The Verdict on MICHAEL

This is the most optimistic Michael Jackson album since Off The Wall. The lyrical content is largely inspirational and uplifting and even the songs that are of grittier story-telling are not as heavy handed with themes of the paranormal and/or paranoia that we've long become accustomed to as part of Michael's semi-autobiographical anthems such as "Why You Wanna Trip on Me," "Tabloid Junkie," "This Time Around," "Privacy," among many others.

The album is excellent, as near perfection as it can be considering the King, himself, could not see the production of most of these songs to completion. Still, the vocals are solid and the occurrences of Michael's ad-libs in songs like "Hold My Hand" where he approaches far higher notes, like the riffing during the film "This Is It" at the end of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." This higher range, where he's actually not achieving the notes in falsetto, are the markings of his matured and polished voice. Vocally, Michael was going further, sounding better than ever, topping himself, ever since the era of Invincible.

The vocals are certainly complete or more fully realized than the impression given by the teaser release of "Breaking News" in November. Michael is definitely a complete album and not a shambled montage of cut and paste or auto tunes.
 
The production quality is obviously of others. There will forever remain a distinct and un-duplicateable studio meticulousness that is a Michael Jackson Production beginning to end. This likely is the reason that Michael is the shortest run-time of any other album, of his solo projects:
OFF THE WALL 42:16
THRILLER 42:19
BAD 48:16
DANGEROUS 76:58
HISTORY (disc two) 77:06
BLOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR 76:49
INVINCIBLE 77:08
MICHAEL 42:13

"(I Can't Make It) Another Day," a duet with Lenny Kravitz reminds you of Dangerous' "Give In To Me" with Slash. "Behind The Mask" deserves alot of credit on the part of the producers that assembled it. As it is crafted on Michael, it is a fantastically funky track, with audio clips borrowed from Michael interacting with the crowd during his concert for HBO in Bucharest, Romania. "Behind The Mask," had Michael been in the studio in 2005 instead of being humiliated and proven Innocent, this track and a new album from Michael would've given Madonna a good run for her money, when she threw it old school, and used Disco as if it weren't really so.

Bonus tracks (those previously unreleased) that didn't make the final cut of their intended albums remain in abundance and they always serve to reveal or reinforce his obvious genius, yet it is his genius that always kept him second guessing himself. As an artist, he was always his own worst enemy. He was so pressured by himself, while recording Bad, aiming to top the sales and reception of Thriller, he purposely released a very "commercial" yet altogether excellent album to pull audiences form various genres. He gave up on this approach somewhat while assembling Dangerous, though many "commercial" tracks appear. In 2005 Tom Moon's review on The Ultimate Collection said it best when he referenced

"a drop-dead-funky unreleased track left off 1991's Dangerous: "Monkey Business." Its dazzling, uncontrived exuberance makes you wonder about Jackson's artistic judgment: If he rejected this, what else is sitting on the cutting-room floor?"

"The Way You Love Me" is one previously released track from The Ultimate Collection box set but this is a finished and complete version on Michael. The inclusion of Michael drafting the song to a tape recorder, used as the lead-in to the song, is well suited and appreciated. Every track selected for this album is worthy of inclusion. The most unexpected track "Best of Joy" may very well be the best of Michael.

Another Track From MICHAEL

Much Too Soon click the link to listen

Yesterday, TMZ.com reported and posted the release of another track from the upcoming posthumous release by Michael Jackson. Both TMZ and itunes had exclusive rights, it appears, to stream the song, though it is not available for download yet (legally).

Unlike the previous pot-stirring release, "Breaking News," "Much Too Soon," is a beautiful ballad, unquestionably Michael beginning to end. The opening guitar is reminiscent of Michael's youthful number one "Ben," though not at all a sampling from it. The feel and mood of the song is very much like that of his work two albums prior to this THRILLER era track, on his contribution to the Jacksons VICTORY album, "Be Not Always." However, "Much Too Soon," has a more mature depth and is darker than "Be Not Always," in its raw vulnerability, unlike the more ideological and many times naive "Be Not Always." Aside from the lyrical content, the ballad, though straightforward balladry, is uncommon in construction for "Michael Jackson" standards, which may explain why TMZ.com have quoted the itunes description of the track, stating that "Michael always liked [the track] but never found the right home for it." The structure and instrumentation sounds like the influence of excellent balladry by The Carpenters, who were certainly still relevant during the time of "Much Too Soon's" recording: Post OFF THE WALL(1979) and Pre THRILLER(1982).

