Madonna - Like A Virgin (Sire)

The title of this squeaky clean semi-electro pop produced by Nile Rodgers recalls Mark O'Toole quoted in 'Pleasuredome': "So really I'm never honest." And when one places the record next to the far superior "Borderline", one realises that Madonna is only hip (hop) New York's answer to Cyndi Lauper. (Adrian Tierney-Jones, No 1, November 10, 1984)

Visually, let it be said, Madonna is a pure vision. She walks the deadly tightrope between sophistication and outright sexuality. Her records, on the other hand, are simply tame and lame modern pop disco, and her ability to perform centres more on pouting than on pirouetting. Putting it bluntly, she is a marketing man's dream: a carrot to dangle in front of lechers such as myself, a slightly classier musical version of Page 3, and her record here shares all the throwaway qualities of the said publication. (Pedro, Record Mirror, November 10, 1984)

Apart from being the only girl Peter Martin actually sends fan mail to, Madonna managed to come up with a cracking good first LP that I'm still not sick of even though my brother plays it to death every time he stays at my house. This however sounds like Cyndi Lauper making a feeble foray into disco with the help of Nile Rodgers and a bass line that sounds suspiciously like " Billie Jean". Boring. (Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, November 22, 1984)