Ray of Light by Madonna

Ray of Light, Madonna's seventh studio album, came out on Maverick on February 22, 1998, and it's the sound of pop's great shape-shifter going inward. Kabbalah, Hinduism, Buddhism and a daily Ashtanga yoga habit all fed into it, and so did motherhood: she started work after the birth of her daughter Lourdes, first with Babyface and Patrick Leonard, then scrapped that direction and threw in with English producer William Orbit. The sessions ran longer than any in her career, stalled again and again by Orbit's gear breaking down.

The wait paid off. Dense analog synths and electric guitars swirl through electronica, trip hop and techno-pop, and she sings about fame, faith, motherhood and enlightenment with a new gravity. "Frozen" went to number one in nine countries, the album topped the charts in 17 and sold more than 16 million copies, and it won four Grammys, Best Pop Vocal Album among them. At 39, Madonna had made electronica sound like the future of pop.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.