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Hard Candy vs. Like a Prayer


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Hard Candy vs. Like a Prayer  

84 members voted

  1. 1. Which of these two classics records do you prefer?

    • Hard Candy
      12
    • Like a Prayer
      72


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On 3/9/2019 at 11:35 AM, Lucifer's Angel said:

I disagree. Madonna never did an album like HC and it was a breath of fresh air after the COADF album, in which she came back to her disco roots. HC is innovative and experimental and proves Madonna ability to choose current producers at the top of their game and and still be able to push them further to achieve something totally unique and pioneering like the HC album. 

I think Hard Candy sounded dated by a couple years when it was released.  And supposedly she wanted to work with PSB on the album but Warner's made her go in an R&B direction, so if that's true Timbaland/JT & Pharrell weren't her first choice in either collaborators nor direction.

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21 hours ago, Lucifer's Angel said:

Oh please, LAV is the album that made Madonna the Queen of Pop forever. After that she drastically reinvented both musically and visually with True Blue and by the end of the '80s her legacy and impact was already legendary.

Both LAV and True Blue outsold LAP btw :coffee:

You're absolutely right. But the topic says HC vs. LAP not TB or LAV.

LAP brought depth and reinvention to her music, that's why I consider it as superior, despite the sales.

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On 3/13/2019 at 12:16 PM, Lucifer's Angel said:

I think you are reaching. You can obviously recognize the touch of Timberlake and Timbaland's dark beats and on both Cry Me a River and Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You, but the latter is a ballad with a totally different chorus and melody. 
Meanwhile, Miles Away and Midnight Fantasy only got a remotely similar chorus, but again it's a reach to claim plagiarism cuz the production and overall melody is totally different. 

I didn’t say plagiarism. I said it was not original nor groundbreaking. And I stand by that.

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10 hours ago, Turuncan said:

I didn’t say plagiarism. I said it was not original nor groundbreaking. And I stand by that.

Totally. It's not just Cry Me A River anyway - it's also quite a clear derivative of What Goes Around. There's absolutely nothing original or experimental about Devil Wouldn't Recognise You. Truly. 

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On 3/9/2019 at 2:33 PM, Lucifer's Angel said:

Both albums are very cohesive and got great lyrics but overall HC is more enjoyable to listen to, thanks to his catchy hooks and great beats.  :fight:

LAP opens with the title track, which is just that legendary and timeless and it closes with Act of Contrition, which recalls the title track and all the power of that song. Lap song simply outshines the entire album, with no offence to Express Yourself and Till Death Do Us Part that are still timeless bops. Other songs like Cherish, Dear Jessie and Keep It Together feel very boring in comparison and their beat sounds dated. 
Love Song feels more like a wasted opportunity than an underrated gem. At least my expectations from two music legends are much higher! 
The real strength of LAP relies on the beautiful sad lyrics of Promise to try, Spanish Eyes and Oh Father. Great ballads in which she served vocally, although her strongest vocal performance is definitely during the Evita-Rol peak. 

On the other hand, the lyrics on HC are not that sad, which can be a good thing if you don't wanna be in a sad mood. Songs like Miles Away, She's Not Me, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You and Voices all got very interesting lyrics that show a charismatic attitude and sense of humor. 
The beat of 4 minutes might sound dated cuz Timbaland already show off with Nelly Furtado, but that song still grabs its own spotlight in the album and gives a different flavor from the Pharell production.  Give It To Me it's arguably the best dance track on the album and perfect to lose control on the dancefloor. 

Overall HC feels like a candy store, with many different candies but all of them very tasty and great for different occasions; while LAP got mainly a sad mood and more songs to skip.

Let's compare the albums:

1. Like a Prayer VS  Candy Shop
2. Express Yourself VS  4 Minutes
3. Love Song VS  Give It 2 Me
4. Till Death Do Us Part VS  Heartbeat
5. Promise to Try VS  Miles Away
6. Cherish VS  She's Not Me
7. Dear Jessie VS  Incredible
8. Oh Father VS  Beat Goes On
9. Keep It Together VS  Dance 2night
10. Spanish Eyes VS  Spanish Lesson
11. Act of Contrition VS  Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
12 Supernatural VS Voices
 
Lap: 5/12 
vs
HC: 7/12
 
winner: HC 
 
On 3/9/2019 at 2:33 PM, Lucifer's Angel said:

Both albums are very cohesive and got great lyrics but overall HC is more enjoyable to listen to, thanks to his catchy hooks and great beats.  :fight:

LAP opens with the title track, which is just that legendary and timeless and it closes with Act of Contrition, which recalls the title track and all the power of that song. Lap song simply outshines the entire album, with no offence to Express Yourself and Till Death Do Us Part that are still timeless bops. Other songs like Cherish, Dear Jessie and Keep It Together feel very boring in comparison and their beat sounds dated. 
Love Song feels more like a wasted opportunity than an underrated gem. At least my expectations from two music legends are much higher! 
The real strength of LAP relies on the beautiful sad lyrics of Promise to try, Spanish Eyes and Oh Father. Great ballads in which she served vocally, although her strongest vocal performance is definitely during the Evita-Rol peak. 

