It's actually a really nice album. Miles Away is one of Madonna's best songs of all time and the album also has some great bops

Yes. I never understood the hate. MDNA is her worst album by FAR to me. 

I agree.

 

4 Minutes is a bop, Give It To Me too. Devil and Miles Away are gems.

The rest is good with some fillers.

It's overhated just because it follows COADF that is a masterpiece.

Yes

I like it when I’m in the mood to suck on something or when I’m on a plane, as it stops your ears from popping, but generally I tend to go for softer candy like this:

 

 

It's Justin & Timbaland ft. Madonna; her personality is not on this album at all

i mean it's kinda justifiable at that point of time but when you look back with MDNA sitting next to it.....

No, it was awful and M should have used her previously reliable spidy sense to know that Timberland was then on the way out.

It is her worst album, but it still is a great album and better than full discographies from most. 

It was the beginning of an end, that's why a lot of people dislike it. 

It is  some pop girls this website loves to stan for would KILL for a Hard Candy sized era in every shape and form.

In hindsight, considering what came after it, we should have appreciated it more

It's where the downward spiral began but it's her last goodish album.

 

Rebel Heart is unlistenable < Madame X at least has God Control and I Don't Search < MDNA has a FEW decent tracks < Hard Candy

It was the beginning of her musical decline, so while unnecessarily hated in retrospect, it definitely made sense at the time.

 

It was a bizarre era to experience after Confessions between:

• The straight up vulgar & cheap cover art
• The extreme youth pandering with a song like 4 Minutes
• Her singing lines like "get stupid, get stupid" and "see my booty get down like" as bridges to songs that were otherwise quite good
• The inauthenticity of Madonna sitting with grandma curls and saying her favorite artists were people like Timbaland
• The beginning of her weird plastic surgery phase
• The phoned in production & performances (Ray of Light was literally a rehash) for Sticky & Sweet after the spectacle that Confessions was

I absolutely hated this era at the time, but nowadays, it's aged decently. The visuals did the era a huge disservice, and with better mixing / mastering, the album would hold up well in her catalog. It's the last Madonna album that's a pretty easy listen from start to finish (sans Incredible...).

1 minute ago, Rune said:

It's where the downward spiral began but it's her last goodish album.

 

Rebel Heart is unlistenable < Madame X at least has God Control and I Don't Search < MDNA has a FEW decent tracks < Hard Candy

FINALLY someone else who agrees Rebel Heart is her worst album. Madame X has a decent amount of duds, but Rebel Heart sounds like a college student learning how to mix for the first time, and the final production vs. demos is a HUGE downgrade. 

Its the best out of her bad albums if that makes sense

Some great peaks in it, issue is its an incredibly boring and monotonous album full of throwaway Timbaland/Pharrell beats 

But i guess boring>outright bad which puts it above MDNA, American Life and possibly even Madame X

1 hour ago, Josh said:

It's Justin & Timbaland ft. Madonna; her personality is not on this album at all

I disagree. The sassiness on She's Not Me shows her personality a lot, the message on GITM it's basically her '50yo-lady era' anthem, Miles Away lyrics show more vulnerability than anything on COAD, etc.

 

Yep, the music production is very of it's time Timabaland/Pharrell but what is new? Madonna always let her producers style shine and work with it putting her own mark. Bedtime Stories wasn't just Babyface ft. Madonna, ROL wasn't just William Orbit ft. Madonna and so on. I feel like some people simply disliked the mere thought of Madonna working with Timb/Justin and didn't give the alberm a chance, it's biased.

It would be a great album for anyone else, but following Madonna's amazing creative streak in the 90s and early/mid 00s it felt like a major downgrade. It was the beginning of Madonna obsessing with looking young and staying relevant which felt like an antithesis to the creative spirit that albums like Erotica, Ray of Light and American Life had. It's kind of giving midlife crisis album.

I genuinely love Hard Candy. 
 

Give It 2 Me, Dance 2night, 4 Minutes, Miles Away, Beat Goes On, Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You >>> 

 

WHEW 

yes. bop after bop. 

 

RH deserves its hate. 

2 hours ago, A Million Lights said:

Miles Away is one of Madonna's best songs of all time

This is an exaggeration lmao

Nope, it marked the beginning of the death of Madonna as we previously knew her and the beginning of the trend hopping and bad music. Hard Candy aged like milk, as did most of her work since then.

i was a hater but it has grown over me over the years

16 minutes ago, TipToe said:

I feel like some people simply disliked the mere thought of Madonna working with Timb/Justin and didn't give the alberm a chance, it's biased.

This is true 

I like timbaland - Timberlake material. It sounds very them and not much madonna but  most songs are good enough.

Pharrell material just sounds like average material from him in these years. And i don't like him.

Edited January 17, 20242 yr by vale9001