Like A Prayer

I knew 3 songs off this album. Thought I might find some hidden gems. Nope! 3 great songs and the rest were complete duds.

Finally, some wholesome Christian pop/rock with a positive moral message. Sadly, Christian music, is vastly underrepresented on this list. I’ve asked my pastor to include this record as pre-mass entrance music at our megachurch on Sundays.

Title song 'Like a Prayer' is a masterpiece. 'Cherish' is also the epitome of 80s pop, I remember dancing as a small girl to this in my friend's house, her older sister would invent dance routines and make us be her back-up dancers. Prince on `Love Song` - anything with prince is gold. `Til Death do us part` - doesn't shy away from heavy themes - domestic violence. Pop is not really my thing, but this album is iconic and representative of a genre and an era.

You can't really argue with what Madonna does, love it or hate it, she's very good at her pop thing. This album is full of classic pop tracks, easy to sing along with, easy to dance to, easy to relate to. I'm not a big pop fan these days but I enjoy most things she put out through the 80s. It's so streamlined and polished. Good stuff.

Never listened to this whole record before. Not gonna lie, it POPS

Quintessential 80s. Was originally thinking 4 star just based on personal preference but the influence and enduring pop sound is something that's hard to ignore and comes through when listening. Title track is so good... great song along driving song.

'Like A Prayer', 'Express Yourself' and 'Cherish' are as good as anything Madonna ever recorded, and guest star Prince (on the duet 'Love Song') is always a welcome addition to any record. Yeh 'Art Of Contrition' is a bit underwhelming for an album closer, but when it turns out that Prince basically produced the track (it's also him on guitar uncredited) it's hard for me to be too critical. Elsewhere 'Dear Jessie' evokes the psychedelic 60's, 'Oh Father' is a brooding power ballad and 'Spanish Eyes' is a beautiful Latin tinged song confronting the then still-taboo issue of AIDS. Overall, this is a super pop album by a woman who was at height of her powers.

Every one of these songs are about 2 minutes too long. Record was fine but I don’t see myself playing this one again.

I really enjoyed this one. In fact, I wonder why I don’t actually have any Madonna albums. I pretty much like every song of hers I hear, so…that’s a mystery.

Kind of disappointing. Starts strong but after 'Express Yourself' the individual tracks start to congeal into one amorphous and fairly uninteresting sound. There's a lot of praise for 'Love Song' but to be honest, once you've heard the first 30 seconds you've heard the entire song. 'Cherish' has a bit of energy to it which helps perk up the ears but then it's back to the mush. The closer, 'Act of Contrition' isn't, well, good...but it is at least a bit interesting, so that's something I suppose.

Wow this is bad. This album makes me understand why grunge took over everything in the early 90s. If I was 16 when this album came out,, my entire personality would become "not this". Like A Prayer is a good track, but I think the rest of the album makes it worse in context.

Madonna’s masterpiece. Perfect pop music. Like A Prayer is one of the best songs of the decade.

Even though a couple of songs on this album are dated, there isn’t a bad song on the entire album. All are amazing.

I wasn't a Madonna fan back in the day. I recall in the late 80s my friend SK had tickets to Madonna's Toronto concert and asked if I wanted to go. I looked at him like he had two heads. A couple of years later (around the time JP II was lighting her up) some work mates were discussing Madonna and one of the church going brothers said " It's bad enough that she does such things, but why did she have to name herself Madonna." That got the rebel in me thinking that perhaps I should check her shit out a bit more. Anyway, I came to like her dance floor hits. While I never did go to a Madonna concert, I saw a documentary about one of her shows and can see that the hits from Like a Prayer were perfect for the show she put on and she put on an excellent show. I liked the way she could stir the pot with her comments and fashion. It's a little sad to see her still making comments that she hopes will raise eyebrows and controversy but do nothing other than cause head shaking and sniggering that says her time has passed. Except for Prince's excellent guitar work on Act of Contrition, I don't have much positive to say the songs that weren't hits. The hits are infectious and can't stop myself from grooving. If I could go back in history, I'd go to the concert with SK.

