It’s been a year and a half since the passing of the King of Pop: Michael Jackson and his popularity has soared to greater levels than one can imagine, like that of fallen musicians such as John Lennon, Tupac Shakur and Kurt Cobain.
I’m actually a Michael Jackson fan as I grew up with Thriller on vinyl. My parents had given me Dangerous on cassette and I wore it after three months. I was even chosen to attend his memorial service last year, only to give my tickets away to the one person who was a true Michael Jackson fan, and not someone trying to scalp the tickets for profit.
Now almost 10 years after the release of his last album Invincible, Sony has decided to put out Michael: a collection of songs that MJ had not completed, or stored them away due to the fact he wasn’t happy with them.
Now, to forewarn all of you that were hoping to see a masterpiece like that of Thriller or Bad, You’re going to be in for a huge disappointment. This album is nothing near of those masterpieces. Every MJ fan knows that he was the biggest perfectionist in the recording industry and was very anal about what was released and what wasn’t on his albums. Kind of like how Bruce Lee was when he was making his film The Game of Death which he never completed as a result of his unexpected death.
I feel MJ would have been very disappointed in this album as would Bruce Lee would have been in Game of Death which ended up being a slap in the face to all his die hard fans. This didn’t have the MJ magic or feel that you get when you first heard Thriller or Dangerous. Most of the songs feel like they were a thrown together at the last minute just to make this album in time for holiday sales. Out of the ten tracks on this album, only two stand out, and that’s “Hold My Hand” (featuring Akon) and “(If I Can’t Make It) Another Day” (featuring Lenny Kravitz), which would have been perfect for a Greatest Hits compilation or box set instead of this record. Other songs like “Breaking News“ and “Hollywood Tonight“ are very sub-par and most of the time very boring; especially with “Hollywood Tonight,” which to me the title sounds like a bad TV gossip rag like that of Entertainment Tonight. There has also been reports that the vocals on “Breaking News” are not MJ’s. If this is the case, could they have pulled the same crap that was pulled with Game of Death?*
This album should have never been released to begin with! As much as I am not a fan of Will.I.Am, I have to agree with him that they should have left this alone. I have also noticed this trend happening for quite some time now with the likes of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Now if this was an album that MJ had been working on before he died, then I can understand that. But to take songs that he wasn’t happy with, compile a sub-par record and put it out to make a quick buck is crazy. On a side note, I am getting fed up with the MJ hype all because of his death. The same thing happened with Kurt Cobain and Tupac Shakur. I would rather enjoy their music as they had wanted it, and not because everyone is now jumping on the “dead singer” bandwagon and trying to make a quick buck by capitalizing off their death. On a side note, over the holiday weekend I overheard a family member talk about this record and that it had to be released because of MJ was dead… Only three words come to mind; GAME OF DEATH!
Track Listing:
1. Hold My Hand (Duet with Akon)
2. Hollywood Tonight
3. Keep Your Head Up
4. (I Like) The Way That You Love Me
5. Monster (Featuring 50 Cent)
6. Best of Joy
7. Breaking News
8. (I Can’t Make It) Another Day (Featuring Lenny Kravitz)
9. Behind The Mask
10. Much To Soon
* Since Game of Death was never finished and Bruce Lee had passed away after completing Enter The Dragon. The studio decided to finish the film by using body doubles that were clearly not Bruce Lee or even worse in some scenes they used cardboard cutouts.
