Michael Jackson – “Michael” (2010)

Rating: 4

Best Song: “Monster”
       
            I probably should have known better, but I tried anyways. Michael is the first posthumous ‘studio’ album released after Jackson’s death in 2010. As it does consist solely of previously unreleased material and tracks he worked on post-Invincible, I decided it warranted a proper review. Yet after three listens, I don’t find that I really have a lot to say. I wouldn’t say that Michael is just a blatant play for record sales (that dubious distinction would go to the ceaseless procession of compilations and repackaging that Sony has been foisting on the public), as it does seem to be a legitimate look at what Jackson was working on prior to his death, but it’s the least interesting of any Michael Jackson album (perhaps excluding his career before Off the Wall). At 41 minutes, it’s at least mercifully short, and perhaps by virtue of that fact alone, of a higher quality than the album Jackson might ultimately have released if he had stayed alive. But it does little to dissuade my notion that Invincible marked the end of Jackson’s artistic relevance.

            Although released nine years later, Michael largely does feel like a shorter version of Invincible with about the same ratio of mediocre, but passable dance-pop to horrible ballads. I’d say about half the songs here are at least decent, but not more than that. I highlight “Monster” as the best song because it has the chorus that grabbed me the most, but it shares the problem with all of his 90s albums of adding a superfluous rap (this time by 50 Cent). The other dance songs are at least memorable, but the cluttered production and frequently Autotuned or whispered vocals ensure that they never move beyond mildly entertaining. Also continuing in the trend started with Dangerous, Michael’s attempts at sentimentality uniformly make me cringe, although at least there is only one truly vile song here (“Best of Joy”).

            Not much else to say here, besides to call shenanigans on any critic who applied the ‘best since X album’ label on this microwaved, days-old leftover of a Michael Jackson album that could never hope to match the peaks of HIStory, let alone an actual great album like Dangerous. In terms of average song quality, it’s about the same as Invincible, but I give it a slightly lower rating because it’s just so inessential, except to the true Michael Jackson acolyte. But what does it really matter anyways?