The title track is perhaps her best song, and has held up so well it's practically become Midge's signature song. The big news at the time was that Madonna was collaborating with one Prince Rogers Nelson on at least one song ("Love Song"). It turns out Prince is all over this album. The Purple One plays guitar on the title track, "Keep It Together" and "Act Of Contrition", something that's obvious listening almost 32 years later. The latter song basically sounds like a Prince outtake with Madonna reading the catholic version of the Act Of Contrition and ultimately getting angry at a computer. This is where it all came together for Madonna. I'm an unashamed Stan for Midge's "Like A Virgin" album, and with the buzz this album was generating at the time, I went out and bought on a little format called Compact Disc the week it was released. I remember that I didn't warm to it right away. By then the song "Like A Prayer" was already being played everywhere, something that would happen with "Express Yourself" and "Cherish" and even "Oh Father". You couldn't get away from those songs in 1989. So I never really gave the CD the chance it obviously deserved at the time. I had a similar situation with her "True Blue" album (those songs were such a part of the radio landscape that I didn't even bother buying the album). So this was an overdue opportunity to revisit it and marvel at Madonna right smack in the middle of her Imperial Phase. I still ride hard for "Like A Virgin" (maybe the version of Madonna love the most is the one we discovered when we were 15), but from an album standpoint, this is as good as it gets for our woman. Every track is a banger in it's own way. Prince had that sort of impact on anything he touched, and Madonna knew it better than anyone.

Not a fan of her music and this album did nothing to change my mind. Felt like i needed a shower after it was over to wash off the cringe that it induced.

Incredible album start to finish. The production value alone is worth the price of admission. Really liked hearing the songs I hadn't heard since they were in heavy rotation on 90's radio, plus all the other songs I hadn't heard. Highlights: Like a Prayer Express Yourself Till Death Do Us Part Cherish Pray for Spanish Eyes

What a time capsule. All the synth, choir, slap bass and choppy guitar feel a touch cheesy now. Lyrics are surprisingly challenging and non pop. I have no doubt it was huge at the time.

I love Madonna, but I really don't think this album should be on this list. Outside of the title song, everything else is kinda bland pop repeating her earlier works and the only reason I can think it's notable is the insane controversy from the title song

Yup hated this. Over produced, nothing interesting about vocal styles or lyrics.

Erm. 1 or 2? 😂Yeh 1. Just nothin decent about it. Sounds like some pop producer paid a young girl to sing like Prince.

Very fun late 80's pop! You can definitely hear Prince's influence. Expected to get a little sick of it, but every song was really fun! 4.5 and rounding up!

But this 4th album Madonna was a certified global icon. Add this album, with 3 SMASH hits (Like a Prayer, Express Yourself and Cherish) only helped propel her to places only Michael Jackson could understand.

Big Madonna fan, Dimery? Yeah...I noticed. Odd that The Author has way more Madonna and Dexy's Midnight Runners on this list than Michael Jackson or Prince. Racist in the 80's much, Bob? Speaking of Prince, his fingerprints are all over this album. His presence improves the album's rating by a full star. And speaking of the 80's... that was the only decade where an artist using the mononym "Madonna" could produce a music video for the title track that features her displaying stigmata wounds, dancing in front of burning crosses, and kissing a Black Jesus, and then having said video used in a major advertising campaign for Pepsi Cola. Those were the days...

Not a bad album. Feels experimental in some ways. I thought it would have a bunch of filler, but even the non-hits had a lot of soul behind them.

