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‘Confessions II’ debuts w/ 84 Metacritic score m


ThisGuyTony
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I think people misunderstood the whole “confessions” and the sequel idea behind the album.

it’s not supposed to be the same, or really continue the first album.. she simply has new confessions to make, second round on the dancefloor

They are both 2 different journeys on the same dancefloor, each if them in different points of time, a different kind of self discovery and reflection 

So sploosh your juice all over me you Riverboy
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Lextyr97
11 hours ago, Future Lovers said:

Like many universities, Metacritic uses a weighted average rather than a pure average.

Certain legacy publications with a high level of prestige and influence have a higher weight applied to their score thus they can raise or lower a score noticeably. 

Who these publications are and what the weight is are both unknown to anyone but MC and the publication. It is theorized though that the publications that do receive these weights are the ones that have a long history of art criticism and are generally looked at within the industry as a leading voice and tastemaker. 

I get why they do that but it makes no sense that it increases the score lol it should just make it hard to judge from the score they give. Aka, it should be harder to move from a score of 80

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salty like sodium
3 hours ago, Bronco said:

I think its more inspired than the original personally, agree its not groundbreaking. But then again, I don't think the original is groundbreaking. Both are heavy nostalgia trips.

I prefer it to the original, but purely because its more committed to being dance music rather than pop music.

oh interesting. idk i feel like the original still sounds more inspired and fresh to me? the abba sample on hung up was genius. the incorporations of strings on sorry was masterful. forbidden love is a gem of a song. the future lovers donna summer-esque track was really unique and a precursor to all her spoken-word pieces here. i love new york at least had some lyrical weight to it beyond just "i feel free on the dance floor" (which is repeated ad nauseam here). let it will be was a bop, as were jump, how high and push. isaac is one of the most inspired choices she's ever done. and like it or not is a great closer.

weirdly i prefer the ballads on this album which is supposed to be all about dancing lol

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1 minute ago, salty like sodium said:

oh interesting. idk i feel like the original still sounds more inspired and fresh to me? the abba sample on hung up was genius. the incorporations of strings on sorry was masterful. forbidden love is a gem of a song. the future lovers donna summer-esque track was really unique and a precursor to all her spoken-word pieces here. i love new york at least had some lyrical weight to it beyond just "i feel free on the dance floor" (which is repeated ad nauseam here). let it will be was a bop, as were jump, how high and push. isaac is one of the most inspired choices she's ever done. and like it or not is a great closer.

weirdly i prefer the ballads on this album which is supposed to be all about dancing lol

If you look at as an isolated album then it would look inspired. 
But tracks like Forbidden Love, Isaac, Like It or Not, Let It Will Be, How High & Jump (which I adore) are all just repeats of what she'd been talking and singing about for the previous 3 albums (religion, judaism, self-reflection & politics) but this time defanged after getting her fingers burned by American Life. But lyrically you can definitely see COADF was born from the post-American Life sessions and it's just the sound that changed thanks to Stuart Price's influence. 
And while I adore Future Lovers, I don't think it's really unique or a precursor to her doing spoken word in her music. That's been something she's done in dance music since she released Rescue Me in 1990 as a precursor to Erotica, she's used that Chicago House style so much throughout her career. 

So, I think in the context of her discography at the time, I just don't see it as that unique. She just dropped the electronica for purer pop music as a setting. 
And tbf, Confessions 2 is going back to that era of Madonna. I just find it more inspired because she's reflecting on her life in a way she's not done since Ray of Light & American Life, but is coming from a much more vulnerable and realistically weaker standing than she did at that point in time and doing it after a period of significant arrogance lol. 

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salty like sodium
5 minutes ago, Bronco said:

If you look at as an isolated album then it would look inspired. 
But tracks like Forbidden Love, Isaac, Like It or Not, Let It Will Be, How High & Jump (which I adore) are all just repeats of what she'd been talking and singing about for the previous 3 albums (religion, judaism, self-reflection & politics) but this time defanged after getting her fingers burned by American Life. But lyrically you can definitely see COADF was born from the post-American Life sessions and it's just the sound that changed thanks to Stuart Price's influence. 
And while I adore Future Lovers, I don't think it's really unique or a precursor to her doing spoken word in her music. That's been something she's done in dance music since she released Rescue Me in 1990 as a precursor to Erotica, she's used that Chicago House style so much throughout her career. 

