Like a Prayer (1989) - Album Review

Welcome back on Blogger!
The day has finally arrived. 

Today we are going to discuss Madonna's fourth studio album Like a Prayer, universally recognized as one of the best albums of its decade and of all time. 

Let's delve into this masterpiece together! 

Released on March 21, 1989, Like a Prayer sees Madonna at her most intimate and confessional, dealing with domestic violence, her mother's death, her complicated relationship with her father, the importance of family and female empowerment, all connected by an apparently shadowy but omnipresent leitmotiv: her Catholic upbringing. 

"The theme of Catholicism runs rampant. It's me struggling with the mystery and magic that surrounds it. My own Catholicism is in constant upheaval 

[...]

Because in Catholicism you are a born sinner and you're a sinner all your life. No matter how you try to get away from it, the sin is within you all the time. It was this fear that haunted me; it taunted and pained me every moment. My music was probably the only distraction I had"

Musically, it was Madonna's most diverse and eclectic album up to that point. Genres such as funk, gospel, soul, rock, dance were blended with Madonna's own pop sensibility. 

Patrick Leonard, Steve Bray and Prince were our Diva's main collaborators on this record, which showed her skills not only as a songwriter but as a composer as well. 

"It was a real coming-of-age record for me emotionally, I had to do a lot of soul-searching, and I think it is a reflection of that [...] I didn't try to candy-coat anything or make it more palatable for mass consumption, I wrote what I felt"

Critics acclaimed the album as Madonna's best one at the time, with Rolling Stone hailing it "as close to art as pop music gets". 

Commercially, Like a Prayer was a success, spending six and seven weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and the European Top 100 Albums Chart respectively. To date, the album has sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide and it is one of Madonna's best selling albums. 

Photo by Herb Ritts 

Like a Prayer: Released as the lead single, Like a Prayer was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard. It is arguably one of the most famous and acclaimed pop songs of all time. With its unique mix of gospel, rock and dance-pop it elevated Madonna's status from an already talented star to a serious pop artist. The legendary Prince also plays the electric guitar.

Lyrically, it mixes three elements that basically have the same meaning to Madonna: sex, God and love. For example, the lines "When you call my name / It's like a little prayer / I'm down on my knees / I wanna take you there" can have both a religious and sexual meaning. 

Madonna has said about the song: "It's about a passionate young girl so in love with God that it is almost as though He were the male figure in her life". 

Commercially, Like a Prayer was a gigantic success, peaking at number 1 in both the US and the UK and selling over 5 million copies worldwide.  

Express Yourself: "Come on girls / Do you believe in love? / 'Cause I've got something to say about it / and it goes something like this" is the famous opening to this funky powerhouse anthem. Express Yourself was written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray and released as the second single. 

The album version features live instrumentation while the single version is a house tune produced by Shep Pettibone. To date, Pettibone's version is the most famous one (and my favorite as well, along with the 7'' version). 

Lyrically, Express Yourself is usually dubbed as a feminist song but in my opinion it is more about gender equality and in particular the importance of dialogue between lovers. In a relationship, both parts should have a voice "Don't go for second best baby / Put your love to the test / You know, you know you've got to / Make him express how he feels and maybe / Then you'll know your love is real". 

Critically and commercially the song was a success, peaking at #2 in the US, #5 in the UK and within the top 5 all around the globe. 

Love Song: Written, produced and performed by both Madonna and Prince, Love Song is an experimental funky ballad about a love-hate relationship: "Say what you mean / Mean what you say / Don't go and throw our love away / God strike me dead if I did you wrong / This is not a love song". 

At some point taken into consideration as a potential single, it was eventually (and unfortunately, I may add) scrapped. Madonna and Prince are my two favorites and seeing them together in a music video would have been incredible. 

Madonna has said about the song and the collaboration: "We sent the tapes back and forth to each other, we kept building it, he would write a sentence and I would add on to it and then send it back to him who would continue the story basically. It was fun, because in this song he is my only musical influence, I didn't have Pat or Steve's help, I played the keyboards myself".

Till Death Do Us Part: The fourth track on the album, Till Death Do Us Part was written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard and is about a relationship that is falling apart. Madonna sings about fear, hate and violence both from her point of view ("Our luck is running out of time / You're not in love with me anymore / I wish that it would change but it won't /If you don't") and as a third person observing the downfall of the couple from outside ("They never laugh, not like before / She takes the keys, he breaks the door / She cannot stay here anymore / He's not in love with her anymore"). I love how such lyrics are sung over a simple dance-pop beat, the contrast makes the song even better as a whole. 

Promise to Try: On this emotional piano ballad Madonna deals with the death of her mother. Once again she sings both in first and third person, communicating her pain to the listener: "Little girl, don't run away so fast/ I think you forgot to kiss, kiss her goodbye/ Will she see me cry when I stumble and fall? / Does she hear my voice in the night when I call? / Wipe away all your tears, it's gonna be alright".

One of the reasons I love Madonna's voice so much is her ability to convey emotions, which is something I have probably already written in another review. She doesn't need to do vocal acrobatics to show how high she can go, she follows the melody and delivers the lyrics meaning each and every word. She and Leonard created magic once again on this song. 

