tricia70
Proud Member
YAML should never have been included on any KoP album. This was one example of Vince's notoriously bad track listing issue. It had too many tracks, many were filler and should have been removed IMO. The album would have been FAR better without tracks like YAML, LC, Cry, Privacy, DWA etc.
How could the man responsible for uber hits such as Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean, Beat It end up recording and releasing sappy crap like YAML? There are ways to convey the same messages in a much more commercially acceptable way - a way that can enhance the album and increase sales. The way those songs were recorded showed that MJ had lost his way (IMO). I'm not criticising the message but the execution was cheesy, messy, and unappealing to the masses.
Somebody mentioned the YAML being weak melodically and lyrically. It was. The same can be said for Lost Children. *shakes head*
I know some people hear love songs like YAML and Lost Children, but they were not good choices to put on an album that was (after many years of absense) a comeback album for the King of Pop. Though some say MJ didn't need to be cool, MJ SHOULD have been cooler than that. He had lost so much credibility by 2001 that the last thing he needed was to include tracks like that on his album. At least he didn't have the foolishness to release them as singles...oh wait!. Cry was released as the second single. It killed album sales dead. Not to mention the foolish (mostly) one-sided public spat with Sony.
I totally agree with your comments, except that I do love DWA and for the fact that it was Sony's choice to release Cry as a single not Michael's.