#251/1376
June 30 1986
Madonna
True Blue
Genre: Dance Pop
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Papa, Don’t Preach
Open Your Heart
Live to Tell
True Blue
La Isla Bonita
Jimmy Jimmy
I was on a road trip in Texas.
It was miserable. I was miserable. I’m saving it for my memoir. A crazy experience, stuffed in a motor home crossing the state with people I didn’t like for the better part of 10 days.
At the time I decided to work on my Listening Post series, taking to heart a comment by one reader that all the stuff I was listening to was male driven. Where were the women? Was I leaving them out on purpose? Was there bias?
I decided to dive in to Madonna as a starting point to begin rectifying that glaring hole in the series.
And I was really nervous about it cuz I was fully expecting to hate most of it. The singles, of course not. I would love those. I knew those.
The whole experience was edifying in a way that was wholly unexpected.
And this album was the apex. Somewhere around Houston is where I got to it. For me this record is more than just dance pop of the era. It’s endless vistas of desolate Texas roads. It’s eating cactus and fresh tortilla chips. It’s a cool breeze in sweltering humidity.
There is no weak track on this platter. It doesn’t try to break any new ground, save for content, perhaps (looking at you, “Papa, Don’t Preach”…RIP Danny Aiello) this is an artist at the height of her powers.
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