"4 Minutes" Reviews
Rolling Stone:
3.5/5 Stars
Madonna has taken on many identities during her career, but "hook girl" has never made her resume - until now. With Timbaland’s thick, clanging beat in command of the first single from "Hard Candy", her vocal competes with a blaring marching-band horn riff as she trades lines with Justin Timberlake. The tracks urgent, urban thump never hits it’s peak,
but it’s a heater!
Billboard:
It doesn't take anywhere close to "4 Minutes" to realize that Madonna is poised to score her first top 10 hit since 2005's "Hung Up." The launch single from upcoming "Hard Candy"—her 11th and final studio album for Warner Bros.—co-stars Justin Timberlake, with production props from Timbaland. There's an awful lot going on in the busy dance track: sing-song verses, insistent foghorns, cowbells, chants of "tick-tock" and "Madonna, Madonna," and a rap from Timbaland—but the trade-off chorus between Madge and Justin of "We've only got four minutes to save the world" is hooky enough unto itself to sell the song. "4" qualifies as an event record between superpowers who not only share equal billing, but sound gangbusters together.
Expect instantaneous penetration for this spring break '08 anthem.
About.com:
4.5/5 Stars
The Bottom Line
Past experience teaches us all to beware of superstar duets. Too often, big egos and lackluster songwriting sink the best of intentions.
However, "4 Minutes," a slick, rhythmic, and brassy collaboration between top stars of different generations, Madonna and Justin Timberlake, delivers. Producer Timbaland lends a trademark musical hand and his own voice to give us 4 minutes and 4 seconds of pop fun.
Pros
* Rousing marching band vibe
* Yet another great rhythmic track from Timbaland
* A superstar duo that delivers
Cons
* It's a bit predictable
"4 Minutes" Radio Update
Allaccess.com and Mediabase,the leading radio monitor is already reporting that as of March 20 2008,
Madonna’s "4 Minutes" is the fastest growing song at CHR/Top 40. The track has received +1275 spins and is playing on 108 stations!! Madonna no doubt will make a spectactular debut on the CHr/Top 40 Airplay chart that all radio programmers get every Monday!
- Madonna is back up to #7 on NYC’s Z100 Interactive 9@9.
Mediabase:
Week ending March 20
POP : 1289 spins
Rhythmic : 328 spins
Hot AC : 112 spins
Urban : 2 spins
AAA : 2 spins
AC : 1 spin
Total : 1734 spins, 13.762 million audience
Week ending March 19
POP : 919 spins
Rhythmic : 239 spins
Hot AC : 84 spins
Urban : 2 spins
AC : 1 spin
AAA : 1 spin
Total : 1246 spins, 10.35 million audience
Week ending March 18
POP : 580 spins
Rhythmic : 156 spins
Hot AC : 63 spins
Urban : 2 spin
Total : 802 spins, 7.292 million audience
Week ending March 17
POP : 299 spins
Rhythmic : 84 spins
Hot AC : 40 spins
Urban : 1 spin
Total : 424 spins, 4.272 million audience
Billboard's chart analyst predicts a HIT
Keith Caulfield answered this question in his "Ask Billboard" column in Billboard Magazine:
'4 MINUTES' OF FAME
Hi Keith,
Madonna just released her new single "4 Minutes" featuring Justin Timberlake. Do you think American radio stations will play it along with other singles from her upcoming album "Hard Candy?" They shamelessly ignored (her last album) the great "Confessions on a Dancefloor."
This time she collaborated with Timbaland, Pharrell and of course Timberlake. Will this fact entice U.S. radio to put Madonna back onto the airwaves where she belongs?
Micheal Alexander
Boston
Hi Michael,
It seems like the magic combination of Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland is already working. In "4 Minutes'" first three days of radio release, 60 monitored U.S. radio stations played it seven times or more. That includes WIHT Washington, D.C. (29 spins), KHJZ Houston, Texas (29 spins), WKXS Boston (22 spins) and WHTZ New York (19 spins).
Next week it will likely debut on the CHR/Top 40 airplay chart in our sister publication Radio & Records. It also has a chance of debuting on The Billboard Hot 100 as well.
We'll see if radio stations continue to embrace "4 Minutes" in the coming weeks. It wouldn't be unusual for stations to back off a song after an initial flurry of activity, especially if the song doesn't react well with a station's audience.
On a side note, "4 Minutes" will not only be released as a digital download in the coming weeks, but it will also be granted a physical single release in the U.S. The remixes of "4 Minutes," crafted by Tracy Young, Bob Sinclair and Junkie XL, will be released on CD Maxi, 12" vinyl and of course digitally.
Madonna's "Hard Candy" album drops April 29.
"Hard Candy" is a smash album already!
While we are more than a month away from the release of the album, it's already NUMBER 2 on Amazon's Best Sellers - based on pre-orders!
EVERYBODY WANTS A PIECE OF CANDY!
"4 Minutes" on iTunes
#1 - Sweden
#1 - Denmark
#1 - Norway
#2 - UK
#5 - Ireland
EXTRA INFO
- "4 Minutes" will be available on U.S. iTunes on
March 24.
- The video was rumored to premiere on
March 29th, however; Warner Music Canada says it's is still TBC, tentatively
April 7th, AND Denmark's no.1 radio station The Voice announced today that they will play the ''4 Minutes'' video anytime now on Voice TV, as they will get it before other media. STAY TUNED!
I had been waiting for that super Tuesday for so long.
