it's my first madonna album aswell ^

 

I seriouslt hated it at first, even 4 minutes, but I love almost every track after today

I got my copy earlier today

 

I'll give it a listen and post my views later ^_^

 

(I think this may be the first time I've posted in this forum, so hello everyone :P )

Welcome ! ! :D

 

I shall buy it on Wednesday once I get payed, it'll be my first Madonna album!

I hope it won't be your last !!

I've been a huge fan since Bedtime Stories and with each release I've loved Madonna more and more. Hard Candy, however, has appauled me! For a number of reasons:

1. Mdolla - cringeworthy! Least Mimi etc is a nickname, Mdolla is just Madge tryin to be 'cool'

2. Kanye, Pharrell - two artists I hate

3. Lyrically it's disgraceful! She's not me she'll never have my name?!? Maybe it was just me but I thought she had depth before this?

4. Production - The album just doesn't flow, the beats and swirling vocals just make it one big messy headache it's got too much going on if that makes sense?

5. Artwork - oh jesus! She looks like SHRILEY FROM EASTENDERS!!!! Anyone agree? Like an old hooker and the lyrics about sex mixed with the artwork makes me heave

6. Originality (or lack of) - A key element of my love for Madonna was her changing styles and image, I truely felt she was a leader not a follower, but this isn't original at all, she just jumped on the R+B bandwaggon, this has all been done far far better by Nelly Furtado.

 

On a positive note:

1. Her voice at times sounds like Into The Groove era - which I love

2. She seems like she's having fun (even if I'm not)

3. Erm, that's it :huh:

I bought 5 copies of Hard Candy yesterday. One for Upstairs, another for downstairs and the 3 were for friends and family :)

 

What can i say? Can this beautiful, gorogus sexy woman get any better? When i first heard that she had enlisted the help of the Tim's and Pharelly..my initial reactions weren't good but nevertheless, i put my trust in her and as always, she came out on top and made this her album!!

 

Its not my all-time fave album as Music takes that honour however its up there with her best :)

 

Tracks that i'm not overly keen on are Candy Shop and Spanish Lesson. She changed the Beat Goes On (which i adore!) but why not reinvent Candy?

 

Give it 2 Me, as you'll all know is by far my favourite song off the album. I absolutely adore it! I'm so pleased its the second single and no doubt it'll be her 14th UK #1!! :)

 

HeartBeat is great, very sexy and great to get down too. Reminds me a bit of Future Lovers at the start.

 

She's not me's just classic Madge! I love it, very reminicent of Thieve of Hearts from the classic Erotica CD. I love the chorus and the dancey remix section!! Wendy!!! lol

 

The end of Voices reminds me of Issac leading up to Push from Confessions. I adore this song, its beautiful. Devil is another brilliant track, ok its similar to JT's track but miles better.

 

Incredible is utterly 'incredible' i knew people wer ejust chatting $h!t when they reviewed this track saying how bad it was. I love it, when i was buying my copie(s) yesterday, HMV were blasting this tune out and my goodness is sounded orgasmic! :)

 

Miles Away is beautiful, really stunning and would make a fantastic 3rd single. Reminds me alot of the gorgous Love Profusion and it would sound great performed live.

 

Beat Goes on is much better than the original, i love it. Very old skool as is Dance 2nite, M and JT sound fab! I'm gonna love getting down to these at parties this summer!!!!!

 

Okay....Spanish Lessons is silly! Annoying too. Make sme wanna spank my Madge for showing me up!! Another song that people say was left off 'Across the Sky' sounds better and shoulda been on this as well as Ring my Bell.

 

Overall, brilliant album and Madonna remains on top of her game still. The album of 2008!!

Review from Pitchfork Media:

 

Madonna is coming home: Having spent a decade working with producers drawn from European club culture, Hard Candy is her link-up with the American men who've come to define global pop. Five songs with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, six with Pharrell Williams, one with Williams and Kanye West. The best, this line-up announces, need to work with the best. But lead single "4 Minutes" doesn't sound like the best working with the best: It sounds complacent, like a pop supergroup high-fivin' each other.

