ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Expecting T.I. to start putting out schmaltzy lesson-learned tracks now that he's doing community service? Well, you'd be right about the schmaltz. You want to go straight but you can only get money through dealing drugs? "It's OK, tomorrow will be a better day!" You just got arrested and its your third strike? "It's OK, tomorrow will be a better day!" I'm sure T.I.'s parole officer wishes he'd sung "Trust me that crime don't pay," but I think most of us just wish he wasn't singing. This track follows closely on the heels of "Life Of The Party," and his surprisingly light-on-the-Autotune voice groaning on the chorus despite the audible availability of R. Kelly would seem to mean that we can expect a lot of crooning from the King Of The South.

WHERE TO FIND IT: KNOWXONE posted it Saturday, and it's since made its way to YouTube and beyond.

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: As expected/dreaded, Hard Candy is pretty much Madonna's attempt to recreate the success of Nelly Furtado's Loose, and the seven songs that have leaked so far are making me wonder if it's going to simmer the way that record did in my consciousness, i.e., an inititally grating dance-pop album that revealed its best track months after its release-date press cavalcade. "Miles Away," Madge's other collaboration with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Danja, would seem to fit that bill, as it's a wistful dance-pop ballad that uses the quickly strummed guitars of "Like I Love U." Otherwise, Madonna seems to be chasing trends from years gone by, particularly the use of cowbell to give dance tracks an "edgy" feel: "Give It To Me" is a cowbell-studded track that has a Pharrell cowriting credit and feels much longer than its four and a half minutes, and you can't help but wonder how much less flabby the song would be were, say, James Murphy assisting Madonna in her creative decisions instead. "She's Not Me" has a dark vibe (and no cowbell, somehow), but it's torpedoed by its adolescent Single White Female lyrics. Bad lyrics also plague "Incredible," on which Madonna sings in a head-voice yowl that makes her sound even younger than she did when she was wearing fingerless gloves and rubber bracelets, but the hypercolored club-banger nature of that track renders the line "sex with you is ... incredible!" at least a little less eye-rolling.

Madonna's career has been marked by her turning her flaws into assets, and subsequently exploiting them to the hilt; judging by these seven songs, though, the current musical marketplace has made her a little wary, hence her turning to the producers of two-years-ago's moment to help her get her moxie back. Whether her attempt to make the next generation of 15-year-olds care about her as much as the last three or four have is up for debate.

HARD CANDY [ONTD]

A good chunk of the e-mails are banal in the way that only interoffice correspondence can be, but there are some interesting tidbits buried within, first and foremost among them being the fact that MediaDefender's operatives have infiltrated pretty much every filesharing service/torrent site/leak bulletin board out there—including those whose users are pretty convinced that they're operating "in secret," like OiNK and Soulseek. (Better change your usernames!) And the albums listed in the long rundown of e-mails reads like a rundown of the past few months' highest-priority releases: Ne-Yo, Feist, Brad Paisley. .And Nine Inch Nails, which is surely thrilling Trent Reznor.

Mediadefender's response to Kanye West's Graduation leak seems to encapsulate the company's SOP: Members of the company's "leak team" have every Rapidshare-linking, torrent-seeding site in their bookmarks, and when an album (or a song that's been designated by the labels the company works with as a single) gets out there, they notify the label; then MD operatives start flooding sites with decoy copies. As this e-mail describes those decoys, "The file is real for 45 seconds, then goes to crap and sounds skippy, glitchy, etc." While the company's attempts to upload those bad files have been pretty much unsuccessful on more boutique sites—there's even a chain from a SonyBMG employee berating them for not getting their shit together as far as faking out SoulSeek users—the glitchy files have, apparently, been "flooding" sites like eMule and Gnutella. (Do people still use those sites? Maybe that's the reason for the flood. Just saying.)

Whether or not these tactics work is up in the air; after all, with so much music that sounds like absolute garbage these days, a song that sounds "glitchy" may not cause devoted BitTerrorists to run for the hills (or their local Best Buy) the way that the labels are hoping, and it seems that quite a few admins of file-sharing sites have recognized MediaDefender's IP addresses and kicked the spoof torrents off their servers. But the majors must feel really good that they're throwing a lot of money on at least trying to solve the piracy issue, instead of doing something silly like working out a longer-term solution that doesn't involve basically deceiving people who are interested in their product, if not interested in the price point being offered. (They're hardly the only short-sighted companies out there, either, it should be said.)

