Confessions II — Album Reviews/Discussion

[Michael.]

Just for reference the Confessions I reviews from pitchfork:

Confessions on a Dance Floor

Madonna

2005

6.2

READER SCORE

Based on 16 readers

8.7

GENRE:

Pop/R&B

LABEL:

Warner Bros. / Maverick

RELEASE DATE:

2005

By Stephen M. Deusner

Reviewed November 14, 2005

On her 14th album, the pop star teams with Stuart Price and rolls back the clock; her latest iteration is a pre-Madonna disco vixen, basking in a '70s musical style that she herself, among others, helped to morph and displace.

Twenty years ago, Madonna was a postmodernist's dream. Her ability to transform herself from song to song and from album to album became a proclamation of self-nullifying empowerment, giving her the ability to create a stationary persona out of shifting identities. However, by the start of the 1990s, Madonna's transformations appeared more calculated as she aged and fell behind the curve, trying to predict the next dominant style instead of confidently setting it.

With Confessions on a Dance Floor, her 14th album, Madonna again reinvents herself, and it appears she's nearly lapped herself. Her latest iteration is a pre-Madonna (prima donna?) disco vixen, basking in a '70s musical style that she herself, among others, helped to morph and displace in the early '80s. Allowing her to accessorize creatively (love that wrap-around top), this new persona has the potential to be immensely entertaining, but there's something a little sad about it too. At 47 Madonna is playing the role of someone 25 years younger, and those retro space leotards and that feathered hair only make her look more mature and matronly, like your friend's mom dressed up embarrassingly for Halloween.

If the outfit depresses, the music on Confessions accomplishes the feat of making her sound young again. Kicking off the album, "Hung Up" is an impressive and enjoyable single, strong enough to have everyone trying to figure out if it's her best since "Ray of Light" or since "Like a Prayer". The main groove is lifted from ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme (A Man After Midnight)", but used in such a way that it resembles a brilliant mash-up rather than a lazy sample. Credit is due Stuart Price of Les Rhythmes Digitales, who builds a warehouse-size wall of sound for Madonna's songs, allowing her to revel in the shameless mirrorballsiness of it all.

That collaboration stays strong over the first half of Confessions. On "Get Together", as Price's synths ebb and flow moodily, Madonna asks the eternal pop question, "Do you believe in love at first sight?", over a tripping vocal melody. The cascades of sound wash directly into "Sorry", setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics. These songs have a deceptive lyrical vacuity that hints at greater depths, but leaves them to the listener to consider. On the other hand, "Future Lovers" begins with similar escapism, as Madonna warmly exhorts, "Let's forget your life, forget your problems, administration, bills, and loans." But it's no simple call to the dancefloor: Over a prismatic vocal theme, she unequivocally equates music with spirituality, dancing with religious ritual.

This impressive momentum, unfortunately, is interrupted by "I Love New York", which stumbles over mad-glad-bad rhyme schemes and dumb-ass lyrics like "I don't like cities but I like New York/ Other cities make me feel like a dork." It sounds like a transparently targeted post-9/11 valentine to the Big Apple-- odd coming from an ex-pat. Inanities like "If you don't like my attitude/ Then you can eff off" are at least partly excused by Price's production, which builds from the beat up to incorporate rock elements that could be a nod to Brooklyn hipster dance punk.

Despite Price's best efforts to infuse these songs with motion and finesse, Confessionsnever quite reaches its earlier heights after "I Love New York". When Madonna actually starts confessing, the album loses its delicate balance between pop frivolity and spiritual gravity. "Now I can tell you about success, about fame," she intones at the end of "Let It Will Be", as if that's all she knows anymore. She proselytizes the Kabbalah on "Isaac", but despite the controversy that song has created, it's remarkable only for Price's two-note pendulum string sample and a hummed melody that could have been lifted from "Frozen".

The young Madonna pops up repeatedly on Confessions, a foil to her older self. "How High" plumbs the motives behind her headline- and crotch-grabbing behavior of yore, but it only reveals how deeply she has embedded herself into the establishment. The album title recalls her contentious relationship to Catholicism on "Papa Don't Preach" and "Like a Prayer", and that pop visionary subversiveness makes her reverence to the Kabbalah seem tame by comparison. There's no conflict between her and her new faith, so there's no journey. As Confessions weighs down with more of her personal baggage, the songs become, despite Price's inventive and mercurial production, less inviting and less danceable, as if Madonna wants the dance floor all to herself.

[Jairo]

1 hour ago, Michael. said:

Just for reference the Confessions I reviews from pitchfork:

Confessions on a Dance Floor

Madonna

2005

6.2

READER SCORE

Based on 16 readers

8.7

GENRE:

Pop/R&B

LABEL:

Warner Bros. / Maverick

RELEASE DATE:

2005

By Stephen M. Deusner

Reviewed November 14, 2005

On her 14th album, the pop star teams with Stuart Price and rolls back the clock; her latest iteration is a pre-Madonna disco vixen, basking in a '70s musical style that she herself, among others, helped to morph and displace.

