Rating: 4
Best Song:
“Blood on the Dance Floor”
A
rating of 4 indicates an album that I see as a failure, but I don’t actually
feel that strongly about Blood on the
Dance Floor. The reason is that, perhaps in following the similar misguided
marketing strategy of its parent album,
he this time pairs his new material (just five songs) with eight dance remixes
of songs from HIStory. From an
artistic perspective, I could probably get away with blasting the whole concept
and just giving it a 1. Even the five new tracks include previously recorded
material and outtakes, so it’s obvious that the whole project existed solely
for the purpose of selling more albums and promoting Jackson’s lengthy “Ghosts”
video.
Fortunately,
the project is salvaged by the fact that I do enjoy the five original tracks
that start off the album. None of them would rank in the upper echelon of his
oeuvre, but still range from solid to excellent. The title track is basically
in the HIStory/Dangerous style, which
is unsurprising given that it dates back to 1991, and compares well to
“Dangerous” with muttered verse vocals erupting into a melodic chorus.
“Morphine” drew some comparisons to Trent Reznor with its clanging metallic
beat, but I feel that is overwrought – the main section of the song is really
just a slightly more abrasive version of the dance songs from HIStory. What intrigues me about the
song is the mid-section where it breaks down into “Heal the World”-esque
strings and gentle piano, except that this time Michael is singing about
abusing Demirol instead of saving starving children. It actually works for me
in this context, perhaps because of the contrast with the harsher verses of the
song, or because the lyrics make it eerie instead of sentimental.
“Superfly
Sister” is probably the most generic of the quintet, but still is a perfectly
passable funk track. “Ghosts” again touches on the basic build-up of the title
track, but it’s hard to fault the formula when he nails it so perfectly, again
steamrolling out of downbeat verses and into the chorus with melodic gusto. Actually,
on both this track and the subsequent “Is It Scary,” it’s actually the lead-in
section to the choruses that I find most compelling and capture a vintage
Michael Jackson, also known as my nostalgic sentiment. For this was indeed the
last Michael Jackson album of my childhood. I still remember the delight I felt when I randomly
discovered it in Wal-Mart one day, having had no idea that it was released.
Unfortunately
that sentiment does not extend to the eight dance remixes, which severely drag
down the rating of the album, given that they make up a majority of the running time. This is
one of those times where I find it unnecessary to delve into the differences
between the remixes because I find the whole idea completely pointless. I’m
sure it’s possible to make a creative remix but none of these strike me as
interesting. Instead, the primary goal of the remixers employed here appear to
have been to add a monotonous dance beat and ensure that the tempo never changes.
My enjoyment somewhat wavers based primarily on how natural the instrumentation
is – thus the Fugees’ remix of “2 Bad” is at least more engaging than the
appalling remix of “Stranger in Moscow” where somebody somehow had the idea
that adding a generic techno drum beat to an introspective ballad wouldn’t turn
it into a terrible song. But I’m not sure it really matters, because with zero
exceptions, I would prefer to just hear the original Michael Jackson version to
any of the remixes.
So
I’m not really sure what the right rating is to give to an album like this one.
I settled on 4 because listening to it straight through, my overall enjoyment
level is negative, based solely on the fact that the remixes outnumber the
original material. But in the digital era, it’s easy enough to stream or download the
first five songs and ignore the rest, making it not totally worthless. It
certainly is an album that could be enjoyed by a fan if nothing else, which is more than I can say for Invincible…
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