Like a Prayer Madness might be an archetypal ‘best of’ band, but Madonna must have one of the best Greatest Hits compilations and her run of singles from her first one up to, say, Justify My Love, has a fucking crazy hit rate: Everybody - great Burning Up - absolute banger, one of my favs Holiday - absolute banger Lucky Star - absolute banger Borderline - absolute banger Like a Virgin - absolute banger Material Girl - absolute banger Crazy For You - absolute banger Angel - great Into the Groove - absolute banger Dress You Up - banger Gambler - banger Live to Tell - absolute banger Papa Don’t Preach - absolute banger True Blue - absolute banger Open Your Heart - absolute banger, possibly my fav La Isla Bonita - absolute banger (last night I danced with some Pedro) Who’s That Girl - absolute banger Causing a Commotion - banger Spotlight - decent Like a Prayer - absolute banger Express Yourself - absolute banger Cherish - banger Oh Father - decent Dear Jessie - decent Keep it Together - decent Vogue - absolute banger Hanky Panky - erm, not great Justify My Love - great And then later on she has Take a Bow, Frozen, Ray of Light, Drowned World, Beautiful Stranger, Music, Hung Up. Anyway there are three of those absolute bangers on here in Like A Prayer, Express Yourself and Cherish. The rest don’t ever quite reach those heights, but looking at that list you could argue that Like a Prayer or Express Yourself are among the best in her entire catalogue, so what does? They’re both joyfully fantastic songs of course, but for some reason I really love Express Yourself, there’s something about the melody line and percussion I just love. I had a nice silent disco dance to it earlier when I was making a cup of tea. Love Song is very Prince, but also what you might imagine a Madge/Prince (Pridge? Pradonna?) fusion to be and it’s definitely a grower. In fact most of the songs are growers, Till Death Do Us Part I really liked, Promise to Try I wasn’t keen on initially but it is a very nice piano ballad. Dear Jessie has a pleasing quirkiness, and Oh Father might have one of her best vocals. She’s an incredibly distinctive and characterful vocalist, but not necessarily the strongest, most technical singer, but on this she sounds fantastic. Keep it Together may not be as strong as many of her singles but it’s still a superior bit of synth-funk-pop. Spanish Eyes is also a grower, it feels cheesy initially but is actually a very nice melody and atmosphere. Act of Contrition is more Pridge, but isn't totally successful, even as a bit of experimental fun. It’s probably not consistent enough as a full album to get into the 5s, but it's a high 4 - anything containing Like a Prayer, Express Yourself and Cherish can’t be anything less. 🤲🤲🤲🤲 Playlist submission: As good as Like A Prayer is, I do love Express Yourself

Sometimes it is nice to listen to something easy and familiar.

Pretty good but nothing amazing, would give 7/10

With this album Madonna proved that she was more than just a pop superstar, and that she can be artistic and has songs with depth lyrically. The title track, 'Like a Prayer' is one of her best songs in her career, and the other hits are really great, too ('Express Yourself' - especially the Immaculate Collection version, and 'Cherish'). 'Promise to Try' and 'Oh Father' are beautiful songs. 'Love Song' cowritten and sung by Prince adds a lot of the quality of the album. Bonus is 'Dear Jessie' which I'd known before because of a cover, but had no idea before that it was originally a Madonna song. The album closes with the most experimental song on it. Overall, it's a very well produced and made late 1980s pop album. Credit where credit is due even if you're not a fan of pop from that decade - it's a great album.

It's wonderful how this isn't one of my top3 of Madonna's but still a fantastic record. It rockets to a very strong start, with the tender ballad "Promise to Try" sandwiched before the iconic "Cherish." A couple of the slow burners don't go over as well the aforementioned one ("Oh Father," "Pray for Spanish Eyes"), and the second half falters somewhat noticeably as a result. While True Blue was easily more sophisticated than her first two records, this one pushes it further. Madonna's more pronounced interests in religion, feminism, LGBTQIA+ activism and all that mean that she's way more potentially tiring for people who just want to enjoy the music without her views being overbearing. Truthfully, I don't think that prevents Like a Prayer from being a marvelous pop album. Ultimately, it's still among her best studio achievements.

Madonna - even Imperial Period - is the master of the '4 bangers so banging the fact the rest of the album is just okay-ish doesn't matter' - viz True Blue, like a Virgin etc. This is the exception that proves the rule, a Madonna album you can listen to like, an album as the bangers still bang, but the variety and quality of the album tracks are a cut above.

Loved this album in the 90's but it has not fully held up. Still enjoyable but not a masterpiece.

