Madonna Is Back! But Does Confessions II Live Up To The Hype?
The three-month roll-out to the release of Madonna’s new Confessions II album on 3 July has at times almost seemed as long a wait as the seven years since her last album, Madame X. With three tracks released as early tasters – throbbing album opener I Feel So Free, the cute Sabrina Carpenter duet of Bring Your Love and, best of the three, uplifting club anthem Love Sensation – there was already general consensus among fans that this new album might just be the best Madonna has sounded in over 20 years.
That’s because her original Confessions On A Dance Floor album from 2005 plundered the ear-pleasing worlds of disco and dance music. Leading with the ABBA-sampling Hung Up, it was so good everyone instantly forgave, if not forgot, her previous album, 2003’s politically charged American Life, now considered a misjudged classic.
Since then, we’ve had 2008’s urban-soaked Hard Candy, 2012’s EDM-fuelled MDNA, 2015’s leaky Rebel Heart and 2019’s world music Madame X. Yet none of these four albums felt like we were getting Madonna at her best, or doing what she does best, so her new album aims to repudiate that.
While Confessions II is crammed with dance beats – taking its primary source from gay and black House music of the 1980s – lyrically it’s Madonna at her most personal. Strip back the layers of pounding grooves, and you’re left with an album of the Queen Of Pop expressing, and exposing, herself, as on 1989’s Like A Prayer and 1998’s Ray Of Light. It’s all without getting naked for a change, too, as Madonna insists she now wants to do what people don’t do anymore – “thinking and wearing clothes”.
After seven years between albums, Madonna has also lived to tell a whole lot more.
“It’s hard for me to write a song about nothing,” she said recently. “I have to tell a story. So, I wrote about a lot of family trauma and then we started making dance music. I came back and forth a couple of times and then I said, ‘Okay, this is right. This feels good!’”
The 2024 death of her brother Christopher inspired her to write Fragile, her marriage to first husband Sean Penn is the subject of Bizarre, while Madonna co-wrote/co-sung The Test with eldest daughter Lourdes, “as our way to heal our relationship”.
Aside from documenting her own personal struggles, Confessions II is certainly the queerest record of Madonna’s career, too. There’s its pink-triangle-inspired cover artwork, the Grindr PR takeover, launch parties at LA gay hotspot The Abbey, NYC Pride and London Pride, hanging with Heated Rivalry hottie Connor Storrie at a YSL fashion show in Paris and filming a comedy skit with Kylie Minogue for her Graham Norton TV special. Madonna is truly “Muthagay” now.
To that end, standout Confessions II track Danceteria hustles us back to those coked-up, freewheeling, pre-AIDS days where Madonna got her big break in the NYC club of the same name. It was there she met her gay bestie Martin Burgoyne (who died of AIDS in 1986, but is namechecked in the song), bringing her career full circle some 40-plus years later.
“Confessions II is a love letter to dance music and to all the spaces and communities that create it, or enjoy it,” Madonna explained. “The dance floor isn’t about a specific space or building; it’s wherever we gather to dance, celebrate and connect.”
Confessions II – Track By Track
1. I Feel So Free
Five-minute opener from the Confessions II era heavily borrows from Lil Louis’ 1989 pounding French Kiss as M lectures any “vibe kills” on why her safe space is the dance floor.
2. Good For The Soul
This continuous mix album eases into “conscious dancing” as M requests we “let down your hair and breathe in the air” on a track which could easily have fallen off 1998’s Ray Of Light.
3. One Step Away
One of six track excerpts featured in her Confessions II short film, M steps it up with the best vocals on the album, delivering a pulsating masterclass in why dance music isn’t superficial.
4. Bring Your Love
M and Sabrina Carpenter have got something to talk about, including dead bodies! Yikes! Her catchy single bop came with a proper video and ace Honey Dijon/Stuart Price mixes.
5. Danceteria
A nod to the ’80s NYC club M got her break (with a coke-loving DJ, bestie Debi Mazar, gay toyboy Martin Burgoyne) plus a riff from Lou Reed’s Walk On The Walk Side. A work of art!
6. Read My Lips (with Feid)
Every M album has at least one Latin track. Colombian reggaeton star Feid raps on this jiggly, Shakira-esque tune previewing her FIFA World Cup Final Halftime show on 19 July.
7. Everything
Confessions II really has “everything”, including M singing “it’s not OK, I don’t fuck with it!” on this squelchy stomper where no one wants to go outside. We’ve had nights like that!
8. Love Sensation
It’s club banger time! The third track released from the album has the purest intention of getting us into the groove with its loved-up lyrics and incessant beat. A true blue M classic.
9. Love Without Words
Expertly weaving House and Trance, Mutha Madonna speaks to us from inside the club of love. Already, this sequel album feels more consistently good than the original Confessions!
10. Bizarre
Leaked prior to release by Dutch progressive House DJ Martin Garrix, M revisits her resentful first marriage to Sean Penn (Shelby Cobra and all!) to find – uh oh! – love can be so bizarre.
11. School
When you have six kids, like M does, school is a subject you know well, yet here “school is in session” as M gives us an art lesson (Picasso!) amid a sleazy groove demanding shirts off.
12. Fragile
Written about her gay brother Christopher who died in 2024 (“we shared a fragile bond”) this haunting trip-hop track is M working to heal the hurt that kept them apart until his death. Sob.
13. My Sins Are My Saviour
Summing up M’s Kabbalah life lesson (“I was not lost, I was just broken”), she also speaks French to a deep ’90s House beat, recalling her Erotica era, featuring Belgian singer Stromae.
14. Betrayal
While M wrote another song for her brother, Forgive Yourself (hello special edition!), angsty, brooding jazzy ballad Betrayal is her reconciling with her stepmother, who also died in 2024.
15. The Test
M’s original “little star”, Lola Leon, has been testily plugging her own alt-pop for some time, but now duets touchingly with her “mom” to repair their relationship… and nab some free PR.
16. L.E.S. Girl
The fourth of four deluxe edition tracks, L.E.S. stands for “Lower East Side” where M lived during her pre-fame NYC years. A fittingly chilled-out finale (“everything fades away”).
Bonus Track: Hot Sauce
As part of her Absolut Icon Vodka campaign, M handed over this white heat number, added as a spicy iTunes bonus, boasting a feisty Latin “ritmo”. Does this woman ever sleep?
The Verdict!
Those who adored 2005’s Confessions On A Dance Floor album (and prayed she’d do more confessing since), will bring their love for Confessions II. Not only is this the catchiest batch of tunes Madonna has cooked up in 21 years, but her most profound album since 1998’s Ray Of Light masterpiece.
There might not be a huge Hung Up chart hit here, but built on the holy grail of gay and black house music of the 1980s, this album will be the soundtrack for Pride parties, Pride after-parties and Pride recovery parties for the next decade at least.
We all need to get on our knees to give thanks because Confessions II is the Queen Of Pop back to her best. If Madonna never makes another album (let’s hope that’s not the case!), Confessions II stands as a perfect career summation and true hers-tory. Madonna, thanks for coming, and confessing, again.
