Living in the Madonna Moment

A mysterious, probably sad and telling, omission in Calendar’s March 19 review of Madonna’s album “Like a Prayer”: Where was the discussion of her voice ? If she is indeed a singer and a solo act, aren’t the album’s “techno-pop,” “soul-baring,” “honesty” and confessionals secondary to her actual performance?

Here’s an exercise that will demonstrate the trendy, trite tail-chasing twaddle into which your reviews have degenerated:

On every track of the album replace the marginally voiced Madonna with a marvelously voiced, real-live-singer (e.g., Patti LaBelle, Patti Austin, Aretha, Whitney, Streisand) and see if you’d still gush over them. You’ll find they would overpower the material.

The fact is that the current crowned princess of pop is just the latest in a line of numbingly mediocre products in corporate packaging dating back through Blondie and Olivia Newton-John to Nancy Sinatra.

TAMRA PALMER

San Dimas