Verdict: 5 Stars and drama free (for now).

Is There Any Honor in Posthumous Releases?

Will.i.am doesn't believe there's any honor in releasing material of Michael's unfinished work, according to his statement posted on TMZ.com. Is Will.i.am right? This happens to everyone in the industry. It was done to Elvis, Elliot Smith, 2pac, Biggie, it's just part of the business. But is it part of honoring the artist or just giving the masses something to consume. Are we just satiating the need we've acquired for Michael Jackson? Of course many fans and not-so-much fans are interested in hearing the "new" material that Sony and Michael's estate will be releasing over the NEXT TEN YEARS, but again, are we doing this out of greed and self-satisfaction? Didn't we love him till we hated him and loved him again and hated him again and back full circle all over again? Well, now what are we doing? Is it guilt that will buy these posthumous releases, ill-will to perhaps laugh at what's on the disc, or do we really care and feel this is the least we could do?

What are we really doing when we buy this next album? In truth we're supporting Michael's children. Michael's debts have long been paid off since the surplus of funds following his unexpected, premature death in June 2009. So, we're not paying off his debt that he acquired while being slave to the industry and the public. We're not bringing him back from the crypt, or giving anything to Joe Jackson (which I would certainly avoid doing at any cost). So, is there any honor in this? "This Is It," the documentary/musical, that was an attempt to honor Michael. The Cirque du Soleil tours are an attempt to honor him also. These albums, depending on the content, likely serve no purpose, serve to honor nothing at all. Unless the content reveals something new to us, something unheard of from Michael, or previously unspoken of by Michael, then we gain no new insight or knowledge of him and draw no closer to him in death than in life. By this measure I do not suppose there could be any honor at all in these upcoming releases.

Will I buy the new albums? Yes, because I don't suppose I could help myself and I genuinely love the idea of hearing his voice in new phrases and form.

Breaking News

Alright so I'm listening to "Breaking News" for the second time, much better rested. My initial thoughts were that the track is an incomplete demo or a fraud. The basis being that the song was "recently brought to completion" according to the press release from michaeljackson.com, therefore my main suspicions would be explained by the "recent completion."

I buy the the majority of the vocals as being authentic and entirely Michael Jackson. As for the screams and other elements/trademarks these are typically sampled regardless. If this album wasn't published post-posthumously, no one would pay attention to these audio blips, because these elements have always been recycled in his songs. Obviously he can repeat himself live, but adding the screams and such have always been a post production element, so to speak. Therefore these features are irrelevant to the authenticity of the track, one would assume...

What rings true is the lyrical content: "Why is it strange that I would fall in love. Who is this boogie-man you're thinking of." The lyrical content holds true to his usual themes. What doesn't ring true is the stacking of his vocals, the key of the song, and the lacking of the most crucial elements of every Michael Jackson song: the extensive vamping, i.e. the ad-libbing that he is notoriously known for.

Michael could add minute after minute to the end of any track with passionate, many times unintelligible lyrics but always percussive and/or melodically sound. It was always this portion, the closing of the track with repeating chorus and his lead vocals becoming a subconscious strew of literal nonsense but of musical integrity, always cohesive to the song itself. These aspects were the underlying current of his effortless genius. These elements are missing from "Breaking News," though they are desperately sought after, forcibly so, in duplication.

This may very well be the first Michael Jackson track anyone has ever heard with his voice being auto-tuned and reworked. Towards the end of the track you catch the desperation of the producers and sound engineers trying to piece together previous work of Michael's into the structure and style that is known as the vamping we know him for. "you're breaking the news..." is from "breaking my baby..." vocals taken from the Dangerous album's title track.

Allow me to break it down second by second because I'm catching it all at once and have to keep stopping and rewinding.

@2.06 you hear an re-sampled blip from "Dirty Diana," "no, no" it's merely 2 seconds, maybe 3. But again, it's forced because they're trying to replicate his vamping.

@2.11 you hear a brief vocal run, that will appear later for a bit longer @2.24 and it too is fabricated, yes it's Michael, but it is auto-tuned to fit this song.

The scream "ooh" that you hear multiple times starting @0.55 appears to be originally from the opening of "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough." Which, though I've stated earlier that these elements were often recycled in his tracks, they were never done in this fashion, where a scream distinctive to a particular track be reused. The recycled elements were always key-less, percussive-like, filler you could say.

