purplesweat said:

One thing I really like about this CD is....hearing other people's voices on a Madonna album! It gives the album a "party vibe" that was missing from most of her recent albums.I like the vocal arrangements throughout,especially on songs like "Heartbeat" and "Beat Goes On",where Pharrell joins in on the hooks.Justin Timberlake even provides some good backup vocals on "Miles Away".I think it's a refreshing change of pace for Madonna.

SoulAlive said:

The songs aren't too bad, but Madonna's one tone voice makes them suck

marzellus said:

Very true. A lot of the songs on there I'd actually love if it weren't for her flat voice. Couldn't they auto tune some notes in there?!

No wonder Pharrell got frustrated. He's no amazing singer but his voice adds a kick of life needed into Incredible towards the end which otherwise probably would've failed without him.

Moonbeam said:

Exactly - wtf?

This album is pretty fucking dire all around. The first Madonna album I haven't purchased in one form or another.

badujunkie said:

Meanwhile... I AM BUMPING THE REMASTERED (in 2001) DEBUT!

SoulAlive said:

I still like it

her worst cd ever....some songs are unlistenable...and the video to 'give it to me' is one of her worst also.....she should have shelved the whole project....compare it to coad and it isnt good enough to wipe ur ass with...

SoulAlive said:

Despite all the people criticizing her voice, I actualy really like Madonna's voice. I always have and I always will. Accordingly, I hate all the other people singing on Hard Candy. It's like Madonna is a guest on the record and not the star. I can't stand Pharrell's voice at all. He sounds horrible. Madonna is the world's greatest singer compared to him.

I've only ever heard one song from Hard Candy (the one with JT) and I hated it and the video right from the start. When I heard she was working with all these hip, young producers, I just knew without a doubt that I would hate the cd and that it would sound like all the other crap songs by these same producers.

Madonna, like Janet, needs to start acting her age and accept the fact that she's no longer a spring chicken. She needs to do something more mature, but to be honest, I don't think she has it in her.

purplecam said:

Me, too. I feel the same way. Maybe I feel differently after what she comes up with her on tour, but I haven't listened to it much since the first week.

Empress said:

yes she does...all of her albums sound different than eachother.....thats what makes her special. I love this album just as much as Like A Virgin , Madonna and Like A Prayer.

Janet on the other hand has constantly been in the same vein since 2000 and trying harder and herder to make a hit album and its not working. Madonna already knows that she doesnt have to appeal to any group to gain approval. madonna is perfectly in tune with her audience.

Off the top of my head, I think Hard Candy is a better listen overall than:

True Blue
I'm Breathless
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
American Life

paisleypark4 said:

Glad to hear that her fans are enjoying her music. That's the main thing really.

I am SO glad I waited and got the Vinyl version. You get 2 colored disks and a 3rd 12" piece. Plus you get the album on CD. All gloriously packaged in a 3 gateway fold out. Though I love the Pink Vinyl for Confessions, I think the packaging for Hard Candy to be a lot better.

paisleypark4 said:

And unlike Prince, Janet or MJ, she doesn't care to gain more audience share, she's seems pretty content in keeping and catering to the one she has.

superspaceboy said:

The whole POINT of Hard Candy was to get a radio hit, which had been elusive for her since Don't Tell Me. That's why she put Timbaland and JT on the first single, and it's why she worked with Timbaland, JT and Pharrel. It was not an artistic decision. Isn't this obvious?!?!

The album has sold less than 1/4 what Confessions did worldwide, which tells me that she was unsuccessful in keeping or catering to anyone. Hung Up flopped at radio yet really drove sales of the parent album; 4 Minutes, meanwhile, was a radio smash and she probably won't outscan American Life with it. The bored teenagers purchased the single on iTunes and stopped there.

Madonna probably doesn't give a shit about albums anymore. For her (and everyone else), the real money is now in the touring. Musical output is merely an excuse to hit the road, and nothing promotes a tour better than having a song all over the radio.
[Edited 7/8/08 11:37am]

VoicesCarry said:

COADF was released in a holiday season, 2 and a half years ago when sales were much higher. Does it really have to be repeated all the time? Since then album sales dropped but singles sales soar. Madonna is about to score her second Double Platinum single, but of course people like you have to point out the negative stuff. We get it that you dislike HC (and COADF...) but why putting down Madonna all the time?

Oh and the sales of HC in US will most likely pass AL. Plus "Die Another Day" was a radio hit too. In fact it was just as big as "4 Minutes".

LiveToTell86 said:

Sales have not plummeted by 75% since 2005. If you wish to exclude the holiday factor, then in Week 9, Confessions was still Top 20, Hard Candy is now almost out of the Top 50.

Even if you forget the US - Madonna has not maintained the international sales one would expect (which have always been her major saving grace even when an album has flopped in the US).

Getting to 2 million digital units isn't going to matter if it doesn't shift albums. Hung Up would have sold double platinum, as well, if the digital market had been large enough in 2005. There you had a song that people purchased despite it not being a radio hit.=

I don't think Madge cares, though - she made the record to a) fulfill her Warner contract so she could sign a much more lucrative deal with LN, and b) get a radio hit that would be great tour promotion.

The praise this album has received from longtime fans is both mystifying and amusing to me, and I think it's mostly because it's Madonna. If Fergie had made this album (well, I'm sure she already did, along with Gwen and all the rest), there's no way in hell we'd be blasting it and calling it genius.



And I could just as easily ask why you're praising Madonna all the time for trash like this. But I don't, because you have just as much right to your opinion as I have to mine. I am a fan, I'm just not afraid to say when I think her shit stinks. This is a discussion board where people share opinions, positive and negative.



