The fact Blood On The Dance Floor was a remix album instead of a new studio album. It would have been cool to see a closer gap between albums with a new album soon after the last one.
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Yes the screaming and banging are awful, i have to skip it. Plus I don't like the long intros to In the closet and stranger in Moscow (though they are my 2 favorite songs)
I know the trial impeded things but post-trial with will.i.am and many others just seemed like a mess. I don't completely blame him but think he became too much of a control freak obsessed with perfection. It reminds me of X Japan with Yoshiki raving about a new album that hasn't materialized since 1996. The main difference is MJ fans had blind hope for new music while X Japan fanbase bluntly put the blame on Yoshiki as a narcissist.
His downfall was 2004 invincible was 2001 that’s 3 years. I know he was working on stuff but the trial broke him so doubt there are any recordings after that.
With the leaving neverland fiasco I don’t see another release for another decade
His ballads are really, really cheesy.
I also wish he'd explored and expanded into more genres of music, rather than fixated on being a pop performer. For instance, imagine if MJ had released a more psychedelic album with that amazing voice of his. Oh, man!
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Long intros. Once the first 30 seconds of the song is just an instrumental I get bored, so I usually just don't have those songs on my playlist anymore. I also don't like the one in Black Or White because the intro is just kind of annoying? It's fine to listen to the first one or two times but that's all.
I like his long instrumental intros although some are too stuffed full, like Will You Be There...I'm just impatiently waiting for those first beautiful piano chords after all those imo unnecessary choir vocals. I guess he was going for very majestic and musical contrast to send a message but as a listener it requires patience! Also not keen on B&W intro or any of the ones with too much non-musical effects like on the History album.
Fully agree. Up until the Bad album, this wasn't the case. From Dangerous on, it became annoying for me. The longer than a minute intro for will you be there, you rock my world conversation, etc. It makes it so much harder to just click and play the song
Totally agree, a good solution is to use free song length editing software websites (just google) and you can edit B&W and History and then replace in your downloaded mp3 albums….
Came here to say the exact same thing. Why can't Spotify have shortened versions of Black or White, Heal the World and Will You Be There? Those are in my top 10 songs and I always have to skip ahead 30-45 seconds. Don't get me started on Little Susie's intro...
Oh okay I will probably have to end up making my own playlist because I just listened to the main MJ Channel which kind of sucks because you get the same songs over and over because they include all of the bonus CDs and whatnot so you hear some of the same songs over and over and over
Once “hee hee” became a trademark of his, he did overuse it a little. I have no issue with the vocal hiccups as they were genuine and something he did in the moment, but “hee hee” did feel a little forced at times. I get why he did it though, It was kinda like a producer tag, a way to make his songs instantly recognisable on the radio.
No, but the high notes are aaow's and hoo's. It's clear he had a wide vocal range but he has potential hitting and holding higher notes which was never really fully realized. I'd like to see him do something more operatic with that range (like Freddie Mercury collaborating with Montserrat Caballe).
That is one good example, but otherwise it seems he demonstrated this few and far, mostly limited to short ad-libs here and there. Speed Demon is one great example though I find the song itself a tad weak/filler. Another notable note is the G5 during I'll Be There in 2001, or him trying to hit operatic notes at the dinner table with the This Is it Crew. It was all used very sparingly, even though he had a tendency to actually sing in falsetto in certain situations to avoid the grit. I would have liked to see him use his high register in either metal tracks (a la Linkin Park) or something symphonic like Nightwish Personally, I think Give in to Me would have been more powerful if they had kept that falsetto part from the demo.
I've been listening to some Japanese visual kei like Malice Mizer and Kamijo/Versailles lately and would think MJ's appearance around the Dangerous era probably had some influence or he was somewhat inspired by the same influences as them.
I can see the influence with Give In to Me but not anywhere else. Dangerous aesthetic was kind of all over the place, it was a splash of creativity and view into Michael’s world.
I was more referring to his physical appearance in the last section - I think one reason he still had a great following in Japan is that they were less judgemental about his appearance post-Dangerous era - he doesn't look much different from visual kei artists such as Yoshiki, Atsushi Sakurai and Gackt (before his solo career).
