Madonna’s I Feel so Free: A Taste of the Club 20 Years in the Making

The last time we went to the club with Madonna to hear about her dance related crimes was Confessions on a Dance Floor in 2005. This marked a huge comeback for Madonna and was both critically acclaimed and massively commercially successful. Since then her career was up and down with her records not getting much buzz…and the last one was in 2019. Fresh off the heals of dropping a previously unreleased track last year, she has announced Confessions II. The internet is currently melting down in hopes that Confessions II gives us the same neon club high that we got with the original Confessions. Well, we have our first single, so let’s see what to anticipate with this highly anticipated Madonna release in July.

I have to be up front with this…the track is largely spoken word with Madonna singing the hook and a verse here and there. But, there is still a lot to unpack with this track. We are firmly back on the dance floor. Club beats seem to flow in and out of this truly epic and textured synth landscape. The song kicks in with the spoken line “Thanks for coming” and I feel like I am back on that dance floor in 2005….and I am hyped. There are your classic 4/4 club beats, crazy eletro riffs and pounding percussion driving the track forward. It has the same musical vibe as Beyoncé’s club inspired record Renaissance. Which is to say, this is not a gimmicky club throwback, but a loving and passionate honouring of the club from one of the OGs of club and the queen of pop.

There is a ton of spoken word in this track. Much of it is how you can feel free on the dance floor and how the dance floor is the only place you can be yourself. This makes a ton of sense for the first track…initial glimpse into Confessions II. I love how it is not just a title, but Madonna is embracing the freedom of the dance floor as an ethos….a way of life. When she does get to the hook there are some effects, but the vocal still hits. I mean…it’s Madonna. She sings about meeting her on the dance floor and how the dance floor can transform you. Her vocal is not quite what it was like on the original Confessions, but with some minimal effects, some syth magic and her innate talent…she pulls it off and has me wanting more.

Hot, sexy and hype is how I describe this track. The commitment to the dance floor, a fresh club vibe and the opening with “Thanks for coming” has me so hyped for the record. Sure, she doesn’t sound like she did in 2005 or on Vogue…but that’s unrealistic. What we get is still a pop vocal that hits and is in her element. When Madonna hits the dance floor, she can’t be stopped and I think this record will give her another comeback in a career defined by constantly coming back to once again dominate the pop landscape. I can’t wait for this record.

Listen to I Feel so Free