Madonna - Hard Candy [2008]

[Sylph]

Exclusive review of Madonna's Hard Candy

Pete Paphides

As finishing touches were being applied to the East London premiere of Madonna’s latest album, academics specialising in adoption at the University of Liverpool announced what they called The Madonna Effect – a phenomenon “in which parents in Africa surrender their children for adoption thinking they will enjoy a better life”.

Whatever context is applied to it, you felt like adding that The Madonna Effect – sure to accumulate now that she has set her sights on adopting in India – isn’t restricted to adoption. There’s a Madonna effect for almost everything she does. In the past week alone, the Swiss jewellers Chopard have been besieged with requests for replicas of the £500,000 knuckleduster rings exhibited on the sleeve of Hard Candy.

Related LinksOn your mobile now, Madonna's latest album Filth and Wisdom All of which is worth dwelling on, because how will The Madonna Effect play out when Hard Candy is released? It’s tempting even to theorise that Madonna has made it so that there won’t be much of an Effect.

Seemingly eager to relieve herself from the pressure of being imitated at every turn, Madonna’s 11th studio album finds her deploying a coterie of producers – Timbaland, Danja, Pharrell Williams – who have, in varying combinations, already done the same thing with Nelly Furtado, Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani. Naturally, this being Madonna, she has already filed the riposte before you made the criticism. On She’s Not Me, she makes the point that however any other woman attempts to match her, they don’t have the advantage of being Madonna. So, what’s the song like? Well, it’s like roughly two thirds of Hard Candy – a sequenced avalanche of beats in the sonic centre ground that, in the olden days, used to be occupied by tunes.

Far from being a problem, that’s how some of the most exciting pop music is assembled these days. Madonna’s instinct for a killer tune has pushed producers such as Stuart Price, Mirwais and William Orbit to career peaks. Given time here, Incredible and the Kanye West-assisted Beat Goes On will scrub up alongside some of her best – especially the latter’s nods to Detroit techno at its poppermost.

Justin Timberlake cameos on the new single 4 Minutes and three other songs, including the immediately excellent Miles Away – a collision of acoustic downstrokes and feverishly jaunty rhythm that verges on reggae.

When the songs work, it doesn’t much matter that Madonna is blazing a fourth-hand trail. After 25 years of reinvention, we can surely cut her slack in that department. But on Dance 2Night, She’s Not Me and Give It 2 Me, what surprises is how deferential Madonna is to her collaborators. Even the album’s showstopping ballad, The Devil Wouldn’t Recognise You succumbs to a default mode of vast beats.

By this late stage, you rather feel like you’re in your fifth hour at the Ambassador’s famous party. Great, but is there anything else on offer other than Ferrero sodding Rochers?

Only on the final song, Voices, does Madonna remember that her stock-in-trade is to assimilate the sound of a well-known producer and turn it into something else. Here, the sort of poignant, unresolved chords you might sooner hear on an early Serge Gainsbourg record accord with a more personal lyric, before a grandiloquent finale of bells and pipe organ sends us on our way.

Hard Candy is no disaster, but a little more of that wouldn’t have gone amiss.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3701646.ece

[Sylph]

I don't know if it is really exclusive so if someone has other reviews, I'd like to read them!

[sheilaforever]

My review for one of the songs: "Miles Away" seems indeed to be exquisite althought or because it is THE most classic Madonna song in ages. Except for those slight R&B tunes this screems Papa don't preach et al.

[Sylph]

The album leaked.

Some other reviews:

• BBC Music
• The Observer
• Rolling Stone
• People
• Popjustice

[JackPeyton]

Im glad madonna realizes how tro get hits now... you need a timber. lake or land, it dont matter, just one or the other...

[Sylph]

The problem here is that if you need someone to make you a hit, you're in trouble. Especially if it's Madonna we're talking about.

She was always the leader of the pack, now she needs Justin Timberlake to make her a hit. And when he does that (arguably), she becomes a guest star in her own song, as Y&RWorldTurner mentioned.

