Hard Candy

Hard Candy is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna and was first released on April 25, 2008 by Warner Bros. Records. Hard Candy is the final studio album released with Warner Bros., with whom Madonna has been signed with for over 25 years.

The album, overall, has a hip-hop/urban pop vibe, while remaining a dance-pop record at heart. [4] In the early stages of recording, Stuart Price, the producer of Confessions on a Dance Floor, described the new album as moving in an urban direction. It had initially been defined as having “a lot of producers from a lot of genres in there.”, The Sun proclaiming that “it could be her most ambitious project yet.”

Timbaland, one of the featured producers of the record, referred to the album as being “like ‘Holiday’ with an R&B groove.” Justin Timberlake also defined the album as being “an R&B/pop/dance record.” Upon release, The New York Times reviewed the album as “a set of catchy, easily digestible, mass-appeal songs.”

The album features vocal appearances from Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West along with production credits from Timbaland, Timberlake, The Neptunes, and Nate “Danja” Hills as well as co-production from Madonna. Additionally, Hard Candy includes a guest appearance of American guitarist and singer-songwriter Wendy Melvoin, best known for her work with Prince, contributing with guitars on the song “She’s Not Me”, on which she is mentioned.