Rebirth
Proud Member
John Lennon Would Have Been Proud
After The Beatles broke up, John Lennon released "Plastic Ono Band", a dark and unexpectedly gritty album in which he took listeners on a tour through his troubled psyche by unleashing his deepest, darkest emotions out in a storm of fantastic art.
It was an incredible move from an artistic perspective, but not from a commercial one (but since when are true artistic statements commercial?) and the nakedly candid content didn't exactly send fans rushing to music stores to buy it.
The exact same holds true for "HIStory", which has turned out to be Michael Jackson's true wild card.
On the second disc, Michael has done what I've been hoping he would do for ages--take all of his deepest troubles, dreams, hopes and fears and unleash them all at once in a powerful wash of released emotion. After all, he has quite a story to tell, and on this disc he finally does it musically.
Easily the most personal and angry album he has ever recorded, Michael delivers a powerful emotional whallop which shocked and alienated many from a commercial standpoint but artistically stands as the greatest and most honest achievement of his career.
In John Lennon tradition, he releases EVERYthing here--as much as his legal court agreement will allow, anyway (remember, he can only say so much). From the excellent #1 hit "Scream", a direct descendant of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Plastic" work and especially Yoko's powerful track "Why?" to the soft gentle plea of the heartbreaking "Childhood", Michael gives us rage, hope and every other emotion in between.
In some portions, this album is out and out frightening. You most likely won't be won over instantly because Michael's main concern here is expressing his feelings over everything he had experienced just before this recording was released and not necessarily getting fans out on the dance floor.
But not only is it Michael's greatest artistic statement in the sense that it allows us to get closer to the real him--so close, in fact, that many will find it TOO close for comfort--but it is also touching from a musicianship standpoint by showing how much Michael has learned over his lifetime musically.
After a lifetime of other producers and studying his musical influences, Michael has FINALLY reached his artistic peak here, proving that he can at last write, arrange and produce an entire album all by himself without any awkwardness, making all the creative decisions alone and only calling in other producers to be under his command to flesh out his vision!
Watch out, Prince...Michael has just managed to prove that, except for the wait between albums and not being able to play every instrument except horns, he has indeed bettered you in all respects.
By A Customer
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This review was taken from Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/RUFITMWX19I0B/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Well written and thoughtful review. That was exactly what I thought of History. History was not commercial and mainstream but it has a very highly artistic value in it. An epic.
My question is if Michael decides to do something completely different with his future album by all means against commercial/mainstream music industry, would you accept and allow it? It's not necessarily another angry album, it could be say - a classical album, a concept album, album musical etc.
After The Beatles broke up, John Lennon released "Plastic Ono Band", a dark and unexpectedly gritty album in which he took listeners on a tour through his troubled psyche by unleashing his deepest, darkest emotions out in a storm of fantastic art.
It was an incredible move from an artistic perspective, but not from a commercial one (but since when are true artistic statements commercial?) and the nakedly candid content didn't exactly send fans rushing to music stores to buy it.
The exact same holds true for "HIStory", which has turned out to be Michael Jackson's true wild card.
On the second disc, Michael has done what I've been hoping he would do for ages--take all of his deepest troubles, dreams, hopes and fears and unleash them all at once in a powerful wash of released emotion. After all, he has quite a story to tell, and on this disc he finally does it musically.
Easily the most personal and angry album he has ever recorded, Michael delivers a powerful emotional whallop which shocked and alienated many from a commercial standpoint but artistically stands as the greatest and most honest achievement of his career.
In John Lennon tradition, he releases EVERYthing here--as much as his legal court agreement will allow, anyway (remember, he can only say so much). From the excellent #1 hit "Scream", a direct descendant of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Plastic" work and especially Yoko's powerful track "Why?" to the soft gentle plea of the heartbreaking "Childhood", Michael gives us rage, hope and every other emotion in between.
In some portions, this album is out and out frightening. You most likely won't be won over instantly because Michael's main concern here is expressing his feelings over everything he had experienced just before this recording was released and not necessarily getting fans out on the dance floor.
But not only is it Michael's greatest artistic statement in the sense that it allows us to get closer to the real him--so close, in fact, that many will find it TOO close for comfort--but it is also touching from a musicianship standpoint by showing how much Michael has learned over his lifetime musically.
After a lifetime of other producers and studying his musical influences, Michael has FINALLY reached his artistic peak here, proving that he can at last write, arrange and produce an entire album all by himself without any awkwardness, making all the creative decisions alone and only calling in other producers to be under his command to flesh out his vision!
Watch out, Prince...Michael has just managed to prove that, except for the wait between albums and not being able to play every instrument except horns, he has indeed bettered you in all respects.
By A Customer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This review was taken from Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/review/RUFITMWX19I0B/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Well written and thoughtful review. That was exactly what I thought of History. History was not commercial and mainstream but it has a very highly artistic value in it. An epic.
My question is if Michael decides to do something completely different with his future album by all means against commercial/mainstream music industry, would you accept and allow it? It's not necessarily another angry album, it could be say - a classical album, a concept album, album musical etc.
You opinion would be very much appreciated but be sure to flow it with respective manner.
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