I listened to Madonna's Erotica album the other day - in sequence and all the way through, as per the other recent thread. I'd liked it at the time, but it had been a while, and it has tended to be either ignored or tarred with the brush of ridicule that was used heavily on the contemporaneous Sex book. Does it sound any good now?

Well, it holds up very impressively. Of course there are some good grooves (and isn't Deeper And Deeper a monster ?). There are also some bloody good songs here, such as Bad Girl, Rain and In This Life. On the latter, I swear I can hear some real emotion in her singing. Even the up-tempo cover of Fever isn't the disaster one could be forgiven for expecting. And the second version of Did You Do It? is actually quite brilliant, combining some sinuous rapping from two guest performers with a pointed mocking from Madonna on the chorus.

My only criticism would be that over nearly 70 minutes a certain saminess creeps in, particularly with Thief of Hearts and Words, which are next to each other and share a virtually identical groove. No outright clunkers, though.

With some performers, one "likes the idea" of them more than the actual records (Franz Ferdinand, the Magic Numbers, insert your own choice). It seems the reverse can operate too: Madonna epitomises many unlovely aspects of superstardom, such as overweening self-importance, pretentiousness, lack of a sense of proportion; and of course, there's the whole question of exactly how much real talent she has. It's unfortunate that this can deafen us to the worth of her best records.