Anxiety said:

who?

GangstaFam said:

I'm watching it right now. "Give It 2 Me"

I wish Derek (eleven) were on here to give us a full report.

I've listened to the album enough now to rate the songs.

Candy Shop: 2- I knew this as a demo, and hated it then. It hasn't gotten any better. I don't mind a throwaway song, but it just doesn't seem to suit her well like the R & B of Bedtime Stories did. Atrocious.

4 Minutes: 3- Even without Timbertwat on board, I wouldn't like it. I'm not a fan of bombastic brass, even synth brass. The lyrics are confusing and pretty pointless.

Give It 2 Me: 9- Probably my favorite. It's a fun dance track that feels more comfortable for her. It would be a 10 if not for the "Get stupid" parts.

Heartbeat: 8- Another solid song, and one of the few SONGS on the album. Madonna's voice leaves something to be desired here, though (the only waaannnnn).

Miles Away: 5- There seems to be a decent song in the mix somewhere here- it's just caked in layers of production that don't make sense to me. I'm not a fan of acoustic guitar (I disliked "Don't Tell Me" quite a bit), but the biggest problem here for me seems to be that the melody is too much like a campfire singalong.

She's Not Me: 9- I like the groove of this song a lot, even though it's totally stupid lyrically. It has a bit of everything, but it probably lasts about a minute or two too long.

Incredible: 4- All the production in the world can't cover up the fact that there just isn't a good melody to be found here, to these ears anyway.

Beat Goes On: 8- My most pleasant surprise. I didn't like the demo at all, but its rebirth as a house/disco stomper serves it well. I actually don't mind Kanye on it, either.

Dance 2Night: 4- Timbertwat returns to my disgrace. The bass has potential, but Madonna sounds so bored and half-asleep throughout that it just comes off sounding flat to me.

Spanish Lesson: 1- I don't really think I need to explain.

Devil Wouldn't Recognize You: 8- The fact that this song is an older tune jumps out immediately, as it becomes evident that there was a lot of time spent on developing the emotional pull of the melody, unlike most of the tracks here.

Voices: 6- Another song with potential, even if it is buried with awkward production. I get the feeling I would like this song (and many others) if they were "remixed" to sound like Madonna songs. In fact, one of my issues with this album is that most of the songs sound like remixes themselves. While this is fine for a fun side project, it doesn't cut it for a studio album.

I find that "Incredible" just loops on and on and on at the end.

Cinnie said:

I have already been mashing this up in my private mind garden.

Cinnie said:

it's time to get you hands up
it's time to get yo body movin'


it sounds like Madonna and Pharrell are having alot of fun on this song

Cinnie said:

Maybe Madonna has found a new love? How scandalous would it be if she and Justin announced that they're a couple?!

SoulAlive said:

She would kill him in bed.

I think she looks GREAT!!

WOW wish i had seen it.....

SoulAlive said:

I bet she'd fuck his ass with a strap on.

Seriously, there is no other way this could work.





.
[Edited 5/1/08 2:19am]

rushing07 said:

For Justin,the whole thing would be over in about "4 Minutes",lol.

ehuffnsd said:

Some of those Blond Ambition tour vocals still haunt me. Strangely though i think the best vocals she ever gave were at the very beginning - when she was doing the clubs and on The Virgin Tour.

the photos make the show look a lot cooler than it was. it was okay, but nothing spectacular.

newpower99 said:

"4 Minutes" is doing better than I expected.The song clearly hasn't peaked yet.

http://www.billboard.com/...1003796943

First Day Sales Put Madonna On Track For 7th No. 1

April 30, 2008, 6:40 PM ET

Keith Caulfield, L.A.
Madonna is on track to net her seventh No. 1 album on next week's Billboard 200 with "Hard Candy," based on first-day sales measured by the Nielsen SoundScan Building Chart released Wednesday afternoon (April 30).

Unweighted sales for the Warner Bros. album from the Building Chart's panel of reporters through the close of business Tuesday, April 29, stood at 100,000.

Among all female artists, only Barbra Streisand has earned more No. 1s -- with eight. Currently, Madonna, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson are all tied for the second most, with six apiece.

Late last year, Chris Brown's "Exclusive" posted a first day number of
107,000 and finished the week with 294,000. However, sources close to the Madonna project indicate that with much of "Hard Candy's" first-day figure driven by iTunes sales, its full sales week could end up closer to the range of 225,000-250,000.

