OK, as I have pre-ordered the album on Itunes, and plan to purchase a hard copy also, i felt ok to download some of the tracks.

Give it 2 Me is just brilliant -i love it. A frantic pulsating work out of a song that i think will sound (and look) amazing live.

Hearbeat - Ahhh i love the beginning - i wish the intro was longer and had more of a build to it - could be awesome live in an arena as an extended intro. The song itself is the strongest ive heard on this record. I love Pharrels backing on this one too. Should be the second single.

Miles Away - stupidly catchy. Should definitely be a single.

She's Not Me - i like elements of this but its not quite a love job yet. Will probably grow on me but i want more hand claps and whistles. The line about someone pimping your style is soooo lame - but i love it for that.

Incredible - I think the hook is excellent but it becomes abit messy. I pretty much hate her screeching of the word "incredible" towards the end. Highlights everything thats wrong with her vocals on this record.

Beat Goes On - Whoa - i love this reworking - mainly for Pharrells beep beep lines. Soooo retro. I even like Kanye's cameo which i didnt think i would.

Overall i love what I’ve heard so far - i cant help but feel Prince should be all over this album - especially Beat Goes on. Would have love love loved some Prince cameos.

I think its a great dance-pop record, and a logical progression from Confessions. I hear the critics who take issue with the band wagon jumping, but i say forget all that and just enjoy it for what it is. Heartbeat is the standout followed closely by Give it 2 me & Beat Goes On.

Im really looking forward to hearing Devil and Dance 2 Night – I’ve always had highest hopes for them.

My main issue with it is her vocals. She’s trying to sing like she’s 25 again but she's lost some of her register since then and its all a bit forced.

is it just me or does Pharrell call out "Wendy!" in "She's Not Me?" Could it be?

piepie1976 said:

he does. it couldnt be. could it? Pharrell cant play guitar - and its too funky to be madonna.

garganta said:

Me too!!! If it's any good , I am willing to come here and eat humble pie. I hope it is a good even great CD.
[Edited 4/21/08 8:06am]

I like it & I'm not a Madonna fan. "4 minutes" is still the ish!

CrozzaUK said:

i noticed it too and if it is it's great because wendy so fits that sound.

Here's a couple Madonna oddities from YouTube:

The infamous Madonna pink wig incident


Closer to Fuck Madonna (freaky! )

I give it and a

raveun2thejoyfantastic said:

She's certainly come a long way since then...

I'm always "late" to things goin' on it seems,
so didn't try to find the snippets, and since
it's so close now, I'll just wait and decide what I like
in a few days....although I'd love to look at your guys
reviews once I've heard the tracks myself. I knew I'd be
buying this album anyway, no matter what.

I did cheat a bit and tried to play some of the videos
posted, but of course they were gone already...

obsessed said:

mmmm, otay

VinnyM27 said:

LOL

Here's this add from YouTube

[Edited 4/21/08 15:40pm]

Get Stupid...Get Stupid...

I've just heard the whole album leak. I'm being bloody honest now in saying this is the worst thing Madonna has ever done. The worst thing I've heard all year. The worst thing I've heard since Akon. It makes Janet's last 2 albums sound like Thriller.

This album is offensive to humans. I can't bare to keep the mp3s.

Making Madonna's "Take a Bow". Lovely!

quick review

candy shop: love those synth stabs after the chorus. very simple, very sparse.
they remind me somewhat of prince's black sweat. omg did i just say that?

4 minutes: everyone knows this. i know it too and i don't like it one bit

give it 2 me: some nice production touches, stuff floating in and out of the mix
briefly. i like that. the tempo of the main beat is relentless. it feels like a
beat on a sugar rush. i'm expecting helium/chipmunk voices. not very cool.

heartbeat: i love that intro with the stuttering synth. 80's retro. shame that it
gets overlapped with a generic beat for most of the rest of the song. i like the
vocal melody of the song. breezy pop. as i said, 80's retro, tho the 80s vibe
makes me yearn for 80s melodies, you know real melodies, memorable melodies

miles away: 5th song into the album and the thing that strikes me most is how cold
and superficial the beats sound. i mean, with the producers she's enlisted you'd
expect the beats to be stellar. anyways, most memorable and instant hitting song
yet. i like it, sure i'm gonna play it more often in the near future.

she's not me: all the songs, except perhaps miles away remind me of songs that i've
heard before although i just can't put my finger on where or what. this songs does
nothing to convince me otherwise. boring, beats by numbers, melody is so breezy it's
almost non existent. there are nice ideas and some nice flourishes. not enough to
save the song for me.

incredible: what the fuck is up with her voice? that same weird pitch is on
every song this far. her voice doesn't sound warm or emotional anywwhere. the vox
do match the beats in that respect, cold and uninspired. god damnit.

the beat goes on: yup, the same droning uneventfull beat from the previous 6 songs
goes on even on this one. and that's about the most exciting thing here.

dance 2night: some interesting stuff in this one. i don't like the song but still,
at least something is happening here. shame that those "you don't have to be" lyrics
are such a blatant rip on prince's kiss.

spanish lesson: let's get some more songwriting lessons first, please

devil wouldn't recognise you: lol, it's cry me a river part 2. but at least we get
a song-song, even if it is far too late to save the album. it's a bit boring but
it gives me an idea of what the initial concept of the album might have been. when
it still had a warm soul

voices: i was so looking forward to this song, and indeed it is quite
ok but wtf is up with the carbon copy of Massiv Attack's Unfinished Sympathy??


