Who Do You Know
I ADORE THIS TRACK! This is a fantastic song. It sound very much like a Jacksons song, perhaps something from "The Jacksons" album, even. I really wish they had cleaned it up a little, remastered it and released it as a single a head of the release, however... I can recognize that it doesn't have much marketing power, there's not much is going on. It's definitely not a hit, but it a fantastic song.
Carousel
Yes, it's the full version!
Behind the Mask
Here we go.... I thought this and "The Toy" would change the way I prioritize MJ's music. I always liked to treat the posthumous albums as real albums and prioritized the "finished" versions. I thought that I would place this track on my phone under Thriller and never listen to the Michael version again because this is the true version. However, it really is rough. It sounds great but it sounds like an idea. The Michael version is actually much better in my opinion and those YouTube mixes of "the 80s version"... yep, they're much better too. For obvious reasons though, this is a demo, it's an idea. Just don't go in expecting something on par to the YouTube mixes. All that being said, I did enjoy this demo.
Can't Get Outta the Rain
I know there's a lot of hate for this being here and I understand why but oh my, is it gooooodddd. It sounds phenomenal and I adore this song. I'm always happy to play it.
The Toy
The same goes for this one as Behind the Mask. Best of Joy is SO much better (imo). However.... This demo, the harmonies are beautiful and I feel they're missing in Best of Joy. This working versions honestly inspire me to keep writing music my self. The piano in this track is gorgeous too. It's not simple triads, these a sus and 6 chords and the piano is very akin to Love Never Felt So Good. The vocals in this demo are incredible
What a Lovely Way to Go
ermmmm... again, its VERY rough. Trust me, stick with it. It starts off pretty weird but it gets better as you listen on. It's super interesting to hear these working versions of tracks. It is a great song. Just like Who Do You Know, it's a little out of character. It reminds me of a Prince or Queen song. I think it wouldn't be so abrasive if it was in a larger track list, if we had Night Line and Hot Street, etc. But in conclusion it is a really great addition to this album.
So....
In conclusion:
Could they have done better YES but I am super grateful for what we have. I think adding in tracks we haven't heard before as well as demos we haven't heard before makes this worth buying, like the Xscape Deluxe addition.
What did you guys think?
I think one of the issues here is that there pretty loosey-goosey with the term "Demo", and I think it really should be used to help shape expectations.
Walk with me for a bit here: Starlight is not labelled as a demo, likely because it's
actually the demo for Thriller. So calling it "Starlight (Demo)" could cause confusion, and calling it "Thriller (Demo)" equally so (not for us, but to the casual listener who might go "Where the hell are the Thriller lyrics"). So this one, okay, fair enough.
But then the next track is "Got The Hots (Demo)". But wait, we've never had a song called "Got The Hots" before. Is there a
finished version out there, and this is just the demo version? It's unclear.
Then we get to Behind the Mask (Mike's Mix, Demo) - My goodness, word soup over here. But in this case the demo label makes sense. This is a demo, or early version, of a song we have a "finished" (albeit posthumously and without Jackson's involvedment) version of.
The Toy (Demo) makes sense, because it's clearly an early demo of Best of Joy. But if we apply the Starlight logic, why is this labelled demo and Starlight isn't. Oh god, this is getting out of hand...
So for whatever reason, Starlight, Carousel, and Can't Get Outta the Rain are the only ones not labelled as demos, and only one of those makes sense (Can't Get Out of the Rain being an officially released B-Side, albeit just the end hook of You Cant Win from THE WIZ and really shouldn't have been included in this collection).
So yeah, this weird naming convention that defies logic really doesn't help us.
To me: demo = early unfinished version of a song. "Billie Jean (Demo)", I understand what that is. But for these "unreleased" tracks it's pretty confusing.
And in fairness, this isn't exactly new. One only need look to THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION to see this bizarre naming scheme.
Fall Again (Demo), Beautiful Girl (Demo), while In The Back, The Way You Love Me, We've Had Enough all are not labelled as demos.
At any rate: I was hoping BEHIND THE MASK was more finished compared to this, but still cool to have. The one thing I was most interested in. The "Michael" version turned out to be pretty good after all; just way too many "hee hee" overdubs.
