all about Madonna

1. Candy Shop
2. Miles Away (with Madonna playing the guitar)
3. Music (Fedde Le Grand Mix)
4. Give It 2 me
5. 4 Minutes (with Justin Timberlake appearing on the screens)
6. Hung Up (Rock Mix)

source : madonnatribe

Imagine this: A new Madonna album comprised entirely of brisk, hard dance anthems, all boldly updating the blissful hits of her club-driven youth.

Now imagine that none of those songs (save the advance single) has anything to do with world politics, spiritual growth, starving African children or any lingering mother issues. Instead they present a wall-to-wall call to the dance floor, fired by ecstatic, innovative, and propulsive beats, paired to tunes that will make you swoon.

That’s what Madonna’s last album – 2005’s “Confession On The Dance Floor” – promised to be, but hardly was. We still had Kabbalah references, finger-wagging “issue” songs and lots of cuts that weren’t nearly as danceable or catchy as advertized.

Anyone disappointed by that album should take a lick of “Hard Candy,” out Tuesday. It’s everything “Confessions” professed to be – and more: a disc that gorges on catchy choruses, nagging beats and insouciant vocals. It may be the best album of Madonna’s career. Certainly it’s the most consistent (not counting “greatest hits” cheats).

Plenty of people will carp that Madonna had to haul in some of the heaviest hitters she has ever collaborated with to pull this off – including Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Pharrell. “Hard Candy” represents only the third time in Madonna’s long career when she has relied on top, proven talent as conspirators, rather than bringing in newbies she can nurture and/or control.

The last time she did this was her ultimate career low, in 1994, following the hideously reviewed “Sex” book. She bounced back with “Bedtime Stories,” produced by can’t-miss guys like Babyface.

It’s hard to say why Madonna felt she needed to bring in such headline-making help this time, unless it has to do with facing the Big Five-Oh – she hits it Aug. 16. Or the fact that “Hard Candy” marks the end of her contract with the only label she has ever known (Warner Brothers). Either way, Madonna has given the company the richest possible parting gift.

Where to begin?

The first single – the smash “4 Minutes” – is probably the least engrossing track on the CD. It’s the only one that goes for the political, rather than the personal, though it does so in such a vague way, you can barely tell. Of course, it’s as much a Timberlake song as a Madonna turn but that’s the only track where the star attraction threatens to piggyback on another person’s turf.

That was the worry for “Hard Candy.” Fans feared it would find Madonna vampirically sucking the blood of the latest urban gods to gain back her youth. But the point turns out to be moot. In fact, Pharrell and Timbaland have never sounded this frothy, and that clearly comes from Madonna’s talent for zip.

Take “Heartbeat.” Madonna co-wrote the cut with Pharrell, and although it benefits greatly from the hook of his trademark orgasmic moans, Maddy’s vocal has an R&B sheen that cinches it.

The title track kicks off the CD and sets its exuberant tone. It’s got tribal/urban beats, cunning lyrical innuendos, and a chorus with the R&B-jazz twist of a Kool and the Gang hit from the ’70s.

In “Miles Away” Madonna recycles a neat trick from the past: She uses abrupt guitar strums as an acoustic contrast to the synthetic clack of the beat. Vocally, she hasn’t sounded as ravishing as she does here since “Evita.”

“Incredible” has real bubble gum snap. “Beat Goes On” makes sure it does.

I could go on raving about the tracks, but I won’t. I want to go back and listen to them.

5 out of 5 stars

Dancing is like sex: You can do it with almost anybody — but it works best when you have the right partner.

Considering the amount of, um, dancing that Madonna has done over the decades, it’s amazing how long it took her to figure out that one.

After years of dallying with trendy Eurodisco producers such as Mirwais, Stuart Price and William Orbit, the 49-year-old pop icon has finally found some real men who can keep up with her.

On her 11th studio album — and her final disc of original material before leaving Warner for that bazillion-dollar Live Nation deal — the Material Mom gets her groove back with four of the biggest names in hip-hop: Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. They outfit these dozen tracks with enough whomping urban club beats and freaky-deaky synths to make this Madonna’s most engaging, edgy and contemporary disc in ages.

Grab yourself a partner and get down. Or get up and dance.

Candy Shop 4:15

“Come on up to the dance floor,” coaxes Madonna. “I got something so sweet.” Indeed she does — ’80s-style synths reminiscent of classic Jam and Lewis, but with a bouncy Pharrell beat.

4 Minutes 4:04

If you don’t recognize the clattery percussion, tipsy synth-horns and insistent JT vocals on this ubiquitous hit single, we have just one question: How long were you in the coma?

Give It 2 Me 4:47

The AutoTuned vocals are fine and the chorus is catchy — but frankly, Pharrell’s rubbery electro-ska groove and beeping-synth melody are the real stars of the show.

Heartbeat 4:03

Madge takes it down just a notch with this gently pulsing dance-pop bauble. The lyrics are apparently an ode to the cardiovascular benefits of getting down with your booty.

Miles Away 4:48

Mrs. Ritchie dishes on long-distance relationships — “You always have the biggest heart when we’re 6,000 miles apart” — over a Spanish guitar and a Latin-flecked rhythm.

