Time To Talk

Like a Prayer is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna, released on March 21, 1989, by Sire Records. Madonna worked with Stephen Bray, Patrick Leonard, and Prince on the album while co-writing and co-producing all the songs. Her most introspective release at the time, Like a Prayer has been described as a confessional record. Madonna described the album as a collection of songs "about my mother, my father, and bonds with my family." The album was dedicated to Madonna's mother, who died when she was young.

The album uses live instrumentation and incorporates elements of dance, funk, gospel, and soul into a more general pop style. Madonna drew from her Catholic upbringing, as seen on the album's title track, which was also released as its lead single. The lyrics deal with themes from Madonna's childhood and adolescence, such as the death of her mother in "Promise to Try", the importance of family in "Keep It Together", and her relationship with her father in "Oh Father". Madonna also preaches female empowerment in "Express Yourself".

Like a Prayer received universal acclaim, with Rolling Stone hailing it as "close to art as pop music gets." Commercially, the album was an international success, reaching the top of the charts in multiple territories, and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America. Six singles were released from the album: the title track, "Express Yourself", "Cherish", "Oh Father", "Dear Jessie", and "Keep It Together". "Like a Prayer" became Madonna's seventh number-one hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, while "Express Yourself" and "Cherish" peaked at number two and "Keep It Together" became a top-ten hit. Worldwide, the album has sold over 15 million copies.

With the singles' accompanying music videos, Madonna furthered her creativity and became known as a leading figure in the format. The music video for "Like a Prayer" was a lightning rod for religious controversy, using Catholic iconography such as stigmata and burning crosses, and a dream about making love to a saint, leading the Vatican to condemn the video and causing Pepsi to cancel Madonna's sponsorship contract. The video for "Express Yourself" was the most expensive video at its release. Like a Prayer preceded Madonna's ground-breaking Blond Ambition World Tour. At the end of the 1980s, following the release of the album, Madonna was named "Artist of the Decade" by several publications.

Kylie is the debut studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 4 July 1988 by Mushroom Records. Minogue had established herself as a child actress before signing to the record label in early 1987. The success of her debut single, "Locomotion", resulted in her working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who produced the album and wrote nine of its ten tracks. Their recording sessions, which started in September 1987 and took place in London and Melbourne, coincided with Minogue filming for the soap opera Neighbours.

Musically, Kylie is a bubblegum pop and dance-pop album. It received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics who criticized its dated production. It was a commercial success, peaking at number one in the United Kingdom for six weeks and becoming the best-selling album of 1988. It is her only number-one album in New Zealand, while peaking at number two in her native Australia. In the United States, it was certified gold for selling over 500,000 copies. Kylie was certified six times platinum in the United Kingdom and has sold over five million copies worldwide.

To promote Kylie, "I Should Be So Lucky" was released as the first single by the newly founded PWL Records in late December 1987. It reached number one in Australia and the United Kingdom, the first for any artist. The subsequent singles—"Got to Be Certain", the re-recorded "The Loco-Motion", and "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" all peaked in the top two on the UK Singles Chart. "It's No Secret" was her third top-forty single on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Turn It into Love" was released exclusively in Japan. Kylie was re-issued in 1988 as The Kylie Collection, and in 2015 when it returned to the UK Albums Chart.

Disco is the upcoming fifteenth studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, scheduled to be released on 6 November 2020 by Darenote and BMG Rights Management. A departure from her previous country-influenced album Golden (2018), it is influenced by 1970s and 1980s disco along with modern-day club music.[1][2] The lead single from the album, "Say Something", was released on 23 July of the same year and premiered on BBC Radio 2.[3] The song received acclaim from music critics.[4] The second single, "Magic", was released on 24 September,[5] to positive reception,[6][7] while a promotional song, "I Love It", was released a month later, on 23 October.

True Blue is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on June 30, 1986, by Sire Records. She co-wrote and produced the entire album with Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard. True Blue deals with her visions of love, work, dreams as well as disappointments, and was inspired by her then husband Sean Penn, to whom Madonna dedicated the album. Musically, the songs on the album took a different direction from her previous endeavours, incorporating classical music in order to engage an older audience who had been skeptical of her music.

