FEATURE:
A Much Needed Offering from the Queen of Pop…
PHOTO CREDIT: Madonna
Madonna and a Confessions on a Dance Floor Sequel
__________
I am going to include…
some features about Confessions on a Dance Floor. That Madonna album was released on 9th November, 2005. The tenth studio album from the Queen of Pop, it was a huge success. Following 2003’s American Life, which received mixed reviews, this was a change of direction. Less political and agitated, for Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna took guidance from 1970s Disco and 1980s Electropop, as well as 2000s Club music. Artists like ABBA and Bee Gees at the heart of the music. A number one success in multiple countries around the world, it was one of Madonna’s most successful albums. It won acclaim from critics. It was not a rare sound from Madonna. Her 1983 eponymous debut album contained Dance influences. Ray of Light (1998) had its moments of Club and Dance influences too. Since 2005, Madonna has released a string of albums. Nothing really like Confessions on a Dance Floor. Other artists have come and gone regarding putting out amazing Dance albums with the same mix of inspiration. Kylie Minogue remains. Albums from het in 2000, 2001 and 2023 very much have Disco and Dance at the core. Although there has been a rise in albums that have been influenced by Disco and Dance, the announcement of Madonna planning to follow up on the 2005 album has delighted fans. Confessions on a Dance Floor part two will arrive next year. It is a perfect time for this album announcement. With the world in a horrendous state of affairs, I think many artists are reacting with music that is uplifting.
Not that it is on their shoulders to counteract the gloom and violence that we are seeing. However, artists like Madonna declaring that they are going to follow an album like Confessions on a Dance Floor is a major high. People will be curious whether it sticks to the template of the 2005 album in terms of the influences or goes in a different direction. I am going to spend some time with Confessions on a Dance Floor. As it turns twenty on 14th November, there will be a lot of affection for Confessions on a Dance Floor then. Albumism marked fifteen years of a modern classic in 2020:
“Smashing through the ‘80s and ‘90s with hit after hit, Madonna ended the 20th century with the incredibly beautiful and introspective Ray of Light (1998) and saw in the new millennium with yet another career defining moment in Music (2000). It wasn’t until the highly controversial and somewhat provocative American Life (2003) that Madonna faced critical backlash, something that she had faced before, but this felt different. Politically driven, but ultimately missing its mark, American Life needed a successor, one that eventually came in the form of Confessions on a Dance Floor in late 2005.
Madonna’s knack for reinvention is beyond compare and on Confessions, her tenth studio album, she again didn’t fail to disappoint. The album’s heavy disco feel, a genre that her music was almost born out of, allowed Madonna to lose the seriousness of her previous album and get playful again, both with fashion and her music. Remembering the misogynistic conversations surrounding her appearance and that leotard for “Hung Up,” the then 47-year-old Madonna was again showing why she was (and is) a force to be reckoned with: she has never been restricted by boundaries that prevent others from achieving what essentially she sets out to achieve. No matter what the reaction may be.
As the album’s lead single “Hung Up” danced through the airwaves with its impeccable sampling of ABBA’s 1979 single “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” with the introduction of Madonna’s new co-producer Stuart Price giving the singer a freedom and unabashed moment at disco glory, and she was reveling in it. The album’s following three singles—“Sorry,” “Get Together” and “Jump” —continue Price’s foray into disco pop territory and whilst they may not be groundbreaking, Madonna brings her updated version of disco into the 2000s and it works, ensuring that all four singles charted in the top ten somewhere around the world.
Whilst “Future Lovers” continues the dance vibe that borders on a religious exercise in clubbing, this quickly fades with the cringe-worthy “I Love New York.” With lines like “I don’t like cities but I like New York / Other cities make me feel like a dork,” the listener is left wondering if the latter part of the album can regain its momentum. It kind of does. Moving into “Let It Will Be” where she speaks about fame and herself, the uptempo beat is what keeps the quasi spiritual song interesting. In fact, it’s this “spiritual” awakening that seems to take over the rest of the album.