So, I think in the context of her discography at the time, I just don't see it as that unique. She just dropped the electronica for purer pop music as a setting. 
And tbf, Confessions 2 is going back to that era of Madonna. I just find it more inspired because she's reflecting on her life in a way she's not done since Ray of Light & American Life, but is coming from a much more vulnerable and realistically weaker standing than she did at that point in time and doing it after a period of significant arrogance lol. 

i guess that makes sense. it just feeels less inspired musically I guess. But also I didn't dive too much into the lyrics, what I've seen so far seems quite generic (like "call it transe, call it house, call it love without words"). I'm struggling to see where the deep introspection you're talking about comes into play

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Just now, salty like sodium said:

i guess that makes sense. it just feeels less inspired musically I guess. But also I didn't dive too much into the lyrics, what I've seen so far seems quite generic (like "call it transe, call it house, call it love without words"). I'm struggling to see where the deep introspection you're talking about comes into play

Bizarre (possibly the first time she's ever referenced her whirlwind marriage to Sean Penn), Fragile, My Sins are my Saviours, Betrayal (first time talking about her stepmother), The Test (sequel to Little Star), L.E.S. Girl. 
The second side of the album when it effectively turns into an Erotica 2.0 is what I'm referencing. 

Feels a bit disingenous to pick out Love Without Words which is just a clear cut ode to 80s dance music to justify the album being generic/less inspired when having defended I Love New York with it's "Just go to Texas, isn't that where they golf" lol 

Comparing the 2 albums, there's an equal % of actually introspective tracks, filler tracks, political tracks and just straight up dancefloor tracks. 

The gays know how to party
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Ladle Ghoulash
12 hours ago, salty like sodium said:

groundbreaking

Ngl I can’t say I ever saw COADF as “groundbreaking.” If anything, I actually think COADF I was pretty commercially safe and was kind of a damage control era 

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Ladle Ghoulash
2 hours ago, Bronco said:

Bizarre (possibly the first time she's ever referenced her whirlwind marriage to Sean Penn)

Don’t disagree with your overall point, but lest we forget

 

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Ladle Ghoulash
2 hours ago, Bronco said:

I just find it more inspired because she's reflecting on her life in a way she's not done since Ray of Light & American Life, but is coming from a much more vulnerable and realistically weaker standing than she did at that point in time and doing it after a period of significant arrogance lol. 

100% this. She feels way more vulnerable on CONFESSIONS II, imo. Feels like a lot of the record is genuinely grappling with the tenuousness of life, her relationship with her daughter, reflecting on her youth…I genuinely think the OG album’s name fits the second record better than it fits the first, tbh.

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Ladle Ghoulash
2 hours ago, salty like sodium said:

i love new york at least had some lyrical weight to it

See, I actually think she did what she was trying to do w/ ILNY much better across the new album. Danceteria is a much more meaningful reflection on her life as an aspiring musician in lower Manhattan in the 80s and LES Girl is wistful and vulnerable depiction of her in her 20s, whereas ILNY feels like a hamfisted attempt at a “hometown anthem” that’s just loaded with a bunch of bizarre stereotypes and tropes about NYC lol

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8 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

100% this. She feels way more vulnerable on CONFESSIONS II, imo. Feels like a lot of the record is genuinely grappling with the tenuousness of life, her relationship with her daughter, reflecting on her youth…I genuinely think the OG album’s name fits the second record better than it fits the first, tbh.

Yeah, the second half of the album has me really hoping the 8 tracks she wants to release that she spoke about in the Graham Norton interview are in a similar vein to the later tracks rather than the earlier tracks. This vulnerable reflective side of her is genuinely the best stuff she's released in god knows how long

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Mister G

Confession II was just okay for me. Danceteria and Bizarre were the strongest tracks for me. She's having fun and honoring her own legacy and influence on pop and dance music. That's all that matters.

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southpaw773
22 hours ago, Duella Dvil said:

The last minute of Danceteria alone deserves a grammy

Doo doo doo dooo doo dooooooooo!

I might need a hero to save me from breaking
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