u201cBedtime Story\u201d during last year\u2019s Celebration Tour, Madonna has largely sidelined the album\u2019s songs in recent years. Which makes it all the more unusual that\u2014notwithstanding the lackluster Ray of Light-era EP Veronica Electronica<\/a>, released earlier this year\u2014Bedtime Stories is, so far, the closest thing we\u2019ve gotten to the catalog reissues announced by Warner way back in 2021. The original album hasn\u2019t been remastered, and the bonus material\u2014available as a standalone vinyl EP, or bundled with the Bedtime Stories on CD\u2014isn\u2019t exactly abundant. <\/p>\n

The EP, The Untold Chapter, is faithful to the spirit of the original album\u2019s sound and surprisingly cohesive, limited to its R&B-leaning remixes and outtakes. That means the only demo from the early, more dance-oriented Shep Pettibone sessions is \u201cLove Won\u2019t Wait,\u201d a song that Gary Barlow took to the top of the U.K. charts in 1997. Here, it feels a bit out of time, a Motown throwback that wouldn\u2019t sound out of place on either of Madonna\u2019s first two albums. <\/p>\n

The rest of the tracks remain squarely within the set\u2019s genre brief: \u201cRight on Time\u201d is a charming but abbreviated R&B ditty, while the previously released \u201cFreedom\u201d boasts a soulfully defiant vocal performance from Madonna. The demos for \u201cSurvival\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Stop\u201d have a harder edge than their final versions, the former featuring the iconic trumpet sample that producer Dallas Austin would later repurpose for TLC\u2019s \u201cCreep.\u201d And the \u201cSecret\u201d B-side \u201cLet Down Your Guard\u201d is a curious (and curiously infectious) oddity whose lyrical innuendos and unexpected mix of Asian and electronic influences probably account for its omission from the original album. <\/p>\n

Sadly, \u201cSomething\u2019s Coming Over,\u201d the long-fabled Pettibone track that would eventually become \u201cSecret,\u201d an early version of \u201cInside of Me\u201d titled \u201cI Will Always Have You,\u201d and an official release of \u201cI\u2019d Rather Be Your Lover\u201d featuring 2Pac will ostensibly stay locked in the vaults for now. Perhaps Madonna will deign to release another chapter someday. Until then, the story of one of her most underrated, nakedly revealing albums still has some loose ends. <\/p>\n

Score:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0Label: Warner \u00a0Release Date: November 28, 2025 \u00a0Buy: Amazon<\/a>
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