Madonna's last studio effort, 2005's "Confessions on a Dance Floor," started at No. 1 with 350,000.


Billboard estimates the merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building Chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Circuit City, iTunes, Starbucks,Borders, Target, Anderson Merchandisers, and Handleman Co. -- comprise about 80% of all U.S. Album sales.

Leading the charge for "Hard Candy" is first single "4 Minutes," featuring Justin Timberlake, which peaked at No. 3 on The Billboard Hot 100 and spent two weeks at No. 1 on Hot Digital Songs. The download has sold 1 million copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan, including 185,000 for the week that ended April 27.

Madonna first rang the Billboard 200's bell when "Like a Virgin" reached No. 1 in late 1984. Since then, she's claimed No. 1s with "True Blue" (1986), "Like a Prayer" (1989), "Music" (2000), "American Life" (2003) and "Confessions."

She also owns a whopping five sets that peaked at No. 2 -- "I'm Breathless" (1990), "The Immaculate Collection" (1990), "Erotica" (1992), the soundtrack to "Evita" (1996) and "Ray of Light" (1998).

On the Wednesday Building Chart, Lyfe Jennings' new "Lyfe Change" (Columbia) was in second place with 25,000. Other new titles appearing in that preliminary list's top 10 include the Roots' "Rising Down" (Def Jam), Portishead's "Third" (Mercury), Def Leppard's "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge" (Island/UMe), Augustana's "Can't Love, Can't Hurt" (Epic) and Mudcrutch's self-titled album (Reprise).
[Edited 5/1/08 3:06am]

Ok,I just downloaded the Roseland performance It was too brief,but alot of fun.It's got me really excited for the tour!!!

Highlights: "Miles Away" and "Give It To Me" (love the choreography)
[Edited 5/1/08 4:25am]

A crowd far larger than the 2,200 capacity of New York club Roseland camped out overnight on the streets of midtown Manhattan awaiting the chance to see Madonna debut tracks from her new album Hard Candy on Wednesday.
The audience of celebs and die-hard fans who actually made it through the doors in time for her 10 p.m. set (which was broadcast on the Web by Verizon) seemed more awed than ready to groove when Madonna hit the stage, spending time texting and taking photos to prove the experience had really happened rather than dancing. But the cheers were ear-splitting, and with good reason: For 40 minutes Madonna delivered an impressive taste of what her upcoming Hard Candy tour might look like + tight choreography to match her sculpted body, reinterpreted tracks, a bit of rock & roll and a star ready to run her mouth.

After spinning approximately an hour’s worth of music ranging from Rihanna to the Eurythmics (though the biggest cheers came for “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and a spotting of Rosie O’Donnell in the balcony), Madonna’s DJ flipped on 50 Cent’s Candy Shop” and dropped in a bit of “I Want Candy.” Eventually the tracks faded, making way for the sound of Madonna singing the chorus from Hard Candy opener “Candy Shop,” at which point the lights dropped and the night’s main attraction emerged on a throne swinging a cane. Giant projection screens flanking the stage displayed mesmerizing animations of spinning candy as Madonna strutted around the stage in tall lace-up boots and a lacey black top with six dancers in tow.

After greeting the crowd with, "All right, New York City!" she was handed a black acoustic guitar with a sparkly silver strap and immediately launched into the new album’s lush but wistful "Miles Away," assisted by a small band consisting of a drummer, two keyboardists, the DJ and the guitarist who played her past three tours, Monte Pittman.
After stepping up to the front of the stage to strum the last bars of the song as images of airplanes landing and plane tickets flashed on the screens behind her, Madonna retreated only to re-emerge a moment later, after Hard Candy’s first single "4 Minutes" kicked off with a brief fanfare. The set began to rotate across the stage, creating a few narrow columns that doubled as screens projecting images of booming speakers as the song’s video played at the back of the stage. When it came time for Justin Timberlake’s first vocal parts, he emerged from behind one of the set pieces in a black-trimmed white jacket and dark scarf to wild cheers (Hamutsun Serve, the Japanese dance duo who appear in the video, also made an appearance). Timberlake and Madonna ended the song by replicating the choreography from the video, moving swiftly back and forth across the stage.

After the set spun back to its original position, the riff from the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” sailed off the stage. “Did you guys think you came to a Rolling Stones concert?” Madonna asked the crowd, and responded to the audience’s slight boos with, “Yeah, fuck that.” After thanking “the lovely and talented” Timberlake for joining her show, she added, “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be able to make a record with him, Timbaland, Pharrell, Kanye West. And even though I’ve made what seems like 100 records, every time I put one out it’s like the first time, and the best time.” Madonna: always like a virgin.

