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.
8.11.10
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.
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.
7.11.10
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.
6.11.10
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).
4.11.10
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.
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