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.
