Skip to main content

Madonna’s ‘Hard Candy’ Turns 5: Stan & Deliver


Stan & Deliver gives fans an opportunity to shake, cry and sing the praises of the albums they love from their faves.
Madonna was already working up a sweat (and flaunting her vascularity) in the middle of a boxing ring to the tune of her crunchy, workout-ready collection of electro-pop treats: Hard Candy, originally released in April 2008.
Unlike 2005′s immaculate return-to-roots record, Confessions On A Dance Floor (produced by Stuart Price),Hard Candy saw the Queen of Pop turn away from thundering club anthems and opt for a trendier Top 40 radio troupe to achieve a more modern sound (or as Britney Spears might say, “something more urban”), taking on the cheeky-yet-cringe-inducing moniker “M-Dolla” and enlisting Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West and Timbaland.
True to its name, Hard Candy is a mixed bag of sugary-sweet pop offerings (Turkish delights, and so much more!), somber electro-ballads, mid-tempos saturated in Timbaland’s (oft-grating) beatboxin, and playful dips into funky, old school disco territory. When she’s not defending her position on the throne (“Give It 2 Me”) or encouraging a certain heightened awareness (“4 Minutes”), Madonna mostly seems to be having a blast: “See my booty get down like!” she taunts on “Heartbeat” — easy material for the detractors who would angrily accuse her of attempting to stay “hip,” sure, but still more than enough fun for the fans who’d rather just dance.
Yet the album’s more sobering moments — including “Miles Away,” “Voices” and “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” — would later reveal themselves to be very real frustrations set to song, building up to what would become her divorce record: 2012′s chilly, synth-heavy and oft-menacing MDNA.
Five years later, the record still holds as a mixed candy jar. Some confections have become a bit less tasty, while others prove to be far stickier, sweeter and far more fresh than their expected shelf life.
We asked some of Madonna’s biggest fans to go track-by-track through Hard Candy. Join us now in rediscovering the rawness of Madonna’s sugar. Hurry, you only got 4 minutes! Just kidding. Take your time, and leave a comment below with your thoughts on Hard Candy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Madonna Nipple During Istanbul Concert

#Madonna Flashes Titty on #MNDAtour!!! Photos, Gifs and Full Video of  Human Nature  and  Like a Virgin :  Always the burlesque girl.
Post a Comment
Read more

Madonna Started Filming The "Bedtime Story" Video on December 5 1994.

The inspiration behind the video. Hello everyone! This month’s music video to be analyzed is the for “Bedtime Story”, While this video is tricky for its various sources of inspiration, it’s one of her best, if not  the   best, and an underrated one by most fans. I am sure that, after reading all of this, you’ll find yourself more in love with the true artist Madonna really is. Madonna called upon “Rain” director Mark Romanek to do the music video for “Bedtime Story” after she saw what he had done with Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”. As she always does, she listened to the song over and over again, trying to think of a concept for a video. The theme she held on to for this one was dreams, it’s meaning, concepts, imagery and works based on it. She’s a huge fan of surrealistic art, in which lots of paintings deal about dreaming, or allude to something unfathomable in real life. She held to that and brought that concept to Romanek, that really liked the idea and wanted to add ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rolling Stone - June 13, 1991 - Flesh and Fantasy - Big Time Girl Talk with Carrie Fisher

Madonna and I had met many times over the years, but we had never actually had a conversation. It took this interview to bring us together – she as icon, I as inquisitor of icon [after all, I have already distinguished myself as friend of icon, relative of icon and ex-wife of icon]. I had never done an interview before, and I don’t know that I will again. For me, this has all the makings of a waterloo. The first of the two sessions for this interview took place in the restaurant of the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Madonna wore gold lame; I probably wore black. The last session took place in the offices of her manager, Freddy DeMann. Madonna wore a negligee; I probably wore black. I was late for that first meeting because a friend who had AIDS and who was staying with me had suddenly developed a fever. I called Madonna to say I was on my way. “You’re late,” she informed me. I explained about my friend. “Well, okay, that’s a good excuse,” she said. By the time of our fina...
Post a Comment
Read more