"Hard Candy" Album Booklet Images + Review

NOTE: This is not a typical album review or album cover review. This is an honest look at the pop icon's latest creation and her personality - and if you rather not think things concerning her work and her persona, then you probably should not read this. All in all Madonnathon is in favor of the music on the album, but this piece goes way deeper than just surface.

Firstly, everyone has a right to love, like or hate this album art of Madonna's Hard Candy. Even the fans can dislike it. Just cos someone doesn't like or love it, doesn't mean you are the enemy in the camp; that is if we are dealing with intelligent people who can value and respect the variety of opinions.

Some of you regular readers of Madonnathon know that my inial reaction to the album cover alone wasn't all praise, it was more of the opposite. It seemed tacky to me. Now that I see the full layout - my inial reaction has not changed that much, unfortunately. I admit that it's all very candy and that there are shots which look good but regardless of the overall impression I will focus on details. She looks blank in these shots - and I'm not meaning the pale make-up. Even when she is doing tough poses her face is pretty much expressionless. Just like in many recent photo shoots, something is missing from her eyes - some sparkle, that fire - she just comes across as a bit indifferent.

The black pages on this booklet are a pure and utter waste of paper. She should have printed the lyrics there instead. Or can you honestly say that these black pages with a word or two give you something? Noup. Me neither.

I know this is her big "mine is better than hers" album with a thread of personal issues going right through it, from marriage problems to communication problems to other woman to self-empowerment to kissing it all off to praying for another chance - or in a more familiar Madonna style - running from the pain and projecting the problems to others, not exactly a behaviour that could be expected from a worldly 50-year-old woman. But well, we love her when she is a juvinile bitch. Her immature rebellion is one of the things she is loved for, just as it is one of the things she is hated for. Pretty much the reaction she provokes overall. Sometimes you can feel both at the exact same time.

When I first saw the album cover for Hard Candy, like most people I assumed it was about her rebellion to be sexy at the age of 50, hitting the boxing ring to show off her stuff. And I still believe it is partially about that - competing in the game of allure against younger arrivals. But we all know she could be sexier than what these images project. However, what I first didn't notice - due to not hearing the album and not getting the theme going through it, is that this album is about much more than just trying to be sexy. It is not as simple as that.

She is showing the world she is a fighter but her battle is not what the world inially got caught up in. The greatest battles in her life have never been those she has faced in the public eye. The private pain has always projected into her work, much more revealingly than most critics have noticed. Her creative work is her catalyst for pain and in it she tackles issues she can't handle in real life, it is her great escape. It is no wonder to me that when she faces another blow in her personal life, she turns to her music to resolve it, to come to conclusion, to write it off, live through it a bit and try to move on. But she never moves on for good, does she? It is always temporary: she steps inside the issues, creates pieces of art, then steps out of, without really absorbing what she dealt with. That is why her personality is so fragmented in many respects, that may even be the reason why she says that her life is like a series of "random events". That is also one of the key elements, besides her obvious talent, to her longevity - no one really knows her and all the projected images are only fragments of her. They rarely and truly - become her.

This leads us to her greatest fear, which is to be weak, vulnerable and open - really open - not talking about any detached comments about her private life or things she has gone through nor the things with a shoch-value. The obvious truth which she doesn't really want to look at, is that sometimes to be the strongest, you have to learn to be the most vulnerable one. She says she fears disconnectedness, but in many levels she is just that. She is emotionally crippled, just like she admitted in her documentary years ago, and that has not changed much over the years. She still has a lot of work to do before she can say that sometimes breaking down is actually a sign of true power, rather than a sign of slavery. By denying and not dealing with issues in deeper profound level she in fact makes herself the slave without even truly realizing it. One can always come up with all kinds of excuses to twist it all backwards, but ultimately her immense drive in life doesn't seem to come from the fact that she is just strong and positive and wants to achieve things. Instead, it comes from the mere fact that she is escaping pain and not willing to stop and face the demons that haunt her.

When reaching her 25-year pinacle, I wondered if she would do a little something for the fans. She didn't. It didn't surprise me either. During her impressively successful career, she has never thanked her fans in her album booklet - not even once. This despite the fact that without the buying public, all her collaborations and releases would amount to absolute nothing. She would not be who she is today and lead the life she leads. She would be someone entirely different, maybe someone we would have never heard of? Yes - I hear what you say - she has thanked her loyal fans when receiving awards and honours of all kinds - but that is really beside the point. The only sure way to reach all her fans would be to write down one single word after her 'thanks', and that would be "fans". One word doesn't take much space. On the new cd booklet for Hard Candy, she could have typed in that word about a billion times instead of printing out 6 pretty much worthless pages who give nothing to no one. I'm not bashing her by saying this, only stating what seems obvious to me.

Many people have contributed to her success immensely and fans as collectors are at the top of the list; we pay huge amounts of money to get every single item she has released or is connected to - I bet even Raising Malawi benefits greatly from her fan base. Then there are those who don't simply just buy everything, but they also travel around the world to see her, they go from show to show when she tours. Some live in houses which are like shrines to her honour, you cannot even call them real homes. When you think about it all, it seems mad and exaggarated and even crazy! And then when you think about just how much people do this, just how big she has gotten because of this... Giving thanks to her fans seems even smaller and smaller thing to do. But maybe she doesn't see it that way? Well, she should get down from her high horse then - she didn't get there on her own and she never will.

As far as the art direction goes, meaning the cd booklet, I can't wait to see the credits so I can repeat the name of someone who has such obvious lack of creativity. If this has been a "long evolving creative process" then I am the next King of England. No offense to anyone, this is just my opinion and I know lots of people will disagree with me. So we can just file that under different tastes and what people wish, want or choose to see.

If you listen to the new Hard Candy album, not as a worshipping fan but as neutrally and deeply as you can - you'll see that she is unsure, confused, sad and lacks confidence - she is this by projecting the opposite so feverishly. Not since her brilliant Like A Prayer or Ray of Light has she been this revealing in her work. You can see it but not necessarily with the eyes of a mesmerized fan, you have to listen to it with the eyes of your soul.

Madonna is still the Queen of Pop. Hard Candy is a great album in many respects, a phenomenal album in parts and definitely worth buying. But as far as the cover art goes, I have one message to be delivered to Her Madgesty's throne: The cover is just 'neat', dear. Remember how you once said that "anyone who says my show is neat has to go"? Well, the tables have turned, this time your visual output really is just that: neat. Come back with a better cover art for the next album. Until then, I'll be enjoying the music you've made.

After all, it's about the music. Or is it?

Madonnathon Verdict: * * * * / * * * * *

*The writer is a fashion designer, poet, painter, amateur musician and the editor of Madonnathon.