Desperately seeking Madonna

Her shaky language skills aren8217;t the only problem with Hard Candy. Madonna8217;s 11th and last studio album for Warner Bros. finds her doing what she8217;s done for at least the past decade: attaching herself to the latest trend in an effort to keep her music current.

Earlier in her career, there was no telling what she would do next: one day she was the tramp tarted up in a wedding dress, and the next she was making out with a black Jesus in front of a burning cross, and making memorable music in both cases.

Now, you can spend 10 minutes listening to Top-40 radio and know exactly what direction she8217;s going. Electronic music bubbling up from the underground? She hires William Orbit to produce. Teen pop reaching its apex? She locks lips with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on MTV. Hip-hop absorbing dance music? She calls in Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams.

The last one is a smart move, given that those three are responsible, together and individually, for some of the biggest hits on the charts in recent years. But it8217;s a dangerous move, too: those hits mean we8217;ve heard this stuff before, and from artists who are better suited to the style. Madonna remains interested in communicating Higher Truths, a poor fit for music designed for dance-floor grinding. That8217;s certainly what these tunes are for.

The sound of Hard Candy is brutish and bumping. She sings coquettish come-ons on Candy Store over tumbling percussion and what sounds like sharp intakes of breath, and she trades lines with Timberlake on the single 4 Minutes as brass accompaniment blares behind them like a marching band bent on mayhem.

Dance 2nite has the best groove on the album, mixing funky bass with sparkling synthesizers and whirling little cyclones of wah-wah guitar. The relentless beat on Miles Away all but drowns out her sorrowful vocal melody as she sings about a relationship that seems to work best over distance.

She rehashes more than her own material, too: Spanish Lesson sounds like a mash-up of Timberlake8217;s 2002 song Senorita and his 2006 hit Sexy Back, while Devil Wouldn8217;t Recognize You echoes any number of Timbaland tracks from recent years.

Here8217;s another problem: modern hip-hop is a producer8217;s game where the track is the focal point, yet Madonna has built a career out of being the centre of attention. She ends up outmatched on Hard Candy, where the best and most danceable songs would work just as well without her. This time, Madonna is just another singer which makes this particular piece of candy taste like a sour ball: it8217;s appealing to fans, but it8217;s not for everyone.
-Eric R. DantonLAT-WP