Chris Schulz: Madonna - Confessions II

Madonna is returning to the past in her newest album. 

‘Confessions II’ follows on from her 2005 album ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’, continuing her exploration of dance and electronic music.  

It’s made in conjunction with Stuart Price, who co-wrote and co-produced the 2005 album, and features guest appearances by Sabrina Carpenter, Feid, Stromae, and Madonna's eldest daughter Lola Leon. 

Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to share his thoughts on ‘Confessions II’. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
That is Madonna featuring Sabrina Carpenter. She's just released her
new sixteen track album, Confessions to, a sequel to two
thousand and five's Confessions on a dance Floor.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Music reviewer Chris Schultz.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Has been listening It is with us now, Good morning,
turning microphone, that'll.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Do Morning Jack Bangers, Bangers, She's doing bangers again. Madonna's
back and she's back on the dance floor.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Good.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
It's worth pointing out her age. I think really early
on here. She is sixty seven years old, and we've
had a lot of like older musicians come through this,
you know, pop and Nick Cave and David Byrne, and.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
This is a like male s seven is yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
To be allowed to keep your career going like this,
it doesn't really happen for female artists.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Especially popsy pop stars, not so much.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Right, It's tricky. There's not really a precedent. Cher is
probably the best example. She's eighty and she sort of
just pops up every now and then at the Grammys
just to keep the the yeah yeah, yeah, the vision
you know what, yeah yeah, but so Madonna sixty seven,
she's going back to her roots. This is a This
is a sequel to her two thousand and five album
Confessions on a Dance Floor that was the last great

(01:44):
Madonna album twenty years ago, the one with ray a
Light on it. The song Yeah, she's she's literally using
the same producers. She's it's almost like a double dose
of nostalgia. So it's nostalgia for two thousand and five.
But then in the lyrics she's referencing like nightclubs in
New York from the eighties. She's referencing her old boyfriend

(02:05):
Basket the artist. It's it's just almost like double down
on nostalgia. It's crazy. But the the beats are full
on club beats. This is almost like a DJ mix.
All the tracks flow into each other. She very much
wants you to be dancing when you listen to this.
I don't know often you hit the clubs these days,

(02:26):
Jack probably about as much as me.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, and frequently it would be and frequently would be
the outs of the Chris.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
But you know, like down the road, we've got Les Mills,
Jim and dances are pumping out of there. It almost
sounds like someone's grabbed the microphone is chanting these like
yoga mantras. My favorite is everybody here is a work
of art things Chance again the songs, I would caution.
I had this song this morning and it started a

(02:53):
bit of an argument in my house. My wife said,
she called this bland. It was on in the background.
She wasn't really listening to it. But I do understand that.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, right, but it almost feels.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Bad to say a bad word about Madonna. It's Madonna.
I mean, this is someone who has survived all of
these decades, and then she's here with Sabrina Carpenter on
that song. She came out at Coachella. She looked amazing.
She was doing squats.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I can barely do squat. Yeah, I could do squat.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
So yeah, I'm impressed. I'm really impressed by this is
getting rave reviews across the board. I mean even Pitchfork
is giving this a good review. Pitchfork, Yeah, notoriously difficult
to get a good score from. Okay, everyone is just
I don't know, it's maybe it's a nostalgia thing. We're
all listening to the nineties again, and this does remind

(03:45):
me of Faithless and Snap and Music Factory. It's those
kinds of beats, almost daft punk some of it.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I mean that beat you just played us then, that
felt like that could have been written twenty years ago. Yeah,
doesn't it like, if not thirty years And so this
is the.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Thing, right, I feel like I'm coming in here almost
weekly and about nostalgia.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
But it is at the moment we're talking.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
About just a few weeks ago, you know, like this
nineties band, and here we got Madonna doing a rip
off of her two thousand and five album, which felt
very much nostalgic at the time, referencing things that happened
in the eighties. It's bizarre, but also I'm not mad
at it.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
No, I really enjoyed that.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
No, no, okay, I'm looking forward to having it. But of
a listen, I suppose Kylie's doing it as well, so
you know, there's a few of them.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
We're going to be talking about the Rolling Stones.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I know, I know, I know that's crazy to me. Yeah, okay,
so what did you give it?

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Four stars?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Four stars starts the conventions to your wife doesn't agree necessarily.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I probably won't be playing us much at home.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
But yeah, that's all right. Okay, we'll listening to a
couple of minutes. Thank you very much, Chris. You can
hear more from Chris, of course, on his sub stack
It's boiler Room.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
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