Tropico by Pat Benatar

Tropico, Pat Benatar's fifth studio album, came out on Chrysalis on November 1, 1984, and it's the record where she and guitarist-producer Neil Giraldo first eased off the hard-rock throttle. In place of the leather-lunged attack come gentler moods and a new wave sheen, and there's a new bassist too, Donnie Nossov stepping in for Roger Capps.

"We Belong" is the centerpiece, a swelling, hymn-like ballad that went top five on the pop chart and earned a Grammy nomination. "Ooh Ooh Song" made the top 40 as well, with a Spanish-language take tucked onto the flip of the US single, while "Painted Desert" and "Outlaw Blues" round out the best-known songs. It reached 14 on the Billboard 200 and made it six platinum albums in a row for her in the States; the next one, Seven the Hard Way, would steer back toward rock.

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