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Invincible appreciation thread

Dilan

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I noticed invincible rarely gets appreciated so I thought id make this thread for it. so whats your fav song on the album?(y)
 
Invincible my favorite album behind Dangerous, its soo good, I love the techy sound, hell Heartbreaker was dubstep 10 years before it was even popular! The power of MJ!!!!!
 
You did right. This album is so under-rated. I love each an every song which was released in this album and also those unreleased ones such as XSCAPE ORIGINAL! :)

I love every song which is present in INVINCIBLE !!!
 
issabreakofdawn said:
Invincible my favorite album behind Dangerous, its soo good, I love the techy sound, hell Heartbreaker was dubstep 10 years before it was even popular! The power of MJ!!!!!
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and nowadays kids listen to EDMs beats and synth, and MJ did all these kid work a decade ago.
 
It's a good album, half of it is fantastic, the other half is forgettable. Honestly it's not up to MJ's standard's.
Whatever Happens, Break Of Dawn, You Rock My World, Speechless, Unbreakable and Threatened were my favourites on this.

For me the album lacked Michael's songwriting obviously.
It also lacked his background vocals, add his own solo backgrounds to most of the songs on this record and it would improve the album massively. One of the great things about his previous albums is it's all Michael throughout, aside from the occasional choir. Listen to the background vocal harmonies to songs like Liberian Girl, Why You Wanna Trip On Me and Baby Be Mine. Even subtle almost unheard backgrounds like the quiet No running throughout Dirty Diana.
 
I was starting to wonder when the next Invincible thread would come...

I do like the album very much though...
 
I can honestly, without a shred of a doubt in my mind, say that Heaven Can Wait is one of his most beautiful tracks. So are Butterflies and Speechless!

And again, without a shred of a doubt, Privacy is one of the, if not theee most bad-ass-track he has ever recorded!

Edit: In fact, I haven't listened to it for quite a while. I think I should treat myself some great music this evening!
 
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If you take the best 9-10 tracks from Invincible, then it stands right up with the other MJ solo albums.

For me, its only issue is that it has too many tracks.
 
For those who quickly jump on Invincible in a negative way.. I think some don't realize how much the song placement on the album and literally exchanging a song or two would have made a tremendous difference in that album. The album definitely has its strong points.
 
SmoothMJ said:
If you take the best 9-10 tracks from Invincible, then it stands right up with the other MJ solo albums.

For me, its only issue is that it has too many tracks.
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But on the other hand, if you took the best 9-10 tracks from Invincible, what would you do with the rest? Keep them unpublished forever?
 
KOPV said:
For those who quickly jump on Invincible in a negative way.. I think some don't realize how much the song placement on the album and literally exchanging a song or two would have made a tremendous difference in that album. The album definitely has its strong points.
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I agree it has it's strong points, but even the best 9 on Invincible in no way stand up against the medium to best on any other album.

Look! Over There! It's Bill Murray & Andie McDowell!!!
 
But then again, Michael didn't really use unknown songs on B-sides, right? "Shout" being the only exception I can think of right now.
 
Fiona said:
I would say Speechless, You Rock My World, Unbreakable, Whatever Happens, Threatened and The Lost Children are all good enough to sit on Dangerous or HIStory.
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This makes my stomach cramp a little.

I'll possibly give you:
Threatened to replace D.S (although Threatened is better, D.S. fits better on HIStory thematically)

Speechless maybe over Childhood, but again thematically Childhood makes more sense.
 
Fiona said:
So you prefer This Time Around to Unbreakable? Or Come Together to Whatever Happens? Invincible isn't without its problems, but its just silly to ignore its strong points, and there are plenty of them scattered throughout the album.
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I'll maybe give you WH over CT (although I love CT), but what you're missing is that HiStory is essentially a concept album and although there are a couple of lower points on HIStory, e.g. D.S., TTA they deserve their place on the album as they make up part of His Story.

Whatever Happens, Speechless etc do not fit on HIStory the album. An album isn't just a collection of songs, they should (or used to back in the day) make up one cohesive listening experience for the listener.

That's why Thriller especially is more than the sum of its parts and why you shouldn't change a hair on its werewolf head.
 
Billie Jean 78 said:
But on the other hand, if you took the best 9-10 tracks from Invincible, what would you do with the rest? Keep them unpublished forever?
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Keep them unreleased, or release as demos/b-sides in some future release.

I think Invincble has some good points, but I think it would have really benefitted from a better track placing and better songs (it's not like MJ didn't have good songs, honestly the unreleased material was so much better than some of what made the final cut - it's baffling).
 
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Fiona said:
I wasn't saying I thought those songs would've been good additions to HIStory (they wouldn't), I was talking about the quality of the songs themselves and comparing it to the quality of songs on HIStory and Dangerous. To my ears, the songs I listed are as good as most of the songs on his previous albums (although I would concede there is nothing on Invincible as powerful as Earth Song or as majestic as Who Is It), but overall, the quality of the songs is to a very high standard, and easily as good as 75% of the songs on HIStory or Dangerous.

I listen to songs like Butterflies, Whatever Happens, YRMW, Unbreakable and Speechless far more than songs like Money, DS, Come Together, YANA, Childhood etc.
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I get you. Amend that percentage to 30% and I'll agree with you. ;)
 
Fiona said:
You drive a hard bargain! 50% is the best I will give you.
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No deal. :)

I think the point you make above about nothing like Who Is It or Earth Song, is a huge part of my problem with Invincible. You're right there are a few good and very good songs, but the amount of filler and the fact there are no GREAT songs on there means it is very far removed from the rest of his catalogue.