The defining sound of late 80s and early 90s pop. Not a sound for my regular rotation, but well done. Very catchy and upbeat. Department store stuff

Madonna, easily the biggest female Pop star of all time. Since she broke into the scene with some really energetic Synthpop, she's made her way through the top of the charts everytime she released new music. This album might be her biggest critically acclaimed album after her debut and features classic Pop songs such as the title track. And while most songs are Dance-Pop oriented, there is a lot of more artistic approach often in the style of Pop Soul or Adult Contemporary. It is the first wave of the more Art Pop approaches she'll go to try in the 90's and further on. The classic title track 'Like a Prayer' which blends aspects of stadium ready Pop Rock and adds some R&B and Gospel aspects. I think that the great moments of the song, namely pre-chorus and chorus, are really, really great but the songwriting on its own can be and often is holding the song back. There is too much stopping and tuning down which ruins the flow of the song. The longer the song plays, the better it gets but the first minutes are a little annoying but I think that the song overall turns out pretty okay. The second track 'Express Yourself' goes very much into a Prince inspired direction with a blend of Pop Soul and Synth Funk with a good amount of Dance added as well. Its songwriting is much more even and the energetic vocals are really adding to the groove of the track. I think that this song is overall much stronger than the title track and even when the highest moments are less high, they are close and with a more even songwriting, I actually think that this is a great track. It would've been incredible, if the bridge was less corny and the length was a little shorter but still, wonderful. The Prince influences don't stop because 'Love Song' isn't just thematically similar to a Prince song but it's a full on Minneapolis Sound Pop Soul track that even features Prince himself as a songwriter, backing vocalist and producer. The result is really good, production wise, but I think Madonna would've needed the strong sexual tone in her voice to really do the song justice. If this was a Prince song, it would've been really good but Madonna sadly cannot do that. It turns out boring and stale. One of the albums strongest tracks is without a doubt the New Wave 'Till Death Do Us Part' which is sonically pretty much an amalgamation of different popular 80's genres but Madonna does that surprisingly well. Synthy New Wave, Jangly Pop Rock and Danceable Sophisti-Pop all find a place tied togther by beautiful songwriting, production and one of the best hooks ever. Her vocals are on point as is pretty much every aspect of the song. If the song was a little tighter and had more focus in the verses, this would've been perfect. Now it's "just" an incredible Pop song. The Adult Contemporary 'Promise to Try' closes the first half of the album with a sombre and mellow song that mainly uses piano and vocals to create a song that is mainly focused on the lyrics. Even if the lyrics are technically alright, the songwriting is really boring and turns the song very average and nothing that you want to hear from Madonna. It's not terrible but it definitely isn't good. Side 2 opens with a mix of Dance Music and Sophisti-Pop and a couple of other inspirations but that's not not important here because the song is awful. It's the bad type of 80's music where the production is actually pretty good but the songwriting ruins all of it. It has a horrible chorus that is probably as annoying as some of the songs on "Cupid & Psyche '85" and I detest that album. I hate this song. 'Dear Jessie' is definitely better and I like the string addition as well as the Psychedelic Pop approach but overall the song doesn't go further than an okay song. The chorus isn't really sticking out, the verses are really uninteresting and the songwriting is boring. It is mainly the production that makes some moments have a cutesy felling to it but it ends there. I had 'Oh Father' much worse in my memory after the first listen and although I think the verses are bad, the chorus and some aspects of the songwriting do safe it from the doom that I anticipated. Especially the chorus is really intriguing but in the end it's not enough to make the entirety of the track feel boring and average. The New Jack Swing 'Keep It Together' gives a lot of similarities to something you'd hear from Janet Jackson and I do think that Madonna did a really good job when making this song. It's not great but it is pretty fun to listen too with the chorus and the production. It's mainly the generic and boring verses that make the whole song lack interesting moments. It is also too long. 'Spanish Eyes' brings in some Latin Pop inspired Adult Contemporary which, again, doesn't really work well. It's not terrible, the production has some really nice elements and the chorus as well as the vocals are spot on but the verses are a little lackluster and boring which together with the stretch of the length turns the entirety pretty boring. The album finishes with a weird Sound Collage that is a mix of Plunderphonics and Tape Music from different Hard Rock and Gospel tracks on top of which she sings and also just speaks. It's a neat idea but the result is pretty bad... Not terrible but this isn't a Madonna song and still it tires to. Favourites: Till Death Do Us Part, Express Yourself least favourites: Cherish, Oh Father, Act of Contrition Rating: decent 5 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes

I’m not a Madonna fan but I can’t deny the cultural impact she, and this album, had.

