Madonna, Who’s That Girl Soundtrack
Featured Album
Like a Madonna EP fleshed out with unrelated dance dreck
Ostensibly a soundtrack for the summer 1987 flop caper comedy in which she starred, Who’s That Girl is more like a Madonna EP fleshed out with unrelated dance dreck. (Scritti Politti’s delirious “Best Thing Ever” provides the sole non-Madge highlight.) None of her four contributions are remembered among her upper echelon of songs, although this isn’t entirely just: The Latin-inflected title track topped the pop chart, while the self-referential “Causing a Commotion” reached No. 2 and was a deserved club anthem in remixed form. Together with the murky, moody ballad “The Look of Love” they suggest the turmoil of her now-abusive marriage, and so there’s a weight here that’s often overlooked amid the filler. The melancholy bridge of “Who’s That Girl” in which this ordinarily steely superstar concludes, “No one can help me now” may be the first unguarded moment in Madonna’s discography. More would be revealed in Like a Prayer.
