Madonna - Hard Candy

[fernandoza]

OMG in mexico is already in prevent it comes to sale on 29th of april

[Edy]

Hard Candy is a candy you will want to spit... that's what a spanish-language review says and I totally agree with that... it gives the album 2 of 5 stars...

Hard Candy is a candy you will try because of curiousity but you just will want to spit it.

There aren't so much good songs but she refuses to stop being the most modern. This time her intuition has failed. Timbaland started to be "the most important producer" 2 years ago, thanks to the fresh and also modern and novel sound that he gave to Nelly Furtado (aww) and Justin Timberlake records. Pharrel Williams was also "the most" some years ago, like 3 or 4, thanks to his great -but not excellent- productions to Britney Spears (awwwwww), Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey & Gwen Stefani. Now... NOT. We all believed that the combination between Timbaland, Pharrel Williams and Madonna will be awesome as we didn't thought that inspiration would be out for them.

Madonna: I got to say that I found it rare that she worked with popular and well-known producers and not with a totally unknown one to the audience as she did with her last records. But there's an explanation... her "Confessions on a Dance Floor" sold just 1'700,000 copies on USA while "Ray of Light" or "Music" got over 4 million copies. Her commerciality on USA, the number 1 market in the world, had fallen spectacularly so she thought she should stop experimenting with "beginner" producers and focus on "what's cool". So she finally worked with Timbaland and Pharrel Williams.

Timbaland: I think that with so much work during 2007 he gots tired and without ideas, so he goes with his particular "beat" for all his songs. He had been the most requested producer during the last year (Rihanna, One Republic, 50 Cent., Duran Duran, Björk, ...) and such amount of work has to pay off. Just few productions he had done for the upcoming records of Ashlee Simpson, Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger don't fall in mediocrity. I'm sorry for Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson & Delta Goodrem, that are working with him for their upcoming records. As I said before, in a period of no more than 2 years Timbaland will be history in productions of big artists.

Pharrel Williams: I had never been fascinated with his productions, but seems that the discoclub's audience had, due to poductions he has done for the artists mentioned before. His prestige has been less last years so now he just works with rappers. I supposed that he tought that working with Madonna he will do it with the biggest artists again. Nothing more far to reality, he will continue with his rappers.

About "Hard Candy" songs... after listening to it several times I got to say that it doesn't have songs with the typical verse-chorus structure, most of the songs have more difficult structures, like pre-chorus, bridges and alternative verses. A very diffucult listenin to record.

The confirmed tracklist:

01. Candy Shop -produced by Pharrell Williams-
02. 4 Minutes -produced by Timbaland-
03. Give It 2 Me -produced by Pharrell Williams-
04. Heartbeat -produced by Pharrell Williams-
05. Miles Away -produced by Timbaland y Justin Timberlake-
06. She's Not Me -produced by Pharrell Williams-
07. Incredible -produced by Pharrell Williams-
08. Beat Goes On -produced by Pharrell Williams-
09. Dance Tonight -produced by Timbaland-
10. Spanish Lesson -produced by Pharrell Williams-
11. Devil -produced by Timbaland-
12. Voices -produced by Timbaland-
13. Ring My Bell (Japanese Bonus-Track) -produced by Pharrell Williams-

Songs like "Across The Sky" will be b-sides for the singles.


"Candy Shop", the first song in the record, it is awful. It doesn't have style, either rhythm. Horrible. Madonna doen't know how tto rap. And at the end, Pharrell does a little rap.

The first single "4 Minutes" is really mediocre in everything (production, lyrics, music, vocal interpretation), it's catchy once you listenin to it several times. But the worst thing is that being a Madonna's record song, the featured artist seems to be her and no Justin Timberlake, because it is a totally unpersonal song for her. It doesn't 'fit' her at all.

That's how it goes song by song.