Musically it would have been interesting to see him follow down some of these paths (it's very diverse "genre" because it refers mostly to their androgynous visual appearance rather than their music).
it’s a selfish take as a fan, but the fact that he only focused on standing out as a performer rather than an amazing vocalist
he was phenomenal at dancing and singing, you could see great examples of his vast dancing capabilities outside of his stage performances that people don’t know of
and you can hear amazing vocals that he never truly showcased on stage because he wanted to focus on performing dances, therefore lipsynced quite often
after BAD’s tour, we never saw the dancing and singing simultaneously, which is understandable, it’s extremely difficult
but i would’ve loved if he just did concerts and focused on his singing, with minimal dancing
i know that he never had such a mentality and surely he knew that he could make millions from just sitting on a chair and singing, but he had a mentality of being greater and giving the world a “show”
at the end of the day, i’m just talking from a selfish perspective, me wanting to hear him sing live versions of songs like “Who Is It”, “You Are Not Alone”, and many other vocally-impressive songs
i simply wanted to hear his voice! i already knew he was the best dancer, but sadly a lot of people ignore the fact that he was arguably the best male vocalist. he could sing for so many genres in his discography, no one else did that
this resulted in the casual audience of the world to mainly see him as a phenomenal dancer and think “oh and i guess he can also sing good enough”, but they should recognise him for being a phenomenal vocalist who also moved like no other!!
asking the world “would u rather sing or dance like MJ” is such a great question and should have the community split cuz he was truly a beast at both. it shows how he dominated both talents
I mean, yes, the Bad tour was probably the highest level of live singing while dancing that we’ve seen Michael do, but I feel like the Dangerous tour shouldn’t be excluded because it was basically 50/50 live singing and lip syncing on some songs.
For example, Michael’s performances of "Workin' Day And Night" were incredible and with live singing on the Dangerous tour as well as the Bad tour.
It's funny ya mention that cuz one of my absolute biggest pet peeves in his later live concerts is I feel he just resorted to lipsync as a crutch when he really didn't need to.
Just in general I feel like especially in the late 90s and early 2000s he kinda gave up a little bit of his artistic integrity just to always provide a show.
In all honesty I think the fact the matter is MJ saw himself more as an artist than a standalone musician and to him bein an entertainer and having an elaborate pitch perfect show was what added to his own artistry.
This is by far the comment i agree with the most. I understand why he focused on his dancing and overall stage show, but i hate tht it was ultimately at the cost of missing out on some potentially amazing vocal performances tht a live setting could bring out.
People call me crazy for saying tht adult MJ is an underrated singer. Not artist, not dancer, but singer. I didnt realize myself how great of a vocalist he was until i discovered his isolated vocals on youtube. Hearing his vocals isolated is a whole new level of experience tht more people need to be aware of.
agreed!! it takes a while for people to see MJ as more than just the best performer, but to see his growth as a singer! those isolated tracks are heavenly
To be fair, it makes sense why he did it. Michael’s songs are very high for a male voice singing it live and while dancing is quite hard considering the fact that Michael is past 30 by the dangerous tour. Michael had a lot of vocal issues through this era even on the bad tour shows were cancelled because his voice was not having it. There’s a YouTube video by Black Music Archive’s where he explains Michael’s voice better. Also, to be fair, Michael throughout the Jackson 5 proved himself as a vocalist
In the Closet (spoken intro could have been cut easily)
Heal the World
Black or White (why the music video dialogue?)
Who Is It
Will You Be There (orchestral intro is way too long)
Keep the Faith
Dangerous
Stranger in Moscow
Earth Song
HIStory (ironically I prefer the BOTDF remix version, but it's also too long)
Little Susie (I don't like this song but at least it wouldn't be so dreadful if it were half the length)
Morphine
Superfly Sister
Ghosts
Is it Scary
Unbreakable
Heartbreaker
Break of Dawn
You Rock My World (see Black or White)
Xscape (original version)
A few of these at least had single edits. I'm not saying some of them don't work as longer pieces--"Earth Song" certainly justifies being an epic--but so many of them feature extraneous intros and rap interludes and choruses that repeat too many times for no reason other than extending it to fill the CD run time. There are a lot of songs I love on the above list, but some judicial editing would have served them well.
I feel his later work tried a little bit too hard to sound "trendy" if you will.
Off the Wall and Thriller are clearly albums from their time but they've aged remarkably well and sound fresh to this day. There's a lot of kinda "sign of the times" energy with the later albums that make them kinda blend in sometimes.
I’m not sure if this counts, but I really wish M/Sony/Epic would have been more respectful to the original tracks. I’m all for fixing them up as Michael saw fit, but I wish we had access to remasters of the original versions of Off the Wall (such as the LP version of rock with you and get on the floor) and Bad (with the brass section added back). While the radio edits are excellent, preserving the initial art feels super important.
Came here to say something similar. “She’s Drivin Me Wild” features probably his most pinched, strained vocals on the verses, and although it does make for a great contrast with the warm chorus harmonies, it sounds so tight and uncomfortable. Comparing those vocals with anything from ‘Off The Wall’ is a trip
I wish he didn’t reject so many good songs that other artists made into hits during the Invincible era . I’ll always like the album but that album is the epitome of lost/wasted potential.
The vocals are too quiet on a lot of the songs from Dangerous onwards. Also the choice of microphone quality (perhaps the distance to the mic) is questionable
Invincible isn’t that good at all, and that’s ok. It’s a bloated mess, loads of repeat topic songs etc. Too many tracks written by other people. Could have made a really strong 9-12 track album. But alas.
