[Dance-Pop]
Madonna
Hard Candy
** 1/2
Whatever you think about Madonna, it’s never been possible to accuse her of being unambitious. Even at nearly 50, she’s still shooting for the top of the pop charts and working to snag new listeners who weren’t even born when she had her earliest hits. Her latest album, Hard Candy, keeps those ambitions intact, but musically it’s her safest release in more than a decade, exchanging the innovative Euro-dance producers (William Orbit, Mirwais, Stuart Price) she’s brought along on various albums since 1998’s Ray of Light for proven American hitmakers Timbaland, The Neptunes and Justin Timberlake.
And Hard Candy will very likely yield at least a hit or two for Madonna; lead single “4 Minutes” has already climbed the charts, and the one-two-three combo of “She’s Not Me,” “Incredible” and “Beat Goes On” will likely burn up dance floors as well as radio playlists. But Timbaland has done this for countless artists already, and Hard Candy doesn’t make a convincing case for itself as unique artistic expression, which is what Madonna’s music, however populist it is, has always been. Here she’s in second position not only to her producers, but also to guest stars like Timberlake and Kanye West; trying to appropriate their star power only makes her seem more insecure and desperate. “4 Minutes” is more of a Timberlake and Timbaland song than a Madonna one.
A few spins through Hard Candy may smooth over some of these objections, since it’s entirely listenable dance-pop, and marginally better than recent releases from fellow über-divas Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. But listenable dance-pop is not the bar set for Madonna releases; even 2003’s much-maligned (and underrated) American Life had a vision and something to say. All Madonna seems to be saying on Hard Candy is, “I want some more hits.” –Josh Bell
[Pop]
Robyn
Robyn
****
Robyn—a teeny-popper sensation in the 1990s, thanks to songs such as “Show Me Love” and “Do You Know (What It Takes)”—set the Internet abuzz in 2005 with an edgy new direction. Instead of containing the R&B-lite and fresh-faced Swedish pop for which she became known, Robyn boasted snazzy ’80s-influenced electro and hip-hop with decidedly adult (if not occasionally sexually explicit) lyrical content.
The Scissor Sisters-like “With Every Heartbeat” is a string-and-keyboard-filled dance-floor lament/collaboration with fellow Swedes Kleerup, while “Konichiwa Bitches” and “Cobrastyle” are sassy, street-wise hip-hop/electro hybrids, and the playful “Who’s That Girl” and “Be Mine!” channel Madonna’s playful side circa Like a Prayer.
A full three years pass. In the meantime, Robyn appears on a remix of Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Eruption,” sings backup on Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me” and finds renewed worldwide critical and commercial success—but doesn’t have her album released in the U.S. until this week.
While the collection’s songs are strong enough to avoid sounding dated or tiresome (which is a testament to her talent), anyone who already downloaded Robyn when it first came out has no need for this version. Especially because the bonus tracks—“Dream On” and a remix of “Handle Me”—sound like bad Top 40 you’d hear in a teen-clothing store, and her cover of Prince’s “Jack U Off,” a U.K. bonus track, is omitted. Pop fans who don’t have Robyn yet, however, would be wise to grab it immediately. –Annie Zaleski
[Noisy]
No Age
Nouns
** 1/2
The second album from LA duo No Age cuts in abruptly and cacophonously, as if Dean Spunt and Randy Randall spend all day clamoring about and Nouns just happened to capture one of their racket sessions. It’s a neat intro (or more accurately, total lack thereof)—one ideally suited for a band that could scarcely have been less predictable on 2007 debut Weirdo Rippers.
Unfortunately, this time around, the pair proves unable to maintain the spirit of its opening split-second. Mere months after touring alongside—and releasing a split 7-inch with—noisy experimentalists Liars, No Age opts for a less avant, more traditional alt-rock approach, one that suggests that Spunt and Randall, like seemingly everyone else these days, have been listening to lots of My Bloody Valentine.
Of course, for MBV, the layered, distortion-soaked instrumentation worked because it went hand-in-hand with genius melodies and bewitching vocals. Whereas, in keeping with No Age’s apparent in-the-moment approach to songwriting and recording, under-refined songs fail to keep pace with their effects, so that punchy tracks like “Teen Creeps,” “Cappo” and “Sleeper Hold” impress momentarily but fail to sustain long-term viability, while quiet interludes “Keechie” and “Impossible Bouquet” stress mood at the expense of, well, everything else.
Just when all seems lost in the swirling fog, however, the volatile pair that made Rippers so memorable re-emerges for pounding closing cuts “Ripped Knees” and “Brain Burner”—proof, perhaps, that if tape rolls on No Age long enough, something interesting is bound to happen. –Spencer Patterson
[Rootsy]
Mudcrutch
Mudcrutch
*** 1/2
Don’t call it a comeback. Three members of this Gainesville, Florida, collective are, after all, better known as Tom Petty and a couple of Heartbreakers. If anything, these 14 country-fried boot-stompers constitute a debut more than 35 years in the making: Though they put out a handful of singles in their heyday, the group wouldn’t release a proper album until Peter Bogdanovich’s Runnin’ Down a Dream doc got the bassist’s (that’d be Petty) nostalgic and creative juices flowing.
The results are both familiar and surprising. Petty’s nasal moan is as languidly soothing as ever, and a few tracks—notably “Scare Easy” and “Oh Maria”—could easily exist as Heartbreakers B-sides. But there’s nowhere near as much classic-rock uplift or open-road optimism, and a dusty twang permeates throughout. It’s rootsy, reserved stuff, far more Neil Young than Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Faithful covers of The Byrds’ “Lover of the Bayou” and The Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Six Days on the Road” pay homage with impressive results, but it’s the straight-up “American Girl” reimagining at the beginning of “Bootleg Flyer” and the three-minute piano-and-guitar ramble concluding “Crystal River” that show just how far the scope of influences spreads. Mudcrutch won’t encourage any swaying with lighters aloft, but who needs ’em when you’re calling down fire on the mountain anyway? –Julie Seabaugh
[Hip-hop]
Atmosphere
When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
***
Slug, not content to toil as an indie-rap heartthrob known more for angsty confessionals than poetic achievements, has changed up his game on When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, his duo Atmosphere’s sixth full-length album. And so, instead of hearing about his drinking habit and the women who won’t love him back, we hear about other people’s substance-abuse problems and unrequited love.
Hoping to evolve as a songwriter, Slug unfolds tales of sad-sack waitresses, homeless men and confused grade-school girls, hoping to maintain the listener’s interest without airing more of his own dirty laundry. Often, it works, such as on “Dreamer,” which—over a driving, funky beat courtesy of producer Ant—tells the story of an ailing single mother. “Little girl was her first reason to breath, and her little man was the first man she believed in,” Slug raps. “She gotta live right and do right by self/She do for self, she don’t want your help.”
Though the anti-drug and anti-cigarette testimonials “Shoulda Known” and “The Skinny” seem preachy and contrived, the album largely succeeds due to Ant’s often infectious beats. Culled from live instrumentation instead of samples, the music is grittier and less gimmicky than previous albums. The same can be said of the lyrics. Though the songs are no longer directly about Slug’s direct experience, they still manage to feel personal. –Ben Westhoff