“Workin’ up a sweat/ that’s what music’s for,” Madonna sings on “Heartbeat,” the pumped-up fourth song on Hard Candy, her latest album, due April 29. Indeed, the pop diva makes good on her promise – singing her way through an hour of Euro-flavored dance tracks infused with retro, house beats. PEOPLE.com took an advanced listen – and can reveal five fast facts about Madonna’s latest. • On “Spanish Lesson,” produced by the Neptunes, Madonna does, in fact, go bilingual, offering liberal translations of phrases like, “Entiendo,” which she says means, “I get it,” over a funked-up flemenco guitar riff. (Literal translation: “I understand.”) • Kanye West offers a fast-paced rap on “Beat Goes On,” the eighth track, breathlessly rapping, “I think I’m going to try something new.” • The singer indulges her choral side on the album-closer “Voices,” which features production by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Nate “Danjahandz” Hills. The song builds to a dark, cinematic crescendo, as the album closes with one lone tone. • Madonna sings, “You always have the biggest heart/ though we’re 6,000 miles apart,” on “Miles Away,” a direct allusion to living and working far away from hubby Guy Richie. • Madonna really wants you to dance: Two songs – opening track “Candy Store” and “Beat Goes On” – feature overt calls to action. “Gotta get up off your seat,” she sings on the latter, bolstered by the Neptunes’s production and West’s rapping. Source: People/JuicyUK
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PEOPLE.com Previews Madonna’s Hard Candy