On the other hand, the lyrics on HC are not that sad, which can be a good thing if you don't wanna be in a sad mood. Songs like Miles Away, She's Not Me, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You and Voices all got very interesting lyrics that show a charismatic attitude and sense of humor. 
The beat of 4 minutes might sound dated cuz Timbaland already show off with Nelly Furtado, but that song still grabs its own spotlight in the album and gives a different flavor from the Pharell production.  Give It To Me it's arguably the best dance track on the album and perfect to lose control on the dancefloor. 

Overall HC feels like a candy store, with many different candies but all of them very tasty and great for different occasions; while LAP got mainly a sad mood and more songs to skip.

Let's compare the albums:

1. Like a Prayer VS  Candy Shop
2. Express Yourself VS  4 Minutes
3. Love Song VS  Give It 2 Me
4. Till Death Do Us Part VS  Heartbeat
5. Promise to Try VS  Miles Away
6. Cherish VS  She's Not Me
7. Dear Jessie VS  Incredible
8. Oh Father VS  Beat Goes On
9. Keep It Together VS  Dance 2night
10. Spanish Eyes VS  Spanish Lesson
11. Act of Contrition VS  Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
12 Supernatural VS Voices
 
Lap: 5/12 
vs
HC: 7/12
 
winner: HC :Madonna003:
1. Like a Prayer
2. Express Yourself
3. Give It 2 Me
4. Till Death Do Us Part
5. Promise to Try
6. Cherish
7. Dear Jessie
8. Oh Father
9. Keep It Together
10. Spanish Eyes
11. Act of Contrition
12 Voices
 
Lap: 10
HC: 2
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1 hour ago, DadoCiccone said:
 
 
1. Like a Prayer
2. Express Yourself
3. Give It 2 Me
4. Till Death Do Us Part
5. Promise to Try
6. Cherish
7. Dear Jessie
8. Oh Father
9. Keep It Together
10. Spanish Eyes
11. Act of Contrition
12 Voices
 
Lap: 10
HC: 2

I can understand the superiority of Oh Father and Keep It Together over Beat Goes On and Dance2night, but it is beyond my capacity to make sense of the rest of your choices :Madonna034:

I mean, She's Not Me is perfection both lyrically and sonically and deserved a music video and single treatment. On the other hand, Cherish is quite boring lyrically and the only great thing about it is the music video, but lbr it did not deserve to be a single. 

Meanwhile, both Promise To Try and Miles Away are ballads with deep introspective lyrics. However, Promise To Try is the usual slow ballad that you are probably going to forget after the first listen and it's the kind of song that could had fit better a stronger vocalist like Whitney Houston (same for Oh father btw).

On the other hand, damn it! Miles Away is that kind of rare ballad that rocks hard! It is generally downtempo with a sad/reflective mood but at the same time it's great to dance to it and sing it out loud. That is because the electronic beats are dope and the acoustic guitar is so pleasant to hear. On top of that the bridges are so powerful and the chorus is extremely catchy: an epic ballad that is impossible to forget.
Finally, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You destroys Act of Contrition lyrically and its vibe it's way more suggestive and mysterious. Moreover, sonically speaking it's more experimenting as it starts softly with a beautiful piano and then becomes fast and catchy. :gasp: 

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1 hour ago, Lucifer's Angel said:

I can understand the superiority of Oh Father and Keep It Together over Beat Goes On and Dance2night, but it is beyond my capacity to make sense of the rest of your choices :Madonna034:

I mean, She's Not Me is perfection both lyrically and sonically and deserved a music video and single treatment. On the other hand, Cherish is quite boring lyrically and the only great thing about it is the music video, but lbr it did not deserve to be a single. 

Meanwhile, both Promise To Try and Miles Away are ballads with deep introspective lyrics. However, Promise To Try is the usual slow ballad that you are probably going to forget after the first listen and it's the kind of song that could had fit better a stronger vocalist like Whitney Houston (same for Oh father btw).

On the other hand, damn it! Miles Away is that kind of rare ballad that rocks hard! It is generally downtempo with a sad/reflective mood but at the same time it's great to dance to it and sing it out loud. That is because the electronic beats are dope and the acoustic guitar is so pleasant to hear. On top of that the bridges are so powerful and the chorus is extremely catchy: an epic ballad that is impossible to forget.
Finally, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You destroys Act of Contrition lyrically and its vibe it's way more suggestive and mysterious. Moreover, sonically speaking it's more experimenting as it starts softly with a beautiful piano and then becomes fast and catchy. :gasp: 

To me HC Is Just an attempt to stay relevant by trying to exploit the trendy acts at the time, It does contain some good Songs, but overall Lap is THE masterpiece in Madonna's carreer. I  was raised with songs from TB and Lap

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On 3/13/2019 at 10:14 AM, Lucifer's Angel said:

The musical style of HC is very innovative as Madonna experiments different kinds of sound. The album blends with great mastery a wide variety of music styles and tastes, such as R&B, dance-pop, disco, hip-pop and trip-hop. Despite all its producers the album is very cohesive and Pharrell serves some of his best productions ever, like Give It To Me: a song/candy with a juicy disco center surrounded by a crunchy hip-pop shell.  