[Sylph]

Madonna: more clout than the Beatles, all by herself... and wearing heels

The Fab Four may have set the benchmark, but the Material Girl outstrips them with her sheer cultural impact


Caitlin Moran

When Madonna’s 4 Minutes went to No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend, it marked her 23rd Top Ten single, her 13th No 1 and 25 years of Zeitgeist-bothering since she released Holiday in 1983.

Though she has been referred to habitually as “the Queen of Pop” since the mid-Eighties – when she first displayed her power by making a generation of women consider lace gloves, and ra-ra skirts over Capri pants, as legitimate pub-wear – I will personally spend hours explaining why she is still, fundamentally, underrated.

Pop is a genre of quantum rapaciousness. So fast is the turnover of ideas, so intense the images and so jaded the public’s palate, that one year at the top in pop is equal to three in rock’n’roll, where all one has to do is “be yourself”.

By this calculation, then, Madonna is enjoying her 75th anniversary of global supremacy, having lapped any putative contender for the throne (Cyndi Lauper, Björk, Kylie, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston) long ago. Just the sheer effort that has gone into Madonna’s hair alone over the past 25 years is breathtaking. Bleach crop, blonde power-bob, Woodstock tousle, Elaine-from- Seinfeld perm for Like A Prayer – across the world there must be a trail of exhausted stylists, whispering “We could go ginger, with... a side-parting?” before fainting. Her nearest possible rival in widescreen pop reinvention is David Bowie, and he managed only 17 years (Space Oddity to Absolute Beginners).

On the one hand, what Madonna has done in terms of being female, and a female artist, is astonishing. Although the benchmark for all achievements in pop music will probably always be the Beatles, in many ways, Madonna’s intentions and impact on Western culture have been bigger.

The Beatles, for instance, didn’t do it on their own. The Beatles didn’t do it in heels. The Beatles didn’t have to overcome 2,000 years of the patriarchy before they left the house every morning. And, even at their most sociopolitically daring, the Beatles never displayed half the balls that Madonna did between 1989 and 1990 – first screwing Pepsi over with Like A Prayer, where their $5 million endorsement deal effectively allied them to a video in which Madonna kissed a black, bleeding Christ in a field full of burning crosses, then releasing her Sex book, in which she admitted, against all the taboos of our culture, to having sex with the pitiable albino rapper Vanilla Ice.

But while Madonna’s socio/sexual/ political/cultural influence is gigantic, and intractably embedded in the literal and mental make-up of every Western woman over the age of 18 – just like Elvis is for the guys – Madonna’s prime purpose is, ultimately, pop music. In any given year, Madonna has worked as bellwether for the pop climate. Her imperial phase (1983-91) came when FM pop (Prince, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran) was at its peak. She went quiet during the years of grunge and Britpop then went on the ascendancy with Ray of Light in 1998, when she caught a new wave of dance-pop ideas from Daft Punk, Massive Attack, All Saints and Air.

This explains why, despite the single debuting at No 1, her new album, Hard Candy, has been received as second-rate. The charts are full of indie-rock, confessional singer-songwriters and diva chanteuses – nothing for Madonna to absorb and release there. Although the album will probably sell well, it is by no means the equal of, say, Confessions on a Dance Floor in 2005, one of the best of her career.

Now in her 75th pop year, Madonna is stopping, and catching her breath a bit. But let’s face it, on past performance, you wouldn’t bet against her kicking everyone’s arses again next year.


http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3792638.ece

[Sylph]

I listened to it yesterday only once and – I didn't like it. She's suffocated in the sea of strange trademark sounds of each producer, occasionally bordering on being an imitation of Britney (She's Not Me), Timberlake-esque Nelly Furtado (Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, apparently a favourite of the critics) etc.

Spanish Lesson is the worst song with its flamenco guitars! WTF!

I didn't like it. That might change over time, but the probability is low. I'm disappointed.

Who is the master?

Who is the slave?

I think you all know.

[EricMontreal22]

You know I liked it more than I expected--I was expecting it to be my least fave Madonna album since, well since Like a Virgin. I dunno where I'd rate it but I'm releived it has some fun Madonna dance/pop songs (if maybe a bit throaway)--Heartbeat is an early standout.

