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| Artist: Madonna
Label: WEA/Reprise
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $8.99 (47%)
New (69) Used (32) from $5.84
Rating:  469 reviews
Sales Rank: 115
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 093624988496
UPC: 093624988496
EAN: 0093624988496
ASIN: B0015D3Z4O
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Madonna - Hard Candy 8/10 August 10, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's hard to take this record seriously after seeing the cover, which features the 49-year-old pop queen in a BDSM costume in a "seductive" pose, something no one really wants to see anymore except maybe A-Rod. The album starts off as if we're back in the `80s, with Madonna trying to convince me that "you'll be begging for more / don't pretend you are not hungry, there's plenty to eat / come in my store `cause my sugar is sweet" on "Candy Shop." Evidently her sugar is also sticky and raw, something I'm not sure I want.
Despite the inane lyrics and relentless sex-you-up attitude of Madonna's latest, it does benefit from fantastic production, as befits the lady who spawned a thousand Britneys and Christinas. "4 Minutes" with Justin Timberlake rides an ascending horn line and Timberlake and Madonna's harmonizing and explodes into pure throwaway pop bliss in the chorus.
Everyone from Pharrell Williams to Timbaland to Kanye West make Madonna their pop slave, using her tried-and-true voice and bondage lyrics to propel their obscenely good beats.
It doesn't take a musicologist to divine the meanings behind songs like "Give It 2 Me," but one has to forgive her lyrics; after all, this is a dance record to soon be blasted in a club near you, and in that aspect, it succeeds brilliantly.
 This album is like an old Candy from Grandma ! August 10, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
After her best album ( Confession on a dance floor ) I thought that Madonna will continue with the same style but she completly made a 180 degrees and return to a bad hip-hop music..... Sorry this music is not for me..
 Hard Candy August 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just love this C.D. At first, I just put on one or two songs. As I kept listening to it, I thought "Madonna" is a genius. She gets you going and the beat is so great. The songs are really really good I already know all the words to it. I just love it. Madonna, you did it again. I give this five stars.
LOVE LOVE LOVE This Album August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am a HUGH Madonna fan and I do listen to all kinds of music. Her last album, "Confessions..." I thought had a European feel to it,very house/trance-like sound. I loved the fact that she just completely switched it up and created a more hip hop feel to the Hard Candy album, she worked with Amazing Producers and Writers such as the WORLD renowned Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake, and switching her style from album to album does not make her a "Sell Out" it makes an amazing artist who knows how to target all kinds of audiences from different Genres, not too many artists have been as successful. You can tell the songs that were produced by P. Williams, they're very heavy influenced w/ hip hop beats, where the ones co-written by Justin Timberlake are more pop songs. My favorite songs (and I have many) have to be "Miles Away" "She's not me" and "Incredible"...but to be honest I truly love it all. I HAVE TO SAY I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS ALBUM, and everyone who I lend my copy to loves it as well.
Hits harder with each listen... August 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Hard Candy" comes alive more and more with each listen. There are so many different sounds on so many of the songs, I can't help but be more and more intrigued each time I hear them.
Despite featuring routine Neptunes' production and cliched lyrics comparing candy to dancing/sex, "Candy Shop" is a solid, sparse dance tune; "4 Minutes" also pulls through in the end thanks to its horn sections, though it too features a setback: at times, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland's busy production practically take over the song from Madonna.
Things really start getting interesting at track 3. "Give It 2 Me" is a fantastic celebration of not only dance music, but the Queen of Dance Music as well. The Neptunes' production builds gloriously throughout, and Madge is more than capably along for the ride. The same can be said for the next song, "Heartbeat." This song stands out as one of the best on the album; you can practically feel your heart banging along with the Madonna's. It's another wonderful celebration of a night out at the club.
"Miles Away" is the best Timbaland/Timberlake production here. There is such longing in the soundscapes, in Madonna's voice, in lines such as "You always love me more, miles away." This is another standout and one of the more emotional songs on the album.
The same degree of emotion is found in the next two tracks, "She's Not Me" and "Incredible." The former hits its peak at the end of the song, with a hyper, throbbing beat and Madonna's warped, resounding vocals. The latter hits its stride at the beginning, with its lighthearted production and bittersweet vocals. These are challenging tracks for their whole durations, though, with the entire musical direction of the songs changing throughout them.
"Beat Goes On" and "Dance 2Nite" are both incredibly fun and retro odes to the freedom found on the dance floor. "Beat" features a pretty good rap from Kanye West, and on "Dance," Madonna and Justin vocally meet in the middle in a much more satisfying way then they do on "4 Minutes." By hiring the new kings of hip-hop and pop, respectively, it's obvious Madge still has her killer pop instincts intact.
The album's low point is the dull "Spanish Lesson." It's a nice idea in theory to have a Latino-flavored song on one's album, but Pharrell and Madonna don't pull it off in reality. Its lyrics are pretty much nothing more than a literal Spanish lesson (like, "I say something lusty in Spanish," "Now I'll translate it for you in English"). The best part of the song is the elastic rhythms at the end, and it's telling that there are no lyrics to be found here.
"Devil Wouldn't Recognize You," is moody and clever. However, it shows obvious influences from Timberlake's/Timbaland's "Cry Me a River" and "What Goes Around...Comes Around." It's a good song, but originality is lost.
The final track here is "Voices." It is probably the most philosophical song here and would not totally be out of place on her deeper albums like "Ray of Light" or "American Life." Its tune swirls around you like voices beckoning from all sides, and it includes the provoking question "Who is the master, who is the slave?" Madonna's answer to that is found on "Hard Candy." She is a master of dance music, but she is not beneath making herself a slave to it either if her art is made better for it. Throughout her career, that philosophy has paid of in spades, and "Hard Candy" is no different. The beats didn't hit me in the gut as immediately as they did on "Confessions on the Dance Floor," and the lyrics didn't hit me in the heart like those on "Ray of Light" did. But there are still great rewards to be found here for the patient listener who can give an album, no, a work of art, time to kick off its shoes and groove for them.
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