“But that’s all I can take of living in the present,” she said sharply. “Fuck the present! We’re going to go back in time. All you people I saw asleep on the sidewalk last night, this song is for you, and I want to hear you singing it loud and clear.” She then picked out the chord progression for Confessions on a Dance Floor’s “Hung Up” on a black Les Paul, turning the super-digital disco tune into a grungy, guitar-based sludge-fest as black-and-white images of blurry breakdancers appeared on the screens behind her. In an extremely rare moment of imperfection, she skipped a “tick-tick-tock” and got slightly ahead of her band and backing vocal, turning around to glance at her fellow musicians before popping back onto the beat. “Anybody who knows me knows how much I hate to wait,” she announced as the song neared its end, replicating the sound of waiting in her brain by executing a slow pick slide, then provided a rocking coda - as though she was taking aim at those who criticized her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - as her DJ threw up devil horns. She then stalked offstage and gave the crowd the finger in a move reminiscent of the punk section of 2001’s Drowned World Tour, where she first debuted her guitar playing.

Madonna returned after an extremely swift outfit change in a sleeveless jacket for “Give It 2 Me,” the Pharrell-produced club track that will serve as Hard Candy’s second single, surrounded by two male dancers in doo-rags who encouraged the crowd to hop up on the track’s synth-amped chorus. Pharrell appeared on the video screens throughout the song, and green lasers cut across the stage, pulsing in time to the thumpy track. “I don’t see people jumping up and down enough,” Madonna complained, singing the chorus to “Music” accompanied only by the beat from her new album’s “Heartbeat.” After vanishing briefly once again, the back screen changed to a projection of a subway car, and a central panel spun to reveal Madonna and her dancers lounging on seats as though they were hopping the D to the Bronx (the car actually read “Freshville”). Unlike “Hung Up,” “Music” got a synth-soaked remix treatment, which soundtracked a gender-split dance-off between Madonna and her lady dancers and their male counterparts.

At the end of the song the Kangol-topped crew returned to the subway and the lights came up signifying the conclusion of the set, but the beat went on - literally - as the PA blasted “Beat Goes On” from Hard Candy and fans danced their way out the door.

From RollingStone.com





An amazing show! The '4 Minutes' portion is the showstopper. Sounded really amazing especially the first part. I have to admit that it really gave me the creeps. The sound is like ushering in an end to something.

At 49 and performing like that, she made me feel like I'm 60 years old.

Long live the Queen!

Candy Shop: 4/5
4 Minutes: 4/5
Give it to me: 4/5
Heartbeat: 1/5
Miles Away: 5/5
She's not me: 2/5
Incredible: 3/5
Beat goes on: 4/5
Dance 2Night: 5/5
Spanish Lesson: 2/5
Devil: 5/5
Voices: 4/5

By the way, I only have one word to Madonna's HomePage: TITS
[Edited 5/1/08 5:23am]

SoulAlive said:

Since everyone is rating the tracks,I'll finally do the same

Candy Shop 3/5
4 Minutes 3/5
Give It To Me 4/5
Heartbeat 5/5
Miles Away 5/5
She's Not Me 3/5
Incredible 4/5
Beat Goes On 5/5
Dance 2Night 5/5
Spanish Lesson 1/5
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You 4/5
Voices 1/5

My overall grade for this album is a B+.If "Spanish Lesson" and "Voices" had been replaced with stronger songs,it would have gotten an A.

SoulAlive said:

I still haven't seen it

Matronik said:

Download it here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/a2jco6

For those that love "Miles Away", do you think it has a chance a single? I wonder if WB will listen to the fans and release it to radio after "Give It 2 Me" (a very odd choice especially considering the stronger Neptunes tracks that are more radio friendly).

I liken the song to American Life's "Nothing Fails". It's that great song that is very emotional and most fans really love (but some hate). Yet that one got buried in a bad remix as "single" when WB realized it was just going to market the hell out of AL through dance remixed maxis and side projects to sell to hardcore fans. Hopefully seeing how well "4 Mintues" did, they will try to release singles to the commerical mainstream. "Nothing Fails" would have done that and "Miles Away" might if it is released as the 3rd single (although I would prefer "Candy Shop" although it seems unlikey).

SoulAlive said:

I think Im the only one that doesnt give Beat Goes On a high score. Maybe its a grower for me .