Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The 1984 Listening Post - Madonna - Like a Virgin

Madonna - Like a Virgin

#306
November 12 1984
Madonna
Like a Virgin
4 out of 5

Highlights:
Material Girl
Like a Virgin
Dress You Up
Shoo Be Doo


Here's a secret.

This album is really good.
It's not as great as True Blue or Like a Prayer. It still has some clunky trinkets like "Angel" and "Pretender" but the hits...holy moley.
I HAAAA--AAAA----TED her when this came out. And then, about 10 years ago I was touring across Texas for a project with people I did not like and I decided to just listen to Madonna and every subsequent record was better than the last for a long while.
This is a huge improvement over her debut. Because the songs are there. And the production is as well.
"Material Girl" is more Devo than Devo or Oingo Boingo or Sparks ("Over and Over" is a runner up for that, as well). And speaks to her personality and an entire generation of women.
There is no denying the earworm that is the title track. It's insidious. It was to teenage girls (and their parents) as death metal was to teenage boys.
That song, her performance of it (here and live) were game changers. This was Elvis 1955 but 30 years later and the gender is flipped and nothing would be the same.
Nile Rodgers produced this and, boy does he know what the actual fuck he is doing.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/like-a-virgin/80815235

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