Rumours of new Madonna music have been swirling since the Queen of Pop reunited with producer Stuart Price for her epic ‘The Celebration Tour’, which kicked off in 2023 and ended in 2024. The last studio album we had for the icon, her fourteenth no less, was 2019’s ‘Madame X’ which saw Madonna drawing from Portuguese and Latin music. On that record she worked with producers including Mirwais and Diplo, and collaborated with Colombian star Maluma, Brazilian singer Anitta and rappers Quavo and Swae Lee. It was a return to form of sorts for Madonna, as she offered something different and new after a few albums where she appeared to be chasing trends.
For her fifteenth studio album, Madonna is revisiting one of her most iconic albums – 2005’s ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’. Simply titled ‘Confessions II’, the new record sees Madonna releasing her first ever sequel album, and with Stuart Price back at the helm, fans have been incredibly excited. Never one to do anything by halves, the rollout campaign for ‘Confessions II’ has been expansive. Opening track ‘I Feel So Free’ was the first new music from the album, and the atmospheric house track finds Madonna whispering about her insecurities and how they disappear on the dancefloor. While the song wasn’t a single, purely a buzz track, fans and DJs clamoured to play it, and quickly embraced Madonna’s return to dance music.
The second song to be revealed from the album was ‘Bring Your Love’ with Sabrina Carpenter, which the two stars performed live during Carpenter’s Coachella headline set. A pure burst of pop-dance, the song sees the two women playing off one another in a cute back-and-forth, and honestly it’s crazy that the song hasn’t raced to the top of the charts. It’s Madonna’s best single in years. For the release of third track ‘Love Sensation’, Madonna also debuted the film ‘Confessions II’, which teased further tracks including ‘One Step Away’, ‘Danceteria’ and ‘Read My Lips’, and put on a spectacular performance in New York’s Times Square.
Now the full album is here and we can finally listen to it as intended, as a 65-minute immersive continuous mix. Following ‘I Feel So Free’, ‘Good For The Soul’ continues the theme that runs throughout of Madonna talking philosophically about the dancefloor, and she draws from 90s dance for a thumping almost drum’n’bass track. The album’s first standout moment is the excellent ‘One Step Away’, which begins with Madonna saying ‘People think that dance music is superficial/but they’ve got it all wrong’. A pulsating beat gives way to the clearest Madonna vocal we’ve heard in years, and we can actually hear her sing. This sounds like the Madonna we all know and love, and thankfully there are more moments like this across the record.
‘Danceteria’ is one of the most-buzzed tracks from the album already and with good reason. If you take the rap from ‘Vogue’ and transpose it into the middle of an 80s-influenced vibe with a Lou Reed interpolation, this is the song you’d get. It’s classic Madonna; high on confidence and delivering a total vibe. ‘Ready My Lips’ is the first song on here to sound a little out of place, but in the context of the whole record it lands at the point in the album where Madonna signals that she’s going to move through genres. Featuring Latin rapper Feid, the song sounds like something from ‘Madame X’, and it’s been remixed for this year’s World Cup. A more classic dancefloor sound returns on the shimmering electro-pop of ‘Everything’, which sees Madonna trying to understand why people are glued to their screens rather than living life. It’s bold, brashy and expletive-laden. ‘Love Without Words’ is a joyous ode to the power of letting yourself go in a club while the Martin Garrix collaboration ‘Bizarre’ is rumoured to be inspired by Madonna’s ex-husband Sean Penn.
On the beat-driven ‘School’, Madonna recalls her ‘Bedtime Stories’ track “I’d Rather Be Your Lover’ as she talk-raps the verses before calling on the familiar refrain. Track 12 – ‘Fragile’ – marks a change in direction for the album as Madonna delivers an emotional ode to her late brother Christopher. ‘My Sins Are My Savior’ featuring Stromae could be a sequel to ‘Justify My Love’, with its ethereal and dark beats, while ‘Betrayal’ samples Erik Satie for a surprising critique of Madonna’s late step-mother. The penultimate track is a duet with Madonna’s daughter Lola Leon, and it references ‘Little Star’, which was about Lola, from ‘Ray of Light’. Mother and daughter sound fantastic together. The final track is the album’s most forgettable ‘L.E.S. Girl’, which is a downtempo acoustic-driven autobiographical tale. It feels wildly out of place on the record.
‘Confessions II’ will satisfy most Madonna fans and while it doesn’t have quite live up to 2005’s ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’, it’s easily Madonna’s best studio album since then. It’s refreshing to see Madonna stepping back into her own lane after trying to chase trends, chart stars and hits. She has nothing to prove at this point and ‘Confessions II’ is proof that when she just concentrates on the music, she hits the bullseye. This is likely to be one of the pop albums of the year, and it could well end up being one of the best Madonna has released.
Track listing: 1. I Feel So Free 2. Good For The Soul 3. One Step Away 4. Bring Your Love (with Sabrina Carpenter) 5. Danceteria 6. Read My Lips (with Feid) 7. Everything 8. Love Sensation 9. Love Without Words 10. Bizarre (with Martin Garrix) 11. School 12. Fragile 13. My Sins Are My Savior (feat. Stromae) 14. Betrayal 15. The Test (with Lola Leon) 16. L.E.S. Girl Record label: Warner Records / Boy Toy Inc. Release date: 3rd July 2026 Buy ‘Confessions II’ now
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