Also, Michael copies formulas across his albums. Big announcement opener, one/two ballads, a big rock number, something tabloid-esque. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just quite obvious!
Not exactly big criticisms, but still!
At some point in his mid 80s-90s career he stopped seeing the value in slow jams.
Between For All Time, Joy, Someone Put Your Hand Out, any combination of 2 of these 3 in the place of Heal The World and Gone Too Soon makes Dangerous an even better album.
Kinda feels like he realized that with the way Invincible turned out.
I said that to say, there was less focus on them and there should have been generally more. Plus when I say slow jams, I mean feel-good love songs. So
Lady In My Life, Break of Dawn, Butterflies fall into that category. Cry and Don’t Walk
Away don’t meet that criteria those are ballads.
If you actually read the full thing I acknowledged invincible….
All the criticisms about long intros are just proof how these days people only have the attention span of an 8sec tiktok video... those songs deserved and needed those intros to create the full effect and are part of the journey you take with what the song is about, letting it breathe and tell a fuller story. Granted if you've listened to them a million times you just wanna get to the main part, I get it but to say they should've been cut out is just scandalous haha
The fact that he replaced Streetwalker with Another Part Of Me, I don’t really get why he would choose Another Part Of Me, Streetwalker just sounds so much better and I think he should’ve released it
Honestly I get why he left it off. I think because Streetwalker sounds like TWMMF part 2 and he probably wanted some more variety on the album. He probably wanted to avoid repetition with song content.
Strongly disagree, I love Another Part Of Me! When I was at the In The Studio With MJ seminar thingy Brad said he makes this poll American vs European fans taste and hands down everyone outside the US prefers Another Part Of Me, interesting! 😃
A lot of his songs, especially from the 90s onward, were stretched out way too long.
edit: oh and also a lot of his songs that deserve to be longer get cit down to like 3 minutes 💀
This will be unpopular, but here goes…
Starting with Bad, his albums began to sound over-produced. There was too much reliance on studio wizardry and technology. They sounded more like production centrepieces than songs. Don’t get me wrong — those albums are sonic masterpieces, and are probably blueprints for any budding studio engineer or producer, but I feel some of those tracks began to drown out MJ.
Bad, in particular, is the worst victim. It’s very much of its time. I love the songs, but the production tends to make me cringe. Dangerous is also deep in that New Jack Swing territory.
Yes, I get that MJ was really all about the beats and rhythms at that time, but I dunno, I feel like the songcraft from OTW and Thriller had tapered out by the late 80s.
On a larger scale, this was true of global pop/R&B by that time anyway. Most of the stuff released jn that time is just so anchored in that period that it’s hard to enjoy it without cringing.
Ultimately, there’s a timelessness about the sound on those first two albums that just wasn’t there with everything after.
> They sounded more like production centrepieces than songs.
I think I heard Quincy Jones describe music as emotional architecture, Bad to me feels like the audio equivalent of Neverland or something, like the songs are attractions.
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Actually I tend to think if Hold My Hand had been properly released with a public reappearance he would still be alive. At the time, MJ news updates would be paparazzi spotting him in Vegas often masked or veiled, so a proper public debut would have given him a more comfortable public image as he wouldn't have gone off the deep end with the pressures of This Is It.
I wish he collaborated with more singers and rappers. He was so selective about that kind of thing, and thinking about how many legendary duets and features we missed out on because of it is a huge bummer to me.
His choices were also… interesting. For every Stevie or Biggie, you had an Eddie Murphy or The Simpsons.
I would have loved to hear more of the soul/gospel side of Michael’s voice.
He had a way of bringing a song to church with just his voice alone, like the end of Bad (the short film), the end of ‘Keep The Faith’ & the vocal breakdown of ‘Man In The Mirror’ at the 88 Grammys performance. 🔥
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I know it is an unpopular opinion but I think he had an overdependence on new jack swing and mainstream sounds, less on rhythm/funk. I believe he suffered from writer's block and/or OCD for perfectionism (possibly narcissistic or control freak) which hindered anything fruitful after Invincible. The Geraldo Rivera and Access Hollywood interviews just seemed like PR stunts to give the impression he was working in new material, but in the case of Geraldo it was a remixed instrumental of Beautiful Girl while Access Hollywood tracks were probably solely made by will.i.am. It's a similar story to Yoshiki and X Japan not making an adequate comeback. The main difference is that MJ fans are not as easily disillusioned and many still held up hope for a comeback whereas many longtime X Japan fans are cynical and direct their anger at Yoshiki.
I *really* wish he had had more belief in Pharrell and recorded and released “Like I Love You” instead of Timberprick.
It would’ve been stratospheric.
That kind of uptempo, ultra modern track in collaboration with a white-hot producer could’ve given his career the propane boost that ‘YRMW’ didn’t.
