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Anyone else think Confessions is her most overrated album?


Adam X
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I'm fully prepared to be dragged for this but I think we should have this conversation. :Madonna029:

Confessions is an album that has aged very well, the production is amazing, and it was cool of her to release an album of this style in the middle of the 2000s.

That being said, a great portion of the songs just aren't very  good. In fact, the production might be so good that they hide the fact that many of the songs are quite weak on their own.

The album does have great songs like Hung Up, Get Together, Let It Will Be, and How High, but the rest just isn't great. Madonna herself doesn't seem to be a fan of this album either, which is why after the era was finished she stopped performing songs from it (besides hung up on the occasional tour). Confessions was the beginning of her creative decline, where she started feeling obligated to make a certain type of music after American Life (one of her best albums) flopped. Thankfully Madonna's creative spirit lives on with Madame X.

It's not that I don't like dance music, her 80s albums are great examples of dance music well done, because the songs themselves are actually good and can stand on their own if they were to be stripped down and played acoustically. Even Hard Candy and MDNA are at least good for working out to. Most of the songs on Confessions are too slow to work out to or even dance to, but too fast to just listen to while relaxing at home.

I'm always confounded to see Confessions consistently ranked in the top 3 of most Madonna fans album ranking; people really like Confessions more than masterpieces like Ray of Light, Erotica, or Like A Prayer? Really? I think fans at the time were just happy to see Madonna making music for the dance floor again, but the album really is a sad shadow of what her dance music used to be. The album definitely sounds better in the mixed version, but that just adds to my point that it's the production techniques that makes the album seem good, not the songs themselves.

Anyways, I think it's time to stop pretending like Confessions is her best/only good album of this century. Every time she releases something new, it's always compared to Confessions or called "her best work since confessions", as if nothing she does will ever measure up. I am not saying it's a bad album I just think it's overrated and honestly maybe one of the most overrated pop albums of this century (because of how incredibly highly it is regarded). 

Anyone else agree? disagree? let's discuss :Madonna029:

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49 minutes ago, Chrato74 said:

No. it's a bold movement having a dance album in a the midst of Hip Hop domination  during the time it was released.

that makes the era a cool pop culture moment but that doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the music itself

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9 hours ago, Adam X said:

I'm fully prepared to be dragged for this but I think we should have this conversation. :Madonna029:

Confessions is an album that has aged very well, the production is amazing, and it was cool of her to release an album of this style in the middle of the 2000s.

That being said, a great portion of the songs just aren't very  good. In fact, the production might be so good that they hide the fact that many of the songs are quite weak on their own.

The album does have great songs like Hung Up, Get Together, Let It Will Be, and How High, but the rest just isn't great. Madonna herself doesn't seem to be a fan of this album either, which is why after the era was finished she stopped performing songs from it (besides hung up on the occasional tour). Confessions was the beginning of her creative decline, where she started feeling obligated to make a certain type of music after American Life (one of her best albums) flopped. Thankfully Madonna's creative spirit lives on with Madame X.

It's not that I don't like dance music, her 80s albums are great examples of dance music well done, because the songs themselves are actually good and can stand on their own if they were to be stripped down and played acoustically. Even Hard Candy and MDNA are at least good for working out to. Most of the songs on Confessions are too slow to work out to or even dance to, but too fast to just listen to while relaxing at home.

I'm always confounded to see Confessions consistently ranked in the top 3 of most Madonna fans album ranking; people really like Confessions more than masterpieces like Ray of Light, Erotica, or Like A Prayer? Really? I think fans at the time were just happy to see Madonna making music for the dance floor again, but the album really is a sad shadow of what her dance music used to be. The album definitely sounds better in the mixed version, but that just adds to my point that it's the production techniques that makes the album seem good, not the songs themselves.

Anyways, I think it's time to stop pretending like Confessions is her best/only good album of this century. Every time she releases something new, it's always compared to Confessions or called "her best work since confessions", as if nothing she does will ever measure up. I am not saying it's a bad album I just think it's overrated and honestly maybe one of the most overrated pop albums of this century (because of how incredibly highly it is regarded). 

Anyone else agree? disagree? let's discuss :Madonna029:

Very interesting point of view and i must say i agree with you. The thing is that "Hung up" was a monster hit. I don't know how old you are and if you were an adult when it was released but here in Europe it was a real storm ! the day it premiered on radios it was incredible ! And not only that day but for many weeks, it was literally everywhere ! You could change the stations you would hear it at least 5 times ! Maybe now we're a bit used and maybe tired of the song but when it came out it was a real sensation, hearing that famous 70's sample everywhere decades later was genius and the production was epic (that moment when the bass goes down and come back little by little with bips and the Abba sample in the bacground was really something when you blasted in a car, especially when you were going on a night out (lol)). So, why am talking about it, becaude to me it explains the commercial success of the album. The album has been released a few days before Christmas (another bright move) and you could see all those families and also kids at the supermarket begging their parents to buy the album (i never though i would see that again in 2005, considering Madonna's age). To me it was more like "i want the beautiful pink sleeved album of the "Hung up" singer (hoping the album woul be full of other "Hung up"'s). So take the collossal effect of a smash hit single + a collorfull warm glamorous palette from pink to violet to orange imagery (The "Sorry" video is pure eye candy!) +  a perfect time frame of the releases (just before Christmas) and you have the Confessions phenomenon. Oh and i was gonna forget (!), the music itself ? Well, exept "Hung up" nothing groundbreaking... i remember when i listened to the album i was a little bit disapointed, nothing exept "Hung up" made me wanna jump of my chair and dance. At the time of the released i heard on a famous french radio station (Fun radio) a host saying the same about the album, and they loved M to death on that station.  So is the album overrated ? If you talk only about the music i'd say yes. But then again, the success of an album era is not only due to the music, it's a mix of several elements (lead single quality, imagery and visuals, videos, time of releases,...) and in the case of Confessions those elements were top notch and actually the lead is so phenomenally good that it's as good to make a whole album being sold. To summarize, i will finish by saying this : Even though i only listen to "Hung up" from that album, the Confession era is one of my fav Madonna era. 

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I think Hung Up was an over-rated song, but not that the album is overrated. Though the album is far from a favourite of mine, COADF is still a pretty solid album with well-written and well produced tracks. Its also pretty consistent and the tracks flow well together... that's not something that can be said about the albums which followed it where several are like patchwork messes. The album screams 'MADONNA', and touches on her world-views without overdosing the listener or appearing too pretentious or preachy. It has also aged pretty well, and still sounds fresh 15 years on (the same cannot be said for HC, MDNA, RH, or even MX). People may not agree with me in saying this, but COADF was the very last time we saw Madonna produce an absolutely stellar and influential piece of work... all albums that followed it just do not compare... in any way whatsoever.

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For me what bothers me is the argument that "Her last great album is Confessions" from people who trash Madonna and simply want her to regurgitate what her and Price did again and again. Regardless what you think of HC, MDNA, RH or MX, she still gives us work worthy of her caliber even if there's filler and bad tracks that have no business on the records. Not to say Confessions is a bad album, but it is one I don't replay a lot minus a few tracks. It was the album that made me a fan but not one of my favorites. Though, I can see why many adore it.

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