Overall each candy tastes differently (“Say which flavor you like and I’ll have it for you”) but they all wisely exposed next to each other and the album progression towards the end is great. Songs like Give It To Me, Beat Goes On, She's Not Me, Devil Wouldn't Recognize You or Miles Away are as experimenting and pioneering as any other Madonna classic.

Very well described! Thank you.

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Look, Rotten Candy is also my least favorite M album but let's play devil's advocate

1. Musical revisionism aside, it's simply a continuation of her 1983 debut - a straight-forward dance record to make you sweat and work out. There's no pretense and Madonna never claimed it was some kind of conceptual masterpiece. The album really comes to life when you watch the Sticky & Sweet Tour.

2. Yeah, it might be COADF's less attractive sibling but please remember it was conceived in the middle of a rocky divorce and a milestone birthday. She wanted to have FUN and feel sexy again and it's um cathartic in that sense.

3. Strong stats all-around during this era: Induction to the R&RHOF, 3 global hits, her biggest tour + digital single to date, strong album sales (nearly 6 million CSPC), etc. It's not a stain in her discography like some fans imply.

That being said, I enjoy some sweet candy but Like A Prayer is a full course meal and boy, its substantial lol. It takes time to digest but LAP is such a magnificent concept album about her conflicted views on patriarchy and religion. Ahead of her time as always, Madonna adresses catholicism (Like A Prayer, Pray For Spanish Eyes, Act Of Contrition), feminism (Express Yourself), toxic relationships (Love Song, Til' Death Us Apart), family affairs (Promise To Try, Oh Father, Keep It Together) and the eternal quest for lost innocence (Dear Jessie, Cherish). I like the fan theory that lyrically "Oh Father" could very well apply to any male authority figure (dad, husband or even God). Everything about this era was on point, the artistic growth, the classic album cover, the thought-provoking music videos, The Facts About Aids leaflet, the iconic Blond Ambition World Tour, the ever-changing looks, ugh. If it weren't for my broken English, I could write an entire book about Madonna's art, lol.

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Like A Prayer, absolutely no comparison.  I've gone into why I dislike Hard Candy elsewhere, so I won't get too into it, but I will repost part of something I wrote in another topic as it seems relevant: To me, the problems with Hard Candy are summed up in that interview with Timbaland where he says "There's this one song...It’s saying stuff named after coffee – all these different names for coffee – is the hook.  The name of the song is 'La La' ".  When you have such a massive disconnect between the artist and the producer, to the point where the guy isn't even aware that she's singing in another language and not about Sanka, there's a pretty big red flag.  And to me, it truly shows in the finished album.

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2 hours ago, momosfantasy said:

Like A Prayer, absolutely no comparison.  I've gone into why I dislike Hard Candy elsewhere, so I won't get too into it, but I will repost part of something I wrote in another topic as it seems relevant: To me, the problems with Hard Candy are summed up in that interview with Timbaland where he says "There's this one song...It’s saying stuff named after coffee – all these different names for coffee – is the hook.  The name of the song is 'La La' ".  When you have such a massive disconnect between the artist and the producer, to the point where the guy isn't even aware that she's singing in another language and not about Sanka, there's a pretty big red flag.  And to me, it truly shows in the finished album.

What is Sanka? What on earth are you talking about? What song is about coffee?

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15 hours ago, 12inch said:

What is Sanka? What on earth are you talking about? What song is about coffee?

Sanka is a brand of instant coffee.  And if you read my post, you will see that it's a quote from Timbaland from an interview he gave to MTV talking about how great the song "Pala Tute" is...but he says "There's this one song...It’s saying stuff named after coffee – all these different names for coffee – is the hook.  The name of the song is 'La La' ". . He isn't aware that the song he is in charge of producing isn't, in fact, about coffee at all.  Seems like a pretty big disconnect to me.

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14 hours ago, momosfantasy said:

Sanka is a brand of instant coffee.  And if you read my post, you will see that it's a quote from Timbaland from an interview he gave to MTV talking about how great the song "Pala Tute" is...but he says "There's this one song...It’s saying stuff named after coffee – all these different names for coffee – is the hook.  The name of the song is 'La La' ". . He isn't aware that the song he is in charge of producing isn't, in fact, about coffee at all.  Seems like a pretty big disconnect to me.

What song are you referring to? Can you share a YouTube link please? I’ve never heard a song called LaLa.

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