Perhaps Hard Candy is Madonna’s most “listenable” album. I was never a fan of her insipid ballads and there are none to be found on her new record. But collaborations with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Kanye West, don’t equate to a revitalized, hipper Madonna. The beats are good, but her lyrics are as banal as ever. I prefer Madge when she’s struggling to reconcile her disparate yearnings for material goods and spiritual enlightenment – expertly explored on her critically panned American Life.