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Michael - The Great Album Debate

Mikky Dee said:
I'd like to see a hybrid album released at some stage in the future, with the strongest tracks from Invincible and Michael on it, plus maybe four "new" songs, such as Invincible out-takes or demos/unreleased tracks from the whole time period of 2000 - 2009. It could be called Invincible Michael, or Unbreakable Michael.....something like that.
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I like that idea.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Think the issue is that MJ is not singing on three of the songs, not that they are not "quite good". I don't think fans should stop bringing attention to it. It's a disgrace that one of the greatest artist of all time has three fake songs on display as part of his discography. Once they apologise and remove the tracks I guess I'll move on. Even then still disgraceful money motivated behaviour on their part. I don't know if they will win or lose, still, I think that something should be tried.
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Agree.
 
Exactly.
The case was never about the songs being good or bad (i absolutely loathe "scared of the moon" however it IS a michael jackson song).

The point was that knowing how hurt we were as fans after his death, and how in need we were of hearing something that was produced after the trial, they excited us by teasing us and then releasing "breaking news" and then...the rest. No matter how good the songs on that first after.death albums are...3 of them are not sung by Michael Jackson and if it hadn't been for us screaming out loud as possible, they would have continued issuing more of those songs (they even went and included Monster on the cirque du soleil show and was later removed, there was at some point an amateur video where a verse of Monster was included on the thriller-threatened medley) and we would have never had untouched demos in bad25 and xscape. That speaks volumes about how right we were and how important it still actually IS to have those 3 songs removed FOREVER from MJ.s discography. They just don't belong there.

With the years I've moved on (i sometimes think the idea came from MJ himself, in an attempt to f@ck with Sony beyond the grave, which is the only conclusion I can come when it comes to the Cascio family being involved on the fraud, collecting the money and then simply going away).

However I dont forget and I DO care.
 
That whole album 10 years later was a hot mess.

Yes you had the 4 or 5 good songs, Hold my Hand, Hollywood tonight, Behind the Mask, Best of Joy etc - but the Cascio/Malachi stuff and the fact it was 10 slim songs, made it a cheap afterthought. The best part was the cover art.

Xscape was much better and Scream is not even rateable.
 
mjprince1976 said:
That whole album 10 years later was a hot mess.

Yes you had the 4 or 5 good songs, Hold my Hand, Hollywood tonight, Behind the Mask, Best of Joy etc - but the Cascio/Malachi stuff and the fact it was 10 slim songs, made it a cheap afterthought. The best part was the cover art.

Xscape was much better and Scream is not even rateable.
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I agree with your whole statement here.
 
Scream was nothing rerelease of old songs. i do like where they was going. but it could been better. when Michael was alive he wanted to do a halloween album and do a halloween special because he liked halloween.

in my opinion waste of money fans made their own halloween playlist and it was much better. smh.
 
Hot take: having re-listened to both albums recently, I think Michael is leagues better than Xscape. Better song selection (minus the Cascio tracks), and a better approach to finishing the material.

Xscape feels like two separate but equally disappointing projects: a remix album with solid production but barren of any Michael Jackson influence, and a collection of demos that largely aren't very interesting or worth a second listen. It feels like a compilation of outtakes, which (ironically enough) isn't the feeling I get when I listen to Michael (or Bad 25, for that matter). All those songs feel like they were meant to be heard, and even with the creative license taken by the producers, they all maintain the general spirit and vibe of the original recordings. We can debate the quality of the final mixes, and of course the Cascio tracks diminish the album's worth, but I can't help but smile listening to some of the Michael tracks.

I normally don't give a damn who produces what -- I consider the Timbaland cut of "Chicago" to be the only one in existence -- but I don't want another Xscape. I want an album that feels like Michael, not someone else.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Hot take: having re-listened to both albums recently, I think Michael is leagues better than Xscape. Better song selection (minus the Cascio tracks), and a better approach to finishing the material.