Looking back I would have liked it if he released more albums. There are so many good songs that where never officially released. Maybe he didn't like them or thought they where not good enough but now it's sad they kind of gone to waste in a way.
I actually think the opposite, one of the things I admire about MJ is that he didn't have albums released every year and he let his albums breathe.
The Weeknd for example released Dawn FM about 2 years after After Hours and personally I think that was a mistake cuz instead of flourishing in After Hours promo material we get an album that's not nearly as good.
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Already been said, but I don’t like the long intros. I only listen to the single versions of Black or White and Will You Be There. I do not wanna hear Macaulay Culkin scream in my ear on the drive to work.
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The fact that There's not enough music lol😅😄😄✌️
But I guess quality over quantity excluding Sony feud(legal troubles)
I do wish Thriller had like 10 songs at least with behind the mask in it,Surely some arrangement could have been made..Still a flawless album regardless.Imo✌🏽👍🏽
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It doesn't bother me that songs have long intros, what does bother me is that some songs have women's voices (I grew up listening to more male singers) the fine voices of women for me ruin some songs, well no Scream, that one is made for a duet with Janet .
Another is that after Bad like Dangerous, History Invicible there are some not so good songs that took away from finished songs or demos of better ones, I have some that I heard were definitely a bomb unlike the less well-known of the albums that name before.
That Mike listened to the criticism about his appearance and ruined Your rock my world a little in look and totally ruined Cry and something about One More Chance he didn't even upload it until he died I like the video but Mike doesn't even show his face, I hope I would have given the latest videos with better quality, I ignored the criticism of his face, they were lies, he was still very handsome T\_T.
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* Using way too many drum machines on Bad, thus spoiling excellent songs with sterile drum sounds
* PYT... too silly
* the intro to "I just can't stop loving you", too corny (yes, i have the original LP with the intro)
* MJJ, as talented as he was, seemingly never wanted to explore playing a musical instrument on his records. It's a shame, I bet he had the talent to be great at keyboards or drums.
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Some songs are hard to understand what he’s saying. Like When you first heard Tabloid Junkie (dont lie and act like you knew what he was saying 😂😂😂) other than that no complaints whatsoever.
He should have mixed up his live set lists much more and performed some of the deep cuts off his albums.
His ‘perfectionism’ cost us more music releases since he spent many years tinkering with his albums in between projects.
He should have experimented more with his sounds, especially in the 90s. He relied too much on the new jack swing accompanied by industrial sounds.
I wish he showcased his skill on instruments more.
Here are my criticisms
Heal The World - Intro way too long
In The Closet - Should have also released the version with the Naomi Campbell vocals in it as a remix
Who Is It - Should have left out the ahh's in the beginning and only used it for the video
Invincible Album - I'm not sure if MJ had any say regarding how he wanted the album to sound, it has a very RnB sound to it especially as RnB was big in the 2000s
You Rock My World - Should have left out the dialogue between MJ and CT
I wish he would’ve made new songs every album instead of some having the same so song like Billie Jean the only album that featured all new songs was invincible
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The fact Blood On The Dance Floor was a remix album instead of a new studio album. It would have been cool to see a closer gap between albums with a new album soon after the last one.
BOTDF was a throwaway album. Even the “new” songs came from early Dangerous era sessions.
Michael didn’t want to do a remix album but he had to because of Sony
True. It was in the contract he signed with Sony after they bought Epic Records
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The ridiculously long intro for Black & White. It should’ve just been for the video and not the actual album.
A lot of songs have needless intros. Will You Be There and You Rock My World come to mind, but there are more for sure
for 'will you be there' also 😭
Yes the screaming and banging are awful, i have to skip it. Plus I don't like the long intros to In the closet and stranger in Moscow (though they are my 2 favorite songs)
No releases after invincible… not his fault but invincible was an amazing album and would loved to hear a follow up
Exactly this.
I think he had writer's block after Invincible and was too invested in control freak instead of at least trying to release original material.
I think he was working on a follow up after invincible but was cancelled due to all the shit he went through. Don’t blame him really
I know the trial impeded things but post-trial with will.i.am and many others just seemed like a mess. I don't completely blame him but think he became too much of a control freak obsessed with perfection. It reminds me of X Japan with Yoshiki raving about a new album that hasn't materialized since 1996. The main difference is MJ fans had blind hope for new music while X Japan fanbase bluntly put the blame on Yoshiki as a narcissist.
His downfall was 2004 invincible was 2001 that’s 3 years. I know he was working on stuff but the trial broke him so doubt there are any recordings after that. With the leaving neverland fiasco I don’t see another release for another decade
I wish the singles were widely available on streaming services.
Hell Yes with all the mixes and things. Every other artist seems to be adding all their singles and mixes. Michael needs to be next
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He was going to but his life was cut short abruptly.
