WORTH A LOOK?: *****

Tracklist: I Feel So Free; Good For The Soul; One Step Away; Bring Your Love; Danceteria; Read My Lips; Everything; Love Sensation; Love Without Words; Bizarre; School; Fragile; My Sins Are My Saviour; Betrayal; The Test; L.E.S Girl

Confessions II is the mostly misleading title for this album which isn’t Madonna’s best album for the 21 years since Confessions On A Dancefloor but her best … ever.

• Read on for reasons including how this is the best album of 2026 so far

There’s a reason why Madonna is the last 1 left standing of 80s contemporaries including Prince, George Michael and Michael Jackson and it’s this sheer force of will that has seen her banish memories of most recent albums Madame X, Rebel Heart, MDNA and Hard Candy.

We last saw her live in Barcelona in 2023 writing: ‘The last time we saw her, we concluded: ‘Will and how will she tour again? There’s no doubt that if anyone can reinvent the Madonna live experience it is the Queen herself.’ Truth Or Dare? We never dared to dream she would reinvent herself once more – and, truth, be this brilliant.’

It’s a trick she repeats once more on Confessions II which opens with I Feel So Free – a reference to Into The Groove‘s iconic ‘Only when I’m dancin’ can I feel this free’ – a song of the month for us in April of which we wrote: ‘(this) is deep house reminding of Giorgio Moroder producing Donna Summer recalling Future Lovers from the original Stuart Price era Confessions.’

We’re reminded of a recent Madonna interview in which she explained she rejected advice to follow algorithms about what was popular and decided instead to push for something more artistically satisfying.

The best track here hasn’t yet been a single and is Danceteria (listen below) which occasionally reminds of the iconic Vogue or original Everybody while recreating the New York club where Madonna found her 80s feet and contemporaries including David Byrne and The B-52s and most recently celebrated by our July song of the month by Soft Cell who also hung there then.

Sample lyric, hook and motto for life: ‘Everyone here is a work of art.’

Confessions II marks the return of Confessions On A Dancefloor producer and Madonna songwriting collaborator Stuart Price and what he brings is an ability to underscore the star’s stories, an understanding of the the dynamics of a DJ set, demands of a live show and how segueing songs into each other is super hard but also amazingly rewarding when lightning is caught in a bottle and it works.

Confessions II begins with the idea of the dancefloor as a sacred space. Madonna uses spoken word during One Step Away (watch and listen below) ‘People think that dance music is superficial but they’ve got it all wrong.’

On Everything (watch and listen immediately below) the music builds to an: ‘It’s not OK, I don’t fuck with it.’

Later Madonna brings in a lyrical heft and personality in songs Fragile about her strained relationship with her late brother and The Test, a co-write with daughter Lourdes Leon who certainy has a rticher voice than her mother about the struggle of being a nepo baby.

Our favourite previous Madonna albums were the hits-laden True Blue, Like A Prayer and Erotica – the latter perhaps a better comparison with this than the mighty unexpected return to form that Confessions was.

Confessions II feels like we’ve finally earned Madonna’s trust and she’s lowering the curtain to discover what makes her tick, feel and hurt

Ironically, the weakest track here is Bring Your Love the duet with Sabrina Carpenter, a top 30 UK hit.

But Confessions II proves when you’ve a body of work as consistently strong as this – the album of the year so far – that single hits are no longer a necessity. Can’t wait to see her perform it at Glastonbury Festival.

• Main picture by Rafael Pavarotti via Facebook courtesy Madonna Tickets
• Have you seen a Madonna show before and what did you think of this it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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