Fw: Multi-Track Leak: Kanye West - Graduation [mediadefender-defenders.com]
Days Of The Leak [Spin]

Lupe Fiasco - Cold Blooded [MP3, link expired]

Redman - Shut 'Em Down [MP3, link expired]
Redman feat. Mr. Red, Mr. Purp, & Ready Roc -Brick City Gangstas [MP3, link expired]
Redman - Walk On [MP3, link expired]

It took long enough, but Kaiser Chiefs' Yours Truly, Angry Mob finally hit the Internet, where it's already taking up valuable tube space. Two tracks below: "Ruby," the lead-off single, and "Everything Is Average Nowadays," which, despite its title, is not a Buzzcocks homage:

Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby [MP3, link removed]
Kaiser Chiefs - Everything Is Average Nowadays [MP3, link removed]
Kaiser Chiefs [MySpace]

Fluxblog has a new track from Canadian singer Feist, who's much beloved around the Idolator flophouse for the 2004 AM-gold homage "One Evening." Her new album, The Reminder, is due out this spring, and "My Moon, My Man" is a promising kick-off single, especially when the piano and the drums start beating each other up near the end:

Feist - My Moon, My Man [MP3, link removed]
Feist [MySpace]

J Dilla - Wild [MP3, link expired]
there is nothing like this [gorilla vs. bear]

The new LCD Soundsystem record is all over the Internet, and we have Little White Earbuds to thank for the track below. Is it just us, or is James Murphy channeling Zevon on that "how-ooooh" bit?

LCD Soundsystem - Watch The Tapes [MP3, link removed]
Truce, fingers not crossed [Little White Earbuds]

Taylor Hicks - Wherever I Lay My Hat [MP3, link expired]
Taylor Hicks [MySpace]

Gwen Stefani feat. Pharrell - Yummy [MP3, link removed]

We're still digesting the white-powdered pomp that's all over this album, but we do know one thing: It's a shame that the stomping, shaking "Teenagers" wasn't around when we did the T. Rex Cover-Song Showcase Showdown a few weeks back. It would have killed.

My Chemical Romance - Teenagers [MP3, link expired]
Previously: Leak Of The Week Day: My Chemical Romance's "Mama" Issues

My Chemical Romance - Mama [MP3, link expired]

Press Play opens with a looped sample of Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels," and it's repeated enough times to inspire worries that he's returned to his really-obvious-sample ways. Thankfully, it doesn't stay in that rut because it's so all over the place; the long list of guest stars makes the album sound a little schizophrenic. And supersized King-sized, too; its skits, songs, and gratuitous uses of the word "motherfucker" clock in at 78 minutes, just a few seconds shy of the limit that a CD can handle. There are a few decent songs buried in there—and Making the Band fans will recognize the hook Christina Aguilera's singing on "Tell Me"—but Press Play only reaches euphoric heights on the bouncy "Thought You Said." Brandy's vocal performance and the song's jittery beat almost made us forget about Diddy's lackluster flow.

Diddy - Thought You Said (featuring Brandy) [MP3, link expired]
Diddy - Press Play [Torrent Portal]

Last Friday, some well-connected little birdie dropped an advance MP3 of Jay-Z's "Show Me What You Got" into our tips@idolator.com mailbox. This apparently didn't make the folks at Interscope/Universal/Globex (or whatever they're called) too happy, and after writing us a few excitingly bold-faced legal letters, they jumped the gun and posted the song themselves.

We bring this up not to brag—all we did was throw the song up before going back to making Shalamar jokes—but to point out that when you send us a tip or track anonymously, we keep it anonymous. And we love advance leaks—not fake leaks masterminded by some lame underground-marketing firm, but real-deal, someone's-gonna-get-screamed-on-for-letting-this-get-out leaks. So please keep 'em coming, because frankly, our lawyers need something to listen to while trying to figure out how to keep us from copyright court.

Earlier: Leak Of The Week Day Year: Jay-Z, 'Show Me What You Got'

Jay-Z's unretirement album, Kingdom Come, drops on Nov. 21; the lead-off track, "Show Me What You Got," starts off with him almost apologizing for coming back before kicking right into a classic Hova boast, one where he seems to be shedding—and mocking—his former player persona. It's backed by a super-bright blend of cascading piano, a sinuous sax, and a sampled Flavor Flav serving as Jay's sideman.

Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got [MP3—well, that was fast.]
Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got [Nah Right]
My 1st Single [xxlmag.com]
Previously: Exclusive: When Jay-Z Met Gwynnie
[Photo: Getty Images]

Lloyd Banks - One Night Stand (featuring Keon Bryce) [MP3, link expired]
Lloyd Banks - Playboy [MP3, link expired]
New Lloyd Banks Album: Rotten Apple [rlslog.net]

Unfortunately, those warning signs have been borne out by Sam's Town, which lands in stores Oct. 3. It plods along, audibly straining underneath its own weight—probably because it's been crammed with more sonics than all three Bat Out Of Hells combined. And then there's Flowers' voice, which—well, let's say one nice thing about this record: He hasn't fallen victim to the AutoTune plague.

Following up a monster-selling record isn't an easy task, and it probably inspires a lot of soul-searching and creative agita. But what makes Sam's Town such an excruciating listen is that you can actually hear The Killers overthinking every step they make. The playfulness that made "Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody Told Me" irresistible radio-rock is almost completely absent. (Flowers' atrocious lyrics, however, are still in full effect.) In its place is an album that prefaces its outro—sorry, its "Exitlude"—with a bombastic kettle-drum fanfare, a confused, overblown mess that even Rolling Stone couldn't bring itself to like.

The Killers - This River Is Wild [MP3, link removed]
The Killers - Sam's Town [isohunt]

But in those 20 years, the idea of what makes an album has grown, too. And not in a good way.

Take a look at the tracklisting for Control—stunning for its absolute precision, with nine songs, no guests, and no spoken-word filler. In contrast, 20 is all over the place—it doubles Control's track count, packing on five skits, as well as guests like Khia and Nelly. (Somehow, it manages to clock in at under an hour.) There are a few decent songs buried within—"This Body" is a corker in the "Black Cat" mold, and "Get It Out Me" uses its sample of Nice N' Wild's "Diamond Girl" in an inventive way—but you have to wade through Janet talking about the time she sang about spousal abuse to get there.

20's overstuffedness contributes to the record's other problem, one that's even more fundamental to why it doesn't quite work. For all of Janet's willingness to flaunt her cleavage and jaw about going home to get herself off, what's most disappointing about the album is how unbelievably hidden she is. Sure, there's a ton of sex talk, but it's completely devoid of intimacy; anyone who's glanced at a gossip column in the last 10 years has heard it all before, anyway. It only adds to the feeling that Janet's decided to cloak herself within her own record, taking refuge behind guest MCs, and multi-tracked vocals, skits, and her insistence that she likes to take off her clothes. Any fans who were hoping that she'd shake off her string of lackluster albums and show pop fans who's in control will be disappointed.

Janet Jackson - This Body [MP3, link expired]
Janet Jackson-20 Years Old-Retail [Mininova]
Previously: Videodrone: Janet Jackson, "So Excited"

Between the depressed sales landscape and the woman-free rock landscape, it's looking unlikely that The Open Door will reach those blockbuster heights. That aside, it's actually a pretty enjoyable, if slightly indulgent, album. Lee's shed some of the angsty-dude bombast that made Fallen only mildly tolerable, and she's replaced it with goth-tinged drama — think extended piano solos, haunted-house synth runs, and a full-on choir. (Now we really believe Lee wants to, as she told Spin this month, play Christine in Phantom of the Opera someday.) It's a grandiose, sometimes ridiculous album, and the first single, the snarling "Call Me When You're Sober," is probably the only song that doesn't need serious retooling in order to get on the radio. But that over-the-topness is exactly what drama club members crave, and if Lee inspires bands of teenage girls to ditch their Hinder albums and storm the Internet in search of the latest Projekt releases, then she's done her job.

Evanescence - The Open Door [Releaselog]

Our verdict: "SexyBack" is one of the least enjoyable moments on a pretty stellar record, one that will probably satisfy JT's expansive audience (which seems to include gays, tweens, and normally snobby pop geeks). The best cuts are the opening title track, which nearly cribs from Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust," and the unmistakably Timbaland-produced "My Love." There's also, unfortunately, a feel-good choir-assisted ballad about crack ("Losing My Way"), but hey, everyone's entitled to moments of R. Kelly preposterousness.