The repeating guitar-like synth in the song sounds very "Invincible" era, and very much like sampling from the opening of "you rock my world" and the extended version of the track used for the dance sequence from the music video of the same name.

While we're speaking of this Era, mention has been made that the track sounds like a Justin Timberland song. There's obvious, or to some not so obvious, explanation for this. The majority of Timberlake's debut, solo album was made up of songs written specifically for Michael's Invincible album but were turned town by Michael himself as not good enough. Therefore the demos went to Justin, who happily took Michael Jackson hand-me-downs and had a very successful release. Those, like Harvey Levin, who I first read making this comparison, should know better. Justin will tell you himself that he follows in Michael's footsteps and that any comparison to Michael is flattering and the point of Justin's efforts. So, Harvey, this song sounds very Michael Jackson to you, because Justin Timberlake has always made a point to sound "Michael Jackson" and never the other way around.

The track reeks of Teddy Riley: The scream may very well be from "In The Closet" of the Dangerous album and not from "Don't stop till you get enough," as was suggested earlier in this article. Though I mean Riley no disrespect because his work with Michael is of incredible quality. I only note the obvious source for much of this song.

@3.21 and 3.35 the "hee, hee, hee" downward cadence sounds Dangerous album all over

@3.26 you'll hear many times "you keep on breaking..." and each instance is lifted from the title track of the Dangerous album. "Dangerous" features a fabulous portion of vamping and ad-libbing by Michael, accounting for a large percentage of the track, seemingly so with this "new" track as well.

This entire matter is exhausting. The bottom line, this is one incredible fabrication. Yes, this is 100% Michael Jackson as far as whom is singing in this song, but in regards to Michael's work ethic, standards, and the like, this is %100 not up to par for a Michael Jackson release. This is a demo, an excellent song, yet it remains just a demo, and unfortunate for Sony, well no, the only unfortunate ones are his fans (family included) because Sony doesn't care that their client is dead. It's easier to fasten strings to a corpse than a live (action) puppet.

Mann Down

Katherine Jackson's Partner Backtracks on 'New' Song Seems I was right after all. It was a "remake" from unreleased masters. Also, like I said, this would be an easy slap for Sony to make to the face of Mann for being foolish enough to release anything with Sony-owned material within. Mann down.

Regarding Harvey... TMZ and Katherine's MJ song

Michael Jackson's Mom: Here's Your MJ Song! The track from TMZ is rather interesting. It brings up more questions than anything else. I'm actually still listening to this very lengthy track while composing this blog and have already recognized the original vocals as coming from the Jacksons' album and title track Destiny. Which is why I have so many questions.

Katherine Jackson swears to the authenticity of the track, of course, but no doubt the vocals are authentic because they're from previously released material. Therefore this track's release would only be worthwhile if the production and mixing of the track were done by Michael, himself. Was the song arranged by Michael? Was this song edited, composed, produced, etc by Michael? If not, well, the questions and my post could end here. If so, this track is interesting from the perspective of it being a creative piece for Michael. It seems to be a mixing springboard. I say creative because the song is a lengthy construct of thoughts and themes, a testing of different elements, synths, and such.

Obviously this track, released from Katherine's vault, was never intended to be a commercial anything, nor a released track. It would only hold value from it being a drafting process, so to speak, for Michael in the studio. A sort of rough draft of purging multiple ideas, testing of chord variations, combinations, vocal mixing, et cetera et cetera, I say because I need not list all the elements of the track to reference them all at once. However, if this is merely a vocal from the title track Destiny from the former Jacksons' album, then all this is for not and there is nothing of interest to comment on. Though there would be plenty to say of cheating those listening and as much to mention regarding Katherine's "decision" to release something so irrelevant.

That being said, it's only a matter of time before Sony snatches the song from TMZ.com and declares it a violation of their rights, its inclusion of vocals from Michael's catalogue: i.e. all things Sony (unfortunately).

Cirque du Soleil -- Michael Jackson Immortalized

Cirque du Soleil -- Michael Jackson Immortalized The slideshow of sketches make this so epic that it's no doubt the realization of This Is It should the DVD have been a tour. Cirque seems aware of the immense task their taking on, realizing a Michael Jackson show comes with ridiculously high expectations and however good a job Cirque does, they must also surpass the ...amount of anticipation in Michael "appearing" though we already know this to be impossible.

