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| Artist: Madonna
Label: WEA/Reprise
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $5.18
You Save: $13.80 (73%)
New (72) Used (37) from $4.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  474 reviews
Sales Rank: 240
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
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new sealed. In stock in our warehouse, and ships right now. 20% chance the case has a crack or two.
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| Customer Reviews:
Sticks to You but Lacks Personality October 13, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm not sure what to think of Hard Candy. There's so much to love about it, and yet so much stuff that's so hard to swallow. It's an anomaly in Madonna's career; rather than go her own ways and explore little-known genres or at least make them her own - like she's always done - she explores the semi-hiphop dance flora. Rather than be the risk-taking pioneer, she's joined the club. This is precisely why Hard Candy may be her weakest effort in terms of character.
Don't get me wrong; Hard Candy is full of wonderful songs, excellently crafted and atmospheric. It's just that its principal problem is that Madonna takes a somewhat 'backseat' to it. She hired Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Kanye West to produce it with her rather than engage in a one-on-one musical collaboration as she's been doing throughout the course of her career, more or less. Sadly, this shows. Ray of Light has personality. Confessions on a Dance Floor for sure has personality. Hard Candy doesn't have that personality - even its title sounds like a sell-out. As I listen to it, I wonder what inspired Madonna to make it.
"Candy Shop" is such a weak track, I'm surprised Madonna put it on the album at all, let alone made it the opener. "4 Minutes"'s flair wears off fairly quickly. "Give it 2 Me" is admittedly a very catchy track, but my sister's comments on the accompanying video still ring in my ears when I listen to it - "It must be hard to have to hold on to her sex symbol status at the age of 50". But the thing is, ever since Ray of Light, this hasn't presented a problem. Ever since Ray of Light, everybody said Madonna grew up, and that remains the album where my following of Madonna's music takes off, where she gained unlimited producing freedom and - more importantly - started exploring a certain maturity to her music. All that is out the window with Hard Candy. Some songs even go as far as having rap interludes, whether by Kanye West or others, and this just feels incredibly 'cheap'. It's as though M's previous four effors never happened. Where's the woman who consistently risks everything by going her own way, in order to make original music? It's only in a handful of tracks - primarily during "Voices" - where her vocal maturity actually shines through, too.
To give her right, however, Madonna shows on this album that in spite of lack of personality, this album bears her musical touch. Immediately after "Give it 2 Me", it's as though somebody puts on a different album, because "Heartbeat" is a wonderful surprise. The lyrics aren't the most original - about feeling alive on the dance floor - but it's a really moving song. The melancholic "Miles Away" takes the atmosphere even further. "She's Not Me" starts out cheeky and fun, but towards the end it becomes really engaging. "Incredible" is great, too, but it again pinpoints the 'backseat' approach - right out of nowhere, Madge chimes "Sex with you is - incredible." Way to knock you out of a trance.
"Beat Goes On" and "Dance 2Night" are okay dance tracks. But the three closing tracks form a solid streak of diverse yet enveloping songs. "Spanish Lesson" sounds exactly as it sounds, and is definitely a personality of a song to take in (if it weren't for the "get up on the dancefloor" bits, that is). "Devil Wouldn't Recognise You" again touches upon the melancholic strings, and is a joy to listen to.
However, it's the closer, "Voices", that casts my doubts about this album into the deepest abyss. Not an overly-long track - it stops just when it's at its height - it is a truly breathtaking number; in my opinion one of Madonna's deeper and more mysterious songs. It's a musical mindscape, and certainly one of this album's best reasons for being. If only the "Candy Shops" and rap monologues had been scrapped to explore this kind of sound further.
In conclusion, I am as confused as when I started. On the one hand, it's evident that Madonna didn't try as hard to give this album personality as she's always done, and - worse - chucked out a couple of average tracks. On the other, there's plenty of good music to be had here, ranging from catchy to breathtakingly compelling. How do I rank this? In the end, for lack of personality this album gets a minus. For a number of wonderful tracks (despite some cheap bits here and there), it deserves a loud applause. Hard Candy lacks that originality and productional coherence which shone through Confessions on a Dance Floor, and Madonna needs to remember that she is fully capable of making good music by being true to herself. The cover art is downright scary - it makes Madge look much older than she truly does. But what frightens me when I listen to the album is the inescapable feeling I get that Madonna herself may fear that she's losing her touch. I pray that I'm wrong, and that the most compelling musical artist in history will again show us that she can still kick musical butt.
 So Tasty. October 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Once more Madonna brings another album that shows that she really has a flawless talent. Every album that she records takes us on a tour of a renovated Madonna but obviuosly, with her same roots.
Her previous album "Confessions on a dance floor" from my point of view was one of her greatest productions, (I found "American life" not good).
"Hard candy" has a more commercial sound. It has contribuitions of big names in the american music business such as Pharrell Willimas, Timbaland, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake. All the songs sound fresh and have great rhythms. The opennig track, "Candy shop" gives the album's tittle and is fun. My favorite track on this album is "Give it 2 me" next to Pharrell. It is a song that makes you feel like deancing, another great tune is "Beat goes on" next to Kanye West. "Dance 2tonight" is one of the songs with less rhythm but still very good. Actually the whole album is very good, after listening it you'll like it more and well, if you like Madonna there isn't much to say, it is all history.
What I would like to comment as an advice, is that if you are hesitating about either buying the simple or special release version, buy the simple one. I have the special package and it doesn't include anything special. The box is very big (hard to put next to other cd's) and has the same pictures. The only extras are 2 remixes from "4 minutes" (the remixes are good but nothing really special) and a small bag of candies.
 Hard Candy October 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Hard Candy being Madonna's latest release is an ok release that is neither really bad or all that good either. I did not expect Confessions part II, knowing that Madonna likes to change her music and image for every record she releases. This time it just does not work all that well. Whilst it worked like a charm with William Orbit. This time around with Timbaland it sounds uninspired many times. 4 minutes, Give it 2 me are great tracks. However, to much Timbaland just gets, well not that fun. As for the book-let. Well Madonna looks even more plastic then usual. That outfit is not especially flattering. No lyrics and the rest of the information is basically impossible to read. I expected a lot more from this and therefore I give it 3/5!
Madge's new album October 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not a huge Madonna fan in general, but really liked this one. I highly recommend it. Pretty fun to work out to also!!!
Madonna "Hard Candy" October 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Catchy songs including The Billboard Hot 100 TOP TEN Hit "4 minutes" with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, "Give it 2 me" and "The beat goes on" with Kanya West (not a remake of the 1967 Sonny and Cher classic) In the U.S. "Hard Candy" has sold about 648,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, and many of the songs can be heard during Madonna's "Sticky and Sweet" tour, where she also gets into Politics. Interestingly, In the 2008 Presidential Primary race, Hillary Clinton earned more Votes than any Presidential Primary candidate in the history of America (hillaryclintonforum, The Denver Group)
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