Twenty years ago, Madonna was a postmodernist's dream. Her ability to transform herself from song to song and from album to album became a proclamation of self-nullifying empowerment, giving her the ability to create a stationary persona out of shifting identities. However, by the start of the 1990s, Madonna's transformations appeared more calculated as she aged and fell behind the curve, trying to predict the next dominant style instead of confidently setting it.

With Confessions on a Dance Floor, her 14th album, Madonna again reinvents herself, and it appears she's nearly lapped herself. Her latest iteration is a pre-Madonna (prima donna?) disco vixen, basking in a '70s musical style that she herself, among others, helped to morph and displace in the early '80s. Allowing her to accessorize creatively (love that wrap-around top), this new persona has the potential to be immensely entertaining, but there's something a little sad about it too. At 47 Madonna is playing the role of someone 25 years younger, and those retro space leotards and that feathered hair only make her look more mature and matronly, like your friend's mom dressed up embarrassingly for Halloween.

If the outfit depresses, the music on Confessions accomplishes the feat of making her sound young again. Kicking off the album, "Hung Up" is an impressive and enjoyable single, strong enough to have everyone trying to figure out if it's her best since "Ray of Light" or since "Like a Prayer". The main groove is lifted from ABBA's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme (A Man After Midnight)", but used in such a way that it resembles a brilliant mash-up rather than a lazy sample. Credit is due Stuart Price of Les Rhythmes Digitales, who builds a warehouse-size wall of sound for Madonna's songs, allowing her to revel in the shameless mirrorballsiness of it all.

That collaboration stays strong over the first half of Confessions. On "Get Together", as Price's synths ebb and flow moodily, Madonna asks the eternal pop question, "Do you believe in love at first sight?", over a tripping vocal melody. The cascades of sound wash directly into "Sorry", setting up the song's panlingual apologies and shifting bass tectonics. These songs have a deceptive lyrical vacuity that hints at greater depths, but leaves them to the listener to consider. On the other hand, "Future Lovers" begins with similar escapism, as Madonna warmly exhorts, "Let's forget your life, forget your problems, administration, bills, and loans." But it's no simple call to the dancefloor: Over a prismatic vocal theme, she unequivocally equates music with spirituality, dancing with religious ritual.

This impressive momentum, unfortunately, is interrupted by "I Love New York", which stumbles over mad-glad-bad rhyme schemes and dumb-ass lyrics like "I don't like cities but I like New York/ Other cities make me feel like a dork." It sounds like a transparently targeted post-9/11 valentine to the Big Apple-- odd coming from an ex-pat. Inanities like "If you don't like my attitude/ Then you can eff off" are at least partly excused by Price's production, which builds from the beat up to incorporate rock elements that could be a nod to Brooklyn hipster dance punk.

Despite Price's best efforts to infuse these songs with motion and finesse, Confessionsnever quite reaches its earlier heights after "I Love New York". When Madonna actually starts confessing, the album loses its delicate balance between pop frivolity and spiritual gravity. "Now I can tell you about success, about fame," she intones at the end of "Let It Will Be", as if that's all she knows anymore. She proselytizes the Kabbalah on "Isaac", but despite the controversy that song has created, it's remarkable only for Price's two-note pendulum string sample and a hummed melody that could have been lifted from "Frozen".

The young Madonna pops up repeatedly on Confessions, a foil to her older self. "How High" plumbs the motives behind her headline- and crotch-grabbing behavior of yore, but it only reveals how deeply she has embedded herself into the establishment. The album title recalls her contentious relationship to Catholicism on "Papa Don't Preach" and "Like a Prayer", and that pop visionary subversiveness makes her reverence to the Kabbalah seem tame by comparison. There's no conflict between her and her new faith, so there's no journey. As Confessions weighs down with more of her personal baggage, the songs become, despite Price's inventive and mercurial production, less inviting and less danceable, as if Madonna wants the dance floor all to herself.

The way how this review aged like milk.

[redhot]

That confessions I review from pitchfork is

Talk about missing the mark and this part he should be shot for: 

"At 47 Madonna is playing the role of someone 25 years younger, and those retro space leotards and that feathered hair only make her look more mature and matronly, like your friend's mom dressed up embarrassingly for Halloween."

The misogyny is disgustingHe must be a miserable individual. 

Madonna has always been so ahead of the curve it takes som people decades to catch up. 

If I remember correctly they even mentioned this review in the Bandsplain podcast and how off the mark it is. 

[cardiganstarlet]

Jesus. Even when she was creating joy and escapism she’s still shit on.

[ibizaboi24]

Luckily, I have the day off on Friday, so I can listen to it all day long!

[Shut Your Mouth]

Only on Twitter from feuding stanbases and on forums do I ever hear any noise about Pitchfork. Outside of there most people don’t WTF Pitchfork is. If she gets an another shitty review from them we will be fine!

