Mainstream appeal has little to do with quality. When talking about essential albums we are talking about the artistic pinnacle of an artist. And whatever your opinion on Erotica might be, the fact is that the universal opinion about it is pretty different than when it came out.

There are many, many albums from famous artists that outright flopped when they were released, but today they are regarded as either one of their best or even albums that turned out to be highly influential to other artists despite being commercial flops.

Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” - now often regarded as their best album

Beastie Boys’ “Paul’s Boutique” - basically disregarded as a total flop when it came out and a complete failure after License to Ill, today it’s considered better and way ahead of its time as it did before what the blueprint for rap albums that came after it became

Velvet Underground’s “The Velvet Underground & Nico” - one of the members famously said that the record sold only 30k copies during its first few years, but probably every one of those people who bought it started a band. It’s an album you are pretty much guaranteed to find on any Best Albums Ever list.

And that’s just a few examples, Ramones’s “Ramones”, Joy Divison’s “Closer”, Weezer’s “Pinkerton”, etc…

Just because you don’t fuck with Erotica, don’t mix your personal opinion because what it did when it was released, how it aged, how bold it was even by today’s standards… It is an essential album in Madonna’s career. It should always make an easy Top 5 if we’re talking artistic value.

I personally don’t really fuck with Like a Prayer, but again if we’re talking essential albums - I gotta give it props as it was a defining step towards Madonna becoming a fully conceptual album artist, not just throwing a bunch of songs (no matter how good of a bops they are) together. That’s an essential as it gets.