Hard Candy

best album ive heard in a long time where there's no need to skip a track. Great at full blast in the car! The songs are catchy and you will be humming them for days! 'heartbeat, she's not me and beat goes on' will be classics!

The people who critisize this album are just basing their opinion, on Madonna's decision to work with Timbaland and Pharrell Williams, rather than admitting the album is great! Tracks like, Give it to Me, Heartbeat, She's not Me, Incredible and The Beat Goes On and Dance 2night get you hooked instantly! Other tracks such as Candy Shop, Four Minutes and Miles Away and Voices, take afew listens. The only tracks that perhaps shouldn't be there are Spanish Lesson and Devil Wouldn't recognise you. Spanish Lesson is just bizarre and not in a good way. And Devil Wouldn't recognize you just won't stop! All in all a great album well worth having in your collection!

This really is a fantastic album. I had this for christmas & am wearing it out! There isn't one bad song on here, they are all really great. I love this album.

The producers she picked to help her on this album are awful !
Theres about 3/4 good songs on the album the rest you will just find yourself skipping, if you want a good madonna album buy "confessions on a dancefloor" - amazing album !!!

I was not too sure about this album as Madonna has changed so many times that is it possible for her to do it yet again.....and indeed she has managed it easily...Dance 2nite os amazingly catchy and you will listen to it over and over...Miles away is a change in tone and has a bit more feeling...infact the whole album I love with 4 minutes at the bottom just because it has been on the radio soooo much...BUY this album if you love good music!

Madonna has done it again! If you are a Madonna fan then you need this buy this album. Loved Heartbeat, Devil wouldn't recognise you, Voices, Beat goes on and She's not me.

When the rumours started to fly that Madonna was changing musical direction after the success of "Confessions...", most people probably scratched their heads and wondered whether she would pull another reinvention just as successfully... and once again I think she has done so with mixed results this time.

The whole album is divided into Pharrell / Timbaland-Timberlake productions and despite Madonna's insistance that you can't tell the difference, I can. Maybe I've been paying too much attention to the Timbaland production line of late...

Listening "Boys" by Britney Spears, "Candy Shop" sounds very dated considering that Pharrell was panting over a beat for Britney about 7-8 years ago.

"4 Minutes" is the album's first single, so by now you will have heard the new Timbo/Timba sound. One to be loved or loathed.

"Give It 2 Me" is a great track (an instant love the first time I played the CD) and I've grown to like "Heartbeat" too.

"Miles Away" is a wonderful dedication to Guy and long distance relationships.

"She's Not Me" is another grower, is it about another woman in a relationship or about one of the contenders for Madonna's pop crown?

The main disappointment of the album is "Incredible" clocking up an impressive six minutes. The end section sounds like part of that annoying Soulja Boy track, with the hollering.

"Beat Goes On" is a success, I can see it being a future hit single with the additional rapping of Kanye West - to the extent that it sounds like a Kanye West song more than anything else.

"Dance 2night" has a lot of Prince influences, both in terms of sound, song title and lyrics ("..Don't need no diamonds and pearls"). It it were released as a single, I get the feeling Timberlake may pop up in the video due to his backing vocals. Funky stuff.

"Spanish Lesson" is one of the messier productions here, due to M's mis pronunciation of the language, but non Spanish speakers would know no different. It's inclusion is gimmicky but it's supposedly about a new dance craze called The Perculator, so it'll be on The Sticky and Sweet Tour I'm sure in the same way that "Jump" was a great visual element on The Confessions Tour.

"Devil Wouldn't Recognise You" and "Voices" provide the slower numbers on the album, in the same way that "How High" and "Like it or Not" were on Confessions.

Try this album and see what happens. It's grown on me in the same way that American Life has. What saves this album so far is that it is a Madonna album so therefore the diehard fans will pick this up, the major downer is that if it weren't a Madonna album this probably would have sunk a long while ago, considering that the following list have worked with Pharrell / Timbaland over the last few years:

Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake from the names I can think of instantly...

This is not madonna's best album, the only good songs on this album are 'give it to me' and '4 minutes'. was dissapointed with all the other songs on this album. 'confessions on the dance floor' album as a lot more better songs and her older songs!

Madonna's lost the plot - this is rubbish.

Usually I'm a big Madonna fan - Ray of Light, for example, was as good as it gets - all lush strings, carefully crafted beats and meaningful lyrics. But Hard Candy is one change of direction too many.

I think there's one good track on the album - the single 4 minutes unsurprisingly - but that's it. The rest is defined by two things. First, poor arrangement / production - particularly the chunky, childish bass which overwhelms the percussion, effects and lyrics on just about every track - it's just too much, a case of Timbaland trying to steal the show from Madonna, rather than work with her. That's the probelm with high profile producers. And second, the infantile lyrics - the Turkish Delight lyric on the opening tract, Candy Shop must go down as one of the worst ever.

Common Madonna, you can do so much better than this!

I really enjoyed this album, and every track is great. My faves are 4 Minutes and Devil Wouldn't Recognise You. Fans will love this and once again Madonna shows she can do various styles of music successfully. A fab album!