Madonna has officially broken my heart. Once, it seemed her reign as the most incisive interpreter of pop culture's cutting edge could never end: Her spot-on 1980s mutations from "Like a Virgin" to "Material Girl" to the burning crosses and dogma bashing of "Like a Prayer" were matched only by the next unexpected decade. In the 1990s Madge went from "Erotica" dominatrix to a Kabbalah enlightened, dance-trance maverick. At once an icon and iconoclast, Madonna never slowed down. Until now.
"I've only got four minutes to save the world," Madonna keeps crooning in "Four Minutes," which is a paltry stab at a pop hit and an entirely unsatisfactory first single for her much anticipated new album "Hard Candy," which drops April 29.
Produced by Timbaland, the song is a duet with Justin Timberlake, though neither really sings or seems to care about this song.
It's kind of shocking, actually, that the combined star power of this trio has concocted such a dull dance track. The ingredients are there: one of Timbaland's pounding, scale-ascending and descending beats, Justin's -- well, I guess he brings sex appeal -- and Madonna's name, which is repeated throughout the song, lest we forget.
Maybe this song will coast to number one on the sheer force of its celebrity cachet, but even so, it marks a sad note -- I fear even the death knell -- for Madonna's illustrious career. There's nothing remotely innovative or envelope -pushing about this song. There's no controversy over the content of her new album. There isn't even any particular aesthetic statement being made.
More than a musical concoction, this is a commercial enterprise -- not necessarily anything new for the Material Girl, of course. Sure, "Four minutes" is catchy enough, with enough of a hip-hop beat to emanate from top 40 radio stations for the rest of the spring -- but this new single isn't her usual calculated step ahead of the cultural guillotine. Please don't feed us this confectioner's cake, Madonna. "You've only got four minutes to save" -- yourself.
