I Know You Felt The Same Way, Too

Almost five years later, a great piece on why Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor was perfection. 

Comments

[Tommy]

Great article! I've always loved Confessions. I know some fans have mixed feelings about it. There are some Madonna fans who say it was the beginning of her selling out and trying to regain her sales and losing artistic value. They say she was trying to be Kylie. But I really don't agree.
I think it has great lyrics, creativity and is really a Madonna record in a way that Hard Candy wasn't.

[Mark]

It was a good album. In fact, a really good album, with some amazing songs. But as a whole, it was not so super fantastic amazing. I feel like, as Madonna fans, we want to believe that it was a masterpiece (actually, the masterpiece) to justify our support of her considering American Life (meh) and Hard Candy (this hurt me). Which is fine....the first three tracks on the album are masterpieces and justifies it all.....And the accompanying concert was pretty phenomenal.

Mind you, I started buying Madonna albums at Music (I was too young previous). And it seems to me that Madonna tends to have about half of her albums filled with quality material and the other are lackluster b-sides...really lackluster. I wonder if this is the case from before Music too. I've listened to Ray of Light and the 'non-singles' seem to be a little more encouraging.

[Edward James]

It's a shame this review doesn't mention 'Sorry' which I think is one of her standout songs, not just of the COAD set, but her whole career. When I first heard it on my stereo, I just stopped what I was doing and and my jaw dropped. It's even more epic than 'Hung Up' and with exquisite, harmonising vocals that would put the ABBA girls to shame.

Lyrically, she conjures up her old trick of using cliches to speak of universal truths but, whereas sometimes this can sound trite, on 'Sorry', all the elements come together to make you feel as if she's showing you a whole new way to think about relationship issues, and to feel empowered.

As the lyrical motif goes we might have 'heard it all before', but rarely, if ever, has Madonna delivered a song with such tight precision.

[Matthew Rettenmund]

Mark: I love the album just because I love it, not in reaction to AMERICAN LIFE (which was a good record). I just think it was a really interesting and organic return to form. HARD CANDY tried so much harder (I still like that album, but it's no COADF).

If anyone wants to argue with me that Madonna's lost it, I'd at least have to get them to admit she had it through CONFESSIONS and that tour.

[Ventura]

awesome article! this was Madonna's redemtion album. For those who had dismissed her after the American Life album (which IMHO is one of her strongest albums), COADF is the glory moment where she said "bow down!" to all critics who had written her off, as she has beeso many times before.

it was deff a predecessor to a return of pop/dance music on American radio which at the time was heavily dominated by R&B and hip hop. it's a shame she stopped working with Stuart Price for the Hard Candy album. he did for Madonna what Mirwais did in Music, and Orbit did in Ray of Light....which is bring out the best in her.

[Roger]

THANKS for posting this! It just got me in a great mood and made me anxious for Madonna's future work.
Loved COADF. Like I wrote on the article's page, I travelled to Boston in July of 2006 just to go see her (I live in Lima, Peru) and the Confessions Tour remains a highlight in my life, not only did the disco ball descend right in front of me, but she actually grabbed my hand towards the end of La Isla Bonita. PRICELESS.

[eric/nyc]

You're right, I totally agree. I love "Confessions," and
will forever be on my ipod. Her other masterpiece is
"Ray Of Light," although, "Confessions" seemed tighter
and less spacey. Hard Candy was a complete sell-out,
which I consider to be, Hip Hop slop. I have every studio CD, except American Life...some of the mixes were OK. My sentimental favorite will always be "Live To Tell."

[mjrules]

Madonna is no megastar like Michael Jackson. He might have been weird, but at least he had talent. He was a songwriting, producing and singing genius. He also cared for the world and participated in many charity events out of his heart. He didn't use African countries as publicity stunts like Madonna did. Long live the King of Pop. Madonna? She hasn't had a hit in twenty years!

[jumpingjimmy]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I felt nothing less than validated by that review. I believed in the brilliance of COADF but almost couldn't divorce myself from the attendant emotions of a longtime Madonna 'fan'...the defensiveness that often takes the form of overexplanation and frustrating intellectualizing. Maybe it's a reaction to America's traditional dismissal of dance music in general or of Madonna's oft-belittled 'pop star' status. Maybe it's the defensiveness that haunts adult males who truly do admire this woman. Who knows. When Madonna's 'white' voice sang that immortal Donna Summer refrain , "I feel love..." the effect was at once eerie, almost evil yet dumbfoundingly beautiful and utterly liberating. I still feel like a wild horse everytime I witness that moment.

[Matthew Rettenmund]

MJRules: First, Madonna's also a songwriting, producing genius and a good pop singer. As for "using" Africa, I think adopting two children shows Madonna is walking the walk, not just talking the talk—when your icon went to Africa, he was drummed off the continent for holding his nose (they thought he thought they stank). Oh, also—haha, your icon is dead.

[Avène]

I'm so fed up with these MJ fans...Why don't they emulate their junkie idol and kill themselves ?
Jackson did not write half of the songs on "Thriller" ( this one included. Genius my ass. And if he was so good to people, if he had such healing powers and all that BS that his fans think he had why didn't he get a nobel prize ? Why didn't he cured cancer and Aids, solved the Palestinian conflict and all the wars around the world ? Oh because he could only do that in his videos, presenting himself as some kind of saviour he was not in real life. I wonder how he could have faced a dictator when he could not face and adult to have sex with and chose to have it with children instead.
thank god he's dead, burried and rotten.

[Daryl D]

MJ fans really are in a cult. They are sick!

[Ventura]

eeeeexcuse me!! can we get back to the the real subject here? I wanna hear positive notes on M's COADF...not negativity over a dead had been pop star.

[Marco]

MjRules is right you guys. Madonna hasn't had a hit in 20 years. She's had around 30.

Why I love Confessions? To me it felt like the most purely Madonna record since Like a Prayer and that era. Hopeful, positive, fun, flirty and defiant. It sounded like our girl again.

[Kari]

Boy... culture, what a wonderful thing it is indeed.

The beauty of Confessions is that it connects in a way that makes everyone confess like no one's listening - or dance like no one's watching - beneath the vain disco veneer certain that everyone is always listening and watching you under the spotlight.

All that is to say, thank you for the echoed sentiment. It feels like freshman year again, when I stood in the Virgin Megastore - a stone's throw from M's UWS penthouse - hung up on getting the masterpiece at midnight. Matt - I know you felt the same way too... sidenote: "I Am Because We Are" #walkingthewalk

COADF was Madonna confessing like her vogue depended on it. Any pop star in the game now, is only staying because she's making it so convenient: HBIC.

[Mike]

Um, MJ doesn't rule, he's DEAD.

Madonna, however, lives on and is STILL the undisputed Queen of Pop. And she didn't have to name herself (like MJ did). Need I say more??

COADF was Brilliant. Right up there with LAP and ROL (and I think Erotica was brilliant as well, except for 'Where Life Begins'...) ;-)

[Richard M.]

Matthew, thanks for posting this. I love Confessions just as much now, if not more, than I did the first time I heard it. I'm looking forward to hearing what Stuart did with Kylie. I liked the work Stuart did with Seal. In fact, its the only Seal album I own.