150 Greatest albums made by women - Like a Prayer

[WarrenThanksYouAll 15,920]

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/20/538317263/turning-the-tables-150-greatest-albums-made-by-women-page-14

Like a Prayer - #13 

13. Madonna
Like a Prayer (Sire, 1989)

In 1989, AIDS was ravaging cities everywhere, particularly New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Supreme Court had begun to chip away at abortion rights. Activists were handing out condoms in the streets and fighting the indifference of the Reagan Administration, which instead supported the abstinence-only policies of fundamentalist Christians and the Catholic Church. Madonna's album Like A Prayer, released that same year, daringly takes on the struggles of a generation that refused to accept spirituality without sensuality. Through interweaving gospel, funk, soul and pop, the album's songs raise questions about religion, sexuality, gender equality and interdependence. For one thing, the title song opens with a few seconds of a hard rock guitar that stop abruptly and make way for a gospel choir and an organ. The lyrics suggest a girl who might experience God as a lover — or is it a girl who loves a man as if he is God? While "Oh Father" was in many ways about Madonna's own father, it goes beyond her relationship with him and instead alludes to someone who abuses power. And when all those activists weren't agitating in the streets they were dancing to "Keep It Together," Madonna's tribute to her family. While most critics saw this as the album where Madonna went from bubblegum pop to true artistry, that wasn't the only thing she did with Like a Prayer. With this album she also led the way for a new generation top female pop stars to express themselves.

[WarrenThanksYouAll 15,920]

Just noticed Like a Virgin is at #63 

63. Madonna
Like a Virgin (Sire, 1984)

Her self-titled debut, in 1983, had been MadonnaLouise Ciccone's declaration, of sorts. She would one day be a household name — and just one name, thank you, would be plenty. But it was the follow-up album Madonna released, Like a Virgin, that made that a reality. Co-produced with Nile Rodgers, its buoyant, confectionery dance-pop glossed with a modern, new wave sheen helped usher in the golden age of MTV, an era that still feels defined by her ecstatic writhing, wrapped in acres of bridal tulle, dangling crucifixes, and rubber bracelets, on the stage of the first VMAs two months before the full album's release. She went on to show savvy, intuitive mastery of the new form (and marketing platform) to build a dazzling, ever-shapeshifting 360-degree persona — sound, image, art, text — which she manipulated with an iron fist clad in a fingerless lace glove. Like a Virgin, and all that came with it, made it clear that there would never be a pop music landscape without the impact and influence of Madonna again — and it made it hard to imagine how there had even been one without her in the first place.

 

 

[Liam 16,191]

LAV is a top five Madonna album but really? No ROL, BS, Erotica or COADF?  

[Vulnicura. 7,258]

Like A Prayer doesn't have much replay value to me (bar singles) while Like A Virgin lacks any sort of concept or idea to it.

Ray Of Light >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Memorial Address 11,106]

89. Shania Twain
Come On Over (Mercury Records, 1997)

Whether you love or hate today's mainstream country, you gotta give it up to Shania Twain for inventing its urbane sensibility and much of its forward-thinking sound. Her blend of country and pop, including big rock drums and dance-music synthesizers, revolutionized the genre — but only because her songs and delivery made those innovations feel right to country listeners. Instead of a nostalgically wistful cowboy in a turquoise belt buckle and ten-gallon hat, here was a modern woman in leopard skin prints and pumps she kicked off after a hard day conquering the workplace (which, in Twain's case, was the recording studio — she deserves credit as a true collaborator there with her then-husband, producer Robert "Mutt" Lange). Twain provided the worldview that made her and Lange's sonic innovations work in a tradition-minded genre. Her songs about equality in marriage (her "9 to 5" update "Honey, I'm Home"), femininity that was never passive ("Men's shirts, short skirts, oh, really go wild," she sang in "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!," perfecting the Southern gal-on-a-bender trope that persists throughout country to this day), and mutually satisfying sex ("If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask!" she sang, lending her trademark positivity to the feminist idea of consent). With Come on Over, Twain's third album, she and Lange got her balance of home truths and forward thinking totally right — and shipped 40 million copies worldwide, making this the best-selling country album of all time.

[Memorial Address 11,106]

77. Aaliyah
Aaliyah (Blackground/Virgin America 2001)

For her third and final act, Aaliyah made her strongest and most important offering. Her very tragic and untimely death shortly after the release of this self-titled album made it difficult and haunting for most people to listen to. But Aaliyah is a revelation that projects an effortlessly cool aesthetic coupled with the actual vulnerability that comes with being cool. The compositions on the forward-thinking album, most by Stephen Garrett (Static Major), were complex and futuristic, much more so than any other R&B records released at the time, and the way Aaliyah perfectly embodied Garrett's songwriting is astounding. You'd never think that she didn't write these songs herself. On this album, Aaliyah continued the legacy of soprano singers like Minnie Riperton and Mariah Carey, and simultaneously set the stage for artists like Kelela and Solange to emerge. In the process, Aaliyah became a catalyst and bridge that created a smooth transition from '90s style R&B into Modern PBR&B.

[plutoniano 16,569]

not LAV making the list but her much superior material being paid absolute DUST  

[Shego 36,847]

Like a Virgin but not Ray of Light  and Lemonade top 10 

[SeekingThrill 10,035]

The list is horrible.  

 

Albums of Kate Bush and Grace Jones should have been top 10 instead of some overrated albums.  

[Madonna 46,044]

I hate how obsessed music critics are with Like a Virgin only because they stopped paying attention to her afterwards. It probably reminds them of when they were young.  It's NOT HER BEST 80s ALBUM and Ray of Light is much better but gets paid dust in recent times.