Are we really defined by the music of our youth? No matter how much we mature, both as adults and listeners of pop music, it sometimes feels like we return to our whirlwind teen years….at least in that magical instant when we’re caught off guard and hear an old and all-too-familiar song on the radio.

In the mid 80s I didn’t listen much to Madonna, with the exception of two of my favorite songs — "Into the Grove" and "Live to Tell." But around the time of "Like A Prayer," I started appreciating her brassiness, her unwillingness to bend to "normal behavior" and, yes, her emotional depth.

Madonna’s latest release Celebration, a collection of her biggest and best hits, has just about everything you could ever want. There’s the feel good "Holiday" (years later still putting a smile on our faces, every note crystal clear, defying us not to celebrate); the very bouncy and contagious "Like A Virgin" (it doesn’t sound so wild now, when we’ve got the Black Eyed Peas singing about their humps); and the haunting "Live to Tell" (as delightfully fresh as ever).

What IS missing (and it’s a shame!) is the endearing and sweet "Angel," the wicked "Hanky Panky" (from the sometimes overlooked I’m Breathless) and the autobiographical "Keep It Together" (a 1990 success usually left off lists when people recall Madonna’s top 40 hits.)

Lucy O’Brien’s intriguing book Madonna: Like an Icon takes a look at the Material Girl in a way that’s more pop culture 101 than biography. O’Brien reviews the singer’s work up to and including the 2006 non-stop dance sensation Confessions on a Dance Floor. Hard Candy, released two years after O’Brien’s book, doesn’t make an appearance, but is hardly a loss, especially when you consider that many critics (and even serious fans) consider it one of her weaker albums and no match for the powerhouse Confessions or chillaxin’ Ray of Light.

After listening to Celebration AND reading O’Brien and THEN discovering underrated albums like Bedtime Stories and Music (the former a surprisingly strong foray into R&B, and the latter a nice blend of techno pop and vulnerable love songs), you might come away with a completely different take on a singer who’s anything but immaterial. She’s caused many a commotion in her lifetime, but she’s still around and thriving because she’s never willing to compromise or break her stride when it comes to reinventing herself and her music.

Angie Engles – Central Library