Spiritual exploration and Madonna have been as intertwined as any other aspect of the singer, but it is on “Isaac” that Madonna’s foray into Kabbalah is brought to the forefront. The song was accused of blasphemy, but as Yitzhak Sinwani (one of Madonna’s early spiritual “Kabbalah” guides) sings in Aramaic, the words, when translated into English, are more a symbol of heaven and angels rather than an ode to Kabbalah. “I toyed with the idea of calling the song “Fear of Flying,” because it’s about letting go and people who are afraid to fly obviously have control issues,” Madonna explained to Billboard in 2005. “We all have fears in many areas of our lives. Some people can’t commit to relationships. The song is about tackling all of that. ‘Will you sacrifice your comfort? Make your way in a foreign land?’ In other words, will you go outside of your comfort zone?”.
Even though Classic Pop were not entirely full of praise for Confessions on a Dance Floor, I did want to select some sections from their review. I am going to end with a couple of reviews for this masterful album. They wrote how “It’s feel-good fun, but sonically, it’s one of Madonna’s most reserved, conservative and safe records. Beyond the four massive hit singles and some other choice cuts, Confessions… does feel rather padded out in the middle third”:
“Unlike her recent offerings up to that point, Confessions… eschews the profound artistic statements, preferring (mostly) to let the music do the talking.
At no point does it attempt to reinvent the wheel; it simply replaces the wheel with a glistening mirrorball, sets the tempo to 120bpm and boogies until the lights come up.
The perennial queen of reinvention, Madge remains adamant never to repeat herself. Each new record is a reaction against the last, and this was very much the case with Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Its predecessor, 2003’s American Life, was an abrasive, political diatribe on the state of the nation, set to an electroclash/folktronica soundscape.
Born in the post-911 landscape, it was intentionally confrontational, to an extent weighed down by its own sense of importance and overly fussy production.
But one thing we’ve all since learned from lockdown is that when the world is crumbling around you, sales of chocolate bars soar ten-fold.
In other words, we don’t always need reminding of the doom and gloom; sometimes you just need to bring a little joy into your life.
While you can hardly call a multi-million selling, Grammy-nominated worldwide No.1 album a flop (a Madonna misfire still causes an avalanche), the message of American Life didn’t quite resonate with the mood of the time in the way she might have expected.
In stark contrast, Confessions… is an upbeat and uplifting breath of fresh air, a notably lighter and more care-free collection, more concerned with making you dance than making you think.
This shift is apparent in how Madonna self-censors herself on I Love New York proclaiming “You can eff off!” – in comparison to the uncensored and repeated “Fuck it!” that opens American Life.
Unlike her recent offerings up to that point, Confessions… eschews the profound artistic statements, preferring (mostly) to let the music do the talking.
At no point does it attempt to reinvent the wheel; it simply replaces the wheel with a glistening mirrorball, sets the tempo to 120bpm and boogies until the lights come up.
The perennial queen of reinvention, Madge remains adamant never to repeat herself. Each new record is a reaction against the last, and this was very much the case with Confessions On A Dance Floor.
Its predecessor, 2003’s American Life, was an abrasive, political diatribe on the state of the nation, set to an electroclash/folktronica soundscape.
Born in the post-911 landscape, it was intentionally confrontational, to an extent weighed down by its own sense of importance and overly fussy production.
But one thing we’ve all since learned from lockdown is that when the world is crumbling around you, sales of chocolate bars soar ten-fold.
In other words, we don’t always need reminding of the doom and gloom; sometimes you just need to bring a little joy into your life.
While you can hardly call a multi-million selling, Grammy-nominated worldwide No.1 album a flop (a Madonna misfire still causes an avalanche), the message of American Life didn’t quite resonate with the mood of the time in the way she might have expected.
In stark contrast, Confessions… is an upbeat and uplifting breath of fresh air, a notably lighter and more care-free collection, more concerned with making you dance than making you think.
This shift is apparent in how Madonna self-censors herself on I Love New York proclaiming “You can eff off!” – in comparison to the uncensored and repeated “Fuck it!” that opens American Life”.
I am going to finish with a review from The Guardian. They awarded Confessions on a Dance Floor four stars. There were many who felt like Madonna had a point to prove in 2005. American Life did not get great reviews and was seen as an unwise move. Confessions on a Dance Floor was very much a statement of intent. A reinvention that she is following up next year:
“The booklet that accompanies Madonna's 11th album features a handful of lyrics, apparently written in the singer's own hand. They come from a song called Let It Will Be. The clunking title sounds like something Noel Gallagher might proffer on a bad day, the arrangement features strings that recall Papa Don't Preach. Divorced from the music, one scrawled line stands out: "I'm at the point of no return."
