Tangy, tart, and sweet, with bursts of sugary flavor. Definitely a new, savory treat from the original pop princess, but Madonna didn’t blow my taste buds away. She gave me a pleasant melt-in-your-mouth high, but I found nothing groundbreaking about this album, and nothing that lasted longer than the typical sugar rush.
Hard Candy left me wondering why Madonna left the riveting, absorbing, thought provoking, electro/dance beat style of Confessions on a Dance Floor. In my opinion her last album was more like a pulsing, trippy, deep experience, while hard Candy offers a sampling of surface delights, but lacks the long-lasting attraction of something more substantial.
This album does have some spunk and spirit, but the tunes weren’t as riveting as I would have liked. If you like a sprinkling of pop, light sound with a lot of cotton candy lyrics that melt quickly on your tongue then this is the album for you. Granted, there were certain tracks that caught my attention, with a certain array of hypnotizing beats that managed to keep me entranced.
Songs like "Heartbeat", which begins with the simple, resonating sound of a pulsing heart, then emerges into a fast, fresh arrangement of synthesized piano keys, accompanied by a deeper, stronger beat, which pulls you in. It’s something I could feel myself moving to, because the underlying current of the song is the heartbeat itself and the flashy, throbbing texture. The lyrics are also catchy and sweet.
“On any given night, catch me on the floor, working up a sweat, that’s what music’s for.
“You know I feel it in my heart beat, it may feel old to you, but to me it feels new.
Don’t you know, can’t you see, when I dance I feel free.
Which makes me feel like the only one, the only one, that the light shines on.”
What made me take the time to finally perk up and listen is the beat of some songs in this album, which are never overpowering, but always mesmerizing, even though some of the tunes took time to grow on me.
The tracks that gave off the best first impression were ones that had a disco feel. Like something you could visualize being blasted from speakers at a roller skate rink, with tingly, soft lights highlighting the short shorts of bubble gum blondes gliding with pink wheels under their toes. Maybe it’s the retro style of some of the songs, but they do contain an element of that Saturday night boogie flavor.
“She’s not me”, especially, portrays the curled, flared, vivid feel of a retro night. The song starts off with a series of quirky handclaps, a peppery pulse, and a flash of catchy piano notes which blend right into the orange and purple wallpaper and tacky upholstery.
“She started dressing like me and talking like me, it freaked me out. She started calling you up in the middle of the night, what’s that about?
I just want to be there, when you discover. You wake up in the morning, next to your new lover. She might cook you breakfast, and love you in the shower. The flavor of the moment, cause she don’t have what’s ours.”
Hearing the spunky, kitsch sound, I can’t help but see Madonna in a sexy 50’s housecoat, preparing pancakes with murderous intentions, rollers in her hair, and a cigarette dangling from her lip as her cheating boyfriend’s beat up mustang pulls into the driveway.
The collaborations in this album aren’t too bad, with her homeboy J.T. being the most prominent. Kanye West takes the runner up position with “Beat Goes on.” I have to say that next to a veteran musical revolutionary like Madonna, Kanye’s in your face confidence sounds a little deflated. There is no doubt that he sounds like pure accompaniment to Madonna’s honed, vintage sound. I had to admit I derived a little pleasure from hearing him as a back-up singer, but the placement of vocals works sufficiently.
Aside from “4 minutes”, which definitely sparked a lot of interest when it debuted on the airwaves, the other Madonna + Justin team-up hit of this album is “Dance 2night.”
This song has a certain Beegees, meets sultry lounge singer sound. There is a story here, of boy and girl meet, take a chance and of course, boogey down. It’s purely something to shake to, but it’s catchy, funky and uncomplicated. There is somewhat dazzling, rainbow, electric kind of mood, where the purpose is to feel good, no matter what that entails.
“You don’t have to be beautiful, to be understood
You don’t have to be rich and famous to be good.
You just gotta give more, more, more, than you ever have before
And you gottta move fast, fast fast, if you want this good thing to last.”
I have to admit that this duo sounds right together, and if Justin ever entered a club looking for the hottest, toned, older foxy lady in the joint, he would no doubt find Madonna, and she would “fall for his love in the worst way.”
One of the last songs that I felt connected to from the start was, “Devil wouldn’t recognize you”, for its sharp yet murky, undulating, bedtime-story-gone-wrong feel. A tale of what to watch out for, in the form of a man turned into addiction. The light piano, strings, rippling, popping, techno sounds, and Madonna’s story-teller voice is magnetic.
“As quiet, as it is tonight, you’d almost think you were saved…
Waiting underneath the stars, there’s something you should know. The angels they surround my heart, telling me to let you go.”
The ebony tone of the song, with a poignant, accompanying chorus of voices, puts me in mind of a little red riding hood opera, where the girl in the cape meets the wolf, is deceived, yet keeps returning for more.
With Hard Candy, Madonna hasn’t lost the exquisite ability to make us move, with beats that float and dip like the lights of a rotating disco ball, or tell us simple, yet lively stories with a bubblegum taste that you can chew on as you groove. Despite the somewhat produced-pop ring to some of the songs, there is an element of original sound in this album, if you have the sweet tooth for throbbing chocolate indulgences, clusters of fizzy, popping sensations, and the sticky sweet stimulation of Madonna’s newest candy creation, with her personal invitation to, “have some more.”