Cherish: Released as the third single from the album, Cherish is a dance-pop ballad again written and produced by Madonna and Leonard. Our Diva has stated that she wrote this song "in a superhyper-positive state of mind that I knew was not going to last". 

Cherish is a love song where Madonna sings about caring for and never ever leaving her partner. The main inspiration behind the track was Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "I was never satisfied with casual encounters / I can't hide my need / For two hearts that bleed with burning love / That's the way it's got to be / Romeo and Juliet, they never felt this way I bet / So don't underestimate my point of view".

As a single it was successful, peaking at #2 in the US, #3 in the UK and entering the top 10 in most countries. 

Dear Jessie: A psychedelic pop song, Dear Jessie was written and produced by Madonna and Leonard and dedicated to the latter's daughter. The song is indeed a children's lullaby and its lyrics evoke different fantasy images: "There's a golden gate where the fairies all wait / and dancing moons, for you / Close your eyes and you'll be there / Where the mermaids sing as they comb their hair / Like a fountain of gold you can never grow old / Where dreams are made, your love parade". 

My favorite part of the song is the bridge, in which Madonna's vocals shine as the melody drastically changes. In fact, the bridge could be considered a little song on its own. 

Dear Jessie was released as the fifth single from the album but its release was limited to Australia and selected European countries. It peaked at #5 in the UK, becoming one of the best selling singles of the 1989 Christmas season. It was also Madonna's final single released in the 1980's. 

Oh Father: In my opinion the most emotional moment on the entire album, Oh Father sees Madonna going back in time, right after her mother died and her conflictual relationship with her father started: "Seems like yesterday / I lay down next to your boots and I prayed / For your anger to end / Oh father I have sinned". Madonna tells the listener that, however, she now realises that her mother's death (and probably other traumas in his own childhood and youth) deeply affected her father as well, so while his behavior wasn't justified, it was at least explainable: "Maybe someday / When I look back I'll be able to say / You didn't mean to be cruel / Somebody hurt you too". 

Once again written and produced by Madonna and Leonard, Oh Father was released as the fourth single from the album. Its release was limited to America and Australia and at the time, it became our Diva's first single to miss the top 10 in the US since Holiday. It is now considered one of her best, most underrated songs and among her finest efforts as a songwriter. 

Keep It Together: Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, Keep It Together is a funk song about the importance of family. Madonna reminisces about her intention to leave her home and follow her dreams: "Gonna get out of here / I'm gonna leave this place / So I can forget every single hungry face" and again "I wanna be different / I wanna be on my own / but daddy said "Listen / You will always have a home". Madonna became a superstar but she never forgot her roots: "Brothers and sisters / They've always been there for me / We have a connection / Home is where the heart should be".

Released as the sixth and last single from the album, Keep It Together reached number #8 in the US and Canada and number one in Australia.

Pray For Spanish Eyes: This beautiful latin-pop ballad is without a doubt one of the best songs of Madonna's career and one of her best vocal performances. Lyrically it deals with the death of a spanish man but at the hand of who? Some say the mob, some AIDS and others have speculated the man was a soldier killed in action: "He had to fight like all the rest / In the barrio all the streets are paved with fear / I don't understand, at least he was a man". 

The last section of the song is particularly touching: "How many lives will they have to take? / How much heartache? / How many suns will they have to burn? / Spanish eyes / When will they ever learn?"

Madonna once said about Patrick Leonard: "In almost everything that I do with him, there's a Latin rhythm or feeling to it. It's really strange. We both think that we were latin in another life". 

Act of Contrition: The albums ends with a bang thanks to this crazy song created by "The powers that be" (Madonna and Leonard are credited this way).  On it, Madonna recites the act of contrition but towards the end she gets mad because she gets denied a reservation. Musically, the song is none other than a reversed version of Like a Prayer and features Prince on guitar. 

I already discussed the track in my article 10 unique Madonna songs, where I placed it at number one. Click here to read. 

Photo by Herb Ritts

In conclusion....

Like a Prayer is the kind of album Madonna had to make at that point in her life and career. She dominated the 1980's and as that decade was coming to an end she, in my opinion, sensed that a new phase was on the horizon, both for pop music and herself as a human being and artist. 

Before taking new roads though, it is normal to want to look back. What did go wrong and what did go right? Have dreams come true? Is adulthood what it seemed to be? Are our personal demons still haunting us? What is the relevance of love, family, religion in life? Where are we going? 

Madonna, in my opinion, tried to answer all of these questions on this record. 

One thing I love about Like a Prayer is that it marked the start of Madonna "the conceptual artist". With this album she challenged her audience, that was used to her simple (but still great) pop sound. 

Musically and lyrically, this album was her greatest effort up to that point. Both she and Leonard were in a dark, melancholic mood while they were working on it and this somehow created magic. Like a Prayer is a record that can start so many conversations, it speaks to its listeners and pushes them to evaluate their own life. 

Last but not least, the release of this album started what are considered Madonna's golden years. Between 1989 and 1991 she simply was the biggest star on the planet, everything that she did is still talked about, still influential, still fresh and still controversial. 

Let your body move to the music