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One virtue shared by all
of Michael Jackson’s true fans is patience.
The King of Pop has not released an album since the 1997 disc Blood
on the Dancefloor, which contained only 5 new songs with 8 remixes. Now
seemingly out of nowhere, the moonwalker has made his return, giving a
surprise dance performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the night before
his comeback concert at Madison Square Garden to celebrate his forthcoming
album, Invincible.
SPECIAL
EDITIONS
To kick off his comeback, Jackson has
re-released his first four solo albums, Off the Wall (1979), Thriller
(1982), Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991), as special edition
CDs with newly-remastered sound, interview segments, demo recordings,
collector’s booklets and previously unreleased tracks.
The special editions of all four albums have been refined with
beautifully sounding makeovers for all of their original tracks by sound
engineer Bernie Grundman. The
new cuts sound louder, crisper and clearer than the 10 to 22 year-old
originals, which are noticeably sub-par when played side-by-side to the
special editions. However,
because the original album of Dangerous features 77 minutes worth
of music, which filled the disc, there was no room for any new special
features, except for a collector’s booklet with a few new photos.
Luckily, the other albums feature a bundle of supplements, similar
to The Beatles Anthology releases from 1995.
Home demo recordings of “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,”
“Working Day and Night,” and “Billie Jean,” found on the Off
the Wall and Thriller special editions, are funny for fans to
listen to because they were recorded by Jackson before he wrote most of
the lyrics and basically just feature basic instruments supplemented by
his own mumbling to the beat. Also
found on Thriller is Vincent Price’s original outtake recording
session for the “rap” sequence of “Thriller,” which features the
original, cut, introduction to the song and the never-before released
second verse of his “rap.” The
introduction by both Jackson and Price, who have contrasting voices
similar to those of Mickey Mouse and Barry White, is good for a giggle all
by itself.
Interview segments with producer Quincy Jones and songwriter Rod
Temperton can also be found on the first three discs.
The two reminisce on the making of the albums, their favorite
tracks, why certain songs were cut and various other funny moments from
the recordings (like Temperton talking about how he procrastinated writing
the lyrics to Price’s “rap” until the taxi ride over to the studio
the day of recording). Unfortunately,
disappointing as it is, not a single word of interview can be found from
Jackson himself.
Thriller and Bad feature songs scratched from the
original albums, with interview segments from Jones beforehand explaining
why they didn’t quite cut the mustard.
“Someone in the Dark” (theme to the movie E.T.) from Thriller
and “Fly Away” (Bad), are respectable for slow songs, but would
have slowed down the overall feel of the albums.
The cut pop songs, “Carousel” (Thriller), and
“Streetwalker” (Bad) are decent, but upon hearing they were put
down to be replaced by songs like “Beat It” and “Another Part of
Me,” fans will understand their decision.
Any fan of the original material will love the new prints of the
songs, which all sound as if they were first recorded this year. However, with the absence of supplemental features on Dangerous,
that particular special edition is only recommendable to true fans of the
album, or those that do not already own it.
GHOSTS
The next stage in the King of Pop's comeback was the American
premiere of his short film Ghosts.
The movie, a 38-minute Halloween special based on a story written
by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Wilson (T2-3D: Battle
Across Time) in 1997, which has previously never been released or
aired in America, made its debut on October 24 at 9pm on MTV after an hour
long procession of Jackson's videos.
In the story, Jackson plays Maestro, a strange inhabitant of a
haunted house in the middle of a peaceful town who is generally seen as a
freak because he enjoys scaring people.
However, when the mayor (also played by Jackson) brings a mob of
townspeople to the house to kick him out of town, it is up to Michael to
impress them into allowing him to stay.
What is lost on a weak storyline and little dialogue is made up for
with phenomenal special effects, which accompany his dance sequences. During the first song, "Too Bad" (from his 1995
album HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book I) Maestro resurrects
from the floor a chorus line of the undead to accompany him while he
dances. During "Is It Scary" (from Blood on the
Dancefloor), he transforms into a computer-generated dancing skeleton,
which actually moonwalks across the floor.
Finally in the last dance number before the film's concluding
scene, "Ghosts" (also from Blood on the Dancefloor),
Maestro inhabits the mayor's body and forces him to dance with the
resurrected ghouls to the music.
While non-fans of Jackson's music will probably find little-to-no
enjoyment out of Ghosts because of its weak storyline and emphasis
on dance sequences, the ending affect is an entertaining holiday special
for casual fans and a masterpiece for die-hards.
