After the algorithm decided that I wanted to see little more than Madonna clips for virtually an entire weekend, I lost some of the enthusiasm for Confessions II. It was overkill and I resent feeling like I’m being manipulated by my fucking phone. On Friday morning, though, I gave the whole album a listen. Then I bought it and listened a second time and a third. I think I’m on the fourth listen as I start to write this. It’s good. Really good, but maybe not in the way the album’s title to leads you to believe. 

Confessions II is a real sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor. It’s not a rehash of the 2005 hit album, but rather a continuation of the work that Madonna and Stuart Price began some twenty-odd years ago. So, it’s an album of club music that’s about the club and about life. It’s incredibly smart and thoughtfully made, the opposite of the slop that overwhelms us on the daily. That might be part of the point. (Speaking of slop, ignore all the hype clips and watch the full video of Madonna’s tour of her London home in Vogue Italia. It’s worth 10 minutes of your time.)

Back to Confessions II. It’s a heavily referential album, both to Madonna’s back catalogue and to other dance music artists. It’s also an album-as-a-memoir, with Madonna delving into stories from her early years in New York, her romances and her relationship with eldest daughter, Lourdes Leon. The music history and personal history come together on “Danceteria,” which is the song that I played at Club Underground. It’s an important song because all the song’s musical references, as well as the names she drops throughout the song, are foundational to what we know as alternative and club culture now. This is the album’s, “Listen to Mother” moment. 

I’ll probably have more to say about Confessions II in time, but, my first impression is that this is an incredibly strong Madonna album, easily up there with Confessions on a Dance Floor, Ray of Light and Music in the hierarchy of Madonna albums. Get it. Listen to all one hour and four minutes of it. No skips.

Beatique Mix July, 2026

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of nods to 1990s dance music in contemporary productions, which is why I dug up some tunes from the era for the July edition of the Beatique mix. It has nothing to do with nostalgia- a word that gets thrown around online so often that no one even knows what it means anymore- I’m just drawing connections between the past and the present. The full breakdown of the set is on Beatique, but this month’s mix includes new music from Mouse and Mars and Lee “Scratch” Perry, Tomora, Olof Dreijer and Matias Aguayo, throwbacks from De la Soul and The Prodigy and lots more. Oh, and there’s a new Madonna song, way at the end of the mix. 

Listen on Mixcloud

This week’s DJ gigs

The Smiths x Joy Division Night is back at Club Underground on Friday, July 10. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and I DJing from open until close. Advance tickets are available now. Doors are at 9:30 p.m. and it’s a 21+ party. 

On Saturday, July 11, I’ll be back at Klub Nocturno for another full-venue takeover at Catch One. You can find me on the decks in the new wave vs. darkwave room all night. Tickets are available on Dice for this 21+ party and doors are at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night. 

As for recommendations for the rest of the weekend/early next week, I don’t have much, which is sort of the way it goes right after a holiday weekend. Plus, I’m up to my eyeballs in dayjob stuff right now and, between that and the DJ gigs, I’m pretty short on spare time until later this month.

So, if you’re looking for something to do, this week, I’ll recommend checking out Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at The Broad. Or, head to the California African American Museum, which has a couple fantastic exhibitions that I’ve seen recently. You could also visit LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries.  And A Great Day in East L.A., which is a super cool exhibition about the music history of East L.A. and surrounding areas, is still on view at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Catch it before it closes in August. 

That’s it for this week. Hope to see you soon on the dance floor.

Liz O.