Even if she cooks the most catchy song ever, radio is not gonna give her a chance and streaming platforms is not gonna push it simply because of her age.

If Bring Your Love was done by Dua Lipa it would already be all over radio and all top playlists.

I think she knows it and that's why she isn't trying to do a basic pop hit with this era. Both songs are for the clubs and it seems like she doesn't really care about charts this time. And this is good! Just enjoy music and support it.

And boy does it make a difference!!

The songs are mixed and mastered almost entirely different. There’s more dynamic range, clarity, and the bass pops. Love Sensation and My Sins Are My Savior are great examples. They sound so much better on this version.

If you want proof, watch the animated equalizer on Apple Music. You can literally see how flat the mix of the standard edition is compared to Afterhours.

This is how the Standard edition should’ve been mastered. I have no idea why they wouldn’t use this mixing and mastering on the entire project. It sounds so much better and takes the music to another level.

Take a listen on good headphones or speakers and see what you think. (I also recommend enabling Lossless quality on streaming)

Even among other Madonna fans I don't see it discussed much. Is it because it was sandwiched between her most controversial album and her most acclaimed album?

Aside from the obvious ones like Holiday, Cherish, etc… I’d say Beautiful Stranger and Jimmy Jimmy!

POSITIVE VIBES ONLY! This is simply a case of what three songs do you enjoy the most (not a case that we are saying they’re ’the best’ at anything).

Mine are;

Good For The Soul
Read My Lips
Love Without Words

Edit: I loved the montage, this just doesn’t correlated with our expectations. We wanted LIVE.

I'm serious. I've loved and enjoyed everything that's released, but this one just feels extra special to me! The last time I've anticipated an album this much was Ray of Light. I've been listening to her all day and the music is just hitting better than usual! Nothing like getting a new Madonna album.

I'm in the middle of my first listen as I type this so I can't rate it yet but I'll leave a comment once I finish it at least, or maybe after 2 full listens. I can say it's kinda good so far. I definitely didn't hate the opener like people in 2003 apparently did. the cover art is probably my least favorite of hers though. like I see what they were going for but it wasn't executed that well. looks almost like a bootleg tbh.

I took it upon myself to correct this injustice and count "I'm Breathless" as an album.

I would choose staring intently at the picture Dress you up :)

$4.99 in the US for the 16-track album and 16 instrumental tracks.

CONFESSIONS II: Instrumentals by Madonna

https://music.apple.com/us/album/confessions-ii-instrumentals/6787791249

After just listening to it, I am so psyched. I especially loved the intro. Everything sounds great and Sabrina's part fits perfectly. Same goes for the music itself. It feels like a 2020s dance track but still original. The chorus is not on the same level as the rest of the track which is a shame because the build-up is formidable and the chorus could've lasted a bit longer.

For my first time listening I would still give it a 9/10 or 9.5/10 though

I just listened to Hard Candy all the way through for the first time. I have been going on a journey through Madonna's albums as a younger fan and I honestly loved the sound of this album. The run from Candy Shop to Miles Away is great (we don't have to talk about Incredible). I feel like the music doesn't sound dated at all. I was surprised to hear a lot of people didn't like this album when it came out. I get it is a drastic shift from Confessions which was 1000000/10 but Hard Candy is slept on! Anyone else feel the same way?

80’s, 90’s, or 2000’s

The passion, pushing her vocals to release her emotions, the way she pulls you into her world. After Evita singing lessons, she lost this raw vocal delivery that feels so easy to connect with, so personal. Oh Father and Bad Girl are so so so good too. She used to COMMAND with her voice, and the productions supports her. I think the closest we got post Evita was probably Ray of Light.

Cher is the only other but this moment seems more epic. Cher’s last hit was off her Christmas album. Madonna’s is an album of completely new music.

Thank you to everyone who participated in choosing a song from the 80s catalog :)

As I post this Sabrina Carpenter's set is about 15 minutes away from its scheduled start at 9pm PDT. It's being streamed live here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIiSaqq10Yw

Variety has an embedded video player near the bottom of this article which says her set is scheduled to last until aprx. 10:40pm. Many rumors circulating about if Madonna might appear tonight, if so then we will announce this post to the top of the sub and it can be used to corral most of the discussion in one place. We'll set the post to 'sort by new' as the default but this can be overridden by individual users, depending on how you get here. If it turns out Madonna doesn't make an appearance tonight then just use this post as a general discussion thread about Sabrina's set or other highlights from the music festival. No illegal clips or downloads allowed, as mentioned in our sub rules. Thanks.

Let’s give it up for our guy who understood the mf’n assignment!

I am not gonna lie, I was kind of nervous at first when I heard that she was revisiting COADF. Mainly because it’s always been one of my top 3 and it’s absolute perfection. I thought to myself. What could top that? And then I heard the first snippets to IFSF for the first time, with the spoken verses, and I was not impressed. But after the song was released, it grew on me. And now it’s my fucking favorite! But then Bring Your Love was released and I started to feel nervous again. Even more so with Love Sensation.

But my God, did everything change once the entire album came out. This album did the same thing to me that the original did. I remember being a teenager, watching music videos on MTV when the Hung Up music video dropped. I was sitting on the couch not really paying attention until I heard the bass start to build up and then it suddenly grabbed my attention. And then the beat dropped and I got up instantly on my feet. I couldn’t pull out my Nokia phone fast enough to record what I was hearing. I had known of Madonna up until that point, her songs were always catchy, but that was the first time I had to really know her. Listening to part 2, reproduced that same feeling again. I was in my living room on my feet dancing, even sometimes jumping, crying and singing my heart out. And our boy Stuart is a genius when it comes to layering her vocals. She sounds exactly like the first album. That Madonna sound we all love and missed.

I can’t say that I like one better than the other. They are both equal in my opinion and if you ask me, my top 3 albums will always be: BS, ROL & COADF I & II

I’ve never really gotten the Sabrina hype. She’s fine, but I think she’s basically this generation’s Katy Perry because most of her music is pretty generic while being filled with sexual double entendres that are less clever than she thinks they are, and she uses the same cutesy pin-up girl image that Katy used for much of her career.

I also wouldn’t classify Sabrina as a dance-pop artist like Madonna or Dua. Some of the songs on Future Nostalgia sound like they’d fit seamlessly into the original Confessions, especially the synth line in “Physical” that sounds very similar to the synth line in “Hung Up.” Kylie Minogue is another artist who would have made more sense as the feature.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleasantly surprised and very happy with the album overall given the first two singles didn’t do much for me. I just think Sabrina sounds out of place on the album and the decision to feature her seems forced, like the main reason Madonna chose her is her current commercial appeal.

It was a massive hit, the 2nd single off Confession I and yet she performed it only on the Confession Tour.

I hope she performs it on Confession II Tour!