Madonna - Confessions II (2026) [Vinyl]

"People think that dance music is superficial but they've got it all wrong," Madonna sings over the hypnotic beat of "One Step Away" from her 15th album, Confessions on a Dance Floor II. And indeed, she uses it here as a lens into her psyche: offering a panoramic view of the genre that zooms in on moments from her own life. "I Feel So Free" lays out the why: "It's really hard for me to trust people/ Can you blame me? … that's why I like to go dancing/ Safety in numbers." Slippery and silvery, the song evokes her "Justify My Love" and borrows from Lil Louis' "French Kiss." As with 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, the singer and co-producer Stuart Price have sequenced this record to play like a DJ set with one song segueing into the next, no hydration breaks. "Good for the Soul" dips into subtly glitchy EDM; "Love Without Words" is decorated with soulful house piano and an acid-house meltdown. She yet again delves into Latin pop with "Read My Lips," duetting with Colombian star Feid, and murmurs in French on "My Sins Are My Savior," featuring Belgian rapper Stromae and vibes as heavy as storm clouds.

A collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, "Bring Your Love" delves into house-pop with an assist from Inner City's "Good Life." When Madonna sings, "Bring it, Sabrina/ You've got something to say about it"—echoing the lyrics of "Express Yourself"—it feels like a baton-passing. Joyful "Danceteria" is a feel-good memoir, with Madonna slipping between past and present tense as she recounts the Manhattan dance club where she was discovered—name-dropping DJ Mark Kamins and doorman Haoui Montaug, Fab 5 Freddy and David Byrne and the B-52's, breakdancers the Rock Steady Crew and Crazy Legs ("Puerto Rican boys … they made me crazy"), her Like a Virgin producer Nile Rodgers; and artist pals including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, not to mention the gallery that helped make them famous ("Sha-fra-zi to the beat"). It's all punctuated by a cheeky elevator ding, a rocksteady break and a speedy interpolation of "Walk on the Wild Side" that earns Lou Reed a songwriting credit.

Eurodance track "Bizarre" nods to Madonna's '80s marriage to Sean Penn: "Movie star, deep blue eyes … He drove way too fast/ Shelby Cobra, wasn't meant to last." She charts complicated relationships with family members who died in 2024: her brother Christopher Ciccone on plush "Fragile"; and her stepmother, Joan, on trip hop-centric "Betrayal." Lovely "The Test" is a duet with her daughter, Lola Leon, that Madonna has said they wrote together "as a way to heal our relationship." Evoking the same term of endearment she used for her then-toddler on the Ray of Light album in 1998, Madonna generously sings: "Little star/ I tried to put you on a pedestal/ You didn't ask for all the flashing lights." And "L.E.S. Girl" is the unexpected cherry on top, an indie-rock ballad with shades of Liz Phair, recalling what it was like to be young, living on Avenue B and in love with a guitar player who "had a Marlon Brando face." Looking back at her barely adult self, Madonna sings, "She wears his leather jacket out in the rain/ Sleeps to forget his name"—then flashes forward to now, telling us all, "Everything fades away." © Shelly Ridenour