Michael Jackson - Michael (2.5/5)

I’ve had this for almost a week. I listened to it 3 times straight through last Tuesday during some driving around and I haven’t listened to it since, until starting this review. That’s not really enough attention to make a judgment about the contents, but I’m not likely to give it much more time than that in the next 3 years, never mind the 2 days until it’s released. And it’s the most attention I’ve given ANY music in the last few months, so we might as well just get on with it.

I’ll try to leave aside all the controversies: from his children and mother and brothers stating that some of the tracks don’t contain his singing, to Quincy Jones and others saying none of this should have been released, to the Prince symbol that was originally included on the cover, then yanked, to Teddy Riley making an ass out of himself left and right.

How is the album? Does it stand up to Michael’s early adult works, such as “Off The Wall” or “Thriller?” No. Does it stand up to edgier, mid-period beat-driven work such as “Bad” and “Dangerous”? No. Does it stand up to the self-absorbed, martyrdom of late-period freak-shows “HIStory” and “Invincible”? Well, kind of.

Every cliché in the latter day Michael Jackson canon is here. From the self-pitying, angry “poor me, I’m Michael Jackson” to the saccharine and meaningless “can’t we all just get along” tracks. The hard beats standing in for melody are here. The save-the-world with a Care Bear Stare mentality. The random guest rapper. It’s all here. But as with all of Michael’s albums, even the last couple, there are a few hidden gems to be found. There are some beautiful and brilliant moments hiding in this exercise to milk every last cent out of the Michael Jackson estate.

Because it’s such a hodge-podge, I suppose the best way is to go through it track-by-track.



1. “Hold My Hand” (with Akon) - I’m not sure this is the best way to start the proceedings. It’s a pleasant-enough, mid-tempo number. Things get off to a rocky start when the first lyric is Akon doing an “Akon and MJ” shout-out. I realize it was Akon’s track to begin with, but that’s the kind of modern pop music convention that should have been kept out of this sort of release. I will say that Akon and MJ’s voices do complement each other rather well. In fact, there are points where if you aren’t paying close attention, they can be almost indistinguishable. The song itself is one of those feel-good happy-happy-joy-joy affairs pointing a way toward healing the world through good feelings and other happy thoughts. As with most Michael Jackson songs, a choir comes in toward the end. You know, just in case. As I said, it’s a nice mid-tempo number that would have made for a nice breather as track 3, but is conspicuous in its odd placement as the lead-off track (and lead-off single).

2. “Hollywood Tonight” - I think this is going for “Billie Jean” but falling somewhere short of “Blood On The Dance Floor”. The pace is picked up here, but it just isn’t that good. It’s a cautionary tale about chasing fame, blah blah blah. The beats are nice, but the track is marred by someone that I think I read was a nephew (Jermajesty? T3/3T? Some other marginally talented clone that the family keeps churning out every generation?) doing a spoken-word verse and a lot of “she’s Hollywood, she’s Hollywood” chants through a filter. It’s the kind of thing you used to hear on Blackstreet records ten years ago. So maybe Teddy Riley produced it. Maybe it’s him doing it. The entire thing sounds phoned-in, literally. All of that could have been cut and the instrumental portions backing them tightened up. This could have been a nice number, but there’s too much post-production touches used to “finish” it for it to feel vital.

3. “Keep Your Head Up” - You can probably imagine exactly what this sounds like just from reading the title. The only thing you might be wrong about is that it is NOT about the plight of children around the world, although I’m sure at some point in its conception, there was that temptation to make it one of those. Nice, soul-pop ballad about perseverance. See track #1. A choir even takes over near the end. In isolation, this is a decent song. On 75 to 80 minute Michael Jackson album, this would be one of those tracks that you don’t remember too much about. It’s not awesome and it’s not really one that’s making you reach for the skip button. It’s just kind of there. In these surroundings, it’s rather good in comparison.

4. “(I Like) The Way You Love Me” - Lovely. I love this song. Another mid-tempo pop-soul song; it almost sounds like a throwback. The soaring, word-less vocals on the bridge are just beautiful. There’s only one guy with a voice like that, and it was still really good in his latter days. The only drawback to this song is that a demo version of it was already released on 2004’s “The Ultimate Collection” box set. It was one of the best unreleased tracks on there, and it the same holds true here. And it’s a love song, to boot. One of the frustrations of “Invincible” is that the best material on that album was about mundane subject matter. Straight forward romantic ballads and dance tunes are where he still excelled, and not on the aggressive, insdustrial, crunchy beats that were backdrops for his anger about being famous or the syrupy ballads about children that were trying to approximate some Streisand-on-Broadway-induced diabetic coma. You may well not believe a word of what he’s saying in these romantic numbers, but he was damn good at them. Definitely a favorite here.

