by Damien Shields Posted on April 2, 2014
Reviews of the new Michael Jackson album ‘XSCAPE’ have begun emerging online today following a secret playback session hosted by BBC Radio DJ Trevor Nelson in the downstairs area of a posh west London hotel.
Although the album’s track list has not yet been officially announced by The Estate of Michael Jackson or Epic Records, music journalists who were privileged enough to have received L.A. Reid’s exclusive and mysterious email invitation to the event have since reviewed the set.
In these reviews, which I will touch on in my own review, all eight song titles have been identified. The track list is as I anticipated two days ago. See here.
As I have not yet heard all of the new album’s new remixes, I will draw on the comments of the journalists who have. I will also drawn on details featured in a series of articles previously published here at damienshields.com to give a little bit of background information on some of the tracks and their origins.
Additionally, I’ll give my two cents on the choice of cover-art used to promote the album, Sony’s marketing campaign, and the reception among Jackson’s loyal fan base.
I’ll kick it off with a song-by-song review in order of appearance, as best derived from the comments given by those who heard the album at the playback session. Trying to figure out the order was no mean feat; the journalists in attendance were not informed of the song titles, and as a result some contradictory recollections have occurred regarding the recordings. I’m still not 100% confident that I’ve got the order correct, but I’ve given it a decent crack.
1. Love Never Felt So Good
“Love Never Felt So Good” originates from collaborative sessions Jackson held with legendary songwriter, Paul Anka, in the early-80s.
Touted by Mirror reporter Kevin Hughes as “an amazing 1983 disco groove” with a “soulful vocal, infectious baseline and orchestral strings,” this track would apparently not sound out of place on a Pharrell album. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy says that the track comes complete with 1980s “disco beats and crisp finger clicks,” adding that “the groove of the track is soaked in nostalgia.” The finger snaps are all present on the original demo of the track, but a 1980s disco beat is not. In fact, the demo, which will appear in the Deluxe Edition of ‘XSCAPE’, has only one instrument; a piano.
This remix will certainly be an interesting listen.
2. She Was Lovin’ Me
“She Was Lovin’ Me” is an ‘Invincible’ era track written and produced by Cory Rooney. Jackson recorded his vocals at The Hit Factory in New York in late-March of 1999.
“The second song falls into the former camp, with Jackson utilising a harder vocal delivery that’s encased in a big industrial melange of jackhammer beats,” recalls The Guardian journalist Michael Cragg. Kevin Hughes reported that the: “RnB soaked ‘She Was Lovin Me’ (originally considered for the 2001 Invincible album) has echoes of ’The Way You Make Me Feel’.” Hughes is not the only journalist to cite a similarity to Jackson’s 1987 hit, with The Telegraph’s Bernadette McNulty stating that: “When one of the songs directly recalls the bassline from The Way You Make Me Feel it seems like a step too far.”
“She Was Lovin’ Me” is one of two tracks on the album that have not leaked publicly (“Chicago” being the other) meaning, unlike the other six tracks on the album, fans have never heard it. I, however, was lucky enough to have listened to the track last year during preparations for an article I wrote and released for Michael’s fans on what would have been his 55th birthday (August 29, 2013). What I find interesting about the brief reviews of this track in particular, are the comparisons to “The Way You Make Me Feel”. I can tell you right now, the original version of “She Was Lovin Me” sounds nothing like “The Way You Make Me Feel”. If anything, it reminded me of elements present in “Morphine”, “D.S.” and “Another Day”. Rooney himself draws this comparison: “The song goes from him singing really low in the verses to singing really high in the choruses, so it’s two different types of vocals. It’s like Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ voice and his ‘Dirty Diana’ voice in one record.”
Jackson delivers an emotionally powerful vocal on the track, packed with pain and frustration. The verses gently tell the intimate story of Jackson’s encounter with a woman whom he believes was attracted to him, before unleashing a rage of guitar-infused fury in the choruses.
“I met her on the way to Chicago, and she was all alone, and so was I so I asker her for her name. She smiled and looked at me, I was surprised to see, that a woman like that was really into me,” sings Jackson in the first verse, before things take a turn for the worse in the second.
Click here to read my extensive article on “She Was Lovin Me”
3. Chicago
“Chicago” is a difficult one for me to discuss because I was not in the playback session, therefore I cannot detail the origins of this track with complete certainty. But here’s what I can tell you:
There is a lot of mystery surrounding this particular song title in the fan community, with no definitive answers emerging from the reviews currently available. Some fans speculate that this could be a track that dates all the way back to the mid-80s, originally referred to by Jackson as “Chicago 1945″. One of Jackson’s longtime engineers, Matt Forger, explained that: “(Chicago 1945) spoke about an era in time, about what was happening at that time in Chicago that year. It was almost as if you were reading the newspapers at that time,” adding that the track: “was a song that Michael used as the idea for ‘Al Capone’, and ‘Al Capone’ was the idea for ‘Smooth Criminal’. So maybe there were some similarities, but this is a different song.”
