4 minutes to save the candy (Hard Candy - Madonna)

Member Name: bilbob20

Product:	Hard Candy - Madonna
Date:	12/05/08 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some excellent polished pop songs

Disadvantages: The presence of Timbaland, a current gripe of mine

I've never been that into Madonna. She's sleazy and seedy in all the wrong ways. For years now, she's shocked her way into relevance with lesbian kisses, bondage sessions on film, and unneccessary rants at kids concerts which involves far too many expletives. Nearing 50, Madonna still hasn't grasped the fact that you can be controversial without acting like a 12 year old who has just discovered the "f*ck" word. But every now and then, she comes up with a record that is just good enough to forgive her her stupid diversion antics and her thin voice. Her last album Confessions On A Dancefloor cleverly borrowed beats and sounds from a bygone era and minced them up for a relentlessly fun dance album.

Never one to rest on her laurels though, Madonna this year buys in the writing from the ever dull Timbaland. She's a clever old bird, that Madonna, because she knows that with Timbaland comes a bag full of other trickery including the obligitary duet with high pitched warbler Justin Timberlake.

The album opens with the low key and stripped back Candy Shop. The backing vocal in the chorus provides the hook for Madonna's sexed up rantings about "My Sugar is Raw". I dont actually know what that means (answers on a postcard please), but it sounds dirty and will no doubt appeal to Madonna's loyal fanbase.

A familiar dramatic opening leads into current number 1 4 Minutes. Madonna's duet with Justin Timberlake provides much amusement as she wriths and wriggles her way through a cringeworthy video with a manboy half her age, and whilst he outsings her at every turn. Its always worrying when a lead single isn't any good, because you wonder what the rest of the material is like. Thankfully, the opener has already surpassed this dross by at least a mile.

What seems like it might be the highlight of the album comes in at track 3. And its a blinder. Give In 2 Me is a real toe-tapper with broken synths, and Madonna's electro'd voice belting out a singalong chorus that will stick in your head for days. "No-one's gonna stop me" Granny Ciccone sings, and it seems that she's right for the moment.

Appropriately, Heartbeat opens with exactly that. The album takes a slightly interesting turn here, as this song is quite soulful despite getting another of Timbalands broken beat treatments. Madonna reaches the high notes well enough for this to be an enjoyable track that verges on balladry.

Miles Away goes slightly acoustic in the beginning, but soon brings in another of Timbaland's RnB vibes. "I just woke up from a fuzzy dream" Madonna chucks out as the track kicks off. I found myself warming to this track, despite being mildly bemused by how samey it was to start with.

She's Not Me throws in an interesting 80s sound, with Madonna most likely paying homage to herself. The lyrics are a bit banal for a woman of her age, but the track itself is as polished as Hard Candy gets. The chorus is as poppy as the album gets, and I really did find myself enjoying it.

Incredible is nothing of the sort. It sounds like a Britney reject, and Madonna's voice is mostly unrecognisable as its thrown through the mixer for a by-the-numbers r'n'b track. When Madonna is recognisable, she sounds bored.

Beat Goes On zaps a bit of life back into the album, with Kanye West lending his soft-ish grunts, oohs and ahs to the start of the track. When I saw on the sleeve that Kanye, I was dubious, but the two of them actually sounds like they are having a riot, and its a much better duet than the Justin / Madonna duet.

Dance2Night has another input from Justin Timberlake, with Madonna telling us "You dont have to beautiful to be understood, you dont have to be rich and famous to be good" - just what we need, the richest woman in pop telling us what we dont need. Its a good track though, and will fill a few dancefloors at the christmas night out.

A bit of a latino flavour to the Spanish Lessons, as Madonna tells us the Spanish for "I Love You". The song is rotten though, and I couldn't even sit through it all.

Things slow down then for Devil Wouldn't Recognise You. An urban backdrop quite suits Madonna's vocals here as she lays it bare. This is as ballady as the album gets, but unfortunately Timbaland is a bit inept when it comes to drawing the heart out of his acts.

"Who is the master, who is the slave" opens album finale Voices. Its slightly remiscent of Madonna's early 90s Erotica period. Its a fitting close to the album though, with Madonna and the backing vocalists coming together to bring it to a suitable finish.

I wanted to hate this. All the snobbery in me screamed Madonna, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, get me out of here. But actually, its a fairly polished, if slightly unremarkable collection of songs. Ironically, the worst thing about it is the current single 4 Minutes. It wont secure Madonna's throne very much, despite initial good sales. This is more in the vein of American Life and Bedtimes Stories than Madonna's best work. However, it will hit paydirt with the current crop of pop fans who will enjoy the cross over of pops biggest female and the current king of r'n'b.

Like many of these collaborative projects, the artist at the forefront gets slightly lost in the material. Madonna is somewhat lost in the hit factory stylings of Timbaland. But never one to go down without a fight, she puts her kinky stamp all over the album both lyrically and visually. And I'm sure her newly announced Sticky and Sweet tour will put pay to any inklings that she has lost her touch.

Summary: An okay effort from Madonna, but she's better when she works with lesser known producers.