It certainly fits with the thought-provoking yoga position Mrs Ritchie adopts in the photograph - ankles miles above her head, a mirrorball between her feet - but those of an analytical bent might read it as a comment on her recent career. Her last album, 2003's American Life, was her worst-selling: confused music, solipsistic lyrics, an unintentionally comic cover, featuring Madonna clad in the kind of Che chic that for Britons of a certain age invariably invokes not the guerrillero heroico of the Cuban revolution, but Citizen Smith of the Tooting Popular Front. It still sold millions - for the world's most famous woman, failure is relative - but damaged her reputation enough to warrant a little sticker on its follow-up's case, alerting punters to its contents: NON-STOP ALL-DANCE TOUR-DE-FORCE.
It's a long time since Madonna has needed a circus barker to drum up business. Confessions on a Dancefloor began life as the soundtrack to a film script she was working on. There's a Pavlovian response: it's impossible to see "film script" and "Madonna" in the same sentence without feeling your spirits plunge. And whenever Madonna gets mixed up with soundtracks, the results are usually unforgettable - and not in a good way: her disco version of Don't Cry for Me Argentina, her catastrophic Dick Tracy-inspired forays into swing. Nevertheless, Confessions on a Dancefloor is the result of ruthless stock-taking.
Producer Mirwais's chief collaborator role has been downsized: he may have only escaped le sac altogether by coming up with Future Lovers, a corrosive homage to Donna Summer's I Feel Love. His replacement is an inspired appointment. The album's title, sticker and format - each track segueing breathlessly into the next as if mixed by a DJ - suggest Madonna's desire to reconnect with her past as an early-1980s club diva and her devoted gay fanbase.
Has she ever come to the right place. If Stuart Price's obsession with the 1980s were any more pronounced, he'd be travelling to gigs in a Sinclair C5; suffice to say that Darkdancer, his 1999 album as Les Rhythmes Digitales, featured Nik Kershaw. More curiously, he may be Britain's most metrosexual producer. As Pour Homme, he released Born This Way, which sampled Carl Bean's out-and-proud disco anthem ("I'm happy! I'm carefree! I'm gay!"). His remixes have made the Scissor Sisters sound even more gay, a remarkable feat. Advance notice of what he could do with Madonna was served by the joyous, Abba-sampling Hung Up, a single that could theoretically have been more camp, but only with the addition of Liza Minnelli on backing vocals and lyrics about Larry Grayson's friend Everard.
If Price can't stop Madonna writing songs that tell you fame isn't all it's cracked up to be in a way that suggests she thinks she's the first person to work this out, he can summon up more than enough sonic trickery to distract you. There are hulking basslines, fizzing synthesisers, rolling tablas on Push and an unlikely combination of frantic double-bass riffing, Goldfrapp-ish glam stomp and acoustic guitar filigree on the closing Like It or Not, a collaboration with Swedish pop songwriters Bloodshy and Avant. Isaac falls flat, its lyrics about Kabbalah teacher Isaac Freidin married to global-village trance makes you think of Australian backpackers dancing badly at beach parties in Goa - but elsewhere, the songwriting sparkles. The choruses of Get Together and Sorry are triumphant. I Love New York may be the most agreeably ridiculous thing Madonna has ever released: timpani, a riff stolen from the Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog and a Lou Reed deadpan.
It may be a return to core values, but there's still a bravery about Confessions on a Dancefloor. It revels in the delights of wilfully plastic dance pop in an era when lesser dance-pop artists - from Rachel Stevens to Price's protege Juliet - are having a desperately thin time of it. It homages the DJ mix album, a format long devalued by computer-generated cash-in compilations. It flies in fashion's face with a swaggering hint of only-I-can-do-this: "If you don't like my attitude," she suggests on I Love New York, "then you can eff-off." Dancing queens of every variety should be delighted”.
It is good that we get to hear a follow-up to Confessions on a Dance Floor. Whether it is going to have another title or there will be this further evolution. Fans have reacted with a lot of love to Madonna preparing to release a sequel. Since 2005, many queens of music have offered incredible albums with Disco, Dance and Club music at the heart of things. However, Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor is this incredibly special album that inspired so many other artists. At an especially bleak time in history, her announcement has provided some positivity and joy. We will wait to see what comes from her…
NEXT year.