Michael Jackson – Michael
- Written by Richard Seddon
Death is a good career move, it’s certainly been that way for Michael Jackson: he became the best selling artist of 2009 selling 35 million albums worldwide in the year following his death. He left behind millions of dollars in debt and an almost equal amount in assets – possibly one of the most lucrative a back catalogue of as yet unheard recordings spanning his already prolific career.
A lot of these recordings were made solely for his children, the rest tell the story of a man who lost interest in the many projects he embarked upon and then confidence in ever finishing or releasing; the world record breaking sales of Thriller had haunted him since its release in 1982. Caught in a Catch 22 situation he was bound never to release an album of new material in his lifetime: he would only release an album that would outsell Thriller, nothing he could record would surpass those now iconic tracks.
So it took death for Michael’s fans to hear these recordings, and only without his insistence that the songs stay in the vault that John McLain could step in to help complete the album Michael. Only there wasn’t much to complete, the songs that comprise this new release were, by and large, a finished product.
All that needed doing was to ask children’s entertainer, Akon and Curtis Jackson (or 50 Cent to his fans, you were Christened Curtis so I’ll call you Curtis) to add their bit and it was done. Neither contribution adds much to the album, I’m going to stick my neck out here and suggest they did it for their own kudos rather than for artistic reasons, there, I said it.
The release isn’t without controversy, of course. Randy Jackson claims that some of the songs feature an impersonator and not Michael. Listening to ‘Hollywood Tonight’ you can see his point, it doesn’t really sound like Michael Jackson but this was a man aged 50 and we all know what he’d done to his body over the years, I’m sure his voice was bound to be different.
‘Breaking News’ sees Michael revisit the tone of ‘Leave Me Alone’ with his bizarre habit of complaining about news coverage of stories that he perpetuated himself, it’s an upbeat affair with rich harmonies that would sit comfortably next to ‘Remember the Time’. Axe wielding funkster, Lenny Kravitz joins Michael for ‘(If I Can’t Make It) Another Day' – a definite highlight of the album, Lenny seems to have replaced Slash for Michael’s obligatory, cool guitarist.
This is followed by a cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s ‘Behind the Mask’ (I thought Eric Clapton wrote it too). Who knows why a cover version from the 80s has found its way onto an album that was meant to be the album he would release if alive? It’s great, don’t get me wrong, I’m just confused by its inclusion, I certainly hope this album wasn’t cobbled together.
But the true highlights where Michael shines is where he’s most vulnerable, where he sings unassuming, sweet songs in knowing that he’d no intention of releasing them. Closing track ‘Much Too Soon’ does that very thing, sounds a little like Macca and the instrumentation choice makes it: acoustic guitar, strings and a lovely accordion refrain. ‘(I Like) The Way You Love Me’ has this sound of innocence too but is more upbeat and sounds as if it was recorded around the time of ‘Dangerous’.
Michael is the first of a posthumous ten-album deal so you’d expect it to offer the best quality, but with some tracks failing to hit the mark, questionable collaborations and tracks harking back nearly 30 years it’s not as good as you’d expect it could have been but the stand out tracks stand up against some of Michael’s previous classics.
It’s the future releases we should be worried about, in nine album’s time when all other artists have chipped in with their contributions we can probably expect a guest rap from Dr. Albarn and faked vocals from Avid Merrion. Now there’s a thought.