“Chicago 1945″ was written by Michael Jackson and Steve Porcaro. It has two verses with complete vocals - each sung in Jackson’s more gentle/high voice – and features classic Jackson ‘shh-shh’ style ad libs throughout. Jackson sings about Al Capone (who controlled ‘The Chicago Outfit’ aka Mafia for a decade), and about the World’s Fair being the Chicago Tribune newspaper’s cover story. “Who solved the mystery late Chicago night? Ya can’t hide the truth so won’t ya turn on the light,” sings Jackson in the chorus, before launching into a flurry of high-pitched “hoo-hoo” and “hee-hee” ad libs. The track then finishes with Jackson chanting “Chicago, Chicago,” over and over in his trademark, gritty (slightly angry) vocal-style. The track was continually dragged out by Jackson over the course of his career, including during the ‘Invincible’ sessions and again at Neverland in 2004.
A couple of comments from the playback session reviews definitely fit with the “Chicago 1945″ that I know. One in particular was Michael Cragg’s description of the track as an “Off the Wallesque, mid-paced love song with a youthful, almost naive-sounding vocal. It feels very much like a song that didn’t make it on to an old album, and while the production is good – there’s an amazing rolling beat throughout – it still feels slight.”
Is the “Chicago” that Timbaland said should be the lead single actually a fresh new remix of “Chicago 1945″ from the 80s? Kevin Hughes reported that “Chicago” (and “Blue Gangster): “Will remind you of previous Jackson offerings but benefits from newly enhanced production and remind us of the fact that Michael was keen to remain relevant to the emerging hip-hop generation.”
I’ll touch on the mystery and subsequent debate over “Chicago” later in this article.
4. A Place With No Name
“A Place With No Name” is a track written by Elliot Straite, aka Dr. Freeze. It is a lyrically re-written cover of the 1972 hit “A Horse With No Name” by the band America. Jackson recorded his vocals at Record Plant Recording Studios in September 1998.
“I challenge anyone not to experience goosebumps after hearing ‘A Place With No Name’,” reported Kevin Hughes, adding that the song deserves to played by radio stations worldwide.
One thing that can’t be denied about this track is Jackson’s vocal. “When he came into the studio to record, he stood before the microphone and set fire to the song,” recalls Dr. Freeze of the recording session. “As he left, the studio was in ashes and our jaws on the floor. It was really impressive to see.”
Click here to read my exclusive article; ‘Michael Jackson’s “A Place With No Name” – The Story Behind The Song’.
5. 12 O’Clock (aka Do You Know Where Your Children Are)
This track could be titled one of two things: a) “12 O’Clock” or b) “Do You Know Where Your Children Are”. The latter is the authentic title of the song, as cited by Jackson in a 1993 court deposition. The track was originally recorded during the ‘Dangerous’ album sessions.
All reports so far have cited this one at the album’s peak. “The fifth song we were played opens with computerized synths as the star’s iconic ad libs of ‘hee-hee’ and ‘aaaow’ smack you with excitement,” writes Lewis Corner, adding: “Echoed snare beats and a storming rawk guitar solo make it one of the stand-out tracks. It’s: ”One of the outstanding cuts on the ‘Xscape’ album,” agrees Kevin Hughes. “An emphatic Jackson discusses family values and child abuse over a pulsating bass line and guitar riff.” Michael Cragg called the track “a proper, undeniably amazing hit” before going into a little more detail. “Opening with a delicate flurry of cascading 80s synths, it feels like the perfect embodiment of the old and the new, with some vintage “hee hee” ad-libs peppering the sophisticated mesh of electronics. It also features a typical Jackson pre-chorus section that then opens out into the album’s best chorus, before a great false stop moment heralds an even more bonkers final third, with Jackson hee-heeing and ow-ing his head off.”
While I can deal with the possibility of Epic Records opting to change the actual title of this song from “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” to “12 O’Clock” for the sake of avoiding the potential criticism and narrow-minded controversy the lengthy original may cause, there is one thing I hope they don’t mess with; the lyrics Jackson delivers vocally on the track.
First of all, before I explain what I mean, let me put this into context: To me, Michael Jackson is a real life superhero. Not only did he moonwalk, morph into black panthers, zombies, robots and cars, and fly off the edge of the stage, out over the audience using a jetpack at the end of his ‘Dangerous World Tour’ concerts, but he, like all great superheroes, actually wanted to save the world and the people in it. This was just who he was. Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother, remembers Michael as a little boy seeing the starving children in Africa on television with flies around their mouths. “One day I’m gonna do something about that,” he’d tell her. And he did. He raised hundreds of millions of dollars for dozens of charities around the world. Michael Jackson truly cared for humanity. He cared for people of all cultures, races, ages and walks of life. He cared for equality and human rights. This is evidenced in his songs, such as “Heal The World”, “Earth Song”, “Man In The Mirror” and “Why You Wanna Trip On Me”. He was so often the voice of the voiceless; take “The Lost Children” or “They Don’t Care About Us” for example.