She’s Not Me 6:04

Pharrell offers a blast from disco past — complete with four-on-the-floor beat, funky bass, slinky guitar, dry-ice synths, fake handclaps and even an extended dance-mix middle.

Incredible 6:19

Another long-winded Williams workout, anchored by a bumpy beatbox and jittery production that contrast with Madonna’s sweet vocal and lyrics such as “life is beautiful.”

Beat Goes On 4:26

Kanye West co-produces this twinkly little neo-disco ditty — and adds one of his typically self-aggrandizing raps. Is there anybody this dude won’t try to one-up?

Dance 2night 5:03

Timba-lake return with a slice of lush disco-funk, with a buzzy bass lick that works the laid-back bottom end as chiming synths and guitars mix it up on top.

Spanish Lesson 3:37

Ah, jess. La musica de los Madonna. While Pharrell blends flamenco guitars, a Latin rhythm and some faux toreador horns, Madonna practises conjugation for her trip to Cabo.

Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You 5:09

Quivery synths and acoustic guitar arpeggios layered over a heartbeat backbeat — plus rainstorm effects in the middle? Yep, it’s a ballad.

Voices 3:39

Strings, piano, a tolling bell and even kettle drums add a few touches of class to the disc’s denouement — but without getting in the way of T and T’s dance-floor funk.

There’s no big mystery why Madonna hooked up with such R&B-hip-hop stars as Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, producer Timbaland and his protege Nate “Danja” Hills for her new dance-pop album, Hard Candy, in stores Tuesday.

“Because I love their music and when I like something I go after it,” said the 49-year-old Material Girl during a recent roundtable interview with reporters from around the world including Sun Media in a Canadian print exclusive.

“That’s it — not too intellectual,” she said before elaborating. “I was just thinking about what I wanted to do next. I’d made a dance record — my last album (2005’s Confessions On A Dance Floor) — which was mostly house music, and I was sitting around talking to (previous songwriting-producing collaborator) Stuart Price one day and he said, ‘Well what do you want to do next?’ I said, ‘I want to make dance music as always.’

And he said, ‘Well, what kind of music do you like right now?’ And I said, ‘Well, the only records I love are Justin’s and Timbaland’s.’ And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you work with them?’ So I did. It’s a great sound, so why not?”

So if you think the famously chameleon-like Madge, now on her second marriage to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie and a mother of three (11-year-old daughter Lourdes, 7-year-old son Rocco and 2-year-old son David), has settled down since her early days of wanting to shock the public into thinking by pushing sexual, religious and social boundaries, think again.

On the album cover of Hard Candy, she takes on the persona of a female fighter.

“I’m still trying to make those hits,” she said of her career, 25 years and sales of 200 million later.

“Everybody wants to make music that people want to listen to; that people want to hear on the radio. I’ve never, ever made a record where I didn’t care whether people heard it or not…

“I think I probably wrote about simple, straightforward, let’s-just-have-a-good-time kind of songs when I first started out. And then as I evolved and changed as a human being, my music has been a reflection of that.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t still write a song about just getting up and dancing and feeling good. But I think that my songs have more of a sense of irony in them or contradiction in them than they used to. And I’d like to think that they’re more complex.”

In the latest ELLE magazine, on which she graces the cover, The Queen of Pop describes Timberlake — who inducted her into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last month — as “a gentleman,” — and Williams as “a smooth operator.”

Timbaland? “A Cheshire Cat.”

Madonna said her work ethic is still going strong and one of her younger collaborators was taken aback by it.

“I think it was a little bit of a surprise, not necessarily to Justin, but to Pharrell,” she said.

“He just kept referring to me as a workhorse and he complained a little bit about my relentless inability to sit still for very long. But he got over it quickly.

“I have a great sense of curiosity about the world and I’m always trying to learn new things and put myself in the position where I’m working with people who know more than I do. So if I constantly put myself in a position where I’m learning something then I have something new to express.”

Madonna, who claims turning 50 in August is just another reason to have a party, said writing with the two twentysomething men — seven tunes with Williams and five with Timberlake, including the first single, Four Minutes — basically came down to a lot of brainstorming.

“Everything that I wrote with either Justin or Pharrell was always us sitting around playing with ideas, concepts and phrases,” she said.

“So a lot of times, one person would introduce the concept or a title and the other person would fill in the blanks and then vice-versa. I collaborate with people in lots of different ways. I either can come up with an entire idea with all the lyrics written or, often times, I hear music and just eight bars of music will inspire a lyric.

“Like when I heard the music from (another new song) Miles Away, I immediately started singing and the words came and I don’t know where they came from, but I don’t really question the creative process. It just happens the way it happens.”

Despite recently having to fend off rumours of problems in her marriage to Ritchie, new songs such as Miles Away and Incredible are clearly relationship-in-trouble songs.

“I guess we’re at our best when we’re, Miles away,” goes the lyrics in the melancholy Miles Away.

“Let’s finish what we started,” Madonna sings in Incredible.

Madonna said it’s not difficult to express herself lyrically without giving away too much of her own privacy.

