Title: Like a Virgin
Artiste: Madonna
Year: 1984
Chronological position: Second album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Oh we all know Madge don't we?
Genre: Pop
My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Meh
Finished --- Meh
Comments: The album that broke Madonna commercially and ensured her name would forever come up first in a Google search, ahead of Michaelangelo, this contains four hit singles – five, if you include “Into the groove” which was put on the reissue in 1985 for territories outside of the US – and to date has sold over twenty million copies: ten million or so behind
Thriller, but still enough to make it one of the biggest-selling albums in history. Of course I know most of the tracks, as they were singles, so “Material girl”, “Dress you up” and of course the title track are nothing new to me, but I'd kind of forgotten about “Angel”, though I did have the single when I was younger. Kinda thought it would be a ballad, but no: uptempo pop synthy thing. Meh. Oh yeah, I remember it now. Not too bad I guess. Pop goodness, as Batty would probably say.
“Over and over” is faster, almost new wave in its way, sort of reminds me of Depeche Mode on “Just can't get enough”. Maybe. It's pretty empty really. Meh. Again. Her version of Rose Royce's “Love don't live here anymore” is pretty decent, like the orchestral arrangement a lot. The album mix of “Dress you up” is a little long at just over six minutes, but hey, we're basically talking pop/disco here, and remixes are part of the whole thing. There's a little too much shimmery synth and annoying drums though, and it's definitely stretched out too long. That gives us “Shoo-be-do”, which I had assumed would be a fifties-style dance number and, well, isn't: it's a really nice piano ballad. Kicks up a little with a soul edge pretty quickly and it's sugary sweet but not too cloying. The sax break is good. “Pretender” has a nice hard pop sound, touches of new wave in there too especially in the keyboard runs. “Stay” sounds kind of like a precursor to “True blue”, which would be on her next album, actually the title track. It's ok: bouncy and happy with a nice beat.
Favourite track(s): “Material girl”, “Like a virgin”, “Shoo be do”, “Love don't live here anymore”
Least favourite track(s): “Over and over”
Final impression I'm no fan of Madge but I'm sure there are far better albums from her, especially as time went on and she honed her songwriting craft. But that's not the point of this journal. It doesn't matter if there are better albums – there surely are – it's the one recognised as her classic that we're concerned with, and this is it. For the time, and for a second album, pretty impressive. But pop's not really my thing. I doubt I'd bother listening to it again.
Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
H) Glad I listened to it
Meh, probably a G, no more than that.
