CD REVIEW: Madonna - Hard Candy

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.

CD REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast: Special Edition Soundtrack

In 1991, Walt Disney Pictures released the 30th film in their Animated Classics canon, Beauty and the Beast, to wild critical and commercial success, even nabbing an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (It is still the only animated film given this honor.) and becoming the first animated film to won a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In addition, Beauty and the Beast became the first film to have three of its songs be honored with Academy Award nominations. (The title track, along with the film's rich score, both won the Oscar.) The soundtrack also won Grammy Awards for Best Album For Children, Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture, Best Instrumental Composition Written For A Motion Picture, Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group for the pop single version of the title track as performed by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson, and Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In addition, the soundtrack was certified platinum three times by the RIAA, and the pop version of "Beauty and the Beast" was certified Gold and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

In 2002, Disney re-released the film, this time to large-screen theaters such as IMAX. The film, which was animated using the CAPS system, (CAPS is a program that takes hand-drawn animation that has been scanned into the computer and allows the color artists to digitally color them and add shading and such, allowing for far more painted cels in a smaller period of time.) was enhanced to fix details that one might not notice on a TV screen or a regular theater screen, but would be very obvious in the larger format. In addition, a song that was dropped from the early storyboards but worked into the Broadway show, "Human Again," was voiced by the original cast, animated, and integrated into the film seamlessly. Just a couple of months prior to the film's January 1, 2002 IMAX premiere, Disney also reissued the soundtrack in a new Special Edition. The new Special Edition contained the digitally remastered original soundtrack, with the addition of Human Again, as well as two songwriter demos and the original early version of the Beast's death music. The new CD was issued in a brand new package with brand new liner notes and a new cardboard slipcover replicating the IMAX reissue's poster.

Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite film. I've seen it at least fifty times, if not more, and the soundtrack is one of my all time favorite CDs. And unlike most subsequent "Special Edition" soundtrack reissues from Disney, this one does it right. The soundtrack has never sounded better. For music that is now sixteen years old, it still sounds fresh and vibrant and new, with the exception of the pop version of "Beauty and the Beast," which naturally sounds dated now. The lush orchestral arrangements of the score, written by Alan Menken, come to life as you listen, and the Broadway-like feel of the songs, written by Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, makes it truly one of the most unique Disney soundtracks of all time.

The three songs from the film that were nominated for the Best Song Academy Award are "Belle," "Be Our Guest," and "Beauty and the Beast." The first two are big, loud, and splashy Broadway-styled numbers that blow you away, while "Beauty and the Beast" is its musical opposite. The subtle track is relatively quiet in its emotions, but very powerful. Performed in the film by Angela Lansbury, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star and Academy Award-nominated movie star best known outside of the film as Jessica Fletcher from the long-running mystery TV series Murder She Wrote and as the title character in the Tony Award-winning musical Mame, her vocal performance is very subtle and vulnerable. In a featurette on the DVD, Angela admits that she'd been hesitant to record the song and didn't want to do it as she felt she wasn't the right one to sing it. But they (As Judy Garland said at Carnegie Hall, "I don't know who THEY are...") insisted that Angela perform the vocal. In that same featurette, composer Alan Menken praised her performance, saying it was an absolutely incredible say in the studio and shared a nice little fact - Angela recorded only one take of the vocal, which is what you hear in the film and on the CD.

"Belle" is the perfect opening number for the film. Within five minutes, you're introduced to several of your major players and get a glimpse into their personalities - odd Maurice, kind-hearted Belle, pig-headed Gaston, and his sockpuppet, LeFou. It's big, loud, very theatrical, and opens the film with a bang. A short reprise that follows soon after also shows you more of Belle's burning desire to get away from "this provincial life" that she expressed in the full-length number.

"Gaston" and its reprise are basically what it sounds like - everyone, including Gaston himself, singing his praises. Another rousing Broadway-inspired number, this one boasts some of the film's most amusing moments. The reprise also shows us a little more of the devious side of Gaston, which comes out slowly as the film progresses, climaxing at the end when he completes his internal transformation into an all-out villain.

"Be Our Guest" is the biggest number in the entire film, performed to perfection by the late great Jerry Orbach, best known as Det. Lenny Briscoe in the TV series Law And Order and as the original Billy Flynn in the original Broadway production of Chicago. The Disney staff pulled out all the stops for this one. It's a non-stop feast for the eyes and ears.