INVINCIBLE
Released Tuesday, the long anticipated
comeback album is surprisingly enough for a man 43 years of age, a
collection of some of the artist’s best and most energetic music to date
and features guest performances by The Notorious B.I.G. and Brandy
(“Unbreakable”), Carlos Santana (“Whatever Happens”) and Babyface
(“You Are My Life”).
The album begins with “Unbreakable,” a next-level
’N-Sync-type pop song with a rap solo by the Notorious B.I.G. that opens
up the album on a powerful note. The
song underlines the defining theme of Jackson’s comeback that he isn’t
going anywhere until he is ready to stop.
He sings, “With all that I’ve been through, I’m still around.
Don’t you ever make no mistake, baby I’ve got what it takes…
and you’ll never break me, because I’m unbreakable.”
Other key songs on the album, like the title track
“Invincible,” Jackson’s obligatory attack on the media “Privacy”
and “Heartbreaker” are also good examples of how Invincible combines
pop, hip-hop and techno style beats to produce a brand new sound for the
pop genre.
“You Rock My World,” the first single from Invincible,
is perhaps the only track on the record that combines Jackson’s new
style with his old. Even
though the song is about a guy whose whole world is overturned by a woman
he has feelings for, the video, in classic modern fashion, has nothing to
do with this. An elaborate
short film, reminiscent of the “Smooth Criminal” video, starring Chris
Tucker and Marlon Brando backs up the song with a mafia theme.
Although the dancing is, as always in a Jackson video, up to snuff,
many may find the first video from Invincible irrelevant to the
material.
“2000 Watts,” another ’N-Sync sounding song, is possibly the
most energetic track on the album and explodes with hard rock and pop in a
perfect dance song. Although
the lyrics to the song generally do not make any sense, like, “3D, high
speed, feedback, Dolby®. Release
two or three, when I reach I can go ’til I hit my peak. Compact steelo,
chico, D-Lo, highpost lady shorty wanna really be there for me,” the
song’s energy and dance beat overshadow the words and are produced well
enough to keep any dancer on their toes regardless.
However, only about half the tracks on Invincible are purely
energetic pop.
Despite Jackson’s ability to produce quality upbeat music, some
of the best tracks on Invincible are the slow songs like
“Speechless,” a slow love-anthem.
He sings with a chorus, “Speechless, that's how you make me feel,
though I'm with you I am lost for words and nothing is for real.”
The song is beautifully written and performed and has only one
fault, a 34 second talk introduction that would have been better left
excluded.
The album concludes with “Threatened,” an upbeat Halloween song
with a Twilight Zone intro by Rod Serling that really leaves
listeners wanting more. The
best part of the song, however, is the end when Serling returns to finish
off the album with a one-sentence outro that redefines Jackson’s
comeback, “What you have just witnessed could be the end of a
particularly terrifying nightmare, it isn’t, it’s the beginning.”
Invincible, while at times sounding like a next-level
’N-Sync effort, produces its own sounds by combining pop, hip-hop, hard
rock and techno to create a whole new category of its own.
The end result is an album that any fan of Jackson’s work, pop or
dance music will find essential to their collection.
MSG
CONCERT
On
September 7 and 10 in Madison Square Garden, Jackson celebrated his thirty
year anniversary from splitting apart from the Jackson 5 with Michael
Jackson: The Solo Years, 30th Anniversary Celebration, his
first full concert in America since the late 1980s with the Bad
tour.
The
tribute concert to Jackson’s music featured many guest performers, who
sang covers of the king’s work. Guests
included Liza Minnelli (“You Are Not Alone”), Whitney Houston (“Wanna
Be Startin’ Somethin’”), Mya (“Heal the World”) and many others
including Ricky Martin, Deborah Cox, Lil’ Romeo, Marc Anthony and Ray
Charles.
The
concert reunited the Jackson 5 for the first time in decades as they
performed hits such as “ABC” and “I’ll Be There,” as well as
“Dancing Machine” with N*Sync. However,
Jackson also sang many of his solo hits like “The Way You Make Me
Feel” (performed as a duet with Britney Spears), “Beat It,”
“Billie Jean” and his latest single “You Rock My World.”
Michael
Jackson: The Solo Years, 30th Anniversary Celebration
will air November 13 on CBS at 9pm. In
honor of this, Jackson will also unsheathe two new DVDs from his video
collection – Dangerous: The Short Films, featuring all of the
music videos from the album Dangerous and HIStory On Film:
Volume 1 (the first half of his greatest music video hits).
In all, with the number of new releases, performances and
appearances, Michael has promised America that he is here to stay, and
that the King of Pop has returned to reclaim his throne.
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