This was surprisingly not good. Like a prayer and cherish are solid. Everything else was uniformly terrible.

Title track is genius - as well as ‘Love Song’ - the rest make up one of Madonna’s most complete albums I’ve heard. Prince’s contribution to the album also shine through. Good album.

Not sure if I've ever voluntarily listened to Madonna before, other than Ray Of Light (which was really good). The big singles here are probably known by most everyone and in retrospect the title cut "Like A Prayer" is a pretty excellent song; I love the minor-key bridge - builds so well and finally resolves into the big final chorus. Just great. And "Love Song" was one I'd not heard before - Prince definitely makes a great collaborator on this and it's fun (if not a shade too long). "Till Death Do Us Part" is a nice-enough upbeat song.... "Dear Jessie" is an unexpected light melodic treat as well. But there is a pattern here - none of the tracks are even close to bad or objectionable, and the album *sounds* fantastic - you can really tell that a ton of time (i.e. money) was spent getting this to sound sonically great. They're all "nice" or easy enough to spend 4-5 minutes listening to but I can't ever envision being in the car or in the living room and suddenly think "yeah I have to listen to 'Cherish' or 'Express Yourself'" After that first track to me most of the album has a good melodic or dance mood but individually the songs don't grab me much overall. 5/10 3 stars

You've gotta respect how long she has been at it. I have never been through an entire album of hers. I respect the song length, its almost 5 minutes. That is not easy to do as a pop Queen. The music and lyrics just doesn't move me in anyway but I do respect what she has done for music.

Realizing that Jan Delay covered the beat from "Till Death Do us Part". Apart from this a bit too poppy for me, but not a bad record per se.

I really wanted to like this album, but honestly found it exceptionally dull. I tried to listen and relisten about 7 times until I finally made it all the way through. Other than the title song, the others were repetitive and not musically interesting. The lyrics and concepts were overall good. 2/5

Un album personnel d'elle. Ça parle beaucoup de sa famille. Pop correct, mais c'est pas mon style.

Pointy tits and a minge like a kippers snarl. What’s not to like?

I'm at Cherish and I think it maybe the first album that I stop early. Why did this make the list? 2/5

Much worse than expected.

Rubbish. Other than the first song which is obviously amazing

Didn't finish :(

skip

Over rated, over hyped twat waffle of the century. 1

Wow, Madonna is not very talented.

One of the most widely overrated artists.

I didn’t like a single song from this album

This was an awful waste of my afternoon. Vapid pop music, and at no point in my life would I be the target market for Madonna. And if there is one defining factor for Madonna, it is shrewd marketing. If only her music was as good as her PR.

Until I had to listen to madonna albums on this list, I never realised how much I disliked her voice. So manufactured and packaged, nothing real or spontaneous about the material girl. Ugh, I hate it.

No. I lived through this second rate shit. I don’t have to listen to a single second.

No, immediately no

Not for me.

og punk

jamen altså. ikonisk pop girlie album. nogle elementer (de trommer...) er lidt datede, men samlet set lyder det pisse godt

- Credit where credit is due: this album had me engaged from start to finish. - While I may prefer her faster stuff, Madonna keeps her slow tracks engaging, too -- the amount of rhythmic and melodic diversity in each track combined with enough pop structure to get you in a set groove is honestly impressive. - "Dear Jessie" is a beautiful track.

# Album Name: Like a Prayer # Artist: Madonna # Rating: 5/5 # Comments: What a banger. So many good tunes on this album. # Top Tunes: Most of the album # Would I listen to it again? Yes

10000000 out of 10 god.save.madonna.

