After the drubbing she has taken in the last few years, Madonna deserves to be mighty mad. And wounded anger is shot through her new album, Bedtime Stories, as she works out survival strategies.

Released in 1994, the warm and mellow sound of Madonna’s sixth album has its seductive charms, but of all her work, it remains a curious non-event in the pop star’s wildly eventful career.

There was a time, even during the peak of her stardom, that Madonna was behind the times. By the mid 1990s, the shock and awe of her sexual subject matter had been dwarfed by the hard-hitting beats of R&B, hip-hop and, eventually, electronic music. What’s was a mega pop-star to do? Michael and Janet Jackson […]

The singer never sounded as vulnerable or cerebrally plugged in as she does here.

Don’t let Madonna’s cool front fool you: Being pronounced dead by the media spooked her deeply. Just listen to the way she snipes back at the press on her new album, Bedtime Stories.