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Song of the Week - You are my life

MJTruth said:
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.
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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.
 
Michael was never afraid to express all sides to him in his music. That's what made him interesting as an artist, and gave us insight to him as a person.

I would personally use the word 'soft' rather than 'sappy', and I see nothing wrong with that. Besides, 'Heal The World' and 'The Girl Is Mine' as well as many others where described as being the same by critics, and they were still big hits. Should he be trying to please them in the first place? If anything we needed more light after the turbulence of 'Dangerous', 'History' and 'Blood On The Dancefloor' . To hear Michael happy again on 'You Rock My World' was a miracle! :)

He was always able to make artistic statements whilst being commercial at the same time. 'Earth Song' is a prime example of that.

I can tell 'You Are My Life' was special to him, as he played it during 'Private Home Movies' when talking about his children.

Same goes for 'The Lost Children' and 'Speechless'. Two songs written by he alone. The latter made it's live debut during 'This Is It'. It proves to me that he never gave up on the album because he believed in it. I think in revisiting 'Invincible', the neo soul of 'Butterflies', the dubstep of 'Heartbreaker', and the crunk/trap of '2000 Watts', show that Michael was not only current, but in some cases ahead of time...

 
It's a beautiful ballad and he one of the few artists who could express themselves so deeply and simply at the same time. If that makes sense.
 
mj_frenzy said:
For me, ‘You Are My Life’ is the lowest point on that album.

Moreover, the fact that MJ sounds (or tries to sound) like Babyface here is even more disturbing. I mean, he does not need to. The same, of course, goes for the other Babyface-influenced/produced song called ‘On The Line’ that was recorded some years earlier.

Melodically, ‘You Are My Life’ is very weak. It has a very simple chorus, too simple lyrics & it never really explodes while it approaches its end.

Also, despite the happy, optimistic theme of ‘You Are My Life’, MJ sounds slightly sad while singing these lines.

Finally, it is even more frustrating to think that (according, at least, to some accounts & reports) ‘You Are My Life’ made the album at the expense of ‘Shout’. In my opinion, that was an unforgivable decision.
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Disagree. Shout is a really weak song. You Are My Life is tottelly one of the good songs on Invincible
 
I always liked this song, but it's too cheesy and redundant to have on an album with too many ballads. MJ's vocals sound strained, too; compare it to the equally cheesy "Speechless", which was recorded two years earlier.
 
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