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Happy 8th Birthday HARD CANDY!

groovyguy

By groovyguy,
in News ✖ Discussion

Your favorite HARD CANDY track  

41 members voted

  1. 1. What's your favorite HARD CANDY track

    • Candy Shop
      4
    • 4 Minutes
      3
    • Give It 2 Me
      7
    • Heartbeat
      3
    • Miles Away
      8
    • She's Not Me
      3
    • Incredible
      0
    • Beat Goes On
      1
    • Dance 2Night
      1
    • Spanish Lesson
      0
    • Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
      7
    • Voices
      3
    • Ring My Bel
      1

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PWCCA

PWCCA 2,502

Posted
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IMO... A desperate attempt at an album that ended up far too messy and patchy. The songs are horrid, the production is overdone, and the artwork makes her look like a cheap aged prostitute. A very cheap effort that is right at the bottom of my fav Madonna albums list. Compared to the massive effort she put into brilliant albums like LAP, ROL or even AL, it fails miserably.

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Elazul

Elazul 250

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this album is Version 2.0 of Bedtime stories to me. 

 

Always been an incredibly lazy comparison only because at the time it's been her 2 albums with several hitmakers. Then she made 2 albums in a row with twice as many hitmakers.

 

Bedtime Stories was her most contemporary sounding album ever, it was released at the time when that style was everywhere and it improved her sales and airplay from the previous record.

 

It's easy to say Hard Candy is just that but outside having Justin Timberlake on the record (which is almost like having Prince on an album in 1989), the majority of the songs are decidedly retro, heavily influenced by disco, new-wave and her own roots.

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kesiak

kesiak 3,091

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I actually quite enjoy the record. Some of it I really can't listen to (Incredible - no thank you), some are missed opportunities (Dance 2night), some are great songs but sound like something Britney would record (Heartbeat) but the bright moments shine enough for me to appreciate it. I love production on it too. I work with a lot of musicians and one (an underground singer/songwriter/producer) was telling me recently how when she heard 4 Minutes on the radio she was ready to pack her gear and never make music again simply because she thought she'd never be able to match the brilliance of Timbaland's production on that track.

 

It's also interesting how that post-disco, retro Pharrell sound (Beat Goes On, She's Not Me, Give It 2 Me) was deemed "over" in 2008 and Madonna was considered finally out of step with what was current and hip while 2013 brought us Blurred Lines, Get Lucky as well as more recently Uptown Funk and dozens of clones all replicating that early 80's post disco pop/funk. 

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Elazul

Elazul 250

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^Only fans, who didn't like the album kept saying she was behind and that she should have done it before Nelly Furtado's Loose etc. But then it's quite ironic Rebel Heart is celebrated when she worked with Diplo after everyone else and after Avicii who has been everywhere.

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kesiak

kesiak 3,091

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^Only fans, who didn't like the album kept saying she was behind and that she should have done it before Nelly Furtado's Loose etc. But then it's quite ironic Rebel Heart is celebrated when she worked with Diplo after everyone else and after Avicii who has been everywhere.

 

There were plenty of critics who thought so too (NME, NOW for example).

 

Diplo might've worked with everyone in the game but he's still a supremely versatile and innovative producer and his sound is everywhere at the moment.

 

Production aside, the quality of song writing on Rebel Heart is overall better in my opinion. Hard Candy by and large seemed to be more about grooves than melodies which was one of its downfalls for me (as much as I love a good groove). 

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patriziagucci

patriziagucci 15

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IMO... A desperate attempt at an album that ended up far too messy and patchy. The songs are horrid, the production is overdone, and the artwork makes her look like a cheap aged prostitute. A very cheap effort that is right at the bottom of my fav Madonna albums list. Compared to the massive effort she put into brilliant albums like LAP, ROL or even AL, it fails miserably.

 

I'm sure you think Confessions is a paragon of artistry?? lol. That is one desperate album and she looked like a cheap aged prostitute with those leotards and the saggy face, by contrast she looked divine during Hard Candy.

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patriziagucci

patriziagucci 15

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^Only fans, who didn't like the album kept saying she was behind and that she should have done it before Nelly Furtado's Loose etc. But then it's quite ironic Rebel Heart is celebrated when she worked with Diplo after everyone else and after Avicii who has been everywhere.

