Madonna – Confessions II
★★★★
WARNERS
Reuniting with Warner Brothers after a 20-year break seems to have concentrated Madonna’s mind. Tracks from her 15th studio album show less of the experimental rhythms and global beats, from Cape Verdean morna to Colombian reggaeton, that drove 2019’s Madame X. Instead, it’s a return to her gravitational centre in clubland. More the pounding pulse of I Don’t Search I Find, less Batuka.
Confessions II‘s opening track I Feel So Free was released on April 18, 2026, a swirling post-disco epic that references Lil Louis’ 1989 house classic French Kiss. Madonna’s vocal has an intimate, breathy tone. “Sometimes I just like to hide in the shadows,” she whispers, “Create a new persona, a different identity, I can be whoever I want to be.” Slowly building synth chords and a spacey aura accentuate Madonna’s shamanic female energy – a dynamism also exuding from the next release, lead single Bring Your Love. Recorded with Sabrina Carpenter, this slice of big room dance pop samples Inner City’s Good Life and is laced with a sense of provocation and defiance. In the same way Madonna teased American Life by kissing Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, she trailed Confessions II by throwing down the gauntlet to another Disney princess: “Bring it Sabrina,” she challenges, “You got something to say about it?”
These two songs cued up an album that further explores persona and power, a process that started with 2024’s Celebration tour. By turns a sorrowful and joyful reckoning of her life’s choices, this show wasn’t just a Greatest Hits vehicle. One of the stand-out moments was Justify My Love, sung in a dreamlike, languid way as an older woman looking back at memories of a more spikey, sexual self.
Musical director Stuart Price linked remixes of original studio recordings in a way that was sensitively attuned to her live vocals. “The shorthand was there. We were able to create productively,” he told Billboard. “The key component of working together is ‘do you understand each other?’” Given their easy collaborative approach, it’s not surprising that during a break in the Celebration tour Madonna began working on a new album with Price in his Notting Hill studio, picking up where they left off with the first Confessions On A Dance Floor sessions back in the early 2000s.
Confessions II is a continuation of that vibe, plugging into rave culture and her New York disco past, while at the same time infusing tracks with the wisdom of her 67 years. In fact, one of the highlights is Danceteria, a spoken word piece (like the rap Vogue) that reminisces about her NYC club days.
As well as euphoric numbers like Good For The Soul and Love Sensation there are sadder, reflective songs. Fragile, for instance, has the icy feel of Frozen from 1998’s William Orbit-assisted rebirth Ray Of Light, and recalls her estranged brother Christopher, who died in 2024. For Madonna, the dancefloor is not just about escape but deeper emotions too. “This album is the story of Madonna’s vulnerability and insight told through her life experiences,” Price told this writer in May.
Not only tracing similar moves to its sonic/spiritual predecessor (and arguably her last truly great album) 21 years on, Confessions II places Madonna, now approaching her eighth decade, back onto those dancefloors: New York sweatboxes like Danceteria where the 22-year-old from Michigan first hustled her way towards superstardom, but also the scenes from which she drew so much from for the rest of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Filtering the intervening years, experiences, emotions, and life lessons through the sounds that made her, it’s also a timely reminder of why Madonna was crowned the Queen Of Pop in the first place, and continues to be a vital musical force.
Confessions II is out July 3 on Warners.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Track Listing:
1. I Feel So Free
2. Good For The Soul
3. One Step Away
4. Bring Your Love
5. Danceteria
6. Read My Lips
7. Everything
8. Love Without Words
9. Bizarre
10. School
11. Fragile
12. My Sins Are My Savior
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