 

The "4 Minutes" marching band rhythm-riff may be Timbaland's strongest idea on the album but the performers seem happy to let it do the work. He keeps shouting for "Mad-DON-nuh!" but she's a guest on her own track, singing from the margins of what might as well be a Timberlake outtake. Timbaland's productions are the weaker links on this frustratingly ordinary album. Partly he's a victim of his own ubiquity-- we know his tricks by now: the interlocking rhythmic hooks on his upbeat tracks, the bubbling claustrophobia on his ballads. "Devil Wouldn't Recognise You" is the third time-- at least-- that he's written "Cry Me a River", right down to the moody rainstorm breakdown and thunderclaps. But his less-typical productions don't all work well here either: "Dance 2Night" aspires to 80s funk slickness but lumbers where it should cruise.

 

The 1980s, specifically Madonna's 80s, haunt Hard Candy: It's been touted as a return to the spirit and sound of her earliest work, but her voice and delivery have changed too much for the comparison to hold. Her vocal training and singing lessons in the 90s broadened her range but she's never sounded as hungry since, and her phrasing on Hard Candy is frequently dreadful-- words so evenly spaced and emphasized that it sounds like she's reading aloud to a class. Or teaching you the choruses: You won't get "Miles Away" out of your head in a hurry but that's less to do with its quality than the didactic way she delivers it. Her biggest misstep is "Heartbeat"-- lyrics deliberately reminiscent of "Into the Groove" but sung so detached you might as well be at a Madonna Studies lecture.

 

The record's better tracks are, unsurprisingly, those where Madonna sounds more engaged. Second single "Give It to Me" has her delivering an imperious lesson on success and survival-- "Show me a record and I'll break it/ I can go on and on"-- over Hard Candy's most urgent tune, hard-pushing electro-ska whose keyboards break up trying to keep pace. Closing track "Voices" is gorgeously gothic orchestral synth-pop that she seems to relax and revel in. Centerpiece "She's Not Me" is a stirring piece of turf-defense, prowling between Chic-era disco and modern pop-house as Madonna slaps down a rival. It's taut and cold, easily Hard Candy's most emotionally compelling moment.

 

"She's Not Me" smoothly lays out Madonna's credentials: Twenty-five years at the top of the game. She doesn't reinvent pop; she defines it. Her strengths have always been her authority, and her smart sense of who to work with and when. So even if it's a summary of where pop's at rather than where it's going, Hard Candy should still be excellent. After all, if you're not going to do your best work for Madonna, who are you going to do it for? But after listening, the question's still open-- nobody involved in Hard Candy is anywhere near their creative peak.

According to Perez Hilton its meant to be selling about 300-350K in America this week.

^^ If it does then its doing similarly to Confessions which sold 350k in its first week! Its good but i wish it could do more..i was hoping for around 390k :(

i am officially getting my copy on saturday after selling my mum my old shuffle for some extra money

heard bits off itunes and it sounds amazing

Got to say I'm LOVING this album :wub: Some tracks take a few listens before you get into them but there are some really good little gems on the album. My faves are 4 Minutes, Give It To Me, Miles Away, Beat Goes On, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, Voices ... the others are still growing on me. But I like :D

I like it, I don't think its anything special though tbh, But ive only listened to it once, I love 4 Minutes and Give It 2 Me though. and I'm liking Heartbeat and Miles Away alot.

i got it today and am listening to it right now

i am loving candy shop and heartbeat

Just bought it :wub:

 

I got Music free too :cheer:

^^luckky!!

have fun listening to it :P

Hard Candy is the new number 1 album in the UK :cheer:

Hoping for good sales too.

All this success...#1 single and #1 album plus radio 1's big weekend and her world tour, its just all too overwhelming!!!

 

I don't think sales will be dazzeling though Chris :( 110k max woulda been amazing if they were much higher!

well done madonna

Heartbeat is just :heart:

Well i've listened to some of the album now (finally!) and at first I didn't like Give It 2 Me, but after I heard it out clubbing (a bit remixed I think?) I now quite like it, a bit repetitive but I like it. The Beat Goes On is fantastic, it MUST be a single. I expected to be blown away by Miles Away but i'm not too taken with it at the moment, although it'll probably grow. Haven't got through the full album yet but have listened to the ones people seem to have talked the most about. ^_^

^^ wow, u actually bought the album?? :lol: Well i'm glad u like it and hope it continues to grow on you. I have to tell you, MC's newbie has grown on me quite alot too! :) The start of something new :dance: