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When she’s not busy picking kids up in Malawi, dressing them up
and making them call her “mama,” Madonna still occasionally
makes music. Her latest album Hard Candy has been eagerly awaited
not just by her cross-dressing, cone-bra-wearing and diehard
following, but by newer audiences who probably weren’t around yet
when she sighed her first chorus back in the early 1980s. The reason
is simple: the motley team behind this latest exercise includes the
biggest and hottest names in music today. We’re talking of course,
of the current urban, hip-hop royalty of Justin Timberlake,
Timbaland and Pharrell Williams.
Our first taste of this Candy was expectedly
sweet; her collaboration with Timberlake on the frenetic “Four
Minutes” has just the right amount of pulsing beats and dance pop
energy, not to mention an irresistible, catchy chorus (Timberlake
breathlessly proclaiming, “We only got four minutes to save the
world!”), to put Madonna back on the pop music landscape since her
bestselling “Confessions on a Dance Floor.” The original
Material Girl however tends to be overshadowed by the flashy
Timberlake and at times seems to fade in and out of the song. (So
that’s why Timbaland keeps reminding us about “Ma-DON-Nuh”
every other line in the song.)
The rest of the album teeters on that line
between Madonna’s specialty of fine, dance-driven exploits on sex
and more sex, and the producers’ slick, familiar grooves. Williams
tries his darnest to reach new heights with the Madge, but
watered-down songs such as the unexciting “Candy Shop” and the
tepid and at-times ridiculous “Incredible” don’t seem to stick
with Madonna’s often over-the-top interpretation of her own
material. The original Material Girl seems to have more luck with
her collaborations with hotshot producer Timbaland. We’ve heard
his sonic Midas touch on records by Nelly Furtado and frequent
collaborator Timberlake, as well as with rock group One Republic
with the massive hit “Apologize,” and he brings with him his
knack for both subtle and grandiose productions in “Candy.”
Apart from first single “Four Minutes,” I expect “Devil
Wouldn’t Recognize You” and the decidedly slower and more
wistful “Miles Away” to be definite fan-pleasers.
Still, it must be said that, knowing Madonna’s
almost iconic reputation for reinvention, it’s just the tiniest
bit surprising for me that there is less of her forging into new
territory on this album and more of making use of what’s already
there and what’s already been done. Along with her
producer-friends doing what is expected of them, the unmistakable
sound of the 1980s permeate many of the tracks on the album. While
there is nothing wrong with looking back to find inspiration to
create something meaningful and fresh, I would’ve thought she had
it in her to twist something from the past around and make it more
current and relatable.
And therein, I think lies the problem. Hard
Candy is easy enough to swallow and digest as a better-than average
dance pop album from the reigning Queen of Pop, but you have to
wonder how much Madonna is invested in keeping herself relevant in a
music scene that’s churning out fresher and newer acts by the
second. The feisty maven we grew up with who simulated sex onstage
and burned crucifixes in her videos is turning 50 this year, but
there’s no question she’s still got it (Hard Candy peaked at the
top of Billboard charts, her seventh number one album). The question
is, does she still have that fire and determination to buck trends
and go her own way to give us something truly exciting and
memorable, similar to her work on “Ray of Light” and
“Music?” For the moment, we’ll just have to chew on her Hard
Candy while we wait for an answer.
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