| HARD
CANDY |
| |
|
Review: Madonna's Hard Candy |
|
by capitalradio.co.uk |
|
|
| London's
Capital Radio is another of the British media outlets that attended
the playback of Madonna's Hard Candy yesterday evening. Here's their
report - it's kinda cool to notice that they share quite a few of
the impressions and feedbacks about the new album MadonnaTribe has
brought to their readers over the past few months - you can hardly
tell they did not enjoy the listening preview! |
| This afternoon
we went to a brilliantly decorated room in East London to hear the
new Madonna album while sipping champagne & eating jelly beans.
Sounds good huh? Well it was! Anyone fearing a full on urban attack
- don't worry. "Hard Candy" is full of long disco pop songs
- it just has some heavy beats! Here's our track by track rundown:
|
1.
Candy Shop
Here we go! Madonna wants to be our '1-stop candy shop - your lollipop'.
Yum! This is produced by The Neptunes and is filled with bleeps
and swirls. It ends with a 'sticky but sweet' rap by Pharrell. |
2.
Four Minutes To Save The World
You all know this one! |
3.
Give It To me
Not a Furtado/Timbo cover but a Pharrell track that's going to be
the 2nd single. Let us tell you now - it's mindblowingly amazing.
There's cowbells, twinkles and a funny vocoder you might have heard
on 'Music'. Think old school pop Madonna but fired up at 300 mph.
There's a funky break near the end where Madonna shouts 'don't stop!',
the music stops and a male voice sings 'left to the right' |
4.
Heartbeat
'Probably the 3rd single', Heartbeat has a synthy 80s sounding intro.
Madge tells us that 'when I dance I feel free!'. There's something
about the melody when she sings 'you know I feel it in my Heartbeat'
that's really cute!. |
5.
Miles Away
This starts deceptively with guitar that reminds us of 'Don't Tell
Me'. Is it going to be a ballad? Course not silly! 5 seconds in
and here comes a pounding bassline. 'I just woke up from a fuzzy
dream, you won't believe the things I've seen.' This is the first
song that doesn't hold our attention all the way but it's got a
dreamy ending. |
6.
She's Not Me
It starts with 4 claps and then all hell breaks loose. This is the
tale of a jilted lover and has about 7 different elements. It sounds
kind of like a sequel to 'Deeper and Deeper' with the passion, the
fastness and the twirls. Totally hypnotic - it's a Timberlake/land
production but it could come straight from the disco house of Nile
Rodgers. Oh and it would mix into Anita Ward's 'Ring My Bell' perfectly.
Also it's REALLY LONG. |
7.
Incredible
The slowest track so far, but it's full of strange noises. It's
kind of what 'Cherish' might sound like if it was looped and scratched
up by a DJ. A sweet solo piano maintains the sweetness under the
nasty dirty bass that's everywhere else, but that bass is totally
needed to stop it being smaltzy. It ends with a drum breakdown,
that we're sure wil be replaced with a beatboxer on tour, and lots
of sexy 'OOH's. |
8.
Beat Goes On
Featuring Mr Kanye West, this is a full on party disco song. 'On
and on, the beat goes - you don't have the luxury of time - say
what's on your mind'. It has a 'BEEP BEEP' bit that totally reminds
us of Donna Summer "Bad Girl" (youtube it - it's awesome!).
Then there's some dreamy sounding chords and up pops Kanye for a
rap with some 'Like A Prayer' HEY!s going on underneath him. |
9.
Dance 2night
Not a Paul McCartney cover! This is a bit downbeat sounding, but
it's still not a ballad. It's just a bit dark. Wise ol' Madonna
tells us all that 'You don't have to be beautiful to be understood.
You don't have to be rich & famous to be good'. |
10.
Spanish Lessons
She's always loved throwing a bit of Sp anish into her songs and
now here's a full on Spanish assault! Think matador trumpets and
bullfighting. Plus learn her language and you might get lucky -
"You're so loco & you drive me crazy. If you do your homework
maybe I will give it up" |
11.
Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
The 2nd best song on the album, this is 'Cry Me A River' 5 years
later, and sung by Madonna. It's got a gorgeous sad, synth opener
which is suddenly compounded by hynotizing bleeps. Queen Madge sings
'Over and over you're pushing me onto the floor and I keep coming
back for more'. It's still not a ballad though. Hooray! |
12.
Voices
And we're at the end. Boo hoo. It's a creepy sounding ending though
and it's almost as if a song off 'Erotica' has been brought up to
date with lyrics like 'Who is the master, who is the slave' and
'Are you walking the dog or is that dog walking you'. |
So
there we have it. Course when we listen to it all again we'll probably
completely change our mind about our favourite tracks! |
As
massive Madonna fans we're very happy that she hasn't gone off the
rails as feared. It's simply a Madonna pop album for 2008 which
starts out having a full on party and ends in that dark corner Ms
Ciccone knows so well.
Are you excited? |
|
| Source:
capitalradio.co.uk / Posted:
Tuesday, 8 April 2008 |
| Back
to April News Index |