It's kinda shocking to read that the four or five tracks with Timbaland are the first time Madonna hasn't ttaken co producing credit on ANY song since Like a Virgin (which was all produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic). Surprising too I actually prefer for the most part the Pharell tracks even if I thought I was exhausted by his sound tnaks to Gwen Stefanis' two albusm done primarily with him. Timbland's sound doesn't really match Madonna's voice too well and sounds over produced...

It's getting better reviews than I expected and I admit I'm kinda pleasantly surprised as I expected to really not like it... I think some of it will grow on me as well. And now that rumours are she'll bring her tour to Vancouver, by me, I will try to see her again even if I'm not nearly as excited as I was when I traveled to San Jose to see her last tour. But yeah--definetly not my fave era of Madonna as a fan...

If I'm being catty and comparing out of my fave current pop/dance divas I definetly prefer as a whole Kylie Minogue's already underated "X" album (shame about the mess of the way too little too late US release), and I'm yes I'm still WAY more excited for Donna Summer's album in exactly a month (she's been to premier her new single, the insanely catchy Greg Kurstin produced Stamp Your Feet, at the American Idol finale special).

But I admit I loved Madonna's last Confessions/dance era and prob any era after woulda disappointed me--I am pleased that the album is still more pop/dance than hip hop as rumoured but... (Anyone else find it kinda shocking that this week, a week before Madonna, Ashlee Simpson, hardly anyone in a similar league, has an album out with basically the same producers. Sure Ashlee seems to have gotten Timbaland's bteam--he's listed as the main producer on his half of her album but he didn't do any of the sognwriting and his most talented co producer Danja Handz is nowhere to be seen--and she's working with the less successful member of Neptunes--Chad Hugo notr Pharell, but it's still kinda an odd coincidence)

I did largely liek the Ent weekly Madge review out of all i've read tho I'd prob give it a B so far and not B+... I dunno I never fully trust leaks, and I'll see what it sounds like next week cranked on my home system...

OK re-reading it they're way mor epositive than I'd be but I do agreewith lots of the good points.

Music Review

Hard Candy

EAR CANDY Nothing spiritual here! Madonna finally gets back into the groove with Hard Candy, an old-school dance CD

Tom Munro

By Chris Willman Chris Willman

Chris Willman is a senior music writer for Entertainment Weekly

You've seen the video for ''4 Minutes,'' Madonna's flirty duet with Justin Timberlake. Perhaps you've heard that roughly half of her new album, Hard Candy, was produced by the Neptunes, with the remainder entrusted to the team of Timbaland, Nate ''Danja'' Hills, and Timberlake. Maybe you know that Kanye West pops up on one song (''Beat Goes On''). Between the fountain-of-youth dalliances and hookups with hip-hop kingpins, we know what you're thinking: Just how massive is this midlife crisis of hers?

Pretty major, probably, but she makes it work with this surprisingly rejuvenated set. Now 49, Madonna has spent the past decade unevenly exploring moody trip-hop, chilly Eurodisco, and ethereal electronica — all of which are absent here. Candy finds her dropping her Kabbalah string on the dance floor and readopting an American accent to offer up an unpretentious, nonstop dance party. In tunes like ''Give It 2 Me,'' she's unabashedly reviving the celebrative spirit of early singles like ''Lucky Star'' and ''Holiday,'' filtering it through hip-hop's sonic boom. She's not above nicking from other carefree singers and eras, either. The giddy opening track, ''Candy Shop,'' has an easygoing synth hook that Jam & Lewis might've devised for Janet Jackson in her '80s prime, while the scrumptious deep bass of ''Dance 2night'' gets closer to the thump of '70s disco than anything Madonna's ever done in or out of a leotard.

If you're looking for softness, of course, you've come to the wrong place. ''Catch me on the floor/Working up a sweat/That's what the music's for,'' she asserts in ''Heartbeat,'' coming soon to a Pilates class near you. In the most exciting club banger, the aforementioned ''Give It 2 Me,'' she threatens, ''When the lights go down and there's no one left, I can go on and on and on.'' Often willfully vapid, the lyrics offer candy as a metaphor for sex, sex as metaphor for dancing, and dancing as metaphor for world domination. In fact, there's so much perspiration-soaked determination that you may detect a slightly scary C+C Music Factory-meets-Ayn Rand vibe.