"Something There" crams what would take almost an entire movie in non-musical and crams it into about five minutes. In this song, we see the budding friendship between Belle and the Beast. This song comes after the Beast gives his library as a gift to Belle. (One of my favorite scenes in the entire film, and I'm PISSED that the score for this scene isn't on the soundtrack.) In the original version of the film, this immediately segues into the bathtub scene where the Beast is preparing for the ballroom scene, so seeing the original theatrical version, to me, it kinda leaves me wanting more now. Just a little more interaction between the two. Which leads me to...

"Human Again" is the new song here. Well, it's only new in that it wasn't previously included in the film. The song was actually part of the storyboards and was even demo'd. (The full-length demo can be found on the now out of print The Music Behind The Magic box set. An edited version of the demo can be found, along with early storyboard footage, on the DVD.) However, due to a motif in the song about the passage of time, which caused some story issues, the song was deleted. When Disney was preparing the film for its stage adaptation, the song was dusted off and they realized that if they merely removed the "passage of time" bit from the song that it would actually work. Now, I much prefer seeing the Special Edition of the movie with this song. It feels so much more complete and offers something the original film didn't have - anything about the breaking of the spell from the point of view of the enchanted objects. It also provides one more little moment between Belle and the Beast, which also goes back to the original storyboards - Belle teaching the Beast how to read.

"The Mob Song" is the final song in the film, save for the pop version of the title track during the end credits. In this song, Gaston finally makes the transition that has been building up throughout the entire film from a pig-headed dumb guy to jerk to full-blown villain who would literally kill to get his way, never getting the hint that no matter what he does, Belle will never want to marry him. The best part of this is the same thing that's great about all of the songs - it's not just there for the sake of being there. It shows character development and moves the story along.

As for the gorgeous score, there's two tracks that stand out for me - "The Beast Lets Belle Go" and "Transformation." Both are gorgeously dramatic when they need to be and subtle and soft when necessary. "Transformation" ends with a beautiful choral reprise of "Beauty and the Beast."

My only complaint about this soundtrack is that I wish more score was present on here. I find it hard to believe that there's only approx. 55 minutes of music in a 90-minute movie where it seems like you're hearing background music almost every minute. The Special Edition CD is just under an hour and five minutes, meaning they could have placed 10-15 minutes more of score cues and such on here and made it more complete. I'm sure ALL of the score wouldn't fit onto here, but most of it would be nice. Especially the score from the scene where the Beast gives his library to Belle, which I think is one of the most beautiful pieces in the film.

However, it's hard to find any other fault with this CD. The sound quality is fantastic, the music is gorgeous, and it's just CLASSIC. I give it 9 stars out of 10. If only Disney had given the Pocahontas soundtrack this same treatment when they released a new DVD edition of the film with the deleted song "If I Never Knew You" fully animated and integrated into the film. Instead, they chose not to even BOTHER re-releasing it or anything, making the song commercially unavailable outside of the DVD. Shame on you, Disney!

CD REVIEW: Celine Dion - Taking Chances

Artist: Celine Dion
Title: Taking Chances
Genre: Pop/Rock
Label: Columbia
Release Date: November 13, 2007



When the US got its first taste of Celine Dion in 1990 with the release of her first English-language album, Unison, and it's lone top 5 Billboard hit, "Where Does My Heart Beat Now," Celine had already been a Francophone recording star in her native country of Canada for nearly a decade. Seventeen years later, Celine Dion is one of the world's most successful singers. She is reported to have sold an incredible 185 million albums worldwide - more than any other female artist - and is the singer of one of the biggest radio hits ever, "My Heart Will Go On," from the blockbuster film Titanic, as well as the winner of five Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year for her 1996 blockbuster, Falling Into You.

Celine Dion released her last pop album in 2003. The album, titled One Heart, debuted at #2 on the Billboard Albums Charts, and eventually sold 6.5 million worldwide. Just the year before, A New Day Has Come, her first album since taking her "break" from music, had debuted at #1 on the same chart with 558,000 copies sold - her biggest first week sales to date - and sold around 12 million copies worldwide. In 2004, Celine released Miracle, a collaboration with photographer Anne Geddes which celebrates motherhood. And she's also released two Francophone studio albums and On Ne Change Pas, a best-of compilation of her Francophone recordings, including several pre-Sony tracks previously unavailable in any official Celine Dion international release.

Now, with the closing of her wildy successful Las Vegas show, A New Day, Celine Dion has released her 13th English language album, Taking Chances. The album debuted at #3 with 214,556 copies sold, which is fairly good in 2007 numbers for an album without a hit single, but a bit disappointing considering this is Celine Dion.

