Madonna - Hard Candy

A few more spins under the glitterball

What would you do? The cynics are waiting for you to fall on your face with a misjudged reinvention, but the fans bought eight million copies of your last album. There’s only one thing you can do: make the same record again! Thus, Hard Candy is pretty much Confessions On A Dance Floor: Part Two, with Madonna opting to put her pop culture chameleon credentials on hold. Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake are the chief collaborators this time, cosying up for roughly half the album each, but the music mostly follows generic dance templates: Give It 2 Me, Beat Goes On and Dance Tonight come across as Beyoncé without the bounce, unremarkable breakbeats disguising the cheesy Europop grooves.

There’s a spark of Madge’s old wit on She’s Not Me, a subtle dig at a “flava of the moment” who’s been “reading my books, and stealing my looks and lingerie”, and the closing Voices also has more substance, the rhythm track serving the song, rather than swamping it. In the main, however, there’s something a little awkward about a woman pushing 50 urging “if you can handle it, undress me” or “see my booty get down”.

Warners | 421372

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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