Fearless Love, Melissa Etheridge's feistiest disc since her 1988 debut, blurs the difference between hard-earned personal experience and social commentary. In "Miss California," she voices her frustration with California's recent anti-gay-marriage amendment by addressing the state as if it were a wayward lover: "I know the hand that's trying to hold me down/Is the one I'm trying to hold." For "The Wanting of You," Etheridge sets "Born to Run" riffs against a tale of a married woman who constantly lusts for another, reminding you that she's best when she brings both intensity and compassion.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.