Ever since Madonna's bellybutton first undulated its way into mass consciousness, her fame has been more a matter of image than artistry. Never mind whether there was any depth or resonance behind it; for many of her fans, the image alone – Madonna as wily, wanton boy toy, gleefully manipulating the material world – was resonant enough. For others, it was just an act, a coolly calculated pop ploy designed to sell records.
is brutally frank about the dissolution of her marriage ("Till Death Do Us Part"), her ambivalence toward her father ("Oh Father") and even her feelings of loss about her mother ("Promise to Try"). Yet as intensely personal as these songs are, the underlying themes are universal enough to move almost any listener. Likewise, the music, though clearly a step beyond the pop confections that earned the singer her place on the charts, remains as accessible as ever.
Don't expect to be won over instantly, though, for Like a Prayer is more interested in exorcising demons than entertaining fans. The album is in large part about growing up and dealing with such ghosts from the past as parents, religion and the promises of love. At times, the album can be heartbreaking in its honesty – read through the lyrics to "Till Death Do Us Part," and you'll feel guilty for ever having glanced at a tabloid with a Madonna & Sean Wedding Shocker headline.
This is serious stuff, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the title tune. Opening with a sudden blast of stun-gun guitar, "Like a Prayer" seems at first like a struggle between the sacred and the profane as Madonna's voice is alternately driven by a jangling, bass-heavy funk riff and framed by an angelic aura of backing voices. Madonna stokes the spiritual fires with a potent, high-gloss groove that eventually surrenders to gospel abandon.
The tracks that Madonna coproduced with Patrick Leonard – which include "Like a Prayer" – are stunning in their breadth and achievement. "Cherish," which manages a nod to the Association song of the same title, makes savvy retro-rock references, and "Dear Jessie" boasts kaleidoscopic Sgt. Pepper-isms. When Stephen Bray replaces Leonard as coproducer, even an unabashed groove tune like "Express Yourself" seems smart and sassy, right down to Madonna's soul-style testimony on the intro: "Come on, girls, do you believe in love?"
Believing in love doesn't seem as easy for Madonna as it once did, though. "Till Death Do Us Part" takes its wedding-vow title almost mockingly, as the singer contemplates all the ways her marriage seems to be killing her. "The bruises, they will fade away/You hit so hard with the things you say," goes one
When people talk about Madonna exposing herself, they normally mean her tendency to drop her knickers. But her fourth proper album, 1989's Like a Prayer, is filled with nakedly emotional songs such as "Promise to Try" (about her mother, who died when Madonna was just six) and the mournful "Oh Father" (just guess). "The album is drawn from what I was going through when I was growing up," Madonna told Rolling Stone. As always, she had a kicker: "I'm still growing up." Like a Prayer was the sound of Madonna figuring out her life, most explicitly on "Till Death Do Us Part," a thinly fictionalized portrait of her volatile marriage with Sean Penn. But it was also the sound of a pop diva who had been learning how to sing and wanted to show off. Later, this would lead to an unfortunate tendency to tackle show tunes by Andrew Lloyd Webber. But here it meant that she not only belted blockbuster singles such as "Express Yourself," she indulged in gentle psychedelia and a slow, grinding collaboration with Prince, "Love Song." Who would have guessed then that pop music's two leading imps of the perverse would end up as two of its most publicly devout figures (Prince with the Jehovah's Witnesses, Madonna with kabbalah)?That Sacred vs. Profane wrestling match was showcased in the glorious title track, where Madonna declared, "Everyone must stand alone," and then, "I'm down on my knees/I wanna take you there," seeking succor in both God and fellatio, or maybe fellatio with God. In a career full of transgressive moments, "Like a Prayer" is the most transgressive -- and the most irresistible.
In 1989 Madonna was still very much on top of her game, for the fifth straight year. Like A Prayer went to No. 1 in the charts, thanks to the title cut, "Cherish" and "Express Yourself," one of her very best songs. Years later, "Express Yourself" seems to point to the house direction she took in Erotica.
