Contentious themes and controversy aside, the latter delivers some of his best pop work, including hit singles Scream with his sister Janet, They Don't Care About Us and Earth Song. What it lacks in the melodic dancefloor charm of his previous records it makes up for in the sit-up-and-listen scale and dynamism befitting a protest record. The album's ballads, such as You Are Not Alone, Smile (one of Jackson's favourites) and Stranger in Moscow (one of mine, and which laid the foundation for the second disc's creation), are sumptuous and among his finest, but it's the emotionally – and electrically – charged, industrial-sounding tracks, superbly produced as always, that will really give systems something to chew on and spit out. Words by Becky Roberts