page_title: Bedtime Story (Madonna song)
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Bedtime Story (Madonna song) / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Björk at Big Day Out, Melbourne Flemington Racecourse, Victoria, Australia.
context_page_description: "Bedtime Story" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories. It was released as the third single from the album on February 13, 1995, by Maverick Records, and it also appears on Madonna's compilation album GHV2. "Bedtime Story" was written by Björk, Nellee Hooper and Marius De Vries; it was the only time Björk wrote a song for a Madonna album. She re-wrote a demo of the song to the current version, which was then produced by Madonna and Hooper. A mid-tempo electronic and house song with acid, ambient and techno influences, "Bedtime Story" has an underlying skeletal synth melody influenced by minimal trance music. The track was a departure from Madonna's pop-R&B-based outputs in favor of unconventional and electronic music. Lyrically it talks about the joys of the unconscious world.
  "Bedtime Story" received favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the song's hypnotic and electronic style, and deemed it an underrated song which could have had great potential.
context_section_description: "Bedtime Story" has received positive reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, in a review for the parent album, wrote that "Bedtime Story" was among the "best songs on the album" and that it "slowly works [its] melodies into the subconscious as the bass pulses". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine praised the song, claiming that it had unfulfilled potential and that it "could have been the next 'Vogue'". In a review for her GHV2 album, he also described the song as a "trippy follow-up to the mainstream hit 'Take a Bow'" and gave it an "A" rating. Larry Flick from Billboard noted that "It is easily among [Madonna's] boldest and most experimental pop singles to date" with "trippy and cutting-edge trance dance rhythms". He finished his review praising its "ingratiating" hook and "it is an affecting plea for unconscious bliss and escape, voiced with underplayed angst and resolve". Peter Galvin from The Advocate found that the song "calls to mind the Ecstasy anthem 'Rescue Me'".
  O'Brien wrote that "'Bedtime Story' was a vivid track that foreshadowed Madonna's move towards electronica". Author Victor Amaro Vicente wrote in his book, The Aesthetics of Motion in Musics for the Mevlana Celal Ed-Din Rumi, that the song's "complex rhythmic texture" made it a "dance hall favorite in the mid-1990s". Rikky Rooksby wrote in The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, that the track was similar to the music of English alternative band Everything but the Girl, and claimed that "in contrast to most other songs of the album, this is one track that could have been longer and more trippy than it is". Writing for Idolator, Bianca Gracie called "Bedtime Story" the highlight of the album, adding that "It sucks you in with its quivering drum patterns taken directly from trance music, which creates an ethereal ambiance". Gracie commended the influence of UK dance music and Madonna's provocative vocals, finding the song to be a direct inspiration for singer Britney Spears' "Breathe on Me", from her fourth studio album In the Zone (2003).
  Matthew Rettenmund wrote in his Encyclopedia Madonnica that the song was a "total curveball" because of its inclusion on the album. He also believed that releasing it as a follow-up single to the commercially successful "Take a Bow" diminished its potential. However, Rettenmund praised it as one of Madonna's most "uncharacteristic" songs, describing as a "hypnotic, almost hallucinogenic, ride through an idealized state of mind." This was echoed by author Chris Wade, who wrote in the book The Music of Madonna that although written by Björk, Madonna made the song her own by "adding a druggy, sleepiness [to it] that makes it one of her most unusual, quirky and challenging tracks." Jude Rogers from The Guardian was more critical, saying that "as gorgeously hypnotic as it is, it sounds too much like Björk"; nonetheless, she placed the song at number 53 on her ranking of Madonna's singles, in honor of her 60th birthday. Pitchfork's Owen Pallett compared it negatively to Björk's "Violently Happy" and deemed it "disappointing—sterile and static". In August 2018, Billboard picked it as the singer's 44th greatest single, calling it "a bizarre choice for a third single [...] Its lightly flickering beat and moaning synths were pitched at a very radio-unfriendly midtempo minimalism, and Björk's anti-lyric about eschewing words hardly rate as Madonna's most rousing".
caption: "Bedtime Story" has often been compared to the work of Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, who co-wrote the song.
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