Madonna releases her new single “4 Minutes” on iTunes today. Previewing new album Hard Candy, she goes trick or treating at Timbaland and Justin Timberlake’s house.

Whereas in the past Madonna has pumped out tracks about dance floors, dance moves, fake Spanish islands, but mostly sex, her new hip hop threesome sounds tired and contrived with all the players doing their highly choreographed bit with limited enthusiasm.

4 Minutes to Save the World
On her last record, Madonna vowed to turn the world into one big dance floor - on this one she wants to save it. But with lyrics like “We only got 4 minutes to save the world/ Grab a boy /Grab a girl” – it’s unclear if she plans to save the world through dancing or if she just wants to bring sexy back.

Madonna, soon to be 50, may have ventured too far into Timba–Land on this track and less time in dance land. Not that “4 minutes” is a bad song - Justin Timberlake sounds better on this collaboration than the dreadful rehashing he churned out last year with Beyoncé - it’s just not that great either.

Unfortunately for Madonna, Timbaland showed up at her door with his same bag of tricks - Fricki Fricki. While his tweaking and scratching has flooded airwaves for the better part of two years, having been the man behind Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake’s recent success as well as his own album Shock Value that produced radio mainstay “Apologize”, he really should say sorry to Madonna for making her sound like everyone else.

Madonna used to create trends, styles and new musical directions. Now it sounds like she’s the guest star on her own single.

Justin Timberlake Goes Pop
Justin Timberlake, who co-wrote the song with Madonna, reported during her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inauguration that he was sick in the studio during the recording and Madonna injected him with something.

Was he too out of it to realize that his lyric “But if I die tonight at least I can say I did what I wanted to do, Tell me how 'bout you?” sounds oddly familiar to one he wrote for the *Nsync track “Pop” (“'Cause we're just fine, Doin what we like, Can we say the same for you?).

Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock
“4 Minutes” proves that the collective is not always better than the sum of its parts. Madonna has been quoted as wanting a sound similar to Justin’s record and she got it – too much of it. In fact you could lift Madonna’s vocal from this track and it would snug in easily between “Sexyback” and “Summer Love” without much of a beat change.

“Sometimes I think I need a you-intervention” Madonna tells us. If she’s singing to either 'land or ‘lake she got more than she bargained for and lost part of herself in the mix.

Unfortunately for Madonna, whereas older tracks like “Vogue”, “Holiday” and “Music” will live on forever, this new track will be forgotten in about…4 minutes.

Let’s hope the rest of Hard Candy, when it drops on April 29, gives better flavours to suck on.