Hard Candy is Madonna's eleventh studio album and the last one she'll be releasing with Warner Bros. records, whom she's been signed to since she first came onto the music scene with the club hit "Everybody" in 1982. The title of Hard Candy is VERY fitting for this CD. The entire thing is one massive aural confection, lacking the depth and, yes as a big Madge fan, I'll admit it - pretentiousness of some of her post-Ray Of Light material. Madonna drops all of the spirituality, messages, etc. for Hard Candy, something of a continuation of her 2005 album Confessions On A Dance Floor. Confessions was an unabashed dance album, seamlessly segued from one track to another, mostly full of nonsense and fun times, albeit with a few messages thrown in here and there. Nothing wrong with some nonsense every once in a while - god knows her preaching got old after a while. (I've only just now rediscovered that American Life was actually a GOOD CD. And naturally, I've been a big Ray Of Light fan since I first FINALLY heard it in 2002.)For Hard Candy, Madonna enlisted some a-list collaborators in Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Nate "Danja" Hills, and The Neptunes. Tim, Pharrell Williams, and Justin also make vocal appearances, as does Kanye West on the song "Beat Goes On." This isn't Madonna's first foray into R&B and hip-hop influenced music. Much of her early material is based on R&B dance music, and her cruelly underrated 1994 album Bedtime Stories boasted such R&B production talent as Babyface, Dave "Jam" Hall, and Babyface, as well as genre-bending work by the incredible Nellee Hooper, best known for his work with Bjork and recent work with No Doubt and solo projects by its lead singer, Gwen Stefani.
For the most part, Hard Candy is quite enjoyable. I admit, I didn't love the first single, "4 Minutes," upon first listen. For one, I'm not a major Justin Timberlake fan, and I was annoyed that I had to hear him in my Madonna music. The song grew on me, though, as a lot of pop songs tend to do. Still scratching my head over the damn video though. Are they suffering from some major flesh-eating bacteria or something, cause DAMN. Anyhoo, I digress.
The album can be easily broken up into two categories - songs produced by The Neptunes and songs produced by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and Danja. (The only Timbaland/Timberlake production NOT involving Danja is "Dance 2night.") So I'll discuss the album broken up into these two categories.
First I'll discuss the Timbaland/Timberlake/Danja portion of the album, which consists of "4 Minutes," "Miles Away," "Dance 2night," "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You," and "Voices." Many of these songs can be seen as a continuation of the material that Tim created with and for Nelly Furtado and Justin on their latest albums, both of which contain some great tracks as a result. "4 Minutes" can even stand alongside Tim's best work for the late great Aaliyah, for whom he produced several classic tracks such as most of the material from her One In A Million album, the smash hit "Try Again," and "We Need A Resolution." "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" is reminiscent of Justin's hit "Cry Me A River," while "Dance 2night" reminds one of a great time at a late 70's/early 80's disco. "Voices" is a haunting closer to the album, and I "Miles Away" just has a great quality to it. The Timbaland material rarely ever veers out of Tim's typical urban-dance pop fare, with a bit of genre-bending here and there, but I'm pretty sure Madonna was counting on that. Tim is one of the most overused producers these days, but he definitely made sure he worked hard to give Madonna some great material.
That leaves all the songs produced by The Neptunes - "Candy Shop," "Give It 2 Me," "Heartbeat," "She's Not Me," "Incredible," "Beat Goes On," and "Spanish Lesson." First, let me get the negative out of the way, because I'm about to disagree with the majority. If you ask me, "Incredible" is crap with a capitol C and a capitol RAP. Madonna isn't exactly known for her subtlety and for being overly classy at all times, but the line "Sex with you is incredible" is crass, even by Madonna standards. And frankly, the whole damn thing is odd and I don't understand why it's such a fan favorite. Madge can do so much better than this crap. However, it's still more listenable than "Spanish Lesson," which makes "I Love New York" look like "Ray Of Light."
Now that the bitching is out of the way, I can continue with the praise. Pharrell does quite a bit of genre-bending himself, with many of his productions incorporating elements of hip-hop, rap, R&B, and electro-pop. The album's second single, "Give It 2 Me" is too electronic for pop radio, too pop for urban radio, but I'm almost certain it'll be a massive club smash. Some of the material incorporates elements of 70's disco and 80's pop music, which is actually why I thought some of this material was Timbaland produced, since he's been known to do the same. "She's Not Me," and "Beat Goes On" both sound like something some ahead-of-his-time producer would have done in 1986, and I love 'em, although I could do without Pharrell's damned falsetto in "She's Not Me." "Heartbeat" has the vibe, but I'm not sure I'd say it necessarily has the elements that drive it home. "Candy Shop," the album's opener and most blatant reference to the album's title, is also quite enjoyable.
Let's talk about the art direction of Hard Candy. I admit, it annoyed me for a while. I get the idea behind the awful backgrounds - the album's titled Hard Candy, candy backgrounds, blah blah blah. And then there's Madonna, doing the TIRED ass act of showing us her crotch, as if the Confessions era and that DAMNED PINK/PURPLE LEOTARD wasn't overkill. (Not that I didn't learn to love that crap too.) Sadly, I've succumbed to it and now I actually LIKE the artwork. As for her crotch, I'm used to it again. The artwork is at least a bit more creative than some people's dumb album art as of late. *cough Celine, Mariah, Britney cough* It's colorful, which I enjoy. And although her body's a little too toned, she's still in great shape and looks good.
I had my reservations when details of the album started coming out. I was a bit upset that she was working with already overused producers, something she typically doesn't do. (Usually when she works with a producer for the first time, they're not that well-known in the mainstream.) Fortunately, Hard Candy turned out to be a deliciously sweet surprise. Frankly, I've listened to it so much I'm surprised I don't have a toothache already. 9 stars out of 10. If "Incredible" and "Spanish Lesson" were replaced by two superior tracks and Pharrell's falsetto was removed from "She's Not Me," I'd give it that extra star. As it stands, Hard Candy is a great closer for her time at Warner Bros. Good job.
