Re: Michael: first review
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11898874
"Disrespectful", "keeping his legacy alive", "fake" vocals?
Michael Jackson's first album of new material since his death has arrived amidst a storm of controversy.
Michael is released on 13 December.
It's the first album of "new" Michael Jackson material in nearly a decade.
The run-up to the release has seen major controversy with other artists, record companies and Jackson's own family wading into an argument about whether the album is legitimate or in good taste.
Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am branded the release "disrespectful" earlier this year.
But Akon, who features on the album's opening track Hold My Hand, hit back, claiming the body of work would be "keeping Michael Jackson's legacy alive".
'Scientifically tested' Michael Jackson The album, Michael, is released on 13 December
Then came the questions raised over Jackson's vocals. His nephews, TJ and Taryll Jackson, complained on Twitter about the track Breaking News. They said it sounded "fake" and "shady".
But record company Sony, who are releasing the album in conjunction with the Jackson estate, said they had "complete confidence" the singing was his own, arguing that it was scientifically tested.
Michael Jackson has written the credits on all of the album's 10 tracks. Significantly though will.i.am and Lady Gaga's producer RedOne's tracks don't feature.
What this isn't, is a new Michael Jackson album, but a jigsaw collection of previously unheard material.
The tracks have predominantly been written in the last five years, in various locations like New Jersey, Las Vegas and London.
But final track Much Too Soon was written almost 30 years ago, during the Thriller sessions in the early 80s.
Modern flavour
It's oddly prophetic in the context of this album and MJ's death, featuring the lyric "I guess I learned my lesson much too soon".
But even though it's been unheard, the collaborations included on the album do help to give this a distinctive, modern flavour.
50 Cent raps a verse and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl plays drums on Monster.
Jackson's track with Lenny Kravitz, leaked online at the start of 2010, (I Can't Make It) Another Day, also appears.
The press release given to journalists at the album playback is honest in describing the source material for the album as "creative blueprints" and "foundations".
In other words the songs were incomplete before a team of producers including Teddy Riley, Eddie Cascio and Theron 'Neff-U' Feemster helped turn them into fully formed tracks.