Hard Candy left me wondering why Madonna left the riveting, absorbing, thought provoking, electro/dance beat style of Confessions on a Dance Floor. In my opinion her last album was more like a pulsing, trippy, deep experience, while hard Candy offers a sampling of surface delights, but lacks the long-lasting attraction of something more substantial.This album does have some spunk and spirit, but the tunes weren’t as riveting as I would have liked. If you like a sprinkling of pop, light sound with a lot of cotton candy lyrics that melt quickly on your tongue then this is the album for you. Granted, there were certain tracks that caught my attention, with a certain array of hypnotizing beats that managed to keep me entranced.
Songs like "Heartbeat", which begins with the simple, resonating sound of a pulsing heart, then emerges into a fast, fresh arrangement of synthesized piano keys, accompanied by a deeper, stronger beat, which pulls you in. It’s something I could feel myself moving to, because the underlying current of the song is the heartbeat itself and the flashy, throbbing texture. The lyrics are also catchy and sweet.
“On any given night, catch me on the floor, working up a sweat, that’s what music’s for.
“You know I feel it in my heart beat, it may feel old to you, but to me it feels new.
Don’t you know, can’t you see, when I dance I feel free.
Which makes me feel like the only one, the only one, that the light shines on.”
What made me take the time to finally perk up and listen is the beat of some songs in this album, which are never overpowering, but always mesmerizing, even though some of the tunes took time to grow on me.
The tracks that gave off the best first impression were ones that had a disco feel. Like something you could visualize being blasted from speakers at a roller skate rink, with tingly, soft lights highlighting the short shorts of bubble gum blondes gliding with pink wheels under their toes. Maybe it’s the retro style of some of the songs, but they do contain an element of that Saturday night boogie flavor.
“She’s not me”, especially, portrays the curled, flared, vivid feel of a retro night. The song starts off with a series of quirky handclaps, a peppery pulse, and a flash of catchy piano notes which blend right into the orange and purple wallpaper and tacky upholstery.
“She started dressing like me and talking like me, it freaked me out. She started calling you up in the middle of the night, what’s that about?
I just want to be there, when you discover. You wake up in the morning, next to your new lover. She might cook you breakfast, and love you in the shower. The flavor of the moment, cause she don’t have what’s ours.”
Hearing the spunky, kitsch sound, I can’t help but see Madonna in a sexy 50’s housecoat, preparing pancakes with murderous intentions, rollers in her hair, and a cigarette dangling from her lip as her cheating boyfriend’s beat up mustang pulls into the driveway.
The collaborations in this album aren’t too bad, with her homeboy J.T. being the most prominent. Kanye West takes the runner up position with “Beat Goes on.” I have to say that next to a veteran musical revolutionary like Madonna, Kanye’s in your face confidence sounds a little deflated. There is no doubt that he sounds like pure accompaniment to Madonna’s honed, vintage sound. I had to admit I derived a little pleasure from hearing him as a back-up singer, but the placement of vocals works sufficiently.
Aside from “4 minutes”, which definitely sparked a lot of interest when it debuted on the airwaves, the other Madonna + Justin team-up hit of this album is “Dance 2night.”
This song has a certain Beegees, meets sultry lounge singer sound. There is a story here, of boy and girl meet, take a chance and of course, boogey down. It’s purely something to shake to, but it’s catchy, funky and uncomplicated. There is somewhat dazzling, rainbow, electric kind of mood, where the purpose is to feel good, no matter what that entails.
“You don’t have to be beautiful, to be understood
You don’t have to be rich and famous to be good.
You just gotta give more, more, more, than you ever have before
And you gottta move fast, fast fast, if you want this good thing to last.”
I have to admit that this duo sounds right together, and if Justin ever entered a club looking for the hottest, toned, older foxy lady in the joint, he would no doubt find Madonna, and she would “fall for his love in the worst way.”
One of the last songs that I felt connected to from the start was, “Devil wouldn’t recognize you”, for its sharp yet murky, undulating, bedtime-story-gone-wrong feel. A tale of what to watch out for, in the form of a man turned into addiction. The light piano, strings, rippling, popping, techno sounds, and Madonna’s story-teller voice is magnetic.
“As quiet, as it is tonight, you’d almost think you were saved…
Waiting underneath the stars, there’s something you should know. The angels they surround my heart, telling me to let you go.”
The ebony tone of the song, with a poignant, accompanying chorus of voices, puts me in mind of a little red riding hood opera, where the girl in the cape meets the wolf, is deceived, yet keeps returning for more.
With Hard Candy, Madonna hasn’t lost the exquisite ability to make us move, with beats that float and dip like the lights of a rotating disco ball, or tell us simple, yet lively stories with a bubblegum taste that you can chew on as you groove. Despite the somewhat produced-pop ring to some of the songs, there is an element of original sound in this album, if you have the sweet tooth for throbbing chocolate indulgences, clusters of fizzy, popping sensations, and the sticky sweet stimulation of Madonna’s newest candy creation, with her personal invitation to, “have some more.”
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