Topping the Billboard charts in the US, UK and several others countries, Madonna earns her 10th number one album with ‘Confessions II’ – which at the age of 67 and over four decades into a historical career has added another record to her collection. That makes her the only female American singer to have #1 albums in the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, 10’s and now 20’s. Five fucking decades – half a century. For all the naysayers who have been demanding her retirement, this sort of success and, yes, relevance, is a brutal and gratifying reality check. Say what you will about Madonna, you’re still talking about her, she’s still singing and selling albums, and one of you is not coming off well in this equation.
‘Confessions II’ is a remarkable album, one worth all the accolades, and it’s been on repeat in my house and car and shower. Thus far I’m a huge fan of ‘L.E.S. Girl’, ‘Danceteria’, ‘Bizarre’, ‘Fragile’, ‘Love Without Words’ and ‘Everything’. The other tracks are stellar, and there’s not one skip in the bunch. To feel the same vitality I once felt in music like ‘Material Girl’, ‘Like A Prayer‘, ‘Vogue‘, ‘Ray of Light‘, ‘Music‘, ‘Sorry‘, ‘4 Minutes‘, ‘Celebration‘, ‘I’m Addicted‘ and ‘Rebel Heart’ is a somewhat unexpected pleasure.
This has a bit of a personal spin to it, the way Madonna often seems to supply meaning at pivotal times in life. For the past couple of years, I’d started to write off the thrill and excitement and connection I once felt to music as a thing of youth, something that could no longer quite inspire me as it once did. Leave it to Madonna to prove that premature and somewhat silly; to think that I’d almost given up on experiencing such passion is a lesson that life doesn’t end at 40 or 50 or 67 – and shame on me for falling into those ageist beliefs. ‘Confessions II’ has reignited the creative spark, and I already feel the fire burning from within again. Let’s see where this musical era takes us…
