The windswept textures of “Oh Father”-loping pianos, drooping strings-give Madonna’s voice room to move. Its follow-up “Promise to Try”-a slowly building ballad directed toward a young girl who’s struggling with the death of her mother-is mournful, the loneliness it describes sitting uncomfortably close to the cycle depicted in “Till Death.” The final verse, which describes the circular nature of abusive relationships and which punctuates the titular phrase with the sound of shattered-glass, only adds to the song’s despair. But the glittery vibes and hopped-up tempo take on a sinister edge in later verses, sounding more glassy-eyed as Madonna’s world-weary alter ego narrates the dissolving love and as the disturbing imagery-fading bruises, growing hate, flying vases-piles up.
#WIKI MADONNA DISCOGRAPHY UPDATE#
“Till Death Do Us Part,” on first blush, comes off like a breakup-themed update of earlier Madonna synth-pop offerings, like True Blue’s “Jimmy Jimmy,” or Like A Virgin’s “Angel.” She sings of feeling bereft over chiming synths and popping guitars-“When you laugh it cuts me just like a knife/I’m not your friend, I’m just your little wife,” she sighs. Though it’s worth noting that the version on Like a Prayer sounds anemic compared to the utterly superior Shep Pettibone single remix, which foregrounds the cowbell and makes the bouncing-ball bassline a go-on-girl counterpoint to Madonna’s message. “Express Yourself” is led by one of Madonna’s most bravado vocals, ready-made for lustily singing along with in a mirror or on a tense solo elevator ride.
“Like a Prayer,” with its lyrics of redemption derived from spiritual surrender or some sort of sex act (or a combination of the two) and roof-raising gospel choir, shimmies and saunters, Madonna using its lite-funk building blocks to anchor a giddy sing-along.
While Madonna was no shrinking violet during the first chunk of the ’80s-the decade of Madonna wannabes, MTV Video Music Awards-ready wedding dresses, and “controversial” her officially recognized prefix- Like a Prayer does showcase her growth as a pop artist, from the gnarled guitar that opens its title track all the way through its warped-tape closer “Act of Contrition.” She takes more chances lyrically and musically, and while they don’t always work, they do give a glimpse at her restlessness and increased willingness to take musical chances, whether she’s bringing in Prince or letting her voice’s imperfections into songs or taking on heavy, personal-life-adjacent topics. “And this new one is the adult side of me, which is concerned with being brutally honest.” “My first couple of albums I would say came from the little girl in me, who is interested only in having people like me, in being entertaining and charming and frivolous and sweet,” Madonna told Interview in May 1989. “They try to make everything an absolute truth.” Yet elsewhere, she also noted that Like a Prayer was in part about her taking greater control of her narrative.
“People don’t see that you can take some of your experiences from real life and use part of them in your art,” Madonna told Vogue in May 1989. These were ideal conditions for listeners to use an album by pop’s most notorious-and most famous-woman as diary pages, but to at least one interviewer, Madonna bristled at the concept. “Was this to be her atonement?” brayed the subtext. She tried to act on screen in Who’s That Girl and on stage in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow she turned 30 her tabloid-dominating marriage to bad-boy actor Sean Penn had ended. Read the reviews of Madonna’s blockbuster 1989 album Like a Prayer and you’ll see a lot of confession-related imagery-not because of how her career had been steeped in Catholicism, but because of the narratives surrounding the superstar as she geared up to release her fourth album.
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