Madonna: Like A Prayer (silver vinyl) [SIRE]

Why you'll love it

This limited silver pressing comes with an 11" x 22" Herb Ritts poster. The title track became Madonna's seventh No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album topped the charts in 20 countries.

This edition

• Silver vinyl
• Limited edition
• Poster included
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

By 1989 Madonna had nothing left to prove on the dance floor, so she went looking for something harder to find: herself. Having just turned 30, the age her mother was when she died, she sifted through her journals and wrote about the things she'd been too wary to put on record, her Catholic upbringing, her marriage, her family.

She kept her trusted collaborators Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, and Prince turned up to co-write and co-produce "Love Song" with her. The title track pairs a gospel choir with a big pop chorus, "Express Yourself" is a brassy anthem of self-worth, "Cherish" is pure sunshine, and "Oh Father" and "Promise To Try" are about as raw as she's ever been. Jeff Porcaro, Paulinho Da Costa and Marilyn Martin all appear on the sessions, recorded around Los Angeles and at Paisley Park.

Critics heard the change straight away, and the album is now spoken of as the moment the pop star became a serious artist. She was turning 30, writing about her family and wrangling a gospel choir all in the same season. Some of us struggle to fit in a dentist appointment.

Also at Kops: more Madonna on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Sire / Rhino (cat# RCV5 25844), a reissue of the 1989 album.