Baby it's Madonna. Gold. Platinum. Diamond. Give her everything. She's camp, she's fun, she's fresh, she's introspective, she's visionary, she's cunt, she's mother, she's daughter, she's boots, she's everything. Without Madonna there would be nothing. And god this album cover is sooooo chic. God she's stunning. I'm too songs in but I'm so charmed. It's such a capsule of its time. I love those 80s synths and sounds in the back. God that vintage American obsession with seeming European and elevated. I would've been so good at the 80s. I say that and there's no way I would've but by Madonna I would've tried. This is not a love song. Prince hello?? My god this is actually insane. I would've been in love with Madonna if I was around back then definitely. I like how dynamic it is. She really is insane. Oh hello?? Experimental last track oh Madonna you've birthed the genre. Favourite: Love Song/Keep It Together Least favourite: Express Yourself

having only heard of 'Like A Virgin' before listening, this album honestly blew me away. i didn't grow up with Madonna, I think the most exposure i had to her was her song 'Hung Up' in 2005, but overall i haven't done much listening. the thing about Madonna is that everyone knows her. shes one of the most famous people on the planet, and while maybe her popularity declined a bit with millennials and beyond, shes still freakin Madonna. this album, honestly, stands a great test of time. incredible guitar riffs, funky beats, pure raw emotion, this album really has it all. the only song i really disliked was Dear Jessie, but the roll into Dear Father is super beautiful. probably a 9/10 album, but ima bump it up to a 5. this feels worthy. all of the articles about this album discuss how much of a cultural phenomenon this was. lets hear it for Madonna

This is the quintessential pop album. A decade before the Spice Girls think they invent Girl Power, Madonna is telling girls that we deserve respect, and he'd better shape up his damned act if he! Wants to deserve us! This is my feminist origin story and I will not apologize for it.

Like a Prayer is excellent 80s music. For me, it feels like Madonna getting the balance right between massive pop songs and something more personal. It sounds confident all the way through. This album has the classics like … Like a Prayer, Express Yourself, Cherish, and Keep It Together, there is a lot to enjoy here. There is even the quirky Love Song featuring Prince, which somehow fits the album’s personality. I think it is a great album to end the 80s with from one of the true pop legends. Five stars.

Pretty good actually 5/5

Absolute bop

If only for the last song on here, this album fucking owns.

Loved this

Such a classic and her best

She’s great!

It's a great pop album, with songs that are timeless. The influence on modern pop is immeasurable here. Not the music mostly to my liking, but it is a monumental album nontheless. 4.5/5

Brilliantly composed, imperfect but still pretty stellar

This is just a really great pop album. The music actually has integrity, is varied, is trying to push some kinds of boundaries while taking some other great artists and styles (i.e. Prince) and making that even more for a pop audience. There are so many great songs, and even the non-singles really do some great things. I loved it.

It's 2026. I have lived almost two decades on this Earth and I confess that I have just barely got on the Madonna train. My conclusion: just some damn good late 80s pop. That's all there is to it. To make it more appropriate, this is my 69th five star rating. The fact that it's going to Madonna makes me proud. It's been quite the ride (9/10, 5/5 on this scale)

Madonna at the top of her game, simple as. 4.5 bumped up to 5.

