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Confessions... is vocally sharp and (at times) lyrically breathtaking, but it is difficult to imagine this album working without Price's involvement.
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The joyful "I Love the '80s"-style disc fans have been yearning for since she took up yoga.
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Easily her finest effort since Ray of Light.
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Swirling, throbbing and altogether great. [19 Nov 2005]
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New Musical Express (NME)Believe the hype, this is even better than 'Ray Of Light.' [12 Nov 2005, p.45]
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Easily dance record of the year, Confessions is an almost seamless tribute to the strobe-lit sensuality of the '80s New York club scene that gave Madge her roots, which she explores with compelling aplomb.
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Sweaty, head-spinningly good dance music.
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For all its pretenses of being giddy and spontaneous, though, Confessions is rarely either.
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If anything, it's more a dance record, leaving those of us with a sentimental weakness for distinct parts a little lost.
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One of the few pop singers whose albums are best appreciated in their entirety and not lopped off into "hit singles," Madonna... has succeeded at creating a dance-pop odyssey with an emotional, if not necessarily narrative, arc.
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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.
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UncutSuch a heady, high-octane swirl that, perversely enough, you often forget you're listening to a Madonna record. [Dec 2005, p.102]
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Q MagazineUp there with her best. [Dec 2005, p.144]
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MojoAs each track segues into the next, this is a breathless listen, but the overall scheme works. [Dec 2005, p.99]
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Los Angeles TimesDisco with a vengeance, a whomping, unapologetically airheaded engine of stroboscopic beats and succulent textures that exhumes dance music's time-honored values of celebration and affirmation. [13 Nov 2005]
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She might not quite have made it through the wilderness just yet, but she's chosen the most glittering road to resurrection she could find, and it's one she walks with no small smattering of style.
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The sound that [Price] has created for "Confessions On A Dancefloor" is simultaneously stylish, fun, hip and camp; all things a Madonna record should be.
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The first half, in particular, has irresistible momentum... The second half drags a little, and you wish Madonna would strip the synths back to work a bass line every now and then.
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Madonna's songwriting has always been her most underrated quality. But while Confessions absolutely hits its mark for disco functionality, its greatest strength is also its weakness. In the end, the songs blur together, relying on Price's considerable production magic to create tension or distinctiveness.
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For the most part it succeeds quite well in its single-minded pursuit of disco euphoria, but there’s definitely a whiff of flop-sweat emanating from it.
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While she succeeds rather handsomely on those modest terms, it's more than a little odd to hear Madonna scaling back her ambition and settling for less rather than hungering for more.
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Paste MagazineA delightful concoction. [Feb/Mar 2006, p.98]
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Price’s work behind the boards, while often commanding, is hardly ambitious; running the tracks together to try and give Madge the "album" sound is noteworthy, but he’s picked the wrong pop-star to prod.
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SpinWith its surges and dips, Confessions mimics the rising/falling action of, say, a DJ set, a hit of Ecstasy, or Madonna's own career. [Dec 2005, p.106]
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An exuberant return to old-school form.
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Despite Price's best efforts to infuse these songs with motion and finesse, Confessions never quite reaches its earlier heights after "I Love New York". When Madonna actually starts confessing, the album loses its delicate balance between pop frivolity and spiritual gravity.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 822 out of 900
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Mixed: 24 out of 900
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Negative: 54 out of 900
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SantixR.Jun 11, 2010
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Mar 26, 2012
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JensOAug 1, 2009This album is dance music par excellence.