Madonna on stage in New York last month to promote her new album Confessions IIThe Queen of Pop has major cause for “celebration” now the reviews for Madonna’s latest album are out.
Released on Friday, Confessions II serves as a spiritual sequel to the Grammy winner’s 2005 release Confessions On A Dance Floor, still considered by many fans to be among the high-points of her career.
On her new collection, Madonna has reunited with Confessions producer Stuart Price, with critics hailing the pair’s latest collaboration as the Like A Prayer singer’s best album in decades.
While most concede that Confessions II doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, early reviews have still heaped praise on Madonna’s latest music, with many pointing out that it’s among the most personal and revealing material she’s ever released.
Here’s a quick run-through of what critics are saying about Confessions II so far…
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.”
The Independent (4/5)
“The throughline is catharsis, release, and the freedom that comes with that.
“Whether she’s airing out previously unspoken grievances with her daughter Lourdes on The Test, or accepting that the gorgeous guitar player in St Mark’s Place who ‘had a Marlon Brando face’ wasn’t meant for her, the Lower East Side girl, Madonna is letting go. And it makes for her best music in 20 years.”
Confessions II is already being hailed as Madonna’s best new music in 20 yearsBBC News
“This is the closest we’ve come to hearing the real Madonna since Ray Of Light, almost 30 years ago. As a great lyricist once observed: Only when she’s dancing can she feel this free.”
NME (4/5)
“Most of Confessions II succeeds because it’s the careful handiwork of an uncommonly talented club kid who still feels the power of dance music in her bones and in her soul.
“After 40-odd minutes of pounding house-pop and trippy trance, the album becomes more reflective in its closing stretch […] By drawing from her past, both personally and musically, Madonna has made her most vital album in over two decades. This grande dame still knows how to make us move.”
iNews
“[Madonna is] 68 now, and, as she releases her new album, Confessions II (a follow-up to 2005’s Confessions On A Dancefloor), her refusal to do what people think she should do feels, genuinely, more radical than ever. I don’t say that to be sycophantic.
“This album, with its pounding bass, darkly sexual rhythms and calls for freedom challenges our deeply entrenched expectations of women in music, and women in general.”
The Guardian (4/5)
“It lacks an undeniable, solid-gold pop banger along the lines of Hung Up, although Danceteria’s bright-hued disco house – one of two tracks co-written and produced by Andrew Watt and Cirkut – comes close.
“But if it’s not quite as good as Confessions On A Dance Floor, it’s unequivocally Madonna’s best album since Confessions On A Dance Floor, which you suspect will be more than enough for her fans, and might even beckon back some apostates: an accommodation with her past that bodes well for her future.”
The Telegraph (4/5)
“The sequel may not be quite the equal of the original, but it is certainly good enough to keep the franchise rolling. When the beats drop and the metaphorical dawn breaks, the album becomes genuinely affecting.
“Its five closing tracks offer surprisingly intimate reflections on personal relationships in expansive settings that feel like another album altogether […] the sweaty body of Confessions II makes it clear the long-reigning dancing queen is not about to abdicate of her own free will.”
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.”
Madonna’s Confessions II album is released on Friday 3 July.
