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| Hard Candy | 
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| Artist: Madonna
Label: WEA/Reprise
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $4.99
You Save: $13.99 (74%)
New (69) Used (37) from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  477 reviews
Sales Rank: 209
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Complete with original disc(s), case, and manual. In stock and ships right now! Case has some minor damage.
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| Customer Reviews:
Come Into Her Store, She's Got Candy Galore April 29, 2008
15 out of 21 found this review helpful
"When the lights go down and there's no one left I can go on and on and on" chants Madonna three tracks into her new LP "Hard Candy," and with the Queen of Pop staring down her 7th stateside chart-topping album such a claim is more than justified. The living definition of pop music chameleon, she indeed offers a delicious array of confections precision-tooled to hit a listener's sweet tooth. There is some padding, and no obvious follow-up single exists for mega-hit "4 Minutes," but this does the album no disservice. Madonna manages to acknowledge her past and keep things contemporary all the while avoiding pretense or retreads, making for a wholly interesting recording.
Collaborating with the likes of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake has caused some to question whether Madonna is taking the easiest possible route to continued pop success, but the most obvious - and fortunate - thing about "Hard Candy" is that it is wall-to-wall Madonna both in songwriting and atmosphere. Rather than grafting herself on to their winning production values she ingeniusly uses them to amplify her material. The result is an album plum full of dancefloor-ready anthems and a smattering of low-key ballads that manage to be mainstream yet cutting edge.
Sizzling club thumpers like the suave "Dance 2night" and ultra-addictive "Give It 2 Me," for example, recall the awesome, frenetic energy of 2005's "Confessions On a Dancefloor" but would still sound at home on Top 40 radio. Elsewhere, the bittersweet "Miles Away" has one of the most poignant, endearing hooks of any ballad in Madonna's lengthy catalogue.
Opening the floodgates of engrossing, colorful melodies is "Incredible" with its incessant, yearning energy. "Beat Goes On" featuring Kanye West packs similar zest, and "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" percolates with raw sexual energy, icy snyths and a frothy, guitar-laden melody.
The sexy, slinky "Heartbeat" with its mercurial melody and awesome vocals is destined for radio waves, and "She's Not Me," despite being over-long and not quite finding its hook, contains one of Madonna's most intriguingly self-referential lines. Comparing another woman to "the flavor of the month," she makes her declaration:
"She's not me/She doesn't have my name/She'll never have what I have/It won't be the same."
Indeed, pop stars come and go by the dozen, but through it all there is only one Madonna.
Through two and a half decades' worth of trends, fads and fashions Madonna has rarely lost her footing and always come back roaring, and "Hard Candy" reveals her inner lioness in a way that is not only totally late 2000's but totally listenable. She re-defined musical boundaries not only for women but pop artists in general for many reasons, and artistic stagnation is not one of them. This is definitely a "Candy Shop" worth many return visits.
This limited edition is by far her most spiffy to date. Featuring two awesome remixes of "4 Minutes" as bonus tracks on the CD, 30 glossy photos and even a package of Starlite mint candies are included as well. Diehards will find even more to appeal to their asthetic need for all things Queen of Pop.
 Another Repetitive and Weak Madonna Album April 29, 2008
15 out of 42 found this review helpful
This CD is another piece of c..p that is loaded with made up sounds and from it you can see that Madonna can't sing at all. Weak lyrics and bad songs. Don't buy it because will be a waste of MONEY. I am selling it because is horrible..... Terrible CD. Instead try something else. Try something better. This ALBUM really sucks!!!!
Madonna please retire!!!!!
Pathetic attempt to still matter April 30, 2008
15 out of 31 found this review helpful
It's hard to be less relevant than Mariah Carey, but Madonna has nailed it to the floor. At a certain point, you should know that when you seem to be struggling to be the next Cher, it might be time to just et the haggis. There is nothing to recommend this, which is essentially audio wallpaper for the overweight ladies at Curves. Sad, really...
Awful! What was I thinking? May 15, 2008
15 out of 25 found this review helpful
What a mistake! I should have known from the flat, cliched, and plainly unattractive cover this would be bad. Terrible production, fake sounding ( or maybe they were fake) drums, her vocals were mixed as if in a distant tunnel with those gdawful drums beating the life out of the mix. And the worst lyrics. Cliched and babyish and dull dull dull.
