Review: Madonna's "Hard Candy"

At last, I'm getting around to reviewing the one album I've been listening to nonstop for the past three weeks. Of course, I'm talking about Madonna's latest record Hard Candy. Her eleventh album, Hard Candy takes her signature pop/dance sound in an urban direction, with production nearly evenly split between Pharrell Williams and the dream team of Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Nate "Danja" Hills. Not since the simultaneously-released Erotica album and Sex book has a Madonna album depended so much on hype and publicity for its introduction to the public. In the end, Hard Candy is just what opening track "Candy Shop" (and her just-announced tour) promises: sticky and sweet (with an emphasis on the "sticky").

For the majority of her albums, Madonna picks relatively obscure producers to work with and brings out the best in them to realize her musical vision. Hard Candy, like 1995's Bedtime Stories did with hitmakers Dallas Austin and Babyface, instead hires out well-established, ubiquitous names in hip-hop to change up Madonna's sound. In many ways, thanks to Madonna's strong pop instincts, Hard Candy stays true to Madonna's dance roots, disproving early fan worries that it would be a sell-out to American hip-hop. The album has a number of instantly memorable standouts, perhaps more than on the excellent Confessions on a Dance Floor album from 2 1/2 years ago. "Give It 2 Me" is a hot dance track infused with Williams' trademark musical hooks and an LCD Soundsystem flair. It's no surprise that it's set to be the album's second single. "Miles Away," sure to be a future release, is one of both Timbaland's and Madonna's finest midtempo moments, with a chorus that won't leave your head for days. "She's Not Me" is a sassy, bouncy funk-flavored song that's as much fun to sing along to as it is to hear. "Beat Goes On" is a fun, simple hip-hop song that has American radio hit written all over it. Overall, the Pharrell productions are fresher and produce the best collaborative results, though they prove less consistent than Timbaland's. "Heartbeat" is a bubbly fusion of electro and hip-hop that fits nicely on the album, as do "Give It 2 Me" and "She's Not Me." "Incredible," on the other hand, sees both Pharrell's music and Madonna's vocals trail on, seemingly lost without a solid song structure. "Spanish Lesson," lacking any elements of a true pop song, is the only obvious misfire on the album, and "Candy Shop" works as little more than mildly-entertaining album filler. At these spots and others, the style far overpowers the songs.

While no one can refute the bona-fide pop genius that Timbaland, Timberlake and Hills have shown in the past, their production just doesn't sound as fresh as it used to. "4 Minutes," though it will get stuck in your head for good reason, just doesn't feel like a Madonna first single. Timbaland's booming brass and bass riffs overpower the song, and Madonna's vocals take a backseat to Justin and the backing track. "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" is a bland, nearly-identical rewrite of Timberlake's "What Goes Around...Comes Around," which wasn't all that exciting to begin with. Even the album's best track, "Miles Away," is merely a well-executed rewrite of Nelly Furtado's "All Good Things (Come To An End)." Timbaland's productions, despite at times achieving their goal of reinventing Madonna's sound to fit modern trends, are nothing new, having already been done on both Loose and FutureSex/LoveSounds. Pharrell's productions, while at times uninspired, at least see him more on form.

The end result is an uneven album, packed with a number of gems, that falls into an odd middle ground for a Madonna album. It doesn't feel like an essential addition to her catalog, but it remains great to see her stepping outside of her comfort zone and trying out new sounds. The only problem is that her collaborators can't always step up their game, and Madonna relies too much on past formulas for even the standout tracks, failing to stretch her songwriting or lyrics to match her genre-bending ambitions. Hard Candy is unquestionably an album worth hearing, and one that will stay in rotation for a while, but won't replace Music or even Confessions on a Dance Floor as her best of the 21st century.

Listen to tracks from the album:
Hype Machine
Myspace
*Includes buy links

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