It is the consensus from ATRL that Confessions II is a return to form after four albums of duds; quality wise, why did it take so long for Madonna to return to form musically? Was it the label? Did the WB and Stuart Price know what Madonna needed musically?

It depends what you call "form".... she has continuously recorded and released musical gold on every project since her debut. HC was a cohesive fun R&B dance album, MDNA was trend chasing but still had several great tracks, RH was bloated but has some of her best tracks on it, and MX wasn't a typical commercial pop album, so like I'm Breathless is a bit of an outlier in her catalog. I do feel she had a lot more fun during the process of making CII than she has for all of those 4 before mentioned albums however and you can hear that in the final product.

The answer is very easy: Interscope was the wrong record company for her, she was paired with the wrong in house producers/writer and didn't have a team because they were just distribuitors.

and I think she really had this album in her she has something to talk about where MDNA and Rebel Heart felt more like contractual obligations.

HC is great and the production feels even fresher now

Edited August 28Aug 28 by LittleStarmen

5 minutes ago, Punky Rooster said:

It depends what you call "form".... she has continuously recorded and released musical gold on every project since her debut. HC was a cohesive fun R&B dance album, MDNA was trend chasing but still had several great tracks, RH was bloated but has some of her best tracks on it, and MX wasn't a typical commercial pop album, so like I'm Breathless is a bit of an outlier in her catalog. I do feel she had a lot more fun during the process of making CII than she has for all of those 4 before mentioned albums however and you can hear that in the final product.

I mean quality albums that weren't full of filler or trend hopping which is what Hard Candy, MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X were

She returned to form when she released this:

MDNA had strong foundation but the Solveig songs were tragic, Rebel Heart... we all know why it sounds disjointed and unfinished, Madame X was polarizing by design. CII is her actively wanting to make a strong dance album that people would love and use as escapism during these messy ass times.

I still think Madame X was a return to form even though some parts of that era are a bit cringe, and the album doesn't sound that good now that we have Confessions II. But, I still consider it a return to form.

Rebel Heart had some good tracks, but the leaks kind of destroyed the project. Listen to the demos, some fantastic work there. The album became way too overproduced and the final product is quite bloated.

MDNA and Hard Candy have some bops, but that's it. There are some gems in those though (Masterpiece, Love Spent, The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You)

I think the Guy Ritchie divorce and ensuing custody battle took a big toll on her mental health and that affected her usually refined taste and connoisseurship. She seemed to have lost a lot of her confidence during that time. As she said—"I was not lost, I was just broken".

Madonna is also kind of a mirror ball to popular and underground music trends of the era and while there is great pop music from that time, a lot of it feels kind of…beneath her. Pop music from that decade was tacky, raunchy and silly. Madonna could be raunchy but there was always a certain elegance, artistry and mystique to what she did. She's always had a sense of camp but it was never tacky.

HC is great.

Mdna/rebel heart were bad because of production (for me)

Madame x was just weird

Stuart Price /end thread

Interscope forced Madonna to utilize writing camps while she was signed to them. So this includes MDNA, Rebel Heart, and Madame X.

I also think that MDNA and Rebel Heart were Madonna trying to convince everyone, including herself, that she was still relevant while the pop scene was dominated by other artists like Katy, Gaga, Kesha, Nicki, etc. And in that, Madonna wasn't being her authentic self because she was trying to fit in.

Madame X is Madonna's middle finger to mainstream pop after the last 2 efforts weren't very successful.

Madonna finally returned to Warner records and with that, Confessions II is Madonna finally returning to form by creating music that speaks her story with a sound she wants and enjoys. Stuart Price worked with Madonna for years, so their trust shines in their work. There's a reason she's featuring him in all her performances and promo so far.

Edited August 28Aug 28 by ThePopStop

I think the most evidence-backed (multiple producers confirming) and probable explanation is her priorities during the making of each album.

During her 360-deal, making money was clearly the main objective which is why her albums during that period were trend chasing and vehicles to push tour sales. She was also too focused on diversifying her income to give her full attention to making a great album (clothing line, opening gyms, directing films etc.) — William orbit corroborated this.

I think Confessions II was the first time where making a great body of work was her only priority, especially since her only other project (biopic) was as scrapped.

Edited August 28Aug 28 by Lemonaade

Madonna, understandably, seems to have a lot of hang ups around getting older, which only makes sense after everything she's been through. Practically the entire world was calling her a grandma and telling her to hang it up in the 90s when she was only in her thirties.

So it makes sense that once she actually started to get older it would effect her mentally and emotionally, and she wanted to still prove she was "with it" but it more often than not came across as cringe. Like, why is MADONNA trend hopping. Why is she performing with LMFAO? Why is she recording songs with grills in her mouth?

Thankfully it seems that with Confessions II she's realized that she can make mature, meaningful music without coming across as "old."

I think it's about the music genre and also what the album is about, if she's being a suspicious detective it's not going to be good, if it's an honest album about her love for dance music and life it's bound to be good

Also, she answers your question on Extreme Occident: I was lost, I guess I'm lost, I wasn't lost!

I think Madonna is best when she let's her label and producer guide her creatively.

Warner knows how to mold and control her artistic vision, Interscope didn't.

the writing camps process doesn't work for her. Look at Rebel Heart

she didn't do camps for c2

I'm definitely not the person to ask, because I absolutely loved both Rebel Heart and Madame X.

9 hours ago, ThePopStop said:

Interscope forced Madonna to utilize writing camps while she was signed to them. So this includes MDNA, Rebel Heart, and Madame X.

I also think that MDNA and Rebel Heart were Madonna trying to convince everyone, including herself, that she was still relevant while the pop scene was dominated by other artists like Katy, Gaga, Kesha, Nicki, etc. And in that, Madonna wasn't being her authentic self because she was trying to fit in.

Madame X is Madonna's middle finger to mainstream pop after the last 2 efforts weren't very successful.

Madonna finally returned to Warner records and with that, Confessions II is Madonna finally returning to form by creating music that speaks her story with a sound she wants and enjoys. Stuart Price worked with Madonna for years, so their trust shines in their work. There's a reason she's featuring him in all her performances and promo so far.

This is basically my exact perspective on her journey as well. And tbh you can lump hard Candy in with MDNA and RH as far as chasing relevance and trendiness - it was the first time she had genuinely felt behind the ball with the Timbaland/JT collab 2-3 years after they were at their hottest. Definitely came off like she was having a bit of a midlife crisis turning 50, exacerbated by the divorce.

For several reasons. With MDNA, she was more focused on her movie and for the first time ever, she didn't care about an album and relied on recording demos that were already given to her. Even William Orbit said she wasn't as involved as she usually is.

For Rebel Heart, the production went astray when Avicci left and there were so many hands in the pot to the point where the album didn't have a clear direction or concept; not to mention Interscope shut down her ideas about organizing the album into love songs on one disc and rebellious songs on another.

Madame X definitely was very focused but Interscope didn't care as it was her last album under their label so they did nothing to promote it.

-she took her time with this album

-stuart

-back at warner

-stopped chasing trends

-no writing camps

-a clear concept and art direction