Hard Candy
This is Madonna on the dancefloor, letting the rhythms and producers do the heavy lifting while her voice skates over the grooves with a sultry reassurance. Timbaland, the Neptunes, and Nate “Danja” Hills add their production touches, but it’s Madonna’s reflective touch that delivers the somber twists of “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You,” the nostalgic glaze of “Incredible,” and the “Everybody” tint of “Heartbeat.”
Having spent a decade working with producers drawn from European club culture, Hard Candy is Madonna's link-up with the American men who've come to define global pop, including Timbaland, the Neptunes, Kanye West, and Justin Timberlake.
Hard Candy is a serviceable and sometimes very good pop album that also happens to be a confusing and even dismal Madonna album. Some of that answers to simple math: Amid forceful guest spots by Justin Timberlake and Kanye West and self-identifying moves by producers Pharrell Williams and Timbaland, Madonna spends a…
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.
like a well wrapped selection box with too many coffee creams...There’s no denying Madonna’s credentials; she’s sold over 200 million of her 11 studio albums, is the world’s most successful female musician and has amassed a spending power capable of adopting the whole of Malawi several times over with enough loose change left to finance several below average films.
Hard Candy is the album Confessions on a Dance Floor was supposed to be, both in terms of musical style and overall progression.