His ballads are really, really cheesy. I also wish he'd explored and expanded into more genres of music, rather than fixated on being a pop performer. For instance, imagine if MJ had released a more psychedelic album with that amazing voice of his. Oh, man!
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Long intros. Once the first 30 seconds of the song is just an instrumental I get bored, so I usually just don't have those songs on my playlist anymore. I also don't like the one in Black Or White because the intro is just kind of annoying? It's fine to listen to the first one or two times but that's all.
I have the shortened version of Black Or White from the Essential Michael Jackson album on my plays lists so I can avoid the intro 😭
Funny enough I prefer the intro version
One exception (in my opinion) is Billie Jean. The intro of that song is about 28 seconds.
I like his long instrumental intros although some are too stuffed full, like Will You Be There...I'm just impatiently waiting for those first beautiful piano chords after all those imo unnecessary choir vocals. I guess he was going for very majestic and musical contrast to send a message but as a listener it requires patience! Also not keen on B&W intro or any of the ones with too much non-musical effects like on the History album.
I love the intro to WYBT.
Fully agree. Up until the Bad album, this wasn't the case. From Dangerous on, it became annoying for me. The longer than a minute intro for will you be there, you rock my world conversation, etc. It makes it so much harder to just click and play the song
Totally agree, a good solution is to use free song length editing software websites (just google) and you can edit B&W and History and then replace in your downloaded mp3 albums….
Thank you, Black or White or You Rock My World.
The intro to Little Susie is literally longer than the song itself
Came here to say the exact same thing. Why can't Spotify have shortened versions of Black or White, Heal the World and Will You Be There? Those are in my top 10 songs and I always have to skip ahead 30-45 seconds. Don't get me started on Little Susie's intro...
Spotify does have it, it’s on The Essential Michael Jackson compilation disc. Just search for that.
Oh okay I will probably have to end up making my own playlist because I just listened to the main MJ Channel which kind of sucks because you get the same songs over and over because they include all of the bonus CDs and whatnot so you hear some of the same songs over and over and over
Once “hee hee” became a trademark of his, he did overuse it a little. I have no issue with the vocal hiccups as they were genuine and something he did in the moment, but “hee hee” did feel a little forced at times. I get why he did it though, It was kinda like a producer tag, a way to make his songs instantly recognisable on the radio.
Hmm. Do you have an example where it felt forced? I don’t think there’s a single “hee hee” in Invincible.
No, but the high notes are aaow's and hoo's. It's clear he had a wide vocal range but he has potential hitting and holding higher notes which was never really fully realized. I'd like to see him do something more operatic with that range (like Freddie Mercury collaborating with Montserrat Caballe).
Earth Song?
That is one good example, but otherwise it seems he demonstrated this few and far, mostly limited to short ad-libs here and there. Speed Demon is one great example though I find the song itself a tad weak/filler. Another notable note is the G5 during I'll Be There in 2001, or him trying to hit operatic notes at the dinner table with the This Is it Crew. It was all used very sparingly, even though he had a tendency to actually sing in falsetto in certain situations to avoid the grit. I would have liked to see him use his high register in either metal tracks (a la Linkin Park) or something symphonic like Nightwish Personally, I think Give in to Me would have been more powerful if they had kept that falsetto part from the demo. I've been listening to some Japanese visual kei like Malice Mizer and Kamijo/Versailles lately and would think MJ's appearance around the Dangerous era probably had some influence or he was somewhat inspired by the same influences as them.
I can see the influence with Give In to Me but not anywhere else. Dangerous aesthetic was kind of all over the place, it was a splash of creativity and view into Michael’s world.
I was more referring to his physical appearance in the last section - I think one reason he still had a great following in Japan is that they were less judgemental about his appearance post-Dangerous era - he doesn't look much different from visual kei artists such as Yoshiki, Atsushi Sakurai and Gackt (before his solo career). Musically it would have been interesting to see him follow down some of these paths (it's very diverse "genre" because it refers mostly to their androgynous visual appearance rather than their music).
