STUCK RECORDS

Michael Jackson – ‘This Is It’
UK Release 26/10/09 (Epic)

Early this year, Michael Jackson announced his first set of proper concerts in 14 years, the This Is It residency at London’s 02 arena. 10 shows ballooned into 50 after demand vastly exceeded expectations, and amid the excitement were lots of questions. How would he do it? Michael hadn’t performed a full show since 2001 and hadn’t done a series of shows since 1995, and was in notoriously poor health. There was a certain sense of expectation that some, or even all, of the shows would be cancelled. Sadly this proved to be the case in the gravest of consequences. Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009, eighteen days before the first 02 concert was scheduled. The outpouring of grief from all over the world was unprecedented, media attention did not shift from his death for a number of months.

The dress rehearsal for the concerts was (quite fortunately) filmed a few days before Michael’s death, and now that rehearsal is being released as a limited-release movie, Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which will be then released on DVD later this year. The soundtrack for the film is a 2-disc set, one disc with the album versions of his hits in the order they appear in the film, plus two versions of the new song ‘This Is It’, and the second disc with three demo versions and a spoken word poem. This Is It is the “official” beginning of Michael’s pothumous discography, and what a strange album it is. The hits on the first disc are a disjointed affair, obviously scheduled like a concert, but not feeling like one because these are album versions. So the album simply feels like a lazy, incomplete hits collection. Casual fans will be annoyed at the lack of some of his biggest material – there’s nothing from Off The Wall, no ‘Bad’, ‘Scream’, ‘You Are Not Alone’, ‘Remember The Time’… I could go on. If you’re looking for a hits collection go for 2005’s The Essential Michael Jackson. One wonders why the “live” versions from the film couldn’t have been used – surely a soundtrack should include what we actually hear, instead of versions we already have?

Diehard fans will have all the hits already. My purchase of This Is It marks the sixteenth time I have bought ‘Billie Jean’ in some format. So the unreleased stuff is the big draw for fans to buy this album, and let me tell you it’s a weird bunch of tracks. The new song ‘This Is It’ had been hyped up a lot but it is nowhere near classic, more like an album track from Dangerous, which is still good but not breathtaking. The vocals are noticably muffled and unclear, and I really do hope they’re saving all the good unreleased stuff for a future studio album – this cannot be the best they have lying around. I’d say they just found it in the vaults and thought “This is called ‘This Is It’! Like the film! What a coincidence!” and put it out regardless of how good it actually was. I’m glad they’re not pushing it as a single, because even though this has a good melody and passable lyrics, it’s just not up to the standard of quality we’re used to.

The demo versions are… okay, ‘She’s Out Of My Life’ is the best of the bunch because it is a different reading of a very emotional song, and shows the process Michael & Quincy Jones followed to get to the near perfect final version. ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin” had a few alternate lyrics but it goes on much too long for a demo and you’ll only ever need to hear it once. The “demo” for ‘Beat It’ is barely there at all, just some harmonies for the chorus, and clocking in at two minutes you’ll wonder what on earth it’s doing here. The spoken word poem ‘Planet Earth’ is lovely in a ‘Heal The World’ sort of way, but even as a Michael Jackson nut I doubt I’ll be listening to it very often.

In the end I can’t fault the musical value of the hits, the title track is a nice addition and the demo versions will be of interest to hardcore fans. But ultimately it’s just a missed opportunity as with a little inspiration the album could have been so much more.

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Richard Croft