Once again, I'm at a 10. I’ve been waiting for this album to come up; the other two Madonna albums we’ve gotten on the list are both good, but to my mind, the version of Madonna I’m most familiar with is based on her ‘80s stuff; “Lucky Star”, “Like a Virgin”, “Borderline”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, et cetera. “Vogue” is 1990, but throw it in there too, just for fun. Basically, if it’s in “The Immaculate Collection”, that’s the Madonna I’m most familiar with. Since this is from 1989, it always felt like this was the album I’d gravitate to the most whenever we got it. Besides, this album’s title track has stuck with me for a long time. However, since I heard it through Pandora years ago, I never really bothered to seek out the full album for whatever reason. As has been proven multiple times throughout this list, the younger version of myself that was too lazy to seek out full albums was a total idiot – this is fucking fantastic from top to bottom. I’ve come to learn that I really love that phase of 1989/1990 production, when people had mastered the art of the drum machine, were starting to incorporate MIDI sounds in more polished ways, and were blending real instrumentation back into their albums. Much like “Behaviour” by the Pet Shop Boys, “Violator” by Depeche Mode, or “The Sensual World” by Kate Bush, this album feels like a natural sendoff to the ‘80s, and it may very well be the best album Madonna’s ever put out. The production work here is fantastic, & Madonna’s vocals just glide on a lot of these tracks. The songwriting feels perfectly introspective, setting up the stage for a more honest approach that artists like Christina Aguilera would later run with. It’s also surprisingly sweet at times, at least more so than I would expect from the image of Madonna I have in my head; tracks like “Express Yourself”, “Cherish” & “Dear Jessie” are poppy, upbeat anthems that stand out among the crowd here. Really, if I have any minor nits to pick, it’s the repetition on the lyricism – these are very well written, but the lyrics do loop a bit without the vocal variance to keep them fresh. Granted, that’s covered up really, really well by the production work – Prince, in particular, manages to make “Love Song” feel hypnotic, with an approach reminiscent of “Sign O’ The Times” mixed with “1999”, and somehow, that hypnotism waves away a lot of the repeated lyrics as just flirting. The sense of repetition does permeate the album a bit, but the different styles & tempos this album goes with gives it a really dynamic push/pull that keeps it fresh. Take “Keep It Together” & “Spanish Eyes”, for example; the former is just New Jack Swing that could fit onto “Rhythm Nation 1814”, but the latter feels like a Peter Gabriel track with a slight samba lean, & Madonna’s frustrated vocals evoke Kate Bush in a great way. Same goes for “Dear Jessie” into “Oh Father”, with the former being a My Little Pony-esque wonderland of escapism, and the latter being a harsh reality check about the lack of emotional support after her mother’s death. That push & pull really sells the album, culminating in “Act of Contrition”, acting as a mirror to “Like a Prayer” in that her frustration with religion has totally fucking boiled over & she’s sick of it. It’s a great closer because of it, and the structure to this album as a complete top to bottom piece of work feels extremely satisfying. Sure, you can write some of this off as Phil Collins-esque cheese if you really want to, but for my money’s worth, it feels like an album she poured her soul into. When you treat music with this much care, people will notice, and as a culminating piece to her run of ‘80s singles & hits, it feels like a great way to wrap up the decade. I think it’s a fantastic album, with 51 minutes that fly by & no skips involved – maybe “Act of Contrition” if you don’t like Madonna screaming about a computer at the end, but even still. I’m at a 10 with it, and I feel really glad this album lived up to the expectations I had for it. Remarkable to get this & "Thriller" back to back. As a whole for Madonna’s 3 albums here, it’s a 4.5, a 3.5, and a 5, so I guess 13/15 ain’t bad at all. I do feel like at least one more ‘80s album could be here, but regardless, I admire her even more than I already did. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m running back “Like a Prayer” at least 5 more times. That song fucking rules.

Ok

Great album

This album put me in such a great mood.

I wore this album out

was my favorite madonna album the moment i heard it, and honestly its hard to imagine that ever changing. i feel like this one has fallen in esteem over the years...a lot of the "maturity" of the record manifests in ballady songs, lower-key songs, and just plain Weird songs, rather than more of the two big famous bangers that open the record, and i think its just kinda not what a lot of post-"poptimism" people want out of a pop record...maybe it feels like a negotiation with an outdated idea of what is Respectable? i could understand that as an objection, but man i just think the whole record slays front to back. the songs can be Patient, but patience is such a virtue here...theyre so melodious and Musical without feeling like theyre burning out your dopamine, theres so much Room in them, and madonna just fills that room right up with so much personality and raw emotion. dear jessie/oh father is an especially powerful one-two punch, featuring an abbey road-tier transition that thematically links the two...wanting the best for a still-forming person, partially because of the darkness of your own formative years. the entire aesthetic of the record , finding a new Soul and sense of self outside of what was forced upon you in your youth, while acknowledging that it will always be a part of you, contains a power that will never be dated. pulling from her personal life, the surrounding visual presentation (the music videos, photo shoots, her public appearances), and the music itself to create not just a cohesive record but a cohesive Period for a pop star's activity is madonna's greatest contribution to popular culture, this is an equally important blueprint as the likes of britney's blackout when it comes to pop girls. i love ray of light too, but a post-enlightenment album never quite has as much power to me as one like this...full of struggle, drama, and triumph that feels meaningful. and i even like the weird ass prince song!!!!

