Best on the album are
You are not Alone, a great ballad that never dates and it is just so heart felt and pure
They don't care about us, a perfect piece of frustration and again it is laden with all the classic Michaelisms
Stranger in Moscow, a beatiful song, with an amazing beat and singing that sets the mood, you feel like you are there and the chorus of "How does it feel" is also amazing, it makes you think and you realise he is singing about being truly lonely.
These 3 stand out above the others and are all 10/10 songs and easily a great addition to his legacy of the first four albums. Not only are they great songs and have a perfect MJ touch to all of them,they are amongst the most truthful songs he has ever recorded. This is a template for putting your feelings to music.
Almost as good are Earth Song, Scream, This time around and Tabloid Junkie, again truthful and funky songs. All of them vary but are still very worthy songs. I give them all 9/10. Earth Song gets a 9.5/10 a great song, but the topic has been doen to death and the soaring harmonies make it my 4th favourite on the album. Scream is the perfect pop anger song, a great video and you can feel his anger. Tabloid Junkie again is not the greatest written song in the world, but an unforgettable melody and chorus (Just because you see it on a TV screen or read it in a magazine, doesn't make it actual, factual) with the message make it great. This time around is a great album track, funky and prominent enough, but probably not great single material.
The rest of the album is mixed, Smile is a decent take on a Charlie Chaplin song, but he is a bit over emotive, still an 8/10, smae with History if you can wade past all the soundbites, important as they are, they make it hard listening as background music 7/10. DS is purely silly and very slight musically, but is redeemed by the fact this song is about the maggot called Tom Sneddon who tried to destroy Michael. Musically its 4/10 but as a diss track its an 8/10, plus you can feel his anger so it gets the 8/10.
Come together and Money are average by the numbers tracks, good melodies and rhythms save underwhelming lyrics and construction (Although the Beatles singing Come Together is much better), still enjoyable 7/10 a piece I guess. Little Susie is sad and haunting and a great feelings based song, but the topic (Child abuse) and the gothic choir put me off a bit. But I know he was creating the mood and the song is very serious, so again its an 8/10. The trite rapping and I'm so bad ass feel of 2Bad seems badly dated now, but it is still a powerful track and BIGGIE does his job well enough, with Shaq giving his best ever rap performance (Which is barely average, not Dr Dre, but not Tony M either - Prince fans know who he is), so the track gets 7.
Hope this helps, so its They don't care about us, Stranger in Moscow and You are Not Alone, probably the last song named is the very best.
The album only has one true stinker and that is Childhood, I just find it hard to get into and a poor choice as a double A side single, too close to the trials and a bit maudling and self indulgent 4/10 only.