 

I never understood that criticism, in my side of the world, R'n'B music and hip hop or whatever wasn't popular AT ALL. Hard Candy didn't sound like anything that was popular at the time, and it didn't sound like anything Madonna had ever done before either. My only disappointment with Hard Candy was that she was following the same formula of mediocrity she came up with on Confessions, latching on to something to get on the charts at any cost. Madonna was on an unbelievable artist journey that began with Ray Of Light and continued up until Confessions destroyed it all.

 

By contrast, Kylie Minogue did Confessions On A Dance Floor 5 years before Madonna did. She was extremely behind with Confessions, all the Hard Candy criticism should be thrown at Confessions, that's the true shit album.

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Fighter

Fighter 28,888

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Collecting some ideas and doing it better is why she can be a massve hit. Its pop art after all. Just because there was similar music before doesnt mean Madonna was late or unoriginal.

 

Its too bad she went the rnb route for the follow up to Confessions just as the edm craze began and rnb largely faded. She couldve been on top, instead she started working with basic djs and buying demos from them, I don't think she cared too much at the time.

 

Stuart Price's and Mirwaiz' compositional talents are way superior to that. Stuart Had been her musical director for a while by 2005, and his "tour studio versions" are still huge fan favourites, you can see why working with him would be an organic and logical move.

My biggest problem with HC is that while its still creative, she didnt do it much better nor stood out from the rest, Im not an ageist person so i dont give a fuck how she looks, so thats not a factor for me, its about the music. HC's melodies weren't great and the title and cover were pretty representative of the sound, trying to be sweet and colorful but coming across Hard. Its partly a break up album after all so I get it....

 

Some of the best songs from the album (Devil and Voices) are partly reworked from 2004 demos. That year was pretty productive for her it seems. Not until the Rebel Heart sessions she sat down to properly write and compose with musicians as many songs as she could, regardless of opinions on quality.

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MeantToBeIconic

MeantToBeIconic 999

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Well, my taste in music is different, should I say, from other people with the same age as mine. I grew up listening to 80s music ALL THE TIME because of my parents, and that probably developed my liking for these kind of music, like Madonna's. But, I actually didn't like or know more about Madonna before, aside from hating on her (yes i did that on paws down's tumblr and fb hahaha). But like what I said, I heard 4 Minutes on a shampoo commercial, and I fell in love with the song (idk why), I would even wait on tv for it to play. That was during 2008. Fast forward to 2013, where I started hating Madonna (i was defending gags from paws down). While I was hating on a regular basis, I started to listen to her songs out of curiousity, and I was actually astonished on how her songs sound so good (I was listening to songs from American Life after I knew it was panned for something). Then I listened and researched, until I got to hear 4 Minutes (which I didn't know was the song I was looking for years ago), and then I turned into one of madge's minions hahaha.And that is my story hahaha im sorry if this became really long [emoji13]

 

Funnily enough, this is real close to my story (I'm not much older than you are), except I was on PirateBay, saw MDNA was real popular, downloaded and listened for lolz, and I was hooked lmao.

 

So MDNA was the first album of hers I actually listened to, then I worked my way backwards down the discography, meaning I heard Hard Candy second, in like 2013. I've never thought this album sounded dated. I love the production and the real am-I-serious-or-not attitude of the album.

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Fighter

Fighter 28,888

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Funnily enough, this is real close to my story (I'm not much older than you are), except I was on PirateBay, saw MDNA was real popular, downloaded and listened for lolz, and I was hooked lmao.

 

So MDNA was the first album of hers I actually listened to, then I worked my way backwards down the discography, meaning I heard Hard Candy second, in like 2013. I've never thought this album sounded dated. I love the production and the real am-I-serious-or-not attitude of the album.

 

HC sounded more current in 2013 than in 2008

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Dazedmadonna

Dazedmadonna 18,474

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Also, WHAT is everyone's problem with Candy Shop? It's a great tour number, the rework for the MDNA Tour was straight fire.

 

Why doesn't anyone like the song? It's in my Top 5 off this album

I love the song, was just making fun of Madonna choosing it for every single tour tho

 

Oh, if only she recorded it before 2007..

 

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Fighter

Fighter 28,888

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Also, WHAT is everyone's problem with Candy Shop? It's a great tour number, the rework for the MDNA Tour was straight fire.

 

Why doesn't anyone like the song? It's in my Top 5 off this album

 

I have learned to love it! But even though I bandwagoned with everyone saying it was shitty at first, in hindsight I always did like it :lol:

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