Invincible by Michael Jackson

Being Michael Jackson's first proper original album since Dangerous nearly ten years prior, it was always going to struggle to impress in comparison to it's predecessor. Taking six years to make and spending so much money on the production didn't help his case either; it soon became apparent that the public would accept no excuses if this album failed to impress. The release of the nostalgic 'You Rock My World' as the precursor to the album was seemingly a clever way of reminding the world exactly what Michael is capable of; the song was vintage soulful Michael (and probably could have been neatly slotted into Off the Wall), and featured a video which was by no means indeliberately reminiscent of the one for Smooth Criminal. So I was somewhat optimistic; YRMW certainly ranks with the best of Michael's first-single-from-albums, probably the best since "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" from Off the Wall. And the vocals of the song represent a true career-high for Michael, being possibly smoother than they've ever been.

So on the release date I ran my little legs as fast as they would carry me along to HMV in Glasgow and bought a nice shiny silver of Invincible, came home and popped it in my CD player. And the first track, Unbreakable, is unsurprisingly brilliant; following the age-old MJ tradition of opening an album with a blistering dance track (DSTYGE, Jam, Scream, Wanna be Startin Something), it's funky, up-tempo, and features an undeniably catchy "piano" hook. Takes it's time to get started, however, which is something that he has suffered from often in the later parts of his career ('Dangerous', 'Stranger in Moscow' and 'Black or White' also feature irritating delays before the song begins). Alas, though, after the promising start we immediately reach the first hurdle, in track two, "Heartbreaker". This song is tuneless and completely boring, and is a failed example of something called "studiocraft", an art perfected by Michael on the Dangerous album and seemingly forgotten now. Title track Invincible (track 3) is a little disappointing in comparison with other album title tracks (with the exception of Bad), but it's alright, and has a good chorus and middle 8 (which sadly seems to have been taken straight from Ghosts). Another guest rap from the unknown "Bigs" though, seems like an unnecessary attempt to fit in with today's fashionable R&B/hip-hop scene. The album takes a real turn for the better, however, with the sublime, romantic "Break of Dawn", featuring one of the best vocal performances of the album as well as fantastic sweeping orchestration and a great melody. This is more like it.

However, track 5 'Heaven Can Wait' is a bland, ballady, boring pop song and at this point the kind of story of this album becomes rather clearer. Inconsistency is the word that springs to mind. The song, to be fair, features a nice ad-lib section at the end which is reminiscent of some of Michael's older songs, but all in all it's nothing to write home about. We next arrive at You Rock My World, which I'm horrified to find features an intro with Chris Tucker whereupon he and Michael argue whether Michael can get some girl ("shamone then, SHAMONE!"). The song really could have done without this; it really doesn't sound like Michael wants to be there, and more to the point the idea of Michael Jackson pursuing some woman through a club trying to hit on her is not one that appeals to the senses. Nevertheless the beat is funky (the piano part is great in particular) and the vocals (and ad-libs) are vintage Michael.

It's here that the album starts to gather some momentum, with the fantastic "Butterflies". The song features mostly live instruments (as opposed to a drum machine), and is lyrically and musically very creative. In particular the originality and freshness of this song stands out in what has otherwise been a fairly standard album. The song has a different and unusual feel and flavour, almost like it's a deliberate attempt at change, which is of course encouraging. Which makes the arrival of the next track, Speechless, all the more devastating. If a cheese factory exploded inside a recording studio made of cream-puffs, this is exactly what would be recorded. Michael Jackson certainly has a knack for recording this painful saccharine nonsense ("You Are Not Alone" and "Childhood" stand out, alongside this, as being particularly awful), but in Speechless he has reached previously unchartered heights of complete... well, rubbish. I sorely wish there was a more constructive comment to be made on this song, but in one word, that's exactly what it is; rubbish. It begins a capella, which is unusual yet seemingly cliched, then moves on to use the most cliched chord sequence ever which is decorated by terribly robotic acoustic guitar and arpeggiated strings. Absolutely painful. As silly romantic ditties go it's not the worst one in the world; indeed it'd slot quietly into any S Club album without a fuss being made, but this is Michael Jackson, and Michael Jackson is GOOD at this kind of thing ("Rock With You", "Baby Be Mine") so this is frankly unbearable.

The album then descends completely into the seemingly irrepairably average: the boring and unadventurous, and at places tuneless, sequence between track 9 (2000 Watts) and track 14(The Lost Children) is only briefly interrupted by the fairly original, and venomous "Privacy", which is an encouraging hark back to the emotional and lyrically profound second HIStory disc. It deals with Michael's victimisation by the press with vivid emotion and very clever lyrics ("Your cameras can't control, the minds of those who know/That you'll even sell your soul just to get a story sold"). It;s a bit on the slow side though and the guest appearance by Slash is a bit disappointing in comparison to his excellent "Give in To Me" cameo. Nevertheless this song is amongst Michael's most personal and honest of songs and is worth a listen even if you don't like the music itself all that much. Sadly though this gem is hidden deep inside the most cheesy, saccharine, boring throwaway sequence Michael Jackson has ever, ever recorded:
the lyrically and musically pointless 2000 Watts, worth a listen perhaps because it is a rare song which exemplifies Michael's deceptive ability to hit low notes as well as high ones; You Are My Life, which is romantic drivel, ranking with Speechless as a contendor for the cheesiest Michael Jackson song ever; Don't Walk Away, which is a bit more emotional and almost succeeds if it were on it's own instead of surrounded by equally cheesy nonsense which renders it redundant and samey; Cry, which is very much like You Are Not Alone, that is to say a bit queasy but mostly harmless, good orchestration at places, nice melody, rediculous lyrics though; and The Lost Children, odd lyrics, not really very good it has to be said, more horrible misuse of guitar. Perhaps if he hadn't released that rediculous waste of a remix album he could have used the five far-superior original songs on that instead of this piffle.

And then, thank God, we reach the absolutely tremendous "Whatever Happens", featuring guest guitarist Carlos Santana. This song has a fantastic southern flavour and sufficient freedom is lent to Santana to make his part prominant and more influencial throughout, in contrast to the previous guitar camoes Michael has featured in the past, where the rent-an-axe (Eddie Van Halen, Slash) has been given from bar X to bar Y to fingertap as fast as possible. This also features two parallel classical guitar parts, one of which sounds like it's being played by Santana, which offer a tremendous spanish texture and makes this one of the most original and inventive songs Michael has ever recorded. The last track, "Threatened", seems to be a failed attempt to rerecord Thriller without the aid of Rod Temperton, which sadly doesn't really come off for him. It's alright, it has it's moments, but it does appear to be a mixed exercise in nostalga and studiocraft which really there's already been enough of on this CD.

Invincible is probably the most paradoxical CD I've ever owned. All the songs slot into one of four neat categories: cheesy saccharine songs which work occasionally (the sublime Break of Dawn) but usually fall flat on their backsides (Speechless, You Are My World etc); pointless production-based studiocraft (Heartbreaker, 2000 Watts which is the worst song on the album); deliberately nostalgic, old-Michael-Jackson style songs which work in places (You Rock My World) and don't in others (Threatened, Cry); and absolutely original and innovative gems which are truly worth the six-year wait for completion (Unbreakable, Butterflies, Whatever Happens). The album's highlights are capable of rivalling his older stuff quite easily, but the inconsistency of the album is unusual and really does detract from the experience as a whole.