Yeah, give it another 3 months and if sales can stabilize a bit, she has a chance.

DAD wasn't as big at radio as 4 Minutes, no matter how you look at it (absolute chart placement on Hot 100 Airplay or longeivity on that chart). 4 Minutes was bulleted for 12 consecutive weeks on Hot 100 Airplay (something she hadn't achieved since the Music era), and reached a higher peak position (#11) and audience impression total (~61 million) than DAD. It';s been in the Top 10 since release.

DAD debuted high because there was a lot of hype around the song, and then it plummeted. I thought it was hilarious that she tacked it on at the end of AL, maybe because she knew she didn't have a chance in hell to hit with any of the album tracks. It didn't fit with anything else on that record.
[Edited 7/8/08 12:39pm]

VoicesCarry said:

For Madonna, the point of Hard Candy was also to give a swan song (I mean swan album!) to Warner Bros for 25 years of a music business relationship. And since The WB is American-based, what better way to say farewell than by using the sounds of what is selling in America better than electronic dance-pop: mainstream hip-hop.

Another point of Hard Candy was also an opportunity for Madonna to reconnect with her black audience once more, something that she had done only 4 times in her 25-year career with Madonna, Like A Virgin, Like A Prayer, & Bedtime Stories.
[Edited 7/8/08 13:14pm]

VoicesCarry said:

I think we won't know what Hard Candy will end up doing int he long run. It's certainly slanted at success and comercial...like everything she does.

I didn't think Hung up was a flop at all. I do think Confessions did better due to her international fanbase. The Europeans were all over it. I think it's the American Buying public that is the most hard to figure out and get them to buy. Hard Candy was made for her American Audience...who has moved on from the hip-hop sound.

I do think she cares about the music still, though you are correct that the money lies in the touring. I don't think she realized THAT until she did the Drowned World Tour. I almost feel as though she wasn't going to tour this time around and changed her mind. I don't think we'll see a tour next time.

VoicesCarry said:[quote]

LiveToTell86 said:

I love how we can all sum it it up with statistics. I also haven't been seeing the HIGH praises you claim the fans are giving this album. Most of the fans are very mixed about it. Its a grower, but it's not her best by a long shot.

Then allow me to heartily recommend:




It's goooood stuff.

superspaceboy said:

It was a huge hit here in Canada too, it was hard not to hear that album all over the radio and in public. Too bad our southern neighbors couldn't enjoy it the same way.

superspaceboy said:

Are you kidding me?!? In the USA, there is only 3 genres that is currently selling:

1. hip-hop/r&b
2. contemporary country
3. Disney-pop

At age 50, Madonna can't do Disney-pop under any circumstances. she is also too much of a Yankee with a part-time British accent to do country. This leave her to do the sounds of mainstream hip-hop/r&b to get the attention of the Americans, because no one in the USA (apart from the dance clubs of Miami, New York, L.A., & San Francisco) is feeling the Euro-driven electronic dance-pop sound.

superspaceboy said:

What's the bigger hit - a song that peaks higher and has incredible longeivity or a song that peaks lower and fizzles out quickly and then is gone? I think it's clear enough To say that DAD was a hit on the level of 4 Minutes is, I think, disingenuous.
[Edited 7/8/08 20:32pm]

superspaceboy said:

Please reread my statement: Hung Up was a flop at US RADIO. It was a digital smash and consequently a Top 10 on the Hot 100. In the US and everywhere else, the fanbase liked it well enough to go out and buy the album based on its strength. 4 Minutes, not so much.

I think Madonna wanted a radio hit to promote the tour; the 1st single was aimed squarely at the US market, a market she really hasn't pandered to in a while. She doesn't care about the international radio market, because they'll play anything she releases. It's US radio that had eluded her for nearly a decade.

Give It 2 Me is following the Sorry formula, though - flopping in the US and hitting everywhere else.
[Edited 7/8/08 20:36pm]

WB promotin' the HELLL out that muthafucka too.

I'm at the drug store right, buying my Advils and Dove Soap right, and what do I see while I'm in the aisle next to Enquirer magazine but Hard Candy on CD for $14.99, just sittin up top like it's some lip balm or something you might need.

And when's the last time you heard a radio ad for an album? Just regular ole commercials for your local furniature shop (no money down!) then come on a promo spot tellin u Madonna got this new cd with the hit "4 Minutes" and her new song "Give It 2 Me". This ain't on satellite radio neither.

Got dam.

VoicesCarry said:

Far as I'm concerned, Madonna/WB/her management are IDIOTS for releasing GITM as the second single. JUST when she gets back in good graces with US Radio, with a record chock full of hip/hop and r&B flavored numbers, which she made PURPOSELY to pander to the US audience - they go and release the MOST (and only) ELECTRONIC/DANCE/EURO-DISCO number as the second single. What about "Heartbeat?" That song is an INSTANT madonna classic, it's up there almost with Into the Groove and Music as far as I am concerned. Or "Incredible" - that shit is so catchy and has radio hit all over it. Even "Candy Shop" or "Beat Goes On" or "Devil" would have been better choices and have better chances of hitting in the top 40 market. It's Booooolshit! They are shooting themselves in the foot after spending a shitload hiring these top hip hop producers to make an album to appeal to the urban/American audience. It makes no sense! Just cause Pharrell produced the track - which is a standout on the album - it was like Pharrell doing his best to 'do' Madonna, while the rest of the record is Madonna 'doing' her producers styles.