“I don’t think it’s hard,” she said. “I think most people whether they write fiction, non-fiction, pop songs, screenplays or whatever, even if they’re writing about somebody else completely, there’s always going to be an element of that person in that story.

“And most of the things that I’ve done end up being somewhat autobiographical, a tiny bit autobiographical, or completely biographical. It’s very hard for me to discern that when I’m writing.

“But I think that there’s a clever way to tell a story and put your heart into it and your experiences without being obvious about the experiences. There’s definitely a big part of me in the record.”

There is also a sense of urgency on Hard Candy, particularly on the first single with the refrain: “We’ve got four minutes to save the world.”

She insisted that has nothing to do with getting older.

“I don’t think my age has anything to do with my sense of urgency,” said Madonna, who performed at last year’s London portion of the Live Earth global concert.

“I think the state of the world has to do with my sense of urgency and I think I’ve had this sense of urgency for quite a while. I just hadn’t voiced it in my music. So I don’t really think one has to do with the other.

“I do feel like we are living on borrowed time. And I think most people are coming to that understanding and it’s impossible for that no to be reflected in pop culture.”

Madonna makes producers, producers don’t make Madonna. The diva plucked William Orbit, Mirwais and Stuart Price from electronic music obscurity, meshing her own pop sensibility with their sonic specialty. But for “Hard Candy,” Madge hooked up with name-brand guys like the Neptunes and Timbaland, and even brought on Justin Timberlake as a writing partner. What results is, expectedly, of-the-moment and radio-ready. “4 Minutes,” with Timberlake, is already a top three Billboard Hot 100 hit, and harmonious ballad “Miles Away” might be some of her best work yet. But it feels familiar. “Miles” is a close cousin to Timbaland’s “Apologize,” “Spanish Lesson” is a dead ringer for N*E*R*D’s “She Likes to Move,” and “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” instantly recalls Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.” That’s par for pop acts when they collaborate with producers who are bigger stars than they are. But for a vanguard artist like Madonna, it feels like a bit of a concession. – Kerri Mason

Madonna with Lourdes, Carlos Leon and Debi Mazar in New York (April 25 2008)

All through her career, it has been impossible to divorce Madonna’s music from her image, as they feed off each other to the point where it’s hard to tell which came first, the concept or the songs. Glancing at the aggressively ugly cover to Hard Candy — its blistering pinks and assaultive leather suggesting a cheap bottom barrel porno — it’s hard not to wish that this is the one time Madge broke from tradition, offering music that wasn’t quite as garish as her graphics. That is not the case. Hard Candy is all brutal hard edges and blaring primary colors, a relentlessly mercenary collection of cold beats and chilly innuendo. Sex has always been a driving force for Madonna, but she’s never been as ruthlessly pornographic as she is here, not even when she cut Erotica as a companion to her soft-core coffee table book Sex back in 1992. For all of its carnality Erotica was coy, belonging to the classic burlesque teasing tradition, but Hard Candy is utterly modern, a steely sex album for the age of Cialisis. This new millennium is also an era where Top 40 has pretty much ceased to exist and a pop artist as sharp as Madonna knows this, so she has abandoned the idea of a big crossover hit – the kind that Erotica courted with such gorgeous, shimmering adult contemporary ballads as “Rain” and “Bad Girl” – and pitches Hard Candy directly toward her core audience of club-conscious, fashion-forward trend-setters.

This is a smart play, as this is the audience that’s always consisted of Madonna loyalists, and it’s also is a savvy way to negotiate the explosion of niches in 2008, but there problems in her execution. Madonna relies on the Neptunes and the pair of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for most of her modern makeover – a good idea in theory as they are some of the biggest hitmakers of the decade, but the productions they’ve constructed here sound a couple years old at best and at worst feel like they’re dressing Madonna in Nelly Furtado’s promiscuous hand-me-downs. Sometimes this can result in reasonably appealing grooves – “Candy Shop” captures Pharrell Williams’ flair for slim, sleek grooves, “Dance 2night” conjures Timberlake’s Off the Wall obsession nicely and the icy heartbreak of “Miles Away” is a worthy successor to “What Goes Around Comes Around” — but this also points out the album’s main flaw: the track comes before the song. Madonna’s greatness has always hinged on how she channeled dance trends into pop songs, placing equal emphasis on sound and melody, which provided a neat way to sneak underground club trends into the mainstream. Here, she cedes melodic hooks to rhythmic hooks – witness the clanging, cluttered “4 Minutes” where she’s drowned out by Timbaland’s farting four-note synth — which might not have been so bad if the tracks were fresher and if the whole enterprise didn’t feel quite so joylessly mechanical. Madonna doesn’t even sound desperate to sit atop of current trends; rather, she’s following them because she’s expected to do so. There’s a palpable sense of disinterest here, as if she just handed the reigns over to Pharrell and TimbaLake, trusting them to polish up this piece of stale candy. Maybe she’s not into the music, maybe she’s just running out this last album for Warner before she moves onto the greener pastures of Live Nation — either way, Hard Candy is as a rare thing: a lifeless Madonna album.