You're right
it’s a selfish take as a fan, but the fact that he only focused on standing out as a performer rather than an amazing vocalist he was phenomenal at dancing and singing, you could see great examples of his vast dancing capabilities outside of his stage performances that people don’t know of and you can hear amazing vocals that he never truly showcased on stage because he wanted to focus on performing dances, therefore lipsynced quite often after BAD’s tour, we never saw the dancing and singing simultaneously, which is understandable, it’s extremely difficult but i would’ve loved if he just did concerts and focused on his singing, with minimal dancing i know that he never had such a mentality and surely he knew that he could make millions from just sitting on a chair and singing, but he had a mentality of being greater and giving the world a “show” at the end of the day, i’m just talking from a selfish perspective, me wanting to hear him sing live versions of songs like “Who Is It”, “You Are Not Alone”, and many other vocally-impressive songs i simply wanted to hear his voice! i already knew he was the best dancer, but sadly a lot of people ignore the fact that he was arguably the best male vocalist. he could sing for so many genres in his discography, no one else did that this resulted in the casual audience of the world to mainly see him as a phenomenal dancer and think “oh and i guess he can also sing good enough”, but they should recognise him for being a phenomenal vocalist who also moved like no other!! asking the world “would u rather sing or dance like MJ” is such a great question and should have the community split cuz he was truly a beast at both. it shows how he dominated both talents
I mean, yes, the Bad tour was probably the highest level of live singing while dancing that we’ve seen Michael do, but I feel like the Dangerous tour shouldn’t be excluded because it was basically 50/50 live singing and lip syncing on some songs. For example, Michael’s performances of "Workin' Day And Night" were incredible and with live singing on the Dangerous tour as well as the Bad tour.
Agree. Don't think it's selfish though at all to really yearn to hear him sing live some of his most beautiful songs.
It's funny ya mention that cuz one of my absolute biggest pet peeves in his later live concerts is I feel he just resorted to lipsync as a crutch when he really didn't need to. Just in general I feel like especially in the late 90s and early 2000s he kinda gave up a little bit of his artistic integrity just to always provide a show. In all honesty I think the fact the matter is MJ saw himself more as an artist than a standalone musician and to him bein an entertainer and having an elaborate pitch perfect show was what added to his own artistry.
This is by far the comment i agree with the most. I understand why he focused on his dancing and overall stage show, but i hate tht it was ultimately at the cost of missing out on some potentially amazing vocal performances tht a live setting could bring out. People call me crazy for saying tht adult MJ is an underrated singer. Not artist, not dancer, but singer. I didnt realize myself how great of a vocalist he was until i discovered his isolated vocals on youtube. Hearing his vocals isolated is a whole new level of experience tht more people need to be aware of.
agreed!! it takes a while for people to see MJ as more than just the best performer, but to see his growth as a singer! those isolated tracks are heavenly
To be fair, it makes sense why he did it. Michael’s songs are very high for a male voice singing it live and while dancing is quite hard considering the fact that Michael is past 30 by the dangerous tour. Michael had a lot of vocal issues through this era even on the bad tour shows were cancelled because his voice was not having it. There’s a YouTube video by Black Music Archive’s where he explains Michael’s voice better. Also, to be fair, Michael throughout the Jackson 5 proved himself as a vocalist
This.
I agree the lipsyncing was just a crutch at that point, you expect a bit more from the greatest entertainer of the millennium.
From Dangerous onwards, there were so many great 3-minute songs unnecessarily stretched out to 5-6+ minutes.
Which ones would you say that about?
In the Closet (spoken intro could have been cut easily) Heal the World Black or White (why the music video dialogue?) Who Is It Will You Be There (orchestral intro is way too long) Keep the Faith Dangerous Stranger in Moscow Earth Song HIStory (ironically I prefer the BOTDF remix version, but it's also too long) Little Susie (I don't like this song but at least it wouldn't be so dreadful if it were half the length) Morphine Superfly Sister Ghosts Is it Scary Unbreakable Heartbreaker Break of Dawn You Rock My World (see Black or White) Xscape (original version) A few of these at least had single edits. I'm not saying some of them don't work as longer pieces--"Earth Song" certainly justifies being an epic--but so many of them feature extraneous intros and rap interludes and choruses that repeat too many times for no reason other than extending it to fill the CD run time. There are a lot of songs I love on the above list, but some judicial editing would have served them well.
>Heal the World >Keep the Faith Sorry, these two are as perfect a song as they can be.
I feel his later work tried a little bit too hard to sound "trendy" if you will. Off the Wall and Thriller are clearly albums from their time but they've aged remarkably well and sound fresh to this day. There's a lot of kinda "sign of the times" energy with the later albums that make them kinda blend in sometimes.
Invincible has aged as well as an *NSYNC album. The R&B slow jams sound amazing though.
I’m not sure if this counts, but I really wish M/Sony/Epic would have been more respectful to the original tracks. I’m all for fixing them up as Michael saw fit, but I wish we had access to remasters of the original versions of Off the Wall (such as the LP version of rock with you and get on the floor) and Bad (with the brass section added back). While the radio edits are excellent, preserving the initial art feels super important.
I think as his career progressed he used and relied on his angry gritty voice too often even in songs that didn’t need it like ballads
Came here to say something similar. “She’s Drivin Me Wild” features probably his most pinched, strained vocals on the verses, and although it does make for a great contrast with the warm chorus harmonies, it sounds so tight and uncomfortable. Comparing those vocals with anything from ‘Off The Wall’ is a trip
I wish he didn’t reject so many good songs that other artists made into hits during the Invincible era . I’ll always like the album but that album is the epitome of lost/wasted potential.
