Madonna - Like a Virgin (1984/2012) [Hi-Res]

Madonna's second album was her breakthrough, thanks principally to two gimmicky hits: the sinuous "Like a Virgin," with its taboo-busting metaphor for that fresh, clean new-love feeling, and the cutesy, Betty-Boopsy "Material Girl." Most of the rest of the album, although similarly frothy, is superior to those warhorses, notably the irresistible LP tracks "Over and Over," and "Pretender"--which adds a bit of gossamer delicacy to the mandatory bounciness. "Dress You Up" is a Madonna classic, an insubstantial dance-pop delight bedecked in synthesized bells and replete to the beat with kinky suggestions. And there's a sign of greater depth to come in her cover of Rose Royce's elegiac ballad "Love Don't Live Here Anymore," a heartfelt vocal supported by a subtle, gorgeous arrangement helmed by producer Nile Rodgers and his two key Chic instrumental compatriots, Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson. --Ken Barnes