[bard]

2 hours ago, Shut Your Mouth said:

Only on Twitter from feuding stanbases and on forums do I ever hear any noise about Pitchfork. Outside of there most people don’t WTF Pitchfork is. If she gets an another shitty review from them we will be fine!

yeah they're definitely niche and only music-heads know who they are. but they still have a big reach and an even bigger influence. 

[dollhouse]

^reach mostly includes kylie, janet, gaga,mimi stans, the altr crowd no

[Skin]

Well it's safe to say Pitchforks review doesn't matter since Confessions went on to become one of the most iconic and beloved pop eras ever. 

[vertigokane]

The only critic who I pay any heed to is Sal from Slant Magazine. He knows his stuff when it comes to M, and his reviews are nuanced and informed. 

[bard]

39 minutes ago, dollhouse said:

^reach mostly includes kylie, janet, gaga,mimi stans, the altr crowd no

pitchfork gets 1.5-2M readers per month. that's not RS numbers, but it's very, very good. 

[Icykiller]

3 hours ago, vertigokane said:

The only critic who I pay any heed to is Sal from Slant Magazine. He knows his stuff when it comes to M, and his reviews are nuanced and informed. 

+1 I also always wait for his reviews.

[Jairo]

First review made by a fan who already heard the album:

‘Confessions 2’ Review: Madonna’s New Electrifying Album is Far More Than a Return to Form

https://pophubusa.substack.com/p/madonna-confessions-2-review

[markm]

Daily Mail 4/5 

https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-15946229/amp/Confessions-II-Madonna-ADRIAN-THRILLS.html

[songkaiwen]

46 minutes ago, markm said:

Daily Mail 4/5 

https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-15946229/amp/Confessions-II-Madonna-ADRIAN-THRILLS.html

Is this the first review that's not done by a fan?

[Ray Finkle]

Oh the final four songs are ballads ! That's why "Love Sensation" is the 8th track and not the 13th...

[songkaiwen]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/02/madonna-confessions-ii-album-review

Madonna: Confessions II review – nostalgic dancefloor trip sparks her most vital album in two decades

4/5

After years spent chasing trends like trap and Latin pop, Madonna settles back nicely into old-school dance music to tell vivid vignettes of life in 80s New York

[Hobbit]

Indipendent 4/5

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/madonna-review-confessions-2-features-b3006020.html

NME 4/5

https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/madonna-confessions-ii-review-3954470

[acko]

What's the point in COMPARING COAD to Madame X... Really. 

[side_streets]

Nobody has balls to give it 5 stars. it's hilarious!

[acko]

And once again NME knows who to write about Madonna 

[acko]

Just now, side_streets said:

Nobody has balls to give it 5 stars. it's hilarious!

The Sun might do it

[Nikki]

If it were Beyoncé, it would be all 5 ️

[smirnoff_ice]

BBC review 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0myggk4ngmo

 

[fandonna]

4 minutes ago, smirnoff_ice said:

BBC review 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0myggk4ngmo

 

it's really good

[rodials]

1 minute ago, fandonna said:

it's really good

Actually, I think it’s a bit “regular” this review… 

 

[smirnoff_ice]

the Times gave 4 out of 5 - but can't access the review, as one needs to pay. Chatgpt summary is this:

From reporting about the review, The Times awarded Confessions II 4 out of 5 stars, making it one of the stronger reviews the album has received so far.

The review's main points are:

It sees Confessions II as a successful return to the creative partnership between Madonna and Stuart Price that produced Confessions on a Dance Floor.

It praises the album for feeling focused, cohesive and purposeful, rather than chasing contemporary trends.

The review highlights the album's blend of club music with more personal subject matter, particularly songs dealing with grief, family and self-reflection.

Tracks singled out include "Danceteria" for its nostalgic celebration of New York club culture, "Fragile" for its emotional tribute to Madonna's late brother, and "My Sins Are My Savior" as an example of the album's darker, introspective side.

The accompanying interview with Stuart Price also gives some insight into the creative process:

Price says reconnecting with Madonna after many years felt surprisingly natural because their musical instincts still aligned.

He describes her as someone who "doesn't have an off switch" creatively, constantly generating ideas.

He says much of the album came from honest conversations about where Madonna is now in her life, rather than trying to recreate 2005.

[sotos8]

Financial Times (4/5)

“Nothing matches the heights of Hung Up, the ABBA-sampling standout from the first Confessions, although Danceteria comes close, with a brilliantly imagined tribute to the New York club scene from which Madonna emerged in the 1980s [...] there’s an overall sense of purpose that has been absent from her music since 2005.”

[sotos8]

The Times (4/5)

“It goes to the heart of who Madonna is, and the legacy she carved out through graft, determination and being in the right club at the right time. Confessions II is not a perfect album [but] the high points are fantastic – and surprisingly profound.”

[Geiger83]

Today I need to resist the urge to read reviews. I have already seen some spoilers and I want to be surprised tomorrow, but so far 4 of 5 stars is great. We know critics will never acknowledge Madonna the way she deserves