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Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

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Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Madonna’s irresistible contradictions

With "Confessions II," Madonna reworks her scrapped biopic into an autobiographical album worthy of the big screen

Published July 8, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)

At the outset of her highly anticipated 15th studio album, “Confessions II” —  a sonic sequel to her 2005 smash “Confessions on a Dance Floor” — Madonna only has one request: “Don’t be a vibe kill.” Set against a slithering, seductive Chicago house beat, it’s really more of a command, one that the Queen of Pop immediately follows with another decree: “Come on, meet me on the dance floor.” Considered on its own, one might think this first track, “I Feel So Free,” is the album’s thesis, a call for the listener to check their hang-ups at the door before entering what Madonna later calls “a temple of sweat and surrender, where rhythm replaces reason and movement.” The club is no place for the stressors and anxieties of modern life. Once you’re inside, everything outside must fade away.

But strangely enough, it was Madonna who insisted on killing the vibe in the weeks leading up to the album’s July 3 release. In “Confessions II” terms, it was as if she popped out of the club for a quick cigarette, checked her phone and let herself be momentarily consumed by all of life’s ugliness — posting a quick AI edit of herself before stomping out her Marlboro with her boot and going back inside. During the album’s rollout, the pop star’s visage was perfected with the help of some uncanny AI smoothing, while her accompanying “Confessions II” short film featured a team of AI artists in the credits.

(James Devaney/GC Images/Getty Images) Madonna

As someone who is perennially image-conscious, constantly innovating, and occasionally rash, it’s not surprising that an artist like Madonna would incorporate new technology into her art. What’s disheartening is that she pretends there is no connection, telling Vogue Italia last week, “Algorithms and artificial intelligence are the opposite of taking risks to me, and that is the opposite of making art.” Two days later, Madonna reposted AI fan edits of herself atop the Empire State Building’s spire, waving a “Confessions II” banner. And while an Instagram story might not be her own art — and, granted, is probably being posted by a social media manager — it did place this album’s rollout firmly within this uniquely unnatural era. The carefree, sweat-drenched timelessness........

© Salon