conclusion:

altho i was looking forward to this and mostly enjoy madonna's stuff this album leaves me
without interest to hear it ever again. i'll give it some more spins but simply because
it's madonna. any other artist and i wouldn't give it a second glance.
everyone that doesn't like it is gonna say it's because of justin and timbaland and i'll
reluctantly admit that they didn't bring the goods eventho i was betting on them
because whatever you say, listen to justin's latest album and nelly furtado's album and
you get over a dozen examples of what could have been, if only..... the combination of
justin and timbaland made futuresex/lovesounds a very good album eventho people like to
slag off timberlake just because it seems to be the hype.
anywho, i just figured that by adding madonna to that mix you'd get an album that would
be head and shoulders above both Loose and Futuresex/Lovesounds.
it's a bummer to listen to it and find that it's nothing like either of those and nothing
near madonna's usual standards.
it feels contrived, cold, uninspired, messy and peppered with a few dozen stolen elements
from better songs by other artists.



confessions almost seems like a masterpiece next to this album. and i know
the defense is always that she doesn't need to write deep lyrics because
she's a pop artist and her songs are about feeling good and dancing blabla
but some of these lyrics are just a crying shame, especially for a mother
of 3 that's just hit 50. she can sings about whatever she wants but you'd
think she'd have a little bit more to say at this point in time that just
tired old worn out cliches and 3rd grade booty rhyme.

Ellie said:

U also hate Robyn... Now I'm worried about u

IstenSzek said:

I agree with your assessment. That's pretty much exactly how I felt. The beats and production are completely lacking.
[Edited 4/21/08 15:35pm]

RING
MY
BELL
IS
SO
COOL
!
!
!

[Edited 4/21/08 15:52pm]

This is the fucking record of the year simply Amazing

madsgreat said:

I like the album a lot! I prefer some songs over others, but it turned out better than I expected, and surprisingly, sounds nothing like Justin's albums. I knew Madonna would still sound like herself with the recent electronica stuff she's done, but with a slight hip hop touch, that I knew neptunes and timbaland would be able to do. Right now Incredible and Give It To Me are in my head. I don't think it's better than Discipline, but I do love it and it hit me harder than Mariah's new one.
[Edited 4/21/08 17:35pm]

VoicesCarry said:

ouch! that doesn't hurt me though...but truth does, doesn't it?

spanish lessons hurts my ears...she should be arrested 4 that one!! what the hell was she thinking??

go2theMax said:

I can only assume that is the case, considering that you bothered replying to my initial post.

The Sun Paper:WHO better to talk loyal Bizarre readers through a MADONNA album than the Queen of Pop herself?

MADGE has kindly given me a complete rundown on her forthcoming album Hard Candy.

This time round it has a seriously American angle, with hip-hop stars TIMBAL-AND, PHARRELL WILLIAMS and pop king JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE adding their influence.

Over to you, Madonna. You have 4 Minutes to tell it all in your own words.

4 MINUTES:(The first single, which hit No1 yesterday on downloads alone. The CD is in store today). If you’re paying attention to what's going on in the world – the Middle East, the (US) election, the environment, there’s so much chaos and turmoil everywhere. Are you going to be part of the problem or part of the solution? But people also need to be cheered up. We also need to have fun and be given a sense of hope.

CANDY SHOP: This was the first song I wrote with Pharrell. It’s one of my favourites on the record. It personifies the mood I was in making the record – lots of innuendo. You can get so many things in a candy shop!

GIVE IT TO ME: It’s going to be a great song to do live. I can see the whole place jumping. It’s the ultimate “Give me all you’ve got, don’t try to stop me”. And a great song to work out to.

MILES AWAY: This is the first song I wrote with Justin. It’s definitely a song people in my business can relate to. All of us in the studio were like, “Yeah, I get that”.

SHE’S NOT ME: We were listening to a lot of Debbie Harry records. It’s kind of Debbie Harry meets Gloria Gaynor I Will Survive. Pharrell came up with the hook so we concocted a story about the ultimate jilted lover.

BEAT GOES ON: Lucky for us, Kanye West was recording his album across the hall while we were making our record. We were also channelling Marvin Gaye and different artists from the past.

INCREDIBLE: There’s a lot of angst in it and a lot of desire – wanting to recreate some feeling of happiness and fulfilment. But it’s also about abandonment and having a good time. Pharrell was playing me all these songs from Baltimore. There’s this sound coming out of Baltimore. He kept calling it The Be More.

THE DEVIL WOULDN’T RECOGNIZE YOU and VOICES: Both were written in the first chunk of time I had writing with Justin. Devil is a song about a person who everyone has in their life – a person who gets away with everything. Voices is about people playing mind games and who go on ego trips. The line, “Are you walking the dog or is the dog walking you?” . . . it’s like, who’s in control here? These last two songs really make you think and there’s something very orchestral and lush about them. We started out light with Candy Shop and ended in a thoughtful way with Voices. I think it was a good journey to go on.

Ta, Madge. Get your copy of Hard Candy, out next Monday.
[Edited 4/21/08 19:01pm]

raveun2thejoyfantastic said:

When Madonna is talking 2 Emilio Muñoz, I think she says "What's happening? One spider for my three bears. Much respect." I don't know why she'd be talking about a spider & 3 bears, though.

SoulAlive said:

Interesting

raveun2thejoyfantastic said:

i miss Madge and Kurt