And Madonna herself- I will give her credit, her voice was pretty good but she seemed depressed and lifeless actually. No pizazz or charisma. As if she was going thru the motions knowing she would make even more money than any human really needs, and doing "sigh" one more set of pictures showing her as "That madly sexual creature everyone expects". She has a great body, she can dance as we all know, but that was the ugliest outfit of all time. (I am all for any and all women being creative and beautiful and sexual no matter their ( our) ages, and maybe Madonna thinks she looks great and sexy. To each their own but to ME, I shoulda known. )
This music was just so bland and UN funky, UN soulful and unlistenable.
I am SO glad I also ordered that Marvin Gaye box set.
 Turkish delights and more... April 29, 2008
14 out of 20 found this review helpful
Determined to make a bigger splash in the US (despite the quite
respectable sales of her last CD), Madonna ropes in two teams of the
hottest producers, Timbaland, Danja and Timberlake on one hand, and
Pharrell Williams on the other. "Hard candy" is Mrs Ritchie's 11th
studio album, and I must confess, when I heard with whom she would be
working, I half feared the result would be some anonymous sounding Hip
hop/R&B.
I needn't have worried. The only songs leaning in that direction are
the first two ("Candy shop" and "4 minutes"), everything else sounds
more like the stuff she's done on her last 4 albums. It's very much a
dance/electronic album with lyrics generally about love and dancing,
and it reminds me of Britney's last album which was done by the same
teams (minus Timberlake). The mood is upbeat (there are no real
ballads), and according to Pharrell, she pitted both teams against
each other to see which came up with the better product.
At twelve tracks, she keeps it nice and sweet. Opening cut, the
thumping "Candy shop" (with stabbing synths and Eastern-sounding
string breaks) makes loads of innuendo laden references to sweets;
"Don't pretend you're not hungry/there's plenty to eat/I got Turkish
Delights" she purrs. "4 minutes" is the lead-off single and is a duet
with Justin Timberlake (he gets to say "Madonna, huh!" a lot), her
second duet single ever, after the rather dismal one she did with
Britney ("Me against the music"). It has a killer chorus, though I
find rather grating that riff that threatens to drown out the vocals
during the verses. It has already become her 37th US top 10 hit, and
60th UK top 10 hit.
"Give it to me" is just ok, it doesn't move me, and to think this is
pencilled as the next single. Hopefully, the remixes will be much
better. "Spanish lesson" is an attempt at flamenco pop, think Timberlake's
"Like I love you" (which like this was produced by Pharrell) or N*E*R*D's
"She wants to move". The Flamenco-style music is nice, but the lyrics
are puerile and her voice sounds whiny.
Not quite another "La isla bonita", "Who's that girl" or "Spanish eyes", but still, it is silly fun.
My favourite moments on the CD are when the Pop sheen bursts through
all that layering. "Heartbeat" (which starts off with the sound of a
heart beating) is catchy Europop with a Hip hop beat. The tender
"Miles away" (with a sparse sound, nice guitar strumming, electronic
flourishes and a disco beat closing it) features heartfelt pining
lyrics; "You always have the biggest heart when we're six thousand
miles apart" she sings. "Beat goes on" is an eighties style groovy
number (similar to her "Holiday") with a very laid back rap by Kanye
West, though it does seem to lose its groove in the final minute. I'm
sure I'm alone on this, but I prefer the leaked version I heard last
year. That was more stripped with fast strummed guitars, different
verses, and no Kanye. The fantastic "She's not me" is very reminiscent
of Chic, complete with scratchy guitar, though the final two minutes
or so seem to go nowhere for too long. "Dance 2night" is another
extremely catchy dark eighties style groovy number (I love the bridge
before the chorus).
The frenetic piano sprinkled "Incredible" features syncopated beats,
(I love the swirling synths that come and go) but still has a ballad
feel, as does the beautiful quasi-symphonic "Devil wouldn't recognize
you" (with haunting choir-like harmonies) which reminds one ever so
faintly of co-writer Justin Timberlake's "What goes around" or even
"Cry me a river". Closing is the theatrical semi-ballad, "Voices" (the
opening vocals are so Queen-like) which sounds like some movie score
especially in its closing minute.
A natural follow up to "Confessions on a dance floor" though better
(in my opinion) and I find I can't stop playing it. Fun and incredibly groovy!
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