Home > Music > CD Review > Madonna, 'Hard Candy'

Madonna, 'Hard Candy'

Great beats and hot guest stars can't quite save Madge's latest

By Andy Hermann

Metromix
April 28, 2008

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Backstory: Madonna got her start working with great American dance-pop producers like Nile Rodgers and John “Jellybean” Benitez, but by the late ‘90s, she was allying herself with British and European knob-twiddlers like William Orbit, Mirwais and Stuart Price, a shift in style that resulted in some of her best albums (“Ray of Light”) and, arguably, her worst (“American Life”). Now Madge has, in a way, come full circle, tapping America’s hottest production talent (namely, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Nate “Danja” Hills) for her 11th album, “Hard Candy.”

Why you should care: Even at her worst, rapping about “mocha lattes” (as she did on “American Life”), Madonna never fails to deliver some of pop music’s best water-cooler moments. And this time, she’s recruited the three hottest hands in the business: Pharrell is the hip-hop prodigy behind Gwen Stefani’s pop diva makeover, Timbaland can take credit for most of Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake’s recent hits, and Tim’s protégé Danja is so good, he made Britney sound like she was still a superstar on her last hit, “Gimme More.”

Verdict: “Hard Candy” has all the earmarks of an instant classic. Pharrell, Tim and Danja have the cutting-edge dance beats dialed up to 11; Justin Timberlake is an entertaining foil to Madge’s slinky cougar shtick on lead single “4 Minutes” and the disco-tastic throwback “Dance 2 Nite”; even Kanye West’s half-assed guest verse on “Beat Goes On” has a charmingly offhand quality to it, like he just dropped by to watch Pharrell and the Material Girl working their magic and couldn’t resist picking up a mic. And yet…there’s something missing on “Hard Candy.” Oh, yeah—it’s Madonna. She doesn’t give a single memorable performance on this album—in fact, on some tracks, like “4 Minutes,” her vocals are sort of a buzz kill, the least interesting color in Timbaland’s crazy-quilt palette of marching-band rhythms, synths horns and percussive vocal loops. For the first time in Madonna’s career, she sounds like a studio moll—and while that’s not a bad role to have on tracks this fresh, it’s a disappointment coming from one of pop’s most original voices.

X-Factor: “Hard Candy” is Madonna’s last album for Warner Bros. Records, the label where she’s spent her entire career. She now embarks on a groundbreaking deal (for a reported $120 million) with concert promoter Live Nation, who will handle all of Madge’s touring, recording and merchandising for the next 10 years.