Like a Prayer (album) April 27, 1990, and "Blond Ambition World Tour Live", taped in Nice, France, on August 5, 1990. "Like a Prayer" received critical acclaim. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, from AllMusic, said in retrospect that it was Madonna's "most explicit attempt at a major artistic statement", and that though she is trying to be "serious" Madonna delivers a range of well-written pop songs, making the album her "best and most consistent". In "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide", Barry Walters wrote that with its more substantial songs that "covered topics such as spousal abuse and familial neglect", "Like a Prayer" "effectively upped Madonna's
I Say a Little Prayer by the RIAA. "Prayer" became Franklin's ninth and last consecutive Hot 100 top 10 hit on the Atlantic label. Franklin's "Prayer" has a special significance in her UK career, as with its September 1968 No. 4 peak it became Franklin's biggest UK hit; subsequently Franklin has surpassed that track's UK peak only with her No. 1 collaboration with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". In February 1987, UK music weekly "New Musical Express" published its critics' top 150 singles of all time, with Franklin's "I Say a Little Prayer" ranked at No. 1, followed by Al Green's