The album features instrumentation from acoustic guitars, drums, synthesizers and Cuban musical instruments. The topic for the songs range from love, freedom, and in the case of "Papa Don't Preach", social issues like teenage pregnancy. After its release, True Blue received critical acclaim, with music critics who complimented the album as the archetype of the late 1980s and early 1990s pop albums. They also praised the fact that Madonna's voice sounded stronger than it did on her previous efforts, while commending Madonna's skills as a singer, songwriter and entertainer.

True Blue was an immediate global success, reaching number one in then record-breaking 28 countries across the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It spent 34 consecutive weeks at the top of the European Top 100 Albums chart, longer than any other album in history. It became the world's top-selling album of 1986, as well as the best-selling album of the 1980s by a female artist. With estimated sales of over 25 million copies worldwide, True Blue remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. Five singles released from the album—"Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", "True Blue", "Open Your Heart", and "La Isla Bonita"—all reached number one on either the US Billboard Hot 100 or the UK Singles Chart.

The album was promoted on Madonna's second concert tour, 1987's Who's That Girl World Tour, which visited cities in North America, Europe and Asia. True Blue is credited as being the album which established Madonna's position as the biggest female artist of the 1980s, rivaling male musicians like Michael Jackson and Prince. The album's singles and their accompanying music videos have sparked debates among scholars and social groups. She became the first female artist to receive the Video Vanguard Award at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in recognition of her impact on popular culture. The album also gave her first appearance on the Guinness Book of World Records.

Super DISCO fans track back through Kylie's musical career.

Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records. Following the success of her self-titled debut album, Madonna wanted to become the record producer of her next album. However, her label was not ready to give her the artistic freedom and she chose Nile Rodgers instead to produce the album due to his work with David Bowie. Madonna wrote six songs on the record, five of which feature Steve Bray as a co-writer. The album was recorded at Power Station Studio in New York at a quick pace. Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards, who was the bassist, and Tony Thompson, who played drums. Jason Corsaro, the record's audio engineer, persuaded Rodgers to use digital recording, a new technique introduced at that time.

The album's photographs were shot by Steven Meisel. Madonna wanted the album title and the cover image to make a provocative link between her own religious name Madonna, as the Roman Catholic title for Jesus' mother Mary, and the Christian concept of the virgin birth. While not a substantial musical departure from Madonna's first album, she felt that the material from Like a Virgin was stronger. After its release, Like a Virgin received mixed reviews from music critics, but was a commercial success. It became Madonna's first number one album on the Billboard 200 and set the record as the first female album in history to sell over five million copies in the United States. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified it diamond for shipment of ten million units. It also reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time with sales of over 21 million copies worldwide.

Five singles were released from the album, including Madonna's first US number-one "Like a Virgin" and her first UK number-one "Into the Groove". To promote the album, she embarked on The Virgin Tour, which had shows in cities of North America only. Like a Virgin has attained significance as a cultural artifact of the 1980s. Madonna proved that she was not a one-hit wonder and was able to provide herself with a permanent footing in the music world. Her songs became a lightning rod for both criticism by conservatives and imitation by the younger female population, especially "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin". According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist's magic moment; for Madonna, Like a Virgin was just such a defining moment."

WOW! is the fourth album by Bananarama, released in September 1987. The album was entirely produced and co-written with the Stock Aitken Waterman production trio and is the last album by the girl group to generate significant chart hits. Tensions between group member Siobhan Fahey and Stock, Aitken and Waterman regarding songwriting input and lyrical content (particularly with the track "Strike it Rich"[citation needed]) prompted Fahey's departure from Bananarama five months after its release. By the time the album's fourth single, "I Want You Back", was released in March 1988, Fahey had been replaced with Jacquie O'Sullivan, who re-recorded the vocals for the single version of the song. Fahey would resurface later in 1988 with her new band, Shakespears Sister.

While the album was a moderate success in both the UK and the US, it was a particularly big hit in Australia, where it topped the charts.[3] The album was certified gold in the UK.[1]

WOW! was re-issued in 2013 as a 3-Disc Deluxe Version and includes "Reason for Living", which is an early version of "I Want You Back".

Golden lovers review Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite

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