Xscape feels like two separate but equally disappointing projects: a remix album with solid production but barren of any Michael Jackson influence, and a collection of demos that largely aren't very interesting or worth a second listen. It feels like a compilation of outtakes, which (ironically enough) isn't the feeling I get when I listen to Michael (or Bad 25, for that matter). All those songs feel like they were meant to be heard, and even with the creative license taken by the producers, they all maintain the general spirit and vibe of the original recordings. We can debate the quality of the final mixes, and of course the Cascio tracks diminish the album's worth, but I can't help but smile listening to some of the Michael tracks.

I normally don't give a damn who produces what -- I consider the Timbaland cut of "Chicago" to be the only one in existence -- but I don't want another Xscape. I want an album that feels like Michael, not someone else.
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Definitely agree. I've always thought that generally the songs on Michael did a better job of sounding like MJ songs. I obviously have my own problems with some of them as you said but generally it's more respectful. I'd also say the demos on Xscape aren't worth a re listen not because of the songs themselves but because of the non existent mixing and horrible sound quality. The songs are definitely great imo, it's just a shame that we have mp3 leaks of some of them that sound much better.
 
EpM-l1rWMAgD9ey
 
^^^

Since absolutely no medias or even fans have gone crazy and written a lot about this I think it's safe to say it is not real... Unfortunately.
 
Why would he only confess about these 3 songs "and Stay". He sang a whole bunch more songs for the Cascios.

Is this new btw? At least something similar was posted on his facebook page some time after the album came out. Then it was removed again and he claimed that he had been hacked.

I guess IF he ever confesses, it will be a bit more detailed than that.
 
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Electro said:
Why would he only confess about these 3 songs "and Stay". He sang a whole bunch more songs for the Cascios.

Is this new btw? At least something similar was posted on his facebook page some time after the album came out. Then it was removed again and he claimed that he had been hacked.

I guess IF he ever confesses, it will be a bit more detailed than that.
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It's the same post from when the album came out.
 
Friday, January 29, 2021
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov
Amicus brief urges Court to stop Sony from shirking responsibility for disputed authorship claims on posthumous Michael Jackson album

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called on the California Supreme Court today to stop companies like Sony from evading false-advertising laws. In an amicus brief filed in the case Serova v. Sony Music Entertainment, Attorney General Becerra asked the state Supreme Court to reject Sony’s interpretation of the First Amendment related to false advertising. Sony’s overly broad interpretation of the First Amendment fails to protect consumers by enabling companies from a wide array of industries to make false or misleading claims about their products and then declare ignorance of the misrepresentation.

“Truth in advertising is rooted in the most basic contract between a seller and consumer. Products must deliver on their claims. If someone buys an album from a recording artist, they should expect that the songs on the album were made by that artist unless noted otherwise,” said Attorney General Becerra. “We must hold companies accountable to stand by their products. Companies have a First Amendment right to communicate, but their claims must be informed and accurate.”

Serova v. Sony Music Entertainment was filed in 2014 as a class-action suit against Sony by a Michael Jackson fan alleging that three songs on Michael, a posthumous Michael Jackson album, weren’t actually performed by the late entertainer. Sony and the Jackson estate dispute that allegation. But rather than giving the plaintiff her day in court, Sony moved to dismiss the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. Sony argues that it can’t be held liable because it didn’t record the tracks itself; rather, it purchased them from other producers and didn’t know whether or not the songs were actually performed by Jackson. Sony argues that even if Jackson didn’t sing the songs, purchasers who relied on that claim have no remedy under California false advertising laws.

Attorney General Becerra argues in the brief that Sony’s argument would have broad, absurd consequences. It would mean that sellers could escape false-advertising liability any time they resold goods produced or manufactured by another. The requirement could also enable companies to make false claims against their competitors without consequence.