Offsetting the grind are a few actual confessions on this dance floor — enough to give the tabs speculative fodder. ''You always have the biggest heart/When we're six thousand miles apart,'' she complains in ''Miles Away.'' (There, the Timba-lake arrangements get a bit too close to ''What Goes Around... Comes Around'' for comfort.) In ''Incredible,'' a mini-masterpiece of domestic woe in which the Neptunes do their best work, Madonna recalls how spectacular the sex used to be, over a furious house beat. Then she makes a desperate plea for reconciliation: ''I am missing my best friend.... Let's finish what we started.'' With this crowd-pleaser of a CD, she may be sending a similar message to fans, too. B+

DOWNLOAD THIS: ''Incredible''

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah but Madonna was desperate. She might not liek to seem it, but toping the US charts gain is VERY important to her. Confessions and its singles, despite being perhaps the most "madonna" album in years vastly underperformed in the US (proving once again that US radio has never loved dance music since the disco era--although this does seem to be changing). The COnfessions tour of course sold out anyway--Madonna will never have trouble selling concerts in her home country but the massive album sales she wants were elusive... She was smart to know what she wanted and how to get it (although as I pointe dout in another thread the presence of Timberlake and Timbaland has done zilch for the expensive flop that Duran Duran's album from last Nov has become). As a a fan I do find it embarassing that her lead single seems to be more of a Justin song than even her duet with Britney was (and that was a BRITNEY single not a Madonna one). Bu tit's nice to see her doing well....

[JackPeyton]

^I agree. This song is such a Justin song, with madonna. The britney song was a brit song with madonna, and was realed that way. This is being passed as a madona song - and it isnt, IMHO.

[Sylph]

I agree with most of the things you said, Eric. The albums is like The Bold and the Beautiful right now: bad, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be (or can be).

And Madonna is nothing if not a shrewd businesswoman: she just knows who to hire.

I have to point that I also liked Pharrell's song more than I did Timbaland's. Timbaland is everywhere, everyone he's working with is a copy of the previous performer whose album he produced. It's become this overbearing sound that is everywhere and hard to digest. Especially with the boring bass beat.

[sheilaforever]

Don't you start accursing Kay Alden of scabbing for Madonna as well..l

Switch "bad" for "underperforming" and I would wholeheartedly agree though.

My verdict on HARD CANDY is still out. I don't like most of the leaked-weeks ago songs which are among the first singles on the album. The finish however is freakingly awesome and totally took me by surprise. "Dance 2 Night" is kinda cool and I LOVE "Devil wouldn't recognize you" and "Voices" which sounds rather generic but which I listen to endlessly. "Voices" would make a perfect movie soundtrack.

[Skin]

I listened to the album and I have to say that I don't like it at all. I actually think it's the worst Madonna album ever in her 25 year career. The best songs on the album are: "4 Minutes", "Heartbeat", "Miles Away", "The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" and "Spanish Lessons". The beats are glamorous and the production is noticeable but the quality is no where near where it should be. Candy Shop is perhaps the blandest song on the entire album. It doesn't sound like anything new and it sounds like a filler track. Give It 2 Me sounds like a complete mess (as does another song Incrediable) the song is disorganized and directionless and has no clue where it's going. It just runs rampant all over the place.

Another really bad track is "She's Not Me" which sounds really low quality and is perhaps the worst track on the album. The Beat Goes On is bland filler and does nothing for the album. Dance 2night is similar in that it is filler and adds nothing to the album. Voices is rather bland as well.

[Soapsuds]

I've listened to the album as well. Not a very good album. I wont be buying it. I will probably just get the two other singles I love from the album and thats it. That's if they are released as singles. My favorites are 4 minutes which I have as a single already. And I also loved Voices and Miles Away. I hope those are released as singles. I havent bought an album from Madonna since True Blue. I do have lots of CD singles of Madonna though from her other albums.