Madonna’s ‘Hard Candy’ Turns 5: Stan & Deliver

Bradley Stern | April 24, 2013 5:30 am

Name: Steve Sears | Location: Washington, DC | Twitter: @xolondon

11. Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You: If you’re a traitorous stan like me, then you’ve dismissed Hard Candy as Timbaland piffle. But this charge cannot be leveled at the gorgeous “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You.” The track slinks onto the end of the album with insta-cred: it’s part of Madonna’s ongoing “brother-in-law series” of songs co-written with indie folkster Joe Henry (these include “Don’t Tell Me,” “Jump” and “Falling Free”).

Legend has it, they cooked up the “Devil” demo for M’s aborted Hello Suckers musical. Whatever it’s provenance, it’s an edgy down-tempo built on more than one classic Madonna melody. Even the overbearing Timbaland rises to the production challenge, packing this devil with details, like that gorge Justin-Timberlake-chanting-in-a-monastery bridge or the choppy I-do-I-I-I-do bits. Hard Candy haters can’t resist singing along to those parts. And it gets a special lucky star for the way M sings the word heart as “haharrt.” Such a pretty demon.