Is it possible for one album to make you feel countless emotions? And I don’t mean that Madonna’s new album “Hard Candy” spoke to me in some deep and powerful way. In fact, the album didn’t really speak to me at all. It’s amazingly and fantastically shallow, and I can respect that. Isn’t that the purpose of pop music? What I do mean is that in the course of a week listening to this album, I went from seething rage to adoration to boredom and now to a comfortable love.
On first listen, all I could think was that this didn’t sound like Madonna. It sounded like she stole the beats from a dozen different songs, and that the featured guests on the album were far more influential than she was in the album’s creation. But a closer listen revealed her influence. And after a few times through, I couldn’t stop listening to it on repeat. I had finally learned to love it.
And there is certainly plenty to love about the album. The beats are incredible. If possible, listen to it with the bass as high as you can get it. It suffers on the underwhelming iPod headphones. “4 Minutes” is another formulaic Timbaland song, but it sounds just as good as any other fantastic and repetitive Timbaland song. And other songs featuring Justin Timberlake, Pharrell and Kanye West are creative and fun to dance to.
The inclusion of all these different artists takes the album in a slightly different direction than most Madonna albums and gives it more of a hip-hop influence. Especially in comparison with her last album “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” which was almost universally disco-inspired. You could describe her new album as a combination of those two influences, creating perhaps a new genre, Hip-Sco. Justin seems to have had the most influence. A few of the tracks, most notably “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You,” sound exactly like Justin’s normal revenge songs like “Cry Me a River.”

Despite my love for the album, there is a nagging question. What exactly makes this album any different from a Hilary Duff album? It sounds overly harsh, at least to those of you who feel that is an insult. But it’s still true. There is the weak and mildly annoying voice. There are the strong and well-produced beats. The feeling that this all could be a lot better if someone with just a little more vocal talent was involved.
So yes, there is little difference between this album and a Hilary Duff or Miley Cyrus album. And yes, maybe that seems like a huge insult to Madonna. But this is an era where Miley Cyrus albums are wildly successful. So maybe it’s not such an insult to say that an album sounds like another current and successful album.
After all, isn’t that the defining characteristic of Madonna’s career? She has spent more than 25 years starting and chasing trends, with the last 10 being mostly chasing. And if her new album sounds like a teen pop star, then she’s chased the trend correctly. So congratulations, Madonna. Your new album may sound like a mash of former and current Disney stars, but that’s what the trends are and you’ve caught those trends yet again.
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