First week sales aside, time will tell how well this album does. But enough of that. What do I think of this album?

Frankly, I'm a huge Celine Dion fan. I love her beyond the point of sanity. But I don't blindly love everything she does. In fact, Taking Chances is the first Celine CD I've bought since A New Day Has Come over five and a half years ago. That was the last one I wanted to buy. I liked a few songs from One Heart and I enjoyed her Francophone releases. (I do, however, pretend Miracle doesn't exist, but that's neither here nor there.)

To me, the title sums up what this album is about - taking chances. Now I don't even pretend that this is a complete 180 from all the generic Adult Contemporary dreck she's been churning out since 1990. But it's definitely got some freshness to it that, frankly, Celine hasn't had in her music in a long time. Well, freshness for HER. Honestly, this album would be more contemporary in 2004 or 2005 than it is now, but it's not TOO stale yet.

For the first time in a long time, if ever, Celine is bringing to her English-language recordings some of her rock-flavored pop sensibilities that have been a part of her Francophone recordings since her multi-million selling 1995 album D'eux, known in the US as The French Album. True, it's still very pop. Celine will never do real rock and roll. She knows enough to not completely abandon her fanbase. But it's just enough of a twist, and, to even MY surprise, she's very convincing at it. From the opening title track to her cover of the Heart mega-hit "Alone," (Which I think is amazing in its new arrangement with the strings and music box intro, but I must say, even Celine can't sing this song as brilliantly as Ann Wilson.) to the funky bluesy-rocky feel of "Can't Fight The Feelin'," to "Fade Away" which sounds like it would have been at home on Kelly Clarkson's megahit Grammy-winning Breakaway album, the new "let's add some guitars" sound, which could have turned out so laughably bad and contrived, actually succeeds.

In addition, there's a couple of great danceable pop songs on here, which a lot of people might be shocked to find out she's done before. And quite a few of them, at that. (See "Misled," "Love Can Move Mountains," most of Unison, "Sorry For Love," "That's The Way It Is," etc.) However, this album's two major dance pop outings, the Shakira-channeling "Eyes On Me," co-written by Australian megastar Delta Goodrem, and the Euro-dance flavored "Shadow Of Love," are among the best of her career.

Don't think Celine's given up her trademark ballads. "A Song For You" is a gorgeous piano-heavy ballad featuring a gorgeously restrained vocal performance. The two tracks written and produced by Linda Perry, the soft-rock "My Love" and gospel-flavored "New Dawn," blend new and classic Celine effortlessly. The album's closing track, "Skies Of L.A.," written by Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, The-Dream and Thaddis Harrell, and produced by "Tricky" and Kuk Harrell, (Tricky and The-Dream were responsible for, among others, the Rihanna hit "Umbrella.") is a gorgeous dream-like piano-heavy track.

The album isn't a complete success, however. Despite the fact that the song "I Got Nothin' Left" is a very VERY good song, her extremely nasal vocal performance on the song almost makes it unlistenable. And not even the great bluesy production and great lyrics of "That's Just The Woman In Me" can make up for Celine's horrific attempt at channeling Janis Joplin. And to be honest, "Right Next To The Right One" does so little for me, but I don't hate it, so it could grow on me.

Finally, the title of the song "Surprise Surprise" really does say it all - it's the surprise of the album for me. When I first saw that track title, I admit. I laughed and expected it to be complete crap. But when the album leaked and I heard it, I was amazed at how much I liked it. And so far, Surprise Surprise and Fade Away, which is my favorite song on the album, seem to be the big fan favorites, and even seem to be favorites of people who aren't even big Celine fans.

To sum this way too long review up, Celine really has taken some chances with this album. If I'm honest, it's not THAT far removed from everything else she's done, and that's ok. Download "Treat Her Like A Lady" or look it up on YouTube for a prime example of what can happen when Celine tries to veer too far from what has worked for her in the past. But it's enough of a change that it doesn't feel like I've heard this album over and over already. I give Taking Chances 9 stars out of 10. Even if it flops quicker than Kelly Clarkson's latest effort, (Which sold a disappointing 698,000 copies in the US and fell off the charts after only 18 weeks. Sad, I love that album too.) I don't care. I think it's the best material Celine has recorded in years, and I'm just hoping the rest of the world realizes this too.

More images from the album. Click the small thumbnails for a larger view: