Monday, April 28, 2008

Cop That Disc: Madonna Hard Candy



Today is a big music day with the release of Santogold's debut, the first Portishead album in 10 years!, Lil' Mama, and of course Madonna. The more I listen to Hard Candy the more I like it. Stand out tracks for me are "Miles Away", "Dance 2Night", "Candy Shop", and my favorite part of the whole album the last 2 minutes of "Incredible." The 'Tunes are back in a big way and you can see why Chad is so essential to their production. The writing and production team of Timbo, Danja, and JT strikes again. I never thought one day I'd hear a Timbaland/Madonna collaboration let alone actaully like it but here we are. Great too to see Hannon's name on such a big project as he's worked really hard to get here. Best album of the year to date? I wouldn't go that far but I would say it's in the top 5. And now for the main event we've all been waiting for, here are the truly OFFICIAL liner notes from Madonna's Hard Candy:

1. Candy Shop
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

2. 4 Minutes
Written by Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Nate Hills and Timothy Mosley
Produced by Timbo, Danja, and Justin Timberlake
Recorded by Marcella "Ms. Lago" Aracia and Demacio "Demo" Castellon
Programmed and Mixed by Demo
Drums by Timbo
Keyboards by Danja
Scratching by DJ Demo (LOL)
Timbaland appears courtesy of Blackground Records (believe it ya'll, it's still very true)

3. Give It 2 Me
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

4. Heartbeat
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

5. Miles Away
Written by Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Nate Hills and Timothy Mosley
Produced by Timbo, Danja, and Justin Timberlake
Recorded by Marcella "Ms. Lago" Aracia and Demacio "Demo" Castellon
Programmed and Mixed by Demo
Additional keyboards by Hannon Lane

6. She's Not Me
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

7. Incredible
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

8. Beat Goes On
Written by Madonna, Pharrell Williams & Kanye West
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

9. Dance 2Night
Written by Madonna, Timothy Mosley, Justin Timberlake, & Hannon Lane
Produced by Timbaland & Justin Timberlake
Co-produced by Hannon Lane
Additional production by Demo
Recorded, programmed, and mixed by Demo
Drums by Timbaland
Guitars by Dan Warner & Darrell Pearson (wow still after all these years!!)
Bass by Darrell Pearson
Keyboards by Hannon Lane

10. Spanish Lesson
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

11. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You
Written by Madonna, Timothy Mosley, Justin Timberlake, Nate HIlls, & J. Henry
Produced by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, & Danja
Recorded by Marcella "Ms. Lago" Aracia and Demacio "Demo" Castellon
Programmed and Mixed by Demo
Drums by Timbaland
Keyboards by Danja
Additional keyboards: Hannon Lane
Scratching: DJ Demo

12. Voices
Written by Madonna, Timothy Mosley, Justin Timberlake, Nate Hills, & Hannon Lane)
Produced by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, & Danja
Co-produced by Hannon Lane
Recorded by Demo and Marcella
Programmed and mixed by Demo
All instruments by Danja
Additional keyboards by Hannon Lane

iTunes Bonus Tracks:

13. 4 Minutes (Peter Saves New York
Remix by Peter Rauhofer

14. 4 Minutes (Junkie XL Remix Edit)
Produced by Junkie XL (go figure)

15. Give It 2 Me (Paul Oakenfold Edit)
Remix by Paul Oakenfold

16. Ring My Bell
Written by Madonna and Pharrell Williams
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-produced by Madonna

Check Amazon, check HMV, check Best Buy, check iTunes, check anywhere this is a Madonna album and support Timbo, Danja, Hannon, JT, Demo, Marcella and Madonna herself and COP THAT DISC!!

24 comments :

  1. we are gonna need an instrumental album for this.

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  2. i buy'd it last week in germany. its the best album this year for me since now.

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  3. For the dude I was telling that Hannon did the melody in DWRY and that it has no relation to Akira's piece:

    "11. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

    Written by Madonna, Timothy Mosley, Justin Timberlake, Nate HIlls, & J. Henry
    Produced by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, & Danja
    Recorded by Marcella "Ms. Lago" Aracia and Demacio "Demo" Castellon
    Programmed and Mixed by Demo
    Drums by Timbaland
    Keyboards by Danja
    Additional keyboards: Hannon Lane
    Scratching: DJ Demo"

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  4. this isn't either of their best work, but can we just agree that Timbo-co killed Pharrell on this. "Candy Shop" is the only good Pharrell track, and "Beat Goes On" is marginally better than his other junk here, but otherwise his beats are waaaay too thin. he needs Hugo.

    all the Timbo tracks are listenable for me, even if they don't reach his best recent shit (though "Dance 2night" may come close)

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  5. This album is awesome, copped it yesterday (I'm in the UK) I was not disappointed in the slightest, she never sounded contrived or out of her depth and that shows the strength of JT and Pharrell's writing.

    THANK YOU for typing out the credits, the ones in the booklet are shit, you can't decipher them with any ease!

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  6. @ Trey Stone
    "can we just agree that Timbo-co killed Pharrell on this"

    I'm not agreeing on that at all. Between the one too many cooks up in the broth team of Camp Timbo - they did not come as hard as Pharrell did on his lonesome. Between Tim, Danja, Justin Timberlake and Hannon Lane, they should've and could've come harder. "Miles away" is stunning, but everything else from Camp Timbo is just standard. I don't even listen to any of the other Camp Timbo productions other than "Miles away" because they're all so boring.

    In my opinion Pharrell did the damn thing on every song and produced Camp Timbo under a Verizon bus. "Give it 2 me" and "Heart beat" are ridiculous! And "Incredible" is working it's charm on me in a big way, as is "Beat goes on".

    @ Luke
    I'd use many words to describe the lyrics on Hard candy, but strong isn't one of them. Let's not front like the songwriting on the album is anything amazing. It's elementary. It works, but none of the lyrics make you think Oh shit!! That line was hot!".

    I agree about Madonna not sounding contrived though. At least on the Pharrell productions. She channels the 80's Madonna on his productions and sounds like she's letting go and having fun. I especially like Pharrell's little ad libs here and there. Him and Madonna sound great together. Her delivery on the Timbo songs is too controlled for my liking though. You hear Justin more than Madonna on all the Camp Timbo joints. He should've gotten a 'featuring' credit on "Dance 2night".

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  7. Tim's not getting his hands dirty like he used to.
    He now points at others to twiddle knobs.
    :(

    I hope its just him on the Chris Cornell Album

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  8. @Random J: I defo agree with you that Pharrell worked better with Madonna, I thought Timbo would bring it harder. "Miles Away" is gorgeous though, think my favourite from the album and the Timbo tracks are by no means bad, in fact they are FIRE! Pharrell just channelled through Madonna better I guess. I think they compliment each other well too cos the Timbo tracks are darker and the Pharrell tracks vice versa.

    And just to clarify I definitely didn't mean the actual lyrics were particularly good ("do your homework" - "Spanish Lesson", I'll be your one stop (one stop)
    "Candy store (candy store)
    Lollipop (lollipop)
    Have some more (have some more)" - "Candy Shop")

    LOL, come on man! I just meant that JT and Pharrell (and Madonna herself of course) really kept to Madonna's classic arrangements, instead of trying to make her fit into R&B arrangments. She sounds awesome with her classic arrangements over these badass R&B beats. I AM LOVING THIS ALBUM!

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  9. i dunno, i'm not a Pharrell hater or anything, i liked his solo work on his own album and with the Clipse. but his beats here just sound flat to me. "Spanish Lesson" is a shitty version of "Like I Love You," "Give It 2 Me" is way too techno/rave for me (when Timbo does this he puts his own stamp on it to prevent it from getting Eurotrash,) "Heartbeat" is tinny, and Pharrell's drums in general here just sound like they need more oomph outside of "Candy Shop."

    it's true that Timbo-co didn't really bring anything new to the table here, but all their contributions here easily beat out most of Pharrell's beats here, though "Voices" is probably the weakest of the bunch.

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  10. Pharrell has a different drum sound than Timbo. No, it's not as "thick," but it's not supposed to be. Pharrell's sounds are more on the "crispy" side. I like it.

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  11. Ha. How is "Spanish Lesson" a shitty version of "Like I Love You" ? Because it has a guitar in it? LOL!

    And perhaps you had your bass conveniently turned down during the Pharrell beats, because I'd say without hesitance that his songs have more bass than Timbalands. Ironically, "Spanish Lesson" is one of the most bassiest beats on the album, in my opinion.

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  12. L-O-L...cuz it has a similar vibe but "Like I Love You" was actually good. jackass.

    "more bass" or not, Pharrell's beats just don't sound full enough to me. something's missing from the equation without Hugo, their beats as a duo sound much, much more complete.

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  13. "L-O-L...cuz it has a similar vibe but "Like I Love You" was actually good. jackass."

    Oh, I see. In that case then, I'd say that "Spanish Lesson" is just a shitty version of the Clipse song "Grindin'", because it has the "same vibe." Even though there are absolutely no similarities between these two songs whatsoever, they both have the "same vibe," which automatically rationalizes what I've just said.

    "Pharrell's beats just don't sound full enough to me. something's missing from the equation without Hugo, their beats as a duo sound much, much more complete."

    ... Which leads me to believe you haven't even bothered to read the credits provided on the post. Each and every track Pharrell is on is produced by The Neptunes. Meaning Chad Hugo is in the equation.

    Seriously, how did the rumour spread that Pharrell produced the beats on his own? Did people just assume that? Man, I would hate to be Chad.

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  14. I guess Hannon was on that "Devil" track. haha

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  15. The way I see it, Pharrell channelled the old skool 80's "Into the groove" era Madonna, where-as Camp Timbo channelled the controlled Madonna that emerged from Ray of light onwards. In that respect they balance on another well, but I still feel that camp Timbo didn't push the envelope enough. "Miles away" is amazing, but nothing else from them comes close to it. Also, the Camp Timbo beat switches aren't as hot as Pharrell's switches on "Incredible", "She's not me" and "Beat goes on". The "Incredible" beatswitch is bananas. I also love how Madonna talks on alot of the Pharrell productions. She sounds sexy. I especially love the "My sugar is raw...sticky and sweet!" *lol*

    As for "Voices" that should've just been listed as 'Produced by Danja & Justin Timberlake'. The whole joint sounds like Danja through and through and he did all the instruments anyway. That song ends too quickly though. There should've been a middle 8 or a bridge section. The ending sounds brilliant, but it comes out of nowhere and comes too soon. There's no build.

    I've heard worse from Timbo, but I've heard a heck of alot better. I still think Pharrell produced Camp Timbo under a bus because P's productions are jut more interesting - in terms of the beats and how Madonna sounds. I also think it's some of Pharrell's tightest production to date. He did not mess around on "Heartbeat" and "Give it 2 me".

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  16. Pharrell did produce these tracks on his own, if Chad produced them with him he would get writing credit! Pharrell still uses the name "The Neptunes" even when Chad isn't there. It's the same on all the albums I have with his recent productions - Mary's "Growing Pains", Ciara's "The Evolution", Britney's "Blackout" etc. Chad doesn't do this as shown on the Ashlee Simpson credits (which I have the CD for too) but he still produces "For The Neptunes". These are definitely PHARRELL SOLO tracks and he brought heat!

    By the way, after listening to the Timbo tracks more I'm now unsure about who did the better tracks LOL "Devil" and "Voices" are fucking HOT! Like I said they're more dark and Pharrell's are more upbeat. Like Random J put it perfectly they're more like Madonna's 80s vibe whereas the Timbo tracks are more like tracks from 90s,00s like "Human Nature" and "Frozen". I FUCKING LOVE this album man!

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  17. P.S. I think everyone feels the same considering the amount of discussion going on! ;)

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  18. This album has got some of pharrell's best solo production to date, Tim & Co brang heat as usual.

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  19. Heh, I wouldn't know about any of Pharrell's recent production credits, considering I was completely off him until I heard Madonna's album. If they are, as you say, Pharrell Solo tracks, then I'm even more impressed. Seriously, the quality of production will convince Justin to stop riding on Timbaland all the time and rejoin Pharrell. Frankly, I'm sick of the "Justin Timbaland" routine.

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  20. I love JT & Timbo together espesh after hearing these FUCKING HOT (sorry) tracks but I agree with you I don't see why he completely ditched the geniuses who are The Neptunes when they are just as credible and talented as Timbo. Neptunes and JT made MAGIC together on "Justified"!

    Any yeah I'm definitely sure its Pharrell alone mate. ;) I am SO impressed that Pharell and Chad (Ashlee Simpson tracks are all I have to go by atm but they're awesome) work so well on their own it shows none of them carry each other they are an equal partnership of talent for sure. (Timbo & Danja the same? LOL)

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  21. your point would make more sense if the song sounded at all like "Grindin'." which it doesn't.

    it's true that it doesn't sound like a direct "Like I Love You" rip, but i associated it with that sound cuz it's one of three Neptunes songs i've heard that use prominent Spanish guitar. that's all.

    i'm done, but i swear y'all're bugging on the Pharrell beats here. give it a month or two and see how much replay value they have

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  22. I've been KILLING the Pharrell productions since the day the songs off of the album leaked. "Heartbeat" has been on constant repeat. I can't stress how much I love that track. The chorus is way too correct. The Pharrell productions have more than proved their replay value to me.

    Camp Timbo did not step up to the plate in my opinion. Every song they gave Madonna sounded like something that had been given to somebody else or sounded like another song from another artist.

    "4 minutes" sounds like "Elevator"
    "Miles away" sounds like "All good things (come to an end)" and "She's too much"
    "Devil wouldn't recognize you" sounds like "What goes around comes around" and "Rehab"

    and then...

    "Dance 2 night" sounds like The BeeGees
    "Voices" sounds like ABBA

    There's no denying how stunning "Miles away" is, but everything else fell short for me despite the production being tight and the vocals being precise. Nothing else from Camp Timbo wowed me. Pharrell's production on the other hand feels more organic and fun. You get a real sense of chemistry between Madonna and Pharrell. Shit, I even liked the song "Hey you" despite everybody else hating it and I like how Madonna sounds on the bonus track "Ring my bell".

    Each to their own, but I'm more in love with the Pharrell productions myself.

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  23. I agree with whoever said "Voices" ends too quickly. It feels like a complete rush job. And that track sounds like shit. So much distorted trash.

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