Madonna Announces New Album Confessions II

5 hours ago 3

How do you feel about a new Madonna album in 2026? The last few have been rough going, but it would be truly cool to see Madonna end her cold streak and reassert herself as the blueprint for present-day pop stardom. For a while, Madonna has been teasing a sequel to 2005's Confessions On A Dance Floor, widely considered the last great Madonna album. Today, Madonna makes it official: Confessions II is out in July.

I really wish Madonna would change that title because this one looks like she's trying to sequelize the Usher blockbuster. Nobody refers to Confessions On A Dance Floor as just plain "Confessions" because there's already a much more successful album from the same basic time period that's already called just plain Confessions. Anyway.

Madonna recorded Confessions II with Stuart Price, producer of the last Confessions On A Dance Floor, and that guy is still making good music now. (Madonna's Ray Of Light collaborator William Orbit, meanwhile, is upset that she's not making a sequel to that album.) Madonna hasn't shared a single yet, but she does have a minute-long teaser, in which she whispers about creating new identities over an epic electro throb. If the album sounds like this, we might be working with something here.

In a press release, Madonna gives a few lines of a new track called "One Step Away": "People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language." She also shares the "manifesto" that she and Stuart Price used when making the album:

We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we've been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect

—with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It's about pushing your limits and

connecting to a community of like-minded people.

Sound, light, and vibration
Reshape our perceptions
Pulling us into a trance-like state.
The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.

Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.

OK! Fine! Whatever! Confessions II is out 7/3 on Warner. Pre-order it here.