Product description
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MADONNA Hard Candy (2008 UK 12-track CD album which has
been described as a brilliant up-tempo collection of songs which
finds Madonna ensconced in club mode but this time adds an urban
hip hop beat in collaboration with musical partners Timbaland
Justin Timberlake Pharrell Williams and Nate Danja Hills includes
the singles 4 Minutes Give It 2 Me and Miles Away comes with the
picture booklet)
Review
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'I know I can do it better'', boasts Madonna on She's
Not Me, a gigantic disco ball of a Chic-esque tune. It's a
piercing at any young pretenders, past, present and future,
who think they've what it takes to take on the Queen of Pop in
her fiftieth year, and one that reverberates across her eleventh
album.
Laying herself at the mercy of producers savvy enough to churn
out hits in their , Madonna has put her reputation on the
line for Hard Candy, but it's a calculated risk, and although she
could have done it better, it's still a mighty record.
In essence, the album is not the hip hop tribute many had feared,
but an urban extension of 2005's Confessions On A Dancefloor. The
disco still rules supreme (just listen to the funk-overload of
Dance 2Nite) and the dancefloor remains Madonna's sexual
playground. Yet, with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Nate 'Danja'
Hills and Pharrell Williams at the helm, the RnB edge is added.
Williams' breathy punctuation and tinny percussion spill over
from the album's opener Candy Shop and Timbaland's distorted bass
beats make for wonderfully messy melodies, particularly on the
superb climax, 12 Voices - Madonna's most haunting sound since
Frozen.
The argument that this tried and tested production work could be
a template for any artist (Madonna only has co-writing credits)
is a tad churlish. She adds that inimitable zing of excitement
that the likes of Nelly Furtado don't possess and the record is
not without its personal moments. Take the genuinely good,
genuinely felt Miles Away; an electro missive concerning her
relationship with husband Guy Ritichie (''I guess we're at our
best when we're miles away''). Besides, many milestones of
Madonna's epic career - Holiday, Get Into The Groove, Ray Of
Light and Music - are marked throughout.
Undeniably, it's the work with Timbaland and co. that really
sells Hard Candy. Madonna and Timberlake's vocal hook on 4
Minutes is worth the download fee alone and the album's
penultimate track, Devil Wouldn't Recognise You, is the next best
thing after Timberlake's What Goes Around!
Meanwhile, Williams isn't as dependable. Tracks like the awkward
Spanish Lesson and the badly paced Incredible, where the frenetic
finish isn't worth the four minute wait, represent more fool's
gold than the real deal. In contrast, Give It 2 Me, where
children's TV meets trance and techno, is a wholesome sugar rush.
Easy to chew, Hard Candy is everything you'd hope for from a
Madonna album; excitement, adventure and progress. Something
tells me it just might sell! --Tom Young
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