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
Like a Prayer (album) Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of three million units. After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 575,000 copies. "Like a Prayer" has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at number two on the RPM Albums Chart on May 1, 1989. It remained on that position during four weeks, before dropping to the third position the week of May 29, 1989. The album was present for a total of 37 weeks on the chart, and was certified five times