Attorney General Becerra is committed to protecting consumers against false advertising. In August 2020, he announced a $600,000 settlement with Presence Learning, an online special education service provider, resolving allegations that the company engaged in false advertising and misrepresentations. In June 2020, he secured the largest consumer relief package ever obtained against a timeshare company in a settlement against Welk Resorts Inc. The settlement resolved allegations of false statements and misrepresentations made during high-pressure sales presentations for timeshare resort lodging. And in 2019, Attorney General Becerra filed a lawsuit against Paul Blanco’s Good Car Company, alleging that the company engaged in false advertising, made false statements on credit applications, and deceived customers regarding add-on products and additional charges.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-relea...calls-california-supreme-court-uphold-false-0
 
For what it’s worth, I think the same thing about these songs (Cassio tracks) that I thought 10 years ago when they were released.... they are not authentic and are subpar. Still stunning that a star of Michael Jackson’s caliber has an estate so inept they allowed those songs to be released, on his first album of unreleased material, no less.

Nothing added up then and nothing adds up now. Sometimes the most obvious answer is the correct one, and the correct answer here is the songs don’t sound like MJ, have no original, non copy and pasted as-libs that are authentic, and the Cascios have no outtakes of MJ because they aren’t MJ.

I knew from the first second I heard the opening verse of Breaking News, I new the song was phony, and nothing has changed since. You would think that out of 12 songs, at least one track would have a few parts everyone can say “oh yeah, that’s MJ”. 12 songs is an albums worth. Out of all of them, there isn’t a single ad-lib that sounds real unless it’s one you can tell they lifted from another song.

Xscape was a step in the right direction, but I’m not sure a proper posthumous music project for MJ will ever be created with the current estate.
 
I still feel that not enough artists in the industry spoke up about this. It's time. It's time to set the record straight. Those songs should not be a part of his legacy.
 
This site lists the Cascio tracks: https://mjofficialversions.blogspot.com/p/michael-jackson.html
Including some from the so called Stay/Bible album, but no all. (They probably just listing the tracks that have been considered for the "Michael" album.)

So, sorry if the question has already been asked and the answer is buried somewhere under the mountains of texts that this album has generated, but it brings me back to question that I still never had a clear answer to...
Did MJ ever had anything to do, at any step, with all, or some of the Cascio/Malachi tracks? Or not all?
 
Maxym said:
This site lists the Cascio tracks: https://mjofficialversions.blogspot.com/p/michael-jackson.html
Including some from the so called Stay/Bible album, but no all. (They probably just listing the tracks that have been considered for the "Michael" album.)

So, sorry if the question has already been asked and the answer is buried somewhere under the mountains of texts that this album has generated, but it brings me back to question that I still never had a clear answer to...
Did MJ ever had anything to do, at any step, with all, or some of the Cascio/Malachi tracks? Or not all?
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MJ very likely never even heard them. I'm pretty sure most of them didn't even exist until after he had passed.
 
what do his kids think about those songs?
do they even know about those songs?
 
DanGerouS- said:
what do his kids think about those songs?
do they even know about those songs?
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Sometimes I wonder if they even know his music like "fans" may know full discography, or if they just know the big things. (Though I'm sure that they must also know about some of the unreleased stuff.)

The only time I remember them talking about the music was when Paris has to defends herself from non including him in the top 10 artists that influenced her music (which I she was totally right about, I even think people should have skipped that question... I don't think her music sounds influenced by MJ's music in any way).
(But I'm not necessarily following every single news about the kids, nor about MJ actually, so I may have missed some.)
 
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I'm pretty sure the kids know about michael unrelease stuff. either from him or the fans. maybe one day they might release them. as of right now nah. most celebrity children wait to release and say things. so maybe one day they will speak out about it.
 
NatureCriminal7896 said:
maybe one day they might release them. as of right now nah. most celebrity children wait to release and say things. so maybe one day they will speak out about it.
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I don't see the point in waiting... The more they wait, the more people will forget about Michael.
(Also soon we will all be dead from the umpteenth COVID variation or unbreathable air... or age... or fully controlled by machine... so we won't be able to listen them.) (
 
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