Madonna used to be quite tuned into what was happening musically and able to re-invent herself, bringing a toned down version of whatever was hip at the time to a wider audience. Not so on ‘Hard Candy’.
Madonna is playing two different cards to connect with what’s going on in 2008: The popular and the trendy card.
The popular card sees her getting three top-selling names from the R&B/Hip Hop scene onto the album: Kanye West, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. Kanye, who on his own recordings is pushing hip hop into an interesting almost psychedelic phase, is delivering the dance pop tune ‘Beat Goes On’. Timbaland and Timberlake supply an R&B-lite tune with ‘4 Minutes’. Both West and Timbaland can do better on their own. I can see the cross-sell appeal of combining the names, but both songs do not add anything to the catalogues of the concerned artists.
There two more attempts at R&B on ‘Hard Candy’. Listen out for the break on the cheesy ‘Spanish Lesson’ and guess the source of inspiration. (If you can’t wait: It’s Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’).
The trendy card is incorporating some references to 1980’s pop music. Hot Chip do it, Hercules and Love Affair do it - And who would be better suited to follow suit than the artist who shot to fame in he 80’s herself?
Unfortunately, the result is quite a mixed bag. ‘Give It 2 Me’ has a nice trashy edge to it, but tracks like ‘Heartbeat’ or ‘Miles Away’ sound like strange efforts to emulate ‘La Isla Bonita’. Which was an awful tune to start with anyway.
Out of the 80’s bag comes one winner, however. ‘She’s Not Me’ is my favourite on ‘Hard Candy’: Bright, upbeat pop in a ‘Holiday’ vein. The lyrics are cool as well, with Madonna complaining about a love rival who ‘reads her books and wears her lingerie’.
Apart from ‘She’s Not Me’, I find this a rather bland selection of pop tunes. But you’ll have plenty of opportunity to hear for yourself on a high street or in a shopping mall near you.
Listen to Madonna’s ‘Hard Candy’ and download the album from iTunes.
We say: 