The best songs on the album (for me, Threatened, Whatever Happens, Butterflies, YRMW) are probably half as good as MJs best on other albums.
 
Fiona said:
Speechless is a GREAT MJ ballad imo. I've never actually rated MJ's ballads that highly (aside from Human Nature and LIML which are exquisite), but songs like IJCSLY, YANA, She's Out Of My Life, Gone Too Soon etc do very little for me. Speechless is much better than these songs. Speechless is the closest thing Invincible has to a truly magical and authentic MJ moment. I think if MJ had replaced Cry with We've Had Enough then it would've given Invincible that much-needed "epic" moment it lacked.
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Yeah I probably don't listen to Speechless enough in all fairness and it does stand out on the album as one of only a couple of songs that actually sound like a Michael Jackson song.

In terms of MJ ballads, GTS, LIML, SOOML, HTW all great. And I also love IJCSLY especially Live.
 
KOPV said:
For those who quickly jump on Invincible in a negative way.. I think some don't realize how much the song placement on the album and literally exchanging a song or two would have made a tremendous difference in that album. The album definitely has its strong points.
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I totally agree with this. I think had the album been shorter with its best tracks it would have been different entirely. I think it's just maybe too long with some too similar tracks on there so it gets a bit diluted. I always have this perceived idea of Invincible and then when I do actually hear it it's so much better than I remembered. It's my least listened to album tbh but songs like Break Of Dawn, Speechless, Heaven Can Wait are way up there in quality, along with Butterflies, YRMW, Whatever Happens. There are some really great tracks.

Just seen above about it missing that epic moment and I think that hits the nail on the head. We've Had Enough could have been that for me.
 
StaceyMJ said:
I totally agree with this. I think had the album been shorter with its best tracks it would have been different entirely. I think it's just maybe too long with some too similar tracks on there so it gets a bit diluted. I always have this perceived idea of Invincible and then when I do actually hear it it's so much better than I remembered. It's my least listened to album tbh but songs like Break Of Dawn, Speechless, Heaven Can Wait are way up there in quality.
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I also agree, but this is basically saying that it's wrong to be negative about Invincible as if they'd have put different songs on there it would be better.

I was wrong not to enjoy my dinner last night as if I would have chosen tuna instead of salmon it would have been great.
 
Fiona said:
Speechless is a GREAT MJ ballad imo. I've never actually rated MJ's ballads that highly (aside from Human Nature and LIML which are exquisite), but songs like IJCSLY, YANA, She's Out Of My Life, Gone Too Soon etc do very little for me. Speechless is much better than these songs. Speechless is the closest thing Invincible has to a truly magical and authentic MJ moment. I think if MJ had replaced Cry with We've Had Enough then it would've given Invincible that much-needed "epic" moment it lacked.
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Tony R said:
Yeah I probably don't listen to Speechless enough in all fairness and it does stand out on the album as one of only a couple of songs that actually sound like a Michael Jackson song.

In terms of MJ ballads, GTS, LIML, SOOML, HTW all great. And I also love IJCSLY especially Live.
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By the way, one of MJs best ever songs was a ballad. Stranger In Moscow.

I read this on it today in Billboard (best songs of 1997)

37. Michael Jackson, "Stranger in Moscow" (No. 91, Hot 100)

A rare near-forgotten hit for Michael Jackson -- the song's paltry chart placement remains his lowest peak on the Hot 100 -- "Stranger in Moscow" is actually one of the singer's all-time most affecting ballads, a lonely-in-a-crowd lament that unnerves with desolate, rainy production and one of Jackson's most personal vocals. The real-life controversy in MJ's life surrounding the song largely explains both why the song tanked on the charts and why it felt so authentic; even its more enigmatic lyrics ("Stalin's tomb won't let me be," "Armageddon of the brain") bear the wounds of a man besieged by people who asking him questions, and badly lacking in anyone to really listen to his answers.
 
Tony R said:
I also agree, but this is basically saying that it's wrong to be negative about Invincible as if they'd have put different songs on there it would be better.

I was wrong not to enjoy my dinner last night as if I would have chosen tuna instead of salmon it would have been great.
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Not really, my point was just that it had so much potential to be something great if it had stuck more to the vibe of other albums in terms of concise track selection. This didn't happen so much on Invincible for some reason which is a shame and leads to where the criticism originates in my opinion. It kind of loses its way somewhere, the criticism it receives is definitely viable although I do still think it's a very good album regardless of all of this with some very high points.
 
StaceyMJ said:
Not really, my point was just that it had so much potential to be something great if it had stuck more to the vibe of other albums in terms of concise track selection. This didn't happen so much on Invincible for some reason which is a shame and leads to where the criticism originates in my opinion. It kind of loses its way somewhere, the criticism it receives is definitely viable although I do still think it's a very good album regardless of all of this with some very high points.
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I know, I was just exaggerating the point to give myself some minor enjoyment.

You're right, it could have been much better with a few tweaks but you have to review it as it is not what it could have been.

Like I've said many times, it's only poor when compared to OTW -> HIStory, in terms of music made in 2000-2005 it's one of the best albums made.
 
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