Open Letter to Lisa Marie Presley

I'm not sure why I've decided to post this, but I'm doing it anyway. I've only written to a celebrity once and it was a letter I wrote to Michael Jackson, when I was 10 years old. He and Lisa Marie were still married then, which gives away my age. It's interesting to think that my second time would be when I felt compelled to go to Lisa's website and find out how I could respond to her after watching her interview with Oprah. Now, I'll share it with you all.

October 24, 2010

Thank you so much for speaking. I just watched the interview with Oprah on youtube (Harpo will surely snatch it down) and I have no other way to thank you or speak to you besides via this pseudo-"social" medium.

Nevertheless, I'm sincerely grateful to you for having the courage to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the nameless millions (i.e. viewers, fans, etc.) We have all become part of your life and in many ways unwillingly so. Unfortunately it's because of our technological capabilities, our social interfaces, the associated press and the media at large that our lives become so affected by people we will never know for the depth of our knowledge is only so many pixels by so many grains by so many bytes. Yet, the minority group "Celebrity" is a dominating force and a tethered and infinite thread woven throughout the tapestry of the larger society that America can only account for as Culture. This is my culture. Tune in or tune out.

Regardless, you are part of me and you were part of him and I was 10 years old when you and Michael married. He represented many many things to me and was unknowingly a safe place to run, an escape from harm, a space to dream in, and all these things I've attached to him, he was part of me and never knew I ever existed. Though the same applies to you, it has always been different: You were the one who entered into his world, the realm of the ordinary, mundane, and universal life experience: waking, sleeping, eating, bathing, breathing, being. You gave to me the best possible Michael I could only hope to know. You made him human. You overlapped the mystery of the Phenomenal Talent we all knew as the King of Pop. Because of you, he seemed tangible and equally as vulnerable as any other living being. You were his humanity.

The "public" may never thank you and many may not even care and surely some will smear you for doing the interview and/or for doing the interview with Oprah. It doesn't matter. What matters is that your speaking matters for Michael; That matters to me. Your speaking matters to you; That matters to me. If you never read this, well, it is the nature of the beast: the division of classes: the famous and the others.

Somehow, I hope this reaches you and I hope that somehow I managed something coherent out of a incredibly reduced version of why it was unavoidable for me to become attached to him and so grateful for you: for being there, for "knowing" him, and most of all for loving him. Thank you Lisa, your words, since the 25th, have been so necessary. Thank you for, once again, shattering the barrier between the "reality" and the "show." There's hope yet for humanity (which the American Public desperately needs to become acquainted with). Thank you.

Sincerely,
R***********
25 years old
Unemployed Graduate, Writer and disenchanted Depressive (we all have our demons)
r***********@gmail.com

Post Script: After Michael died, I listened to his music non-stop, but found it painful to listen to upbeat songs. Instead I began to play tracks from his Invincible album where he reconnected to his beautiful gift with ballads and I listened to "Don't Walk Away" over and over again. Then I bought both of your Albums and listened to them on repeat for days. Then I would just listen to "Now What," "Don't Walk Away," "You Are My Life," "Sinking In," "Gone" in a playlist on repeat. I don't know why I'm saying all this. Someone that works for you will scan this and forward it to an address that collects all the other emails from strangers. I fucking love "Now What." It suspends time and find myself staring at the floor in reflection, then it ends and I breathe again.

I read he had a pet name for you. DId he really call you "girl?" [as a pet name and reference to Wendy and Peter Pan] I believe the ad-libs in "Don't Walk Away" are deliberate. "I won't forget you girl."

[Same day, immediately following the first letter.]
Second Letter:
Post Post Script: He lived across the street

Hello Again,

I meant to mention this in the first letter: In the moment of realizing Michael's rented LA home was across the street from where you spent a great deal of time as a child at your Father's LA home, you said you you weren't even sure if [Michael] was aware.

You would know better than I, but Michael wasn't a coincidence kind-of-guy. My initial thought was, considering he still loved you, there wasn't any coincidence about his living across the street from a place that would remind him of you. A room with a view, a house of nostalgia, a way for him to feel even remotely close or connected to you. Have you since considered the same? Or do you believe it must be coincidental? If it were no slight chance, though it'd be painful for you to consider, it would be one hell of a statement. That at least, for him, every day until his last, he could romanticize the notion that you were near, merely across the street.

When we are wounded, a means to comfort ourselves is always sought, and usually found in the most unlikely ways.

Take care Lisa.
Here's hoping my messages reach you.
Cheers,
r.
(The woman that wrote you quite a lengthy "thank you" letter.)