I Confess: Madonna's "Confessions II" Won Me Over

My scorn for the latter-day Madonna is well documented. She has no humility or sense of humor and, for a mere pop singer, takes herself far too seriously. Desperately afraid of aging, she is ready for her close-up. She can’t really dance anymore.

She also has a terrific, long-awaited new album out, the best pop music I’ve heard in ages. Beat by beat, song by song, it won over this hater.

Confessions II, the follow-up to Madonna’s 2005 dance album Confessions on a Dance Floor, was released on July 3. 

I would never have listened to it if Joe, the most die-hard Madonna fan I know, hadn’t shoved it in my face. 

Hesitantly, I put on my new AirPods Max, bought at a steep discount for Prime Day, and listened to the entire album early on July 4th. By the time Joe woke up, I had conceded that I loved it.

Confessions II is a single, hour-plus-long track, like a giant DJ mix. It is a return to her dance music origins for Madonna, whom I admit I worshipped in the ’80s and ’90s.

The song “Danceteria,” the album’s core and best track, is an origin story. It magically evokes the famous West 21st Street club, the four-level den of iniquity and artistic innovation where Madonna got her start in 1982. Danceteria’s heyday preceded my New York years, yet the scene is rendered so vividly that it offers retroactive access:

This is how we start the party
There's Fab 5 Freddy and Basquiat
Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf
Everyone came from Shafrazi

"Danceteria" name-checks boldfaced figures who still resonate. "Everyone here is a work of art." The song reminds me of Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, which lists the attendees at Gatsby’s parties that fateful summer and suggests the ephemerality of any social scene.

The rest of Confessions II is also superb.

The opener, “I Feel So Free,” is a hypnotic seduction that invites you into a sacred space, the dance floor.

The addictive synth of "One Step Away" declares that "people think dance music is superficial. But they've got it all wrong."

There is “Bring Your Love,” a duet with Sabrina Carpenter. I initially told Joe it was nothing more than the fading star's desperate attempt to stay relevant by leveraging Carpenter’s youth and popularity, but I was wrong. If anything, Carpenter is leveraging Madonna's breathy sound.

"Everything" is a hard-driving critique of digital isolation. Unsurprisingly, it presents the dance floor as an antidote.

In her L.E.S. days

The closer, “L.E.S. Girl,” is a bittersweet look back at the days before Madonna’s fame, when she had only overdue rent and relentless ambition.

Overall, Confessions II is a nostalgic trip back to the '80s – in a good way.

Madonna is draped in sheer pink fabric on the album’s cover; her body forms a triangle, a subtle nod to the pink triangle the Nazis used to oppress homosexuals, which was reappropriated in the '80s as a symbol of gay strength and perseverance.

As most people know, Madonna owes much of her career to gay fans like Joe and me. Joe never lost his passion, and today I have to admit that the 67-year-old icon defies her detractors and remains a powerfully seductive creative force.

Performing on the rooftop
of Danceteria in 1983

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