Sweet as Ever

So what’s she trying this time? Madonna has spent nearly 25 years chancing her arm at just about every branch of pop there is, to phenomenal commercial success, if not always ultimately positive media response.

She has owned the musical stage throughout her career, and no betting man would wager against her continuing to do so with this latest offering, Hard Candy. She’s roped in a few important characters to maintain her lofty position, too.

Latest single 4 Minutes features the adding selling point of cameos by Justin Timberlake and the ubiquitous Timbaland - how better to guarantee a number one single this year.

Another track, Beat Goes On, features guest vocals from none other than Kanye West. And as far as the album goes, she’s sneakily roped in the equally prominent Neptunes on writing and production duty. No prizes for guessing that this year’s Madonna reinvention has something of a hip hop theme, and she certainly has the clout to employ only the very best assistance.

The product is, as ever, very good indeed. The key to this lady’s chameleon-like career has been that no rebirth is ever beyond recognition - it always sounds like Madonna, and it’s never so violent a change that the bulk of her fan base will be alienated.

Tracks like Dance 2Night and Heartbeat have the inimitable flavour of every record she’s made this decade, beats written by the very best, and the queen of pop’s purring vocals to complete the cocktail.

Whether Madonna is a bit of a cheat seems to pale into insignificance when presented with the hard evidence of such consistently good records.

She doesn’t seem to have much to do with the formula for her success - she wants to do dance, she gets William Orbit to do it for her. Hip hop takes her fancy, and in stroll The Neptunes to create the perfect sound. But all things considered, there’s only one common denominator here, and Madonna will continue to sit in her rightful seat at the head of pop’s top table for some time yet.