Critics rave over Madonna’s ‘Confessions II’

(KTLA) – The highly anticipated sequel to Madonna’s 2005 dance album “Confessions on a Dancefloor” isn’t out yet, but it’s already got critics raving and dancing.

The reviews are in for the Queen of Pop’s 15th studio album, and they’re loving it.

“If there was any phrase that could summarize Madonna’s intentions for this album, it’s that,” wrote Roisin O’Connor of The Independent regarding a lyric of Madge saying to “let it go.”

“Whether she’s airing out previously unspoken grievances with her daughter Lourdes on ‘The Test,’ or accepting that the gorgeous guitar player in St Mark’s Place who ‘had a Marlon Brando face’ wasn’t meant for her, the Lower East Side girl, Madonna is letting go. And it makes for her best music in 20 years,” she explained.

The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis gave the album four out of five stars. He said, “This is music that Madonna – and indeed producer Stuart Price – is well versed in: she seems far more at home than she did incorporating trap on ‘Rebel Heart’ or duetting with Maluma during ‘Madame X’s’ game attempts to glom on to the Latin American pop vogue.”

“A sense of confidence is audible in the album’s willingness to let Madonna-free instrumental passages run long in the style of a 12in remix and, more strikingly, in the lyrics. Clearly she feels comfortable enough to be vulnerable: there’s a bit of standard-issue B—h-I’m-Madonna posturing, but more often the mood is reflective, even brittle and regretful.”

He noted that the album is “not all good news” and pointed out that the album is “nearly 10 minutes longer than the original, and it doesn’t need to be: you could easily lose a couple of the less distinguished house tracks, ‘Love Sensation’ and ‘School’ among them.”

While the single “Danceteria” is the closest to the 2005 hit “Hung Up” from the first album.

“But if it’s not quite as good as ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor,’ it’s unequivocally Madonna’s best album since ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor,’ which you suspect will be more than enough for her fans, and might even beckon back some apostates: an accommodation with her past that bodes well for her future,” he said.

NME Magazine‘s Nick Levine also gave the project four out of five stars. He said that “By drawing from her past, both personally and musically, Madonna has made her most vital album in over two decades. This grande dame still knows how to make us move.”

The BBC’s Mark Savage said the album’s first 30 minutes were “impeccable,” but there’s “a bit of flab around the middle.”

Savage, like many of the other reviewers, wrote how “autobiographical” the project is, touching on the “Material Girl’s” decades-long career, her once “strained” relationship with her eldest daughter, Lourdes. However, mother and daughter now appear to have made amends. She also touches on the death of her brother Christopher.

“Confessions II” will be released on July 3.

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