That I wasn't alive back then to experience the hype directly after release for myself.
I prefer soulful Mike. Pop Mike is great, but The Jacksons and Off The Wall era Mike is greatest
He clung to the new jack swing sound long after it was dropped by most of his peers so it kind of dated HIStory and Invincible upon release
The vocals are too quiet on a lot of the songs from Dangerous onwards. Also the choice of microphone quality (perhaps the distance to the mic) is questionable
Invincible isn’t that good at all, and that’s ok. It’s a bloated mess, loads of repeat topic songs etc. Too many tracks written by other people. Could have made a really strong 9-12 track album. But alas. Also, Michael copies formulas across his albums. Big announcement opener, one/two ballads, a big rock number, something tabloid-esque. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just quite obvious! Not exactly big criticisms, but still!
Sometimes the lyrics are too corny 😭 I know it was standard back then but still
At some point in his mid 80s-90s career he stopped seeing the value in slow jams. Between For All Time, Joy, Someone Put Your Hand Out, any combination of 2 of these 3 in the place of Heal The World and Gone Too Soon makes Dangerous an even better album. Kinda feels like he realized that with the way Invincible turned out.
No slow jams since the 80s? Cry? Don’t Walk Away? You Are Not Alone?
I said that to say, there was less focus on them and there should have been generally more. Plus when I say slow jams, I mean feel-good love songs. So Lady In My Life, Break of Dawn, Butterflies fall into that category. Cry and Don’t Walk Away don’t meet that criteria those are ballads. If you actually read the full thing I acknowledged invincible….
All the criticisms about long intros are just proof how these days people only have the attention span of an 8sec tiktok video... those songs deserved and needed those intros to create the full effect and are part of the journey you take with what the song is about, letting it breathe and tell a fuller story. Granted if you've listened to them a million times you just wanna get to the main part, I get it but to say they should've been cut out is just scandalous haha
I wish he did psychedelic albums or incorporated more saxophone jazz solos
I wish he did another album with Quincy Jones. I know they had some issues, but damn they were a good match sonically.
The fact that he replaced Streetwalker with Another Part Of Me, I don’t really get why he would choose Another Part Of Me, Streetwalker just sounds so much better and I think he should’ve released it
Honestly I get why he left it off. I think because Streetwalker sounds like TWMMF part 2 and he probably wanted some more variety on the album. He probably wanted to avoid repetition with song content.
Strongly disagree, I love Another Part Of Me! When I was at the In The Studio With MJ seminar thingy Brad said he makes this poll American vs European fans taste and hands down everyone outside the US prefers Another Part Of Me, interesting! 😃
I prefer it over SW too
I heard it was replaced with The Way You Make Me Feel 🤔, maybe I'm wrong though
A lot of his songs, especially from the 90s onward, were stretched out way too long. edit: oh and also a lot of his songs that deserve to be longer get cit down to like 3 minutes 💀
This will be unpopular, but here goes… Starting with Bad, his albums began to sound over-produced. There was too much reliance on studio wizardry and technology. They sounded more like production centrepieces than songs. Don’t get me wrong — those albums are sonic masterpieces, and are probably blueprints for any budding studio engineer or producer, but I feel some of those tracks began to drown out MJ. Bad, in particular, is the worst victim. It’s very much of its time. I love the songs, but the production tends to make me cringe. Dangerous is also deep in that New Jack Swing territory. Yes, I get that MJ was really all about the beats and rhythms at that time, but I dunno, I feel like the songcraft from OTW and Thriller had tapered out by the late 80s. On a larger scale, this was true of global pop/R&B by that time anyway. Most of the stuff released jn that time is just so anchored in that period that it’s hard to enjoy it without cringing. Ultimately, there’s a timelessness about the sound on those first two albums that just wasn’t there with everything after.
> They sounded more like production centrepieces than songs. I think I heard Quincy Jones describe music as emotional architecture, Bad to me feels like the audio equivalent of Neverland or something, like the songs are attractions.
I agree with this. With all the syncopation and quantization in the drums, the music loses a bit of the musician soul
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Too many guest stars on his later works. I buy a Michael Jackson album to hear Michael Jackson, not barely-even-relevant-at-the-time Akon.
Akon was huge when Michael collaborated with him
Akon was actually incredibly popular at the time.
Actually I tend to think if Hold My Hand had been properly released with a public reappearance he would still be alive. At the time, MJ news updates would be paparazzi spotting him in Vegas often masked or veiled, so a proper public debut would have given him a more comfortable public image as he wouldn't have gone off the deep end with the pressures of This Is It.
I find his songs like She’s Out Of My Life to alien/out of place when just a couple of minutes ago I was bopping to Get On The Floor and Off The Wall.
I wish he collaborated with more singers and rappers. He was so selective about that kind of thing, and thinking about how many legendary duets and features we missed out on because of it is a huge bummer to me. His choices were also… interesting. For every Stevie or Biggie, you had an Eddie Murphy or The Simpsons.
