In a nutshell:
She might be nudging 50, but Madonna’s not lost any of her instinct for a great tune – or who to work with. Timbaland, Pharrell, Danja, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake all lend their talents to Hard Candy, an unusual direction for Madge who usually works with lesser known writers and producers to shape her sound. After witnessing the massive success these collaborators have had on both sides of the Atlantic with the likes of Nelly Furtado, Britney and Gwen Stefani, it looks like Madonna changed her strategy in the hope of reacquainting herself with US music buyers who ignored her last album.

What’s it like?
The beats, unsurprisingly, sound familiar but Madonna’s style and personality is stamped over every song. Some of it works really well, particularly on the out-and-out dance tracks like Beat Goes On (surely a future single?), Dance 2night and the next single, Give It To Me. She becomes unstuck on the songs that sound just a little too ‘try hard’. Album opener, Candy Shop, misfires - not even Pharrell’s production can disguise the complete lack of tune or the toe curling lyrics. Vocally she sounds pretty good although all the studio wizardry in the world can’t disguise some of her vocal limitations on some of the tracks. But she’s never been the greatest singer and to view her as that would be completely missing the point of Madonna. She’s a pop artist and this is another fantastic pop album that any of her contemporaries would kill to have recorded.

Killer: Give It To Me; Beat Goes On; Dance 2night; Heartbeat; Voices

Filler: Candy Shop; Spanish Lesson