Two things that have impressed me throughout this Madonna deep dive are her commitment to collaboration and her interest in evolving her sound.
After her debut album, Madonna was turned down by her label when she wanted to produce the album herself. She took advantage of that opportunity and sought out Niles Rogers, the first of many big-name producers with whom she would record over the years.
Following Bedtime Stories, Madonna waited four years to release her next studio album, the longest span between new records in her career to that point.
During that time, she starred in Evita, gave birth to daughter Lourdes, and found religion in the form of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah. Busy, busy!
The Evita role prompted her to work with a vocal coach, a decision that paid off on 1998’s Ray of Light.
Madonna suffered a fair amount of backlash after her Sex book and Erotica album were deemed offensive by the pearl-clutchers. A controversial appearance on Late Show with David Letterman, heavily censored due to profanity and subject matter, didn’t help.
As a result, 1994’s Bedtime Stories was positioned as a mea culpa. In a promotional video, she promised “no sexual references” on the new album, and a return to the “innocent” Madonna of the past. Holding her co-writer’s daughter on her lap, she promised to be a “good girl.”
One of the most rewarding deep dives I’ve done on the blog was of David Bowie, back in 2016 a few months after his death. I didn’t cover all 25 of his studio albums, but I did get to the 15 with the most acclaim and/or notoriety.
Because I hadn’t yet joined the streaming revolution at the time, I wound up buying the Bowie albums I didn’t already own, and as a result they now form a decent sized chunk of my increasingly outdated iTunes collection.
Here’s a song from Sheryl Crow’s 2008 album Detours, an album written and recorded after her 2006 breast cancer diagnosis.
‘Make It Go Away (Radiation Song)’ is rather obviously about her bout with cancer, and specifically the multiple radiation treatments she underwent to battle it. She made a full recovery, and soon thereafter split from boyfriend and fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Detours was written about that tumultuous period in her life.
Meet Me In Montauk 