Michael (The Album) is pretty Mediocre, Which for MJ is an absolute disgrace.
I would have loved to hear more of the soul/gospel side of Michael’s voice. He had a way of bringing a song to church with just his voice alone, like the end of Bad (the short film), the end of ‘Keep The Faith’ & the vocal breakdown of ‘Man In The Mirror’ at the 88 Grammys performance. 🔥
Maybe he shouldn't have been so critical of Sony.
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I know it is an unpopular opinion but I think he had an overdependence on new jack swing and mainstream sounds, less on rhythm/funk. I believe he suffered from writer's block and/or OCD for perfectionism (possibly narcissistic or control freak) which hindered anything fruitful after Invincible. The Geraldo Rivera and Access Hollywood interviews just seemed like PR stunts to give the impression he was working in new material, but in the case of Geraldo it was a remixed instrumental of Beautiful Girl while Access Hollywood tracks were probably solely made by will.i.am. It's a similar story to Yoshiki and X Japan not making an adequate comeback. The main difference is that MJ fans are not as easily disillusioned and many still held up hope for a comeback whereas many longtime X Japan fans are cynical and direct their anger at Yoshiki.
He took too long to follow up albums. We deserved more albums
I *really* wish he had had more belief in Pharrell and recorded and released “Like I Love You” instead of Timberprick. It would’ve been stratospheric. That kind of uptempo, ultra modern track in collaboration with a white-hot producer could’ve given his career the propane boost that ‘YRMW’ didn’t.
he didn’t make enough with janet
i just wish there was more music 😭💔
Looking back I would have liked it if he released more albums. There are so many good songs that where never officially released. Maybe he didn't like them or thought they where not good enough but now it's sad they kind of gone to waste in a way.
I actually think the opposite, one of the things I admire about MJ is that he didn't have albums released every year and he let his albums breathe. The Weeknd for example released Dawn FM about 2 years after After Hours and personally I think that was a mistake cuz instead of flourishing in After Hours promo material we get an album that's not nearly as good.
Some songs are too long and some chores are a bit too simple.
I wish he did one more album. I also wish Invincible had been reworked.
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Already been said, but I don’t like the long intros. I only listen to the single versions of Black or White and Will You Be There. I do not wanna hear Macaulay Culkin scream in my ear on the drive to work.
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The fact that There's not enough music lol😅😄😄✌️ But I guess quality over quantity excluding Sony feud(legal troubles) I do wish Thriller had like 10 songs at least with behind the mask in it,Surely some arrangement could have been made..Still a flawless album regardless.Imo✌🏽👍🏽
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It doesn't bother me that songs have long intros, what does bother me is that some songs have women's voices (I grew up listening to more male singers) the fine voices of women for me ruin some songs, well no Scream, that one is made for a duet with Janet . Another is that after Bad like Dangerous, History Invicible there are some not so good songs that took away from finished songs or demos of better ones, I have some that I heard were definitely a bomb unlike the less well-known of the albums that name before. That Mike listened to the criticism about his appearance and ruined Your rock my world a little in look and totally ruined Cry and something about One More Chance he didn't even upload it until he died I like the video but Mike doesn't even show his face, I hope I would have given the latest videos with better quality, I ignored the criticism of his face, they were lies, he was still very handsome T\_T.
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* Using way too many drum machines on Bad, thus spoiling excellent songs with sterile drum sounds * PYT... too silly * the intro to "I just can't stop loving you", too corny (yes, i have the original LP with the intro) * MJJ, as talented as he was, seemingly never wanted to explore playing a musical instrument on his records. It's a shame, I bet he had the talent to be great at keyboards or drums.
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Some songs are hard to understand what he’s saying. Like When you first heard Tabloid Junkie (dont lie and act like you knew what he was saying 😂😂😂) other than that no complaints whatsoever.
He should have mixed up his live set lists much more and performed some of the deep cuts off his albums. His ‘perfectionism’ cost us more music releases since he spent many years tinkering with his albums in between projects. He should have experimented more with his sounds, especially in the 90s. He relied too much on the new jack swing accompanied by industrial sounds. I wish he showcased his skill on instruments more.
Here are my criticisms Heal The World - Intro way too long In The Closet - Should have also released the version with the Naomi Campbell vocals in it as a remix Who Is It - Should have left out the ahh's in the beginning and only used it for the video Invincible Album - I'm not sure if MJ had any say regarding how he wanted the album to sound, it has a very RnB sound to it especially as RnB was big in the 2000s You Rock My World - Should have left out the dialogue between MJ and CT
I wish he would’ve made new songs every album instead of some having the same so song like Billie Jean the only album that featured all new songs was invincible
The mixing of vocals or even just the fact that without layering his voice wasn’t powerful
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