But there are three songs that I liked:

"Miles Away", the song with the greatest lyrics on the album and the best; it's notorious the pop-hand of Justin Timberlake in the composition and production. This song starts with an acoustic guitar, then another rhythm and slowly it goes flowing until it gets fulled with atmospheric synthesizers: "You always seem to have the biggest heart when we're 6,000 miles apart / I guess we're at our best when we're miles away".

"Give It To Me", excelent, like the songs of her last record, totally dance: "Give it to me / No one's gonna stop me now"; this will be the second single.

And another dance song "Heartbeat", with hip-hop sounds and synthesizers like in the 80's: "Can't you see when I dance I feel free / Which makes me feel like the only one the light shines on".

About the cover and the photoshoot, as you can see, is really bad, very different as the "Confessions..." era.

About the success of the album, surely it will be successful the first weeks, but I predict that then it will fall in the forgetfulness oh the charts once people realise the poor quality of almost all the songs and that you don't have to spend money buyin it. So at the end of the year no one will remember that Hard Candy does exist, mainly when then new records of Whitney Houston, Shania Twain or Dido monopolizes all the media.

- "Candy Shop": The first song and by the time you're listening to it, you can't stop thinking: "What the f*ck is this?" "Is this Madonna?" "What are this rapper doing at the end of the song? It can't be possible". But that's what it is.

- "4 Minutes (Album Version)": The famous first single on its definitive version of four minutes. If you realise, Timbaland didn't knew how to finish the song so that it really lasts four minutes and he starts at the end of the song saying "Yeah-Yeah", that doesn't have sense just after Madonna finish her singing. Everything very artificial and with no inspiration.

- "Beat Goes On": one of those songs that you don't remember you listened, like all the song on "Hard Candy". So coarse and forgetable that you think you are wasting your time.

Mark Eggers. BMG Spain.
________________________________________

Anyway I think I'll buy it hahahaha, but I agree with this review... sorry if my translation/interpretation isn't very good I did what I could. LOL.

[Wo-Maneater]

this is THE DUMBEST REVIEW EVER!!

this guy doesn't have any tatse in music.. and he really thinks shania is better than madonna??

she didn't had the half of success that madonna had...

[madbatt2000]

Success doesn't count at all if you talk about quality. Shania is the queen of country just like Madonna in pop. Though I like "4 Minutes", I think the whole taste of the album will disappoint me, probably because all the beats will be familiar.

[Ringtonic]

Originally Posted by just_me

here's a little sign of how bad timbaland can sound lately:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_pDNjexJhCg

totally agree with u!

[Wo-Maneater]

Well! people did you see??

Hard Candy is a great album! It's just awesome.. i really think all the rumours and people were thinking wrong, everyone who thought Hard Candy would be a hip-hop/rnb album were totally false.. it's a hot dance album with dance/urban beats!

My favourits songs until now are: Give It 2 Me (This song is great, and the second single, it's just so different of what you hear now on the radio! great!)

Heartbeat: (Cool dance song, really nice beats)
Miles Away: ( Really cool dance ballade a bit like ray of light maybe? )
Incredible: (HOT! just to dance!)
Beat Goes On: (The Collaboratio with Kanye is awesome.. really cool both sound great together, good combination )
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You: (One of the greatest songs on the album, deep lyrics and just beautiful, defetnely one of maddy's best ballads)

Great ALBUM! you have to buy it ^^

[fernandoza]

i will listen it tomorrow go to sale!!!!!

[Edy]

I've heard the album and... it really sucks LOL I just liked four songs: 4 minutes, Miles Away wich I think is the best of the whole album, Dance 2night & Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, the others are pretty like the same... even Ring My Bell is better than others in the album, also I think the Oakenfold remix of Give It 2 Me is better than the album version, I don't know if I'll buy... I think Hard Candy isn't worthwhile.

[fernandoza]

I heard it too is so bad madonna has dessapoint me just like miles away , give 2 to me adn the single 4 mins

I won't buy it

[Fiona]

I listened to it out of curiosity on youtube, and was not impressed, didn't like it at all, the only song i like is four minutes