Madonna

Madonna sure has her well-manicured finger on the pulse of musical trends. At this point in her storied career, Madge is keeping up with what's current in dance music and then putting her own spin on it. Hard Candy is a dance-pop record, as we have come to expect from Madonna, but it's also her most hip hop styled album to date. She takes a cue from fellow blonde Gwen Stefani throughout the whole of Hard Candy.

Synthetic beats are woven into a tapestry of thoroughly urban grooves, and its all sewn together by the pop star's sexified purrs. It's enough to make you question her induction to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, since she always was, always is and always will be a pop entertainer. But despite that fact, you can't deny that the "Queen of Dance Pop" knows how to hire a team to create songs that carve out real estate in your brain for days, weeks and months at a time. Most of the jams on Hard Candy are unforgettable, sweet slices of brain candy that you'll be humming all day and all night. Ever the consummate and intelligent businesswoman, Madge wisely recruited a white hot stable of collaborators for what is her final album for longtime label Warner Bros. before she heads off –on a steed, no doubt- to the greener pastures of her 360 deal with Live Nation. Justin Timberlake, who lends his pipes on the confectionary yet booty-thumping "4 Minutes," Timbaland and The Neptunes all man the boards here, piping the album full of "right here, right now" relevance and credibility. Her "Candy Shop" isn't quite as street as 50 Cent's song of the same name, but it'll have you leaning back on the dancefloor in nanoseconds, while the crowd pleasing "Give It 2 Me" is a juicy slice of pop candy, expressly designed for when you wanna get romp and horizontal with a hottie.

While most of the songs on Hard Candy hardly rival the "classic" and "canon" nature of her earliest work, they do illustrate that Madonna Louise Ciccone still plans to leave her mark on current pop culture. — Amy Sciarretto
05.02.08