Madonna releases "Confessions II": A nostalgic dance party as a return to the dancefloor

What worked in 2005 is meant to help again in 2026: Madonna wants to build on the success of "Confessions on a Dance Floor," which gave her career new momentum after the commercial low point of "American Life" (2003). Back on board is Stuart Price as producer, who was responsible for the first installment. This time as well, the album is structurally conceived like a club night.

Dramaturgy of a club night

It kicks off with a moderate beat to warm up, the tempo builds into a sweaty affair with accelerated bars, before a calmer phase with quieter tones rounds off the 64 minutes – or 63 minutes, as other sources indicate. All songs flow into one another like a DJ set, underscoring the work's continuous dancefloor character.

Across 16 tracks, Madonna shows her danceable side. With "Everything," the sweaty phase of this turbo dance tea begins, where you can practically see the laser show flickering in rapid tempo. "Bizarre" uses a sonic carpet that Lady Gaga would happily roll around on; the track was produced by Dutch EDM DJ Martin Garrix, who mixes Madonna's vocals with Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams."

"Love Sensation" comes with a "Good Vibration" chorus that sounds a bit like the Minions even without the intake of appropriate substances. "Love without Words" pushes metallically toward a love letter to trance, house, and techno, without actually sounding like techno.

The climax of the high-speed disco is marked by "School," according to reviewer Helene Slancar: The song sounds, she says, "as if someone had tried every button on the mixing desk at the same time." Even if the truly great hit is missing – the kind that sticks in your ear decades later, like "Hung Up" once did, arguably the best ABBA sampling ever – the album remains broadly convincing in the critics' view.

Highlights and guests

The chill phase kicks off with "Fragile," a song about Madonna's recently deceased brother Christopher Ciccone. This is followed by "Betrayal," a track in which Madonna's voice nestles around Eric Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1" and emphasizes her story of survival – though the song falls flat compared to the following piece.

"The Test," in turn, is hailed as an album highlight: It is a surprisingly subtle dialogue with Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon, addressed as "Little Star," as on "Ray of Light" (1998). The track revolves around maternal guilt and the price of a life in the spotlight.

A second prominent collaboration can be found on "Bring Your Love" with Sabrina Carpenter, who strikes her "best seductive breathy voice." Madonna responds to this composed, "like the elected aunt two generations older who has been to the swinger's club a few times too often." For "My Sins Are My Saviour," the Belgian musician Stromae lends his "buttery, French spoken voice"; the religious tone of the song could refer to the controversial album "Erotica" (1992).

Looking back at New York

Alongside these collaborations, there are references to her own past: "Danceteria" recalls the New York club where Madonna was able to take her first steps toward becoming a pop star. The piece is a breezy homage with name-dropping – Keith Haring, Lou Reed, and ex-boyfriend Jean-Michel Basquiat are mentioned – and a conglomeration of quotes from earlier hits like "Everybody" or the famous "Vogue" enumeration. "Girl," in turn, picks up the memory of Madonna's young years on the Lower East Side and ties in with "Confessions I" as well.

In "I feel free," the sonic landscape is complemented by suggestive moaning; in "Good for the Soul," Madonna's voice is given a reverb "that makes every empty room jealous." In "One Step Away," it bubbles dreamily, humming over a "Balearic-feeling house beat from the nineties"; the opening lines read: "It's a threshold, a ritualistic space where movement replaces language."

It lies in the nature of the confessional character that "Confessions II" is at times a rather talkative album. Madonna precedes many songs with banal wisdoms à la "Everything begins with awareness." Elsewhere: "I can be whoever I want to be." The first proper instrument on the album can be heard in "Read my Lips" – a guitar; later, a piano follows in "My Sins are my Savior" with Stromae.

Companion film and media appearances

"Confessions II" is accompanied by a short film in which the musician, together with producer Arca, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, or model Kate Moss, lounges through the nightlife. As a preview, Madonna had previously released a 13-minute sex filmlet; a video in which lascivious women in fetish masks shot laser beams from their crotches caused amusement online. She streamed her most recent appearance in Times Square exclusively on Grindr.

Madonna doesn't necessarily want to be naked anymore, as she recently said in an interview. That's "become far too commonplace" today. As a 67-year-old musician who likes to talk about desire and the body, she nevertheless delivers publicity-effective taboos. Also because she has prominent guest stars on board with Martin Garrix, Stromae, and Sabrina Carpenter, she achieves a remarkable comeback, according to critics.

Reviews and outlook

The reactions are predominantly favorable: "Die Welt" cheers of an "astonishing comeback," other papers such as "FAZ," "People," "Rolling Stone," and "Variety" follow suit, and the BBC even recognizes a "hypnotic dancefloor odyssey." "Hung Up" (2005), which at the time achieved cult status with the ABBA sample – "the go-ahead only came after hesitation from Benny and Björn," as the reviewer notes – remains the benchmark for many.

What's still to come is the film adaptation of her life: Madonna is working on a biopic with Universal, which, however, "was recently shelved and is now supposed to become a series for Netflix." With "Confessions II," the artist is for now delivering the musical encore for this project – at 64 minutes, produced with great technical effort, and with some very personal insights into the life of the reigning "Queen of Pop."