single, painted by her brother, Christopher Ciccone. It shows the letters "MLVC", standing for Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, with a prominent letter "P" for Penn, detached from the group. Critical reception Following the release of "Like a Prayer" on March 3, 1989, it received widespread acclaim from critics, journalists and academics. Taraborrelli commented that the track "deserved every bit of the curiosity it generated. While being devilishly danceable, the song also shows Madonna's uncanny ability to inspire strong, conflicting emotions during the course of a single song, leaving the listener scratching his head for answers—and craving for more." Stephen Holden from The New York Times, while writing about Madonna's re-invention of her image, observed how her sound had changed from the "simple blaring dance-pop to the rich, fully rounded pop of 'Like a Prayer". Lucy O'Brien felt that the most remarkable aspect of "Like a Prayer" was Madonna's usage of liturgical words. "There is the surface meaning, forging sexuality with pop lyrics that sound so sweet. But underlying that is a rigorous mediation on prayer. In shorter words, 'Like a Prayer' really takes you there," she concluded. This view was shared by Mary Cross, who wrote in her biography of Madonna that "the song is a mix of the sacred and the profane. There-in lies Madonna's triumph with 'Like a Prayer'. It still sounds catchy and danceable." From the academic world, positive reviews came from Michael Campbell, author of Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On, who felt that the soothing melody of the track resembles British singer Steve Winwood's 1986 single "Higher Love". The author noted the song for merging disparate and contradictory musical features in it. He found that the simple melody of "Like a Prayer" offered an easy listen, but the contrasts in sound, rhythm and texture appealed to different target audiences. Australian rock music journalist Toby Creswell wrote in his book 1001 Songs that "'Like a Prayer' is a beautifully crafted devotional song in the guise of perfect pop. God is the drum machine here." Scholar Georges Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna as Postmodern Myth: How One Star's Self-Construction Rewrites Sex, Gender, Hollywood and the American Dream, noted that there is a polysemy in "Like a Prayer" since the singer addresses either God or her lover, and in doing so "Madonna achieves the gold-card of attaining her own divinity. Whenever someone calls her name,