Candygrams

Madonna's Hard Candy gets a sweet review in Rolling Stone—one of her best star ratings (4/5) in ages. I believe it's her best since Music...okay, that's only two albums ago. It's a great, interestingly written review, too, one that seems to get Madonna.

Also, here are 30-second clips of...all the songs on Hard Candy! I'm shocked, but I absolutely love it. I think my first impression—and it's only an impression—is even more positive than my first impression of Confessions.

"Candy Shop" sounds crisper; it's still going to have some haters, but I like it well enough, as long as it's not a single. "Give It 2 Me" sounds like another Top 5 smash. Outside of that, I think "Heartbeat" is amazing (I love her voice on it), "Miles Away" I'd heard before and I still find it really pretty and "She's Not Me" had sounded unpleasant from descriptions but has a quirky, Gwen-esque vibe. The impression of the first six songs is of Madonna being forced to try new things—or, at least, different-for-her things—and coming out smelling like a rose.

"Incredible" sounds a bit more empty in some strange way. I still think the delivery makes it jaunty and fresh as opposed to a song like "Amazing" on Music, which was okay but felt sort of phoned-in after the brilliance that was "Beautiful Stranger."

I can't recognize "Beat Goes On" almost at all. I love it. I always liked it more than "Candy Shop" (which has a much less noticeable yet also helpful new sheen to it), but it's now single-worthy. Madonna's voice is terrific on all the tracks, very prominent (with the exception of "4 Minutes," meant to get her laced-up boot in the door at radio). "Dance 2Night" sounds like pre-disco; it just needs a string section to segue from 1974 to 1977.

I can see why "Spanish Lesson" was not a Rolling Stone favorite. The clip has the uncomfy-white-lady-trying-to-be-street vibe that fans were fearing would be the dominant tone of the album. It's much less effective than the "Candy Shop" clip, and that song already elicited some wariness. This might be the "Push" of this album—a song I skip.

Even the devil made her do it.

"Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" is lovely and still a favorite Madonna song title of mine, one of her most interesting since "Love Tried To Welcome Me."

"Voices" strikes me as a Middle Eastern confection, hardly the ponderous sound I expected. It didn't blow me away, nor did it turn me off.

I don't hear many clunkers in there, at least based on these 30-second clips. More, more, more!

Comments

[joe to hell]

thats THREE albums ago!

[Matthew Rettenmund]

Well, I mean it's two albums ago—Confessions and American Life. Music is the next in line. So I think this is one of those "do you mean NEXT week or next NEXT week?" :0)

[John Logsdon]

These little clips have me so excited now. Obviously being fans we'll love her stuff just cause "it's her stuff"...but these are very interesting songs. She's pushed herself to come up with a new sound and it really works for her. I certainly hope she pushes herself a little more on the video side (though I liked 4 Minutes I certainly didn't think she was too creative with it). I agree Heartbeat is a real catch and Miles Away has that typical Madonna sound (and those are usually the songs she never releases). Should be very interesting in a few weeks.

[daryl d]

My first impression from listening to all these clips is that this is actually "very" Madonna. It reminds me of her first album updated for 2008. She sounds comfortable on all the tracks except for "Spanish Lesson." I'm impressed, overall. So far, however, I don't hear anything stand up and scream "play me!" like Jump and Get Together did on Confessions. Then again, these are all clips and not the full songs.

[david]

totally impressed. she sounds, vocally, the best she has since Ray of Light and the songs are full of melody. How amazing does Devil... sound!? i'm definitely more excited by this than i was for Confessions... bring it on!

[Sleepiguy]

I'm extremely hard to please and I thought most of the clips sounded absolutely amazing. I'm actually in shock right now. TDWRY is stunning as are Heartbeat, Voices, and Dance 2Night. Yes, there's sort of a sameness running through the album, but I'll let it pass. Candy Shop is still terrible though. I also hope we aren't hearing the best part of each song..

[Ben]

I'll say this about Candy Shop...there are some bass notes and progression in the beats that we didn't hear in the leak that at least improve the song's music. Lyrics are still crap though.

Give It to Me sounds hot. Plain and simple.

Heartbeat and Miles Away are the most classic Madonna songs in terms of sonics, delivery and hooks. That hook on Miles Away is just amazing!

She's Not Me - is it this CD's Thief of Hearts or I'm So Stupid? It's ok.

Incredible has great beats and vocal arrangement.

Beat Goes On...what happened to that shiteous leak that it was replaced with this twinkling 70s throwback gem! She even fixed the bad lyrics.

Dance2Night seems pedestrian. Just like 4 Minutes. I think she should have done the entire CD with Pharrell.

Spanish Lesson, what we hear of it...yeah, not so much.

Devil Wouldn't Recognize You sounds too much like Cry Me a River for my taste. I'm never a big fan of Madonna's midtempo songs. For me, she works best fast or slow, not in between.

Voices sounds interesting. I want to hear the entire thing. Is it this CD's Issac or Mer Girl?

Best whole disc since Ray of Light for my taste.

[heph]

I must be extremely hard to please or be one of those sad stuck in a rut Queens. I do like some of the snippets offered to us. But overall Hard Candy leaves me a little cold. I´m definately not passionate about any of the songs - well apart from Miles Away. I´ll have to wait until I hear each track in it´s entirety before I make my mind up. I don´t care much for the sound of Timberland & Pharrell so that puts the album at a disadvantage for me.

RS Review:
"The songs are solid, but slightly anonymous, as though they could be stripped down and peddled to other singers."

This was my main concern when I heard Madonna was teaming up with Timbolina & Pharrell. And he´s so right. But I´m sure Madonna will reconnect with her American audience, the younger demographic and finally get some airplay.

On the plus side, by leaving the producing aspect to the guys it freed her up to concentrate on her singing, which is Hard Candy´s high point for me. It´s a pitty that her voice gets drowned out by all that noise though. She seriously abandoned her "don´t guild the lilly" motto during the music making process. I´m sure the dance remixes will rectify the voice problem. Junkie XL´s 4M2VTW remix is the only way I can enjoy that gawd awful song.

Candy Shop for me is as bland as beige carpeting. It´s the weakest track. For me the only reedeming feature on the demo for The Beat Goes On was the orginal high tempo chorus - which they altered for some reason. Why?!

I adore Miles Away. Give it to me is another favourite. Heartbeat is another good one but very anonymous sounding. I actually liked Voices a lot and She´s not me is quite quirky. I would have liked to have heard The Devil Demo if there is one. She wrote it for that musical, right? It sounds a lot like Cry me A river which was overrated and seriously got on my nerves at the time. Made me sympathise with Britney lol.

I really liked the arjan review:
http://www.arjanwrites.com/arjanwrites/2008/04/album-review-ma.html

I think album is a lot like Bedtime Stories and like that album it´s probably not going to age well. In fact it already sounds a little dated. Madge - never ever turn to Rocco & Lola again for musical inspiration!! The Britney experiment should have taught you that.

Still looking forward to the full album though.