Thursday, December 9th 2010
Reviews: Michael Jackson
The Great Posthumous Michael Jackson Cash-In, Volume 1
After Michael Jackson’s passing last year, it was only hours before the gears of the money-making machines began grinding to life. Jackson’s estate seized the surge of renewed interest to strike deals across all corners of the entertainment world; movies, video games and album deals all took flight.
As a result, Michael is the first in what will surely be an endless chain of posthumous music releases by the enigmatic icon. As such, it’s a marker of the sort of material that’s been locked up in Jackson’s vault, some for decades. The only problem – it’s a deeply underwhelming collection of flawed odds and ends material from one of the world’s most notorious perfectionists.
Most of the disc sounds like it was originally recorded around the Invincible era, circa 2000-2001. There are a few songs that Jackson’s camp says are older, such as Much Too Soon and Behind The Mask which are reported to be Thriller-era songs. But the questions remain: is this material good enough to satiate the innumerable Jackson fans worldwide, and does it serve his legacy?
There are a handful of truly great MJ songs on the album, that the familiar fan will find a comforting home in: Hollywood Tonight, (I Like) The Way You Love Me, (I Can’t Make It) Another Day and Behind The Mask are among the best material Jackson has recorded since the second disc of HIStory back in the mid-90s.
Hollywood Tonight is a New Jack Swing-tinged exercise in Michael cliches, with pounding base, Jackson’s trademark vocal quips and singing style. Synth orchestral hits punctuate the end of the chorus, demanding one’s attention and making sure they stay tuned in the entire track.
Previously released back in 2004 as part of Michael’s Ultimate Collection, the version of (I Like) The Way You Love Me presented here sounds much more complete, less like a demo than its predecessor. It starts with what sounds like Michael phoning in the melody and tempo (literally) before the staccato piano line comes in backing his syrupy vocals. The bass comes through extra punchy, becoming much more percussive and less groove-based than most Jackson tracks. Unfortunately, the song runs about two minutes too long, attempting to draw itself out by raising the key not once, not twice, but three times.
The other two great tracks on the album stick out far above the others: (I Can’t Make It) Another Day features Lenny Kravitz and live drum work that is rumored to be done by Mr. Dave Grohl. The song was scrapped from Jackson’s Invincible back in 2001, and Kravitz himself re-recorded it and released it as the track Storm on his Baptism LP. In its original state, Another Day is a haunting, nearly industrial pop track. Kravitz is responsible for most of the instrumentation (save for the live drums) and also provides backing vocals. The track’s advantage over its fraternal twin comes into full view with Jackson’s sing-screaming over the powerful backing track.
An interpretation of a track by Japanese synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, Behind The Mask is easily among the best of Jackson’s released material since the HIStory sessions. The song is very synth-heavy, featuring one of Jackson’s tightest vocal performances. Michael sounds on fire (no pun intended), but the synthesizers and some ridiculous robotic voice hide his performance during both the chorus and breakdown. Let’s not forget the slightly obnoxious saxophone that both opens the track and strikes again halfway through, ruining the song’s momentum. Luckily, Jackson’s vocal performance is attention-grabbing and sits well with the majority of the backing track, resulting in a high point on the album
The real problem with Michael is that those are the only tracks truly worth listening to. Of the remaining tracks, both Best Of Joy and Much Too Soon are saccharine ballads too boring to warrant repeat listens. Best Of Joy was actually the last song Jackson had written before passing, but the version on this album doesn’t seem release-ready. Much Too Soon is hard to digest because of some French hillside accordion and a bait-and-switch opening chord progression ripped straight out of the far superior Ben.
Then we come to the tracks that were recorded back in 2007 when Mr. Jackson was staying with the Cascio family. This includes the remotely Dangerous-era sounding Breaking News, Keep Your Head Up and Monster. Controversy surrounds these three tracks due to the inescapable fact that significant portions of the songs sound unlike anything Michael had ever performed (vocally). Breaking News jumpstarted the controversy/promotion scheme when it was released last month, and while portions of the New Jack Swing style track don’t resemble MJ in any way, his estate and Epic Records maintain that it is 100% authentic.
Out of the three, only Breaking News demands listening. Keep Your Head Up is another filler ballad and Monster is completely ruined with a terrible verse by 50 Cent. Keep Your Head Up arguably contains more “real” Michael Jackson vocal portions according to the hardcore fans, but it’s going to be pretty much impossible finding out the truth surrounding the tracks. The tracks aren’t good enough for anyone except the hardest of hardcore fans to care enough to decipher the secret.
This leaves us with lead single Hold My Hand, a duet with a very washed up Akon. It sounds like a typical track one could expect from Akon, meaning it features the same damn vocal hook that all of his songs contain. It’s completely forgettable and does a disservice to the good songs on Michael by being released as the first single (even if that’s Michael wanted. It’s not particularly unpleasant to listen to, but the track is so underwhelming and unremarkable that one has to question why Michael wanted the track to be released so badly.
Overall, the album contains four good songs (two of them close to great), two sappy ballads, three songs that may or may not actually be Michael Jackson and a terrible lead single. It doesn’t add up to the greatest of releases, but there are two ways listeners can choose to view Michael as an album.
On the cynical side, the album is a quick cash-grab, an attempt by MJ’s estate and Epic Records to make a buck with the first album of new material to be released posthumously. For the hopeful, the album serves as a brief look into Jackson’s unreleased catalogue, with hope that there may be some more gems as the estate digs deeper into the unreleased material. Only time will tell.
I’m a little stumped as to why this review is even here? Not to sound like a stereotypical MJ hater (which I’m not ashamed to admit that I am), but doesn’t this just seem a little like playing along with the fat cats that are using this to cash in a quick buck?
We grew up listening to Michael. We were curious. That’s enough for us.
Fair enough, didn’t mean anything dickish by it, I’m just anxiously awaiting the end of the MJ overhype
A music site reviewing music? Surely we’ve all gone mad
One word: Necrophelia
Addicted to Another Day ;p
Like many of the posthumous releases by another noted perfectionist, Jimi Hendrix, I have to wonder if any of this would have seen the light of day in this form had MJ been alive.
These guys cared too much about their music to just release it without it being absolutely perfect to them. To have someone else re-edit, re-mix, or otherwise finish unfinished material and then release it leaves a bad taste.
As much as I liked some of the last Hendrix album, I felt like the production on a lot of the songs just wasn’t up to the caliber of his previous work, and had he been alive, they probably would have never been released. Some were merely demos and jams “spruced” up and marketed as “new”.
Sounds like the same thing with this new MJ cd. He deserves better.
Favorite song on this album “Behind the Mask” . It’s vintage Michael vocals with today’s sound. That’s what I pictured him sounding like if only he was as deteremined to continue to make great music as he was on being just plain strange!