5. “Monster” (featuring 50 Cent) - The beats here sound like “Dangerous” or “HIStory” leftovers. And they’re just the kind of leftovers you’d imagine for some leftover rage in the lyrics about his life as media-targeted freak show. The vocals are nice, but the appearance of 50 Cent halfway through sounds a bit out of place. Michael has done a lot of tracks like this. This is just another one. As mentioned above, this is one of my least favorite Michael Jackson genres. At least it doesn’t sound quite as angry as some of the others.

6. “Best Of Joy” - Another dud. You know what I said about him still excelling at simple, romantic numbers even later in his career? That doesn’t apply here. This is just a little too simple; a little too romantic. It’s cloying. Supposedly this is one of the last songs he was working on before his death in 2009. I think he should have been putting his efforts elsewhere.

7. “Breaking News” - The self-referential, self-absorbed, angry “poor me, I’m Michael Jackson” song reaches its peak (or nadir) on this track to the point where he actually name-checks himself several times throughout the verses. There has been a lot of controversy about whether the vocals on this track are Michael’s or not. They sound like it to me, but maybe slowed down in certain parts. Anyway, there’s a lot wrong with this song. It’s the epitome of half of everything that’s been wrong with his output for the last 15-20 years. It even re-uses the sampled (or re-created) TV news reports gimmick of one of those tracks from “HIStory”. That said, I actually like the backing track here. Funky, sparse beats. It’s too bad he never had anything else on his mind when he did these up-tempo numbers.

8. “(I Can’t Make It) Another Day” (featuring Lenny Kravitz) - Because every Michael Jackson album since “Thriller” needs a rock track with a famous rock guitarist on it. Breaks the mold in that the vocal on the verses is very gentle and the beat is a little more funky and intricate than we usually get on this sort of track from him. I’ve noticed on this and several tracks that the beat, the music and the vocals seem to be fighting to be heard over each other. I don’t buy the argument from the kooks who insist that he isn’t singing on these songs, but perhaps they needed to cover up the demo-like quality on a lot of these vocal tracks.

9. “Behind The Mask” - Oooooh, now THIS is more like it. A “Thriller” era outtake? If not, it’s a convincing recreation, down to the organic use of the robotic vocals. Fantastic track here. Definitely my favorite on this album. An old-school Michael Jackson dance tune straight out of the 80’s. The vocal even sounds like it’s from them. I’m not sure what the point of that generic sax solo at the beginning is. Or the use of a live crowd mixed in. But this really should have been the first track. It would have kicked things off in a much more exciting fashion. But then, considering the rest of the album, there wouldn’t have been anywhere to go from there. LOVE THIS SONG!

10. “Much Too Soon” - From the title, I was expecting some sappy follow up to the “Dangerous” closer “Gone Too Soon”. And yes, this is a little sappy, but it’s beautiful. It sounds like an old vocal as well. Thank God whoever got their hands on this to prepare it for release didn’t feel tempted to make it overblown. A beautiful, understated, acoustic ballad. A very nice closer. One of the top tracks on this mess.

So it’s a grab-bag of leftovers. Are these really 10 songs that Michael Jackson was working on to release at the time of his death? Some of them, probably. Some of them are doubtful though. And are these really the 10 best that Sony could come up with for the first posthumous milking of his unreleased material? I hope not, or I’m not really interested in hearing the rest. The problem is, I’ve heard some others, and a lot of them blow this material out of the water. I’m going to assume that this is the best that the people who were willing to put this out could come up with. Quincy Jones has already stated that this stuff shouldn’t be released, so I doubt he’s handing over any tapes. And will.I.am has said the same, and they were working on a lot of material together a few years ago. My feeling is that this is the best they could come up with on short notice that didn’t require a lot of post-production to complete.

Overall, this isn’t a great release. It doesn’t really do any damage to Michael Jackson’s legacy as a singer, songwriter, or performer. Let’s face it, he’d done quite a bit of damage on that front himself, just from the last couple of albums he released in his lifetime. That’s where the problem lies with this release. With “Dangerous,” “HIStory,” and “Invincible” he filled up those CD’s to within an inch of the 80 minute capacity, and they resulted in 40-50 minutes worth of great or at least decent material. And the hit-and-miss rate was looking more and more dire with every album. Here we have 10 tracks clocking in at under 42 minutes. I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but he really needed to put 15-16 songs on every album just to get 8 or 9 that were keepers. With relatively brief nature of this release, that ratio hasn’t changed. Half of it sounds as phoned-in from the grave as it did in life.

Here’s hoping that on future releases they’re able to work out something to get the really good stuff on them. Or maybe the best way to milk that material is in dribs and drabs and re-issues and box sets. Maybe there just isn’t enough good, (almost) finished material to sustain an entire album.