Now, “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” discusses child abuse. In the song, Jackson sings about a girl who has run away from home, leaving behind a letter to her mother: “She wrote that she was tired of step-daddy using her. Saying that he’ll buy her things while sexually abusing her.” The song then follows the girl to Hollywood, where she winds up letting her hair down and “selling her body hard” under the guidance of a man she met at the train station. In the choruses, Jackson asks the listener: “Do do you know where your children are? Because it’s now twelve-o’clock, and they’re somewhere out on the streets. Just imagine how scared they are!” At the end of the third and final verse Jackson chillingly proceeds to put the entire debacle into perspective, revealing the girl’s doomed fate by singing that the police were: “Arresting this little girl that’s only twelve-years old!”
The reason I am concerned about the censoring of Jackson’s lyrics stems from the last posthumous album Epic Records and The Estate released – 2010′s ‘Michael’ album. On that album there is a song called “Hollywood Tonight” – a similar theme to “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” – about a girl who has left home and gone to Hollywood. Jackson had been working on “Hollywood Tonight” for a decade, carefully tweaking and perfecting the music while working on the lyrics. He had laid down vocals for two verses and the choruses prior to his death, with a sketch of the bridge and partial third verse as well. One thing is clear; he had a specific vision to tell the untold, tragic story of childhood runaways. In the second verse, Jackson sings: “Westbound Greyhound to Tinsel Town just to pursue her moviestar dreams. She’s giving hot tricks to men, just to get in. She’s taught that that’s not clean, because she’s only fifteen.” However, the words: “because she’s only fifteen” were removed by producer Teddy Riley and replaced with a line from the first verse: “She’s headed for the big sign that means.” This takes the context away from the song completely. This is the moment the seriousness of the matter becomes apparent.
So, back to the positives. The journalists who heard “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” have called it the album’s highlight and a potential radio hit. I hope the song, which is one of my all-time favourite Jackson tracks, is released as a single. I also hope that the remix stays true to Jackson’s vision and message.
6. Slave To The Rhythm
“Slave To The Rhythm” was written by L.A. Reid and Babyface and recorded by Jackson during the ‘Dangerous’ album sessions. The track has since appeared online in a number of forms; once in 2010 – remixed by Tricky Stewart, once in 2013 – remixed by Max Methods and featuring Justin Bieber, and now as part of the Sony Xperia Z2 / ‘XSCAPE’ album cross-promotional commercial series – remixed by Timbaland.
“Track number six – which we identified as ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ – begins with a massive string-led swoosh of scenic proportions, before it completely drops into glitchy electronics and rattling beats. Its shuffling groove marks it as classic MJ, making it yet another highlight,” wrote Lewis Corner. Michael Cragg reported that the Timbaland remix features: “Lashings of beatboxing in the intro, loads of vocal tics throughout, big spidery bassline,” adding that, “as with some of his other songs on Xscape, barely any space for the song to breathe. Thankfully Slave to the Rhythm is strong enough to fight its way through the clutter.” Kevin Hughes labeled the track as a potential single and “floor-filler for a new generation.” All journalists were pleased to announce that Justin Bieber does not feature on this version.
To hear a 30-second sample of Timbaland’s brand new remix of “Slave To The Rhythm” and see L.A. Reid in the studio, bopping along while pimping the new Sony Xperia Z2 mobile phone, check out the below video:
Some background info on how Justin Bieber came to be on the track back in 2013: Tricky Stewart, who had previously remixed the track in 2010 to be considered for the ‘Michael’ album, got Justin Bieber to record the track. Stewart was, at the time, the President of A&R at Epic Records, working under L.A. Reid (who wrote the track). He then gave Jackson’s existing vocal and Bieber’s brand new vocal to a DJ signed to his Red Zone Ent record label, Max Methods, and asked him to re-produce the track. On August 16, 2013 it leaked via SoundCloud and YouTube. Click here to read more about that fiasco.
7. Blue Gangster
“Blue Gangster” is another track written by Dr. Freeze. The track was recorded during the same sessions as Freeze’s other track – “A Place With No Name” – in late 1998.
Reviews of this track have been mixed. “Song number seven – which might be called ‘Blue Gangsta’ – opens with Bond Theme-styled strings and tinned beats, before hearing Michael complain: ‘Look what you’ve done to me/ I can no longer smile’” writes Lewis Corner, adding that the album’s “overarching narrative is what we’ve always loved about Jackson; the superstar who is unlucky in love, but never doubts its power.” As cited in my “Chicago” segment, Kevin Hughes reported that ”Blue Gangster” (and “Chicago”) will: “Remind you of previous Jackson offerings but both tracks benefit from newly enhanced production and remind us of the fact that Michael was keen to remain relevant to the emerging hip-hop generation.” Michael Cragg was less than impressed with the song, stating that it was: “The album’s only true lowpoint,” that “feels like about three different songs fighting for attention.”
Source: Damien Shields / damienshields.com / Jackson Source / MJ-Upbeat.com
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Michael Jackson is undoubtedly the king. When i listen to his records i feel as he is still alive. Certainly one of the biggest pop music stars ever been born!