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Happy 13th Anniversary “Hard Candy” ?


Ayham
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I love how polarizing it is. Even moreso than American Life at this point. I'll always wonder about the M/ Pet Shop Boys album that could have been, BUT...

This album had great remixes. I LOVED Oakenfold's mix of GITM. Stuart's mix of "Miles Away" is so underrated. If he or other dance producers produced or remixed all these same tracks, people would rate it among her best. Last time we got remixes from Peter too :( 

I always say this would have been the perfect follow up to the "Music" album. The timing of the sound would have been perfect and the US truly would have eaten it up. Then Confessions.

Also, Spanish Lesson > Madame X.

Fight me.

And this! 

 

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56 minutes ago, Pootz333 said:

I love how polarizing it is. Even moreso than American Life at this point. I'll always wonder about the M/ Pet Shop Boys album that could have been, BUT...

I always say this would have been the perfect follow up to the "Music" album. The timing of the sound would have been perfect and the US truly would have eaten it up. Then Confessions.

 

I think its polarizing because to some this is seen as the beginning of where it seemed like Madonna was chasing trends/playing catchup rather than leading the pact.  It was also the first album using bona fide established producers to do the majority of the album after 15 years of working with lesser known ones and maybe using an established one for a song or two (e.g. Babyface, David Foster). American Life for all its quirks was still Madonna trying to innovate and offer something distinct then what was out there. Hard Candy is not a bad album but in contrast to her previous albums it doesn't "reinvent the wheel" and it barely pushes the existing one along since it came out around the tail end of the Timbaland/Timberlake/TI/Ne-Yo/Kanye/Pharrell era in music.

I feel like if you remove American Life (the song) from the album and retitle it, the rest of the album can still stand on its own as a self-reflection piece. It's just that one song and all the anti- American controversy surrounding it that marred the rest of the album. American Life came when it needed to especially since in 2003 the media was constantly bringing up that Madonna was 20 years into her career so it would've been a well crafted piece of looking back and reflecting on her life versus Hard Candy which doesn't go as deep as American Life IMO and honestly it would've stood out in 2003 since Madonna was still considered "cool enough" for top 40 radio but it also would've left her vulnerable to media criticism that "after 20 years has Madonna decided to phone it in and fall back into the existing trends?" 

 

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On 5/2/2021 at 6:26 PM, RayofPrayers said:

I personally think it would've been more successful if she released it one year before. She was a tad bit late to the Timbaland production trend. It's a bearable album regardless except for Incredible

Blurred lines was basically a copy of GI2M yet BL became huge years after Hard Candy 

It's down to M being a woman, bc of ageism, and still getting the cold shoulder back then by American radio , and no more real promo other than for her 1st single; so she got no more hits after 4M ( which got helped by another radio-friendly dude) 

Then her song - which should've been a hit-  got recicled, repackaged by Pharrell  and it's suddenly an "original" smash - that also copied yet another song and paid dearly for it- ; yeah he co-wrote it too, but still , it's frustrating.

 

 

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To me, the record and the era were a major let down. In Germany, the public was so excited for a new Madonna song after the success that Confessions was. And then she basically decided no to promote it at all. No TV-appearances and only a few interviews in which she looked nothing but the the persona she used for the little album promo. Production-wise, the record was a huge step down from Confessions. I never thought that thus rather urban sound did her voice any favor and many songs would have profited from a more poppy production. Songs like Incredible and She's Not Me go on forever and sound quite empty at places. The distorted drums didn't add any magic either.

I can't help but think that a follow up produced by the Pet Shop Boys – even if it consisted of the same songs – would have been much more exciting. This way, especially the Timbaland songs sounded quite dated the moment they were released.

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53 minutes ago, ShantiAshtangi said:

To me,

As you said, to you. Because other fans were extremely happy with this album, production was super good, for promo she did the HC promo tour which was more than enough. COADF was a whole different album. None really care about Pet Shop MEN!? 

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4 hours ago, Ayham said:

As you said, to you. Because other fans were extremely happy with this album, production was super good, for promo she did the HC promo tour which was more than enough. COADF was a whole different album. None really care about Pet Shop MEN!? 

The thing is, after such an imperial phase like the "Confessions" era, "Hung Up" and the tour were, she couldn't win anyway. Anything compared to all that was going to be less. If she followed the dance pop "Confessions" route, fans would have said she was repeating herself; if she did something different, they would have said it wasn't "Confessions".

Following such a phenomenon is always hard.

I remember some fans were against "Hard Candy" as soon as we knew Timbaland and Pharrell were involved. Even before listening just one minute of music.

It's true she was playing safe with this album, it's true promotion could have been better, it's true it arrived quite late for that sound (remember the album was going to be released in November 2007 but delayed after the lukewarm reception on the Internet of the "Beat Goes On" original demo and "Candy Shop" leaks. Yeah, around that time companies leaked songs to see how people reacted to them before launching a full project). But "Hard Candy" was a great production and even the most criticized moments (going for the whole 2006-2007 Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and Gwen Stefani sound, the distorted drums on "Voices", the long extended outros on "She's Not Me" and "Incredible", etc.) were all crearly artistic decisions. She wanted all that.

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4 hours ago, Ayham said:

As you said, to you. Because other fans were extremely happy with this album, production was super good, for promo she did the HC promo tour which was more than enough. COADF was a whole different album. None really care about Pet Shop MEN!? 

Well of course that's just my opinion. The same way what you have posted is just your opinion. I thought it was clear that forums like these are mainly for own opinions. This is not the BBC news outlet.

8 minutes ago, Prayer said:

The thing is, after such an imperial phase like the "Confessions" era, "Hung Up" and the tour were, she couldn't win anyway. Anything compared to all that was going to be less. If she followed the dance pop "Confessions" route, fans would have said she was repeating herself; if she did something different, they would have said it wasn't "Confessions".

Following such a phenomenon is always hard.

I wouldn't say so. She was able to come up with a unique and original follow-up to Ray of Light which was arguably an even bigger phenomenon. 

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  • One year too late.
  • Loose / FutureSex/LoveSounds and Shock Value are better.
  • The photoshoots, videos and to a lesser extent the tour are ugly and lost/lazy in concept.
  • Abysmal promotion.

Overall the album isn't bad, but the era was destined to be underwhelming from the get go.

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