Like a Prayer by Madonna

Madonna may have started the 80s as a carefree material girl but as the decade closed, she was thinking about faith and family. The title track, and the accompanying video in particular, caused a huge fuss at the time, but looking back on this now shows that this is actually from the (small c) conservative viewpoint of someone raised in the catholic faith with all of the associated iconography.

The rest of the album has songs musing about Madonna’s mother and father, and one about the importance of her siblings, showing her to have maybe reached a settled place in her life. Musically, it’s pure pop with touches of soul and gospel, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of her 90’s reinvention with Ray of Light.

I would have given this four stars, but I’d forgotten just how toe-curlingly awful the final track Act of Contrition was. What was she thinking?

Madge-tastic!