A classic

I'd give million stars

Immaculate

Okay, now we’re talking. Now we’re really talking. Because today was the day of Like a Prayer (1989) — Madonna’s masterpiece, and, to me, quite possibly the greatest album ever made. Not just in her discography, but in pop music as a whole. I’m going to borrow a line from Rolling Stone: it’s the closest pop music has ever come to art. And I fully agree. I love this album beyond reason. I love its context. I love its subtext. I love its contradictions, its intimacy, its provocation, its vulnerability. I love everything about it. I’ve always been a huge Madonna fan, but Like a Prayer is where admiration turns into devotion. As a gay man, I also carry a deep respect for everything she represented and fought for — not just musically, but culturally and politically. This album feels like part of that legacy. The tracklist is flawless. “Like a Prayer,” “Express Yourself,” and “Love Song” with Prince are undeniable pop monuments. “Till Death Do Us Part” is one of her most underrated deep cuts. “Promise to Try” is among the most beautiful ballads she’s ever sung. “Cherish” is pure joy. “Dear Jessie” is tender and surreal, forever tied to its charming visual world. “Oh Father” is devastating — one of her greatest emotional performances. “Keep It Together” is euphoric and criminally underperformed live. “Pray for Spanish Eyes” is a delicious, unexpected detour. And “Act of Contrition” feels like the emotional purge of the entire record — the final exorcism of everything she was trying to process. When you place this album in its historical and personal context, it becomes even more powerful. It was created at a moment when the AIDS crisis was devastating communities, when fear and prejudice dominated public discourse, and when Madonna herself was going through a painful divorce from Sean Penn. Knowing this changes everything: suddenly, the songs are no longer just pop — they are confessions, prayers, rebellions, and survival mechanisms. I love this album. I love that I got to see Madonna perform some of these songs live. I love how this record has followed me through different phases of my life. It changed my life. It saved my life more times than I can count. Five stars — only because I can’t give more. If I could, I would. Because Like a Prayer is not just an album. It’s a revelation.

Never in a million years did I imagine giving a Madonna album 5 stars, but credit where credit is due: this is a hell of an album. Ambitious, catchy, inventive, poppy but devoid of cliché. I've always enjoyed the title track but today was the first time I realized what a killer bass it has. Express Yourself, a tune I didn't pay much attention to at the time, really wowed me. And I dug the Prince tune. (I know, Marianne!) This was going to be a 4, but since it was the weekend, I gave it a second listen, and the songs that didn't wow me the first time around very much did the second. Cherish is just all right, but the rest were either very good or excellent. There were several moments where I found myself cocking my head and thinking, how the hell did they think to do THAT and why does that work so well. I don't know what more you can ask for in an album.

What an absolute BELTER from start to finish

I really liked this one

A great album that holds up even today. Didn't think I'd enjoy it that much. And totally didn't expect the lyrics to be that heartfelt.

Fuck yeah ❤️

PLEASSEEEE i love this album

Liebeee madonna höre ich auf jeden fall nochmal richtig 80er!

Well I didnt think I would ever like a Madonna album beyond maybe a 3/5. But when Oh Father came on I just succumbed to the whole experience. Really not a bad song here and I think the personal, introspective lyrics really raised the level of the whole album. This is not simply a dance/pop album. It is a statement album and shows Madonna is more in control, creatively and emotionally, them ever before

I thought "Oh, Madonna, I'm familiar with Madonna." I always liked Madonna, but I was still blown away by this album.

YES

Late 80s pop, co-produced by Prince. Chock-full of her amazing hits.

I LOVE 80s/90s Madonna. Easy 5 star for me.

Heerlie