We are getting really speculative now, but just because he had an army of help (which BTW is not confirmed as Michael always said he did not!), does not mean he wanted to leave his young kids completely on staff and focus on the album. Again we can only speculate here.
This I can buy, having people work together as a team, have social connection would have an impact on final product.
He made it clear that his children would often get sick, as children often do, and that he would subsequently catch colds from them. This was what kept him from finishing the album sooner, according to himself.
Who? You may be disappointed yourself, however, there is no reason to be disappointed. If you listen to the demo of "Human Nature", you will notice the same thing, a song written and sung by someone else (Toto) which was given to Michael and "covered" by him.
Exactly
It's not impossible that there is some truth in that. Vocally, he doesn't sound in the best shape ever and that could be attributed to illnesses he had or was recovering from.
Why didn't he stop everything and say ,, Stop,this is not right,, and start from scratch?(if he wasn't satisfied)
Recorded,but not at all written
At one point he did more or less start from scratch, didn’t he? He told Rodney Jerkins that he was satisfied with about 6 songs they did and asked him to keep searching for futuristic sounds.
So I listened to it. I did know it but had forgotten bc I don't like Rick James' voice. It's kind of hilarious MC Hammer using that and not crediting RJ. It is *such* a distinctive sound. RJ was never gonna let that go.
Interesting point. I love the album but I think I can see what you're getting at.
I feel the same tbh
Well this awkward...
I do feel for everybody who loves the album, I'm only critical of it because I can hardly find fault with the other 6 of Michael's albums he released as a man. Whereas with Invincible, it just feels like a lack of effort and drive, which is what Mike stood for.
There is brilliant moments on Invincible, but just not enough of them
Apparently that was merely an excuse on his part, and here is why:
There are bad songs on every album. It’s just that this one has the most I guess.
Well this awkward...
I do feel for everybody who loves the album, I'm only critical of it because I can hardly find fault with the other 6 of Michael's albums he released as a man. Whereas with Invincible, it just feels like a lack of effort and drive, which is what Mike stood for.
There is brilliant moments on Invincible, but just not enough of them
Like all celebrities promoting a new project, MJ was under no obligation to tell the truth : his job was to promote the new record. He wasn't going to say to USA Today "I've been depressed, I have an addiction problem, I have writer's block and I want to get out of the music industry and would rather be producing films. But please enjoy my all-new CD!".
One of MJ's collaborators who worked on the album -- was it Michael Prince? -- said on one of the MJ podcasts that, for some reason, MJ was hands-off throughout the whole Invincible project. It's obvious from the final product: he did the bare minimum he could do, in all regards. He wrote very little for it, he took songs "as is" and just added his voice to them, following the guide vocal note-for-note, and he didn't even bother doing all of the backing vocals himself, which is such a trademark MJ touch.
You're right, which is another thing about Invincible: the album gets both the fundamentals and the details wrong. That's rare. We've already discussed the album's main problems, but even the little things are all wrong. Like you said, having Rod Serling do a beyond-the-grave rap is a fun idea (although it does feel like a repeat of the same idea from Thriller, only instead of using a horror icon who's still alive, they're going for a dead one), but then they mix it so you can't hear it. Great. And on Privacy, there's a classic MJ shout-out to "Slash!", which is at least one thing that connects this album to previous MJ records, but then you read the liner notes and find out it's not Slash doing the solo, because they couldn't get him in time. But they never bothered removing the shout-out. That's great quality control right there. Another example: they're putting a rap verse on every one of the uptempo bangers. So you think, ok, in the past it was a way for MJ to get somebody famous or cool to do the rapping. So who do we get this time? Ever heard of "Fats"? Me neither. He's some guy from Rodney Jerkins' stable that he wanted to push into success through association with MJ. And you get him TWICE. It's like MJ said, "I don't care, just use whoever you got hanging around your studio, Rodney, I'm fine with whoever you pick".
Precisely. There were months and months where MJ didn’t turn up to scheduled recording sessions, or produced over the phone from a secondary location. I believe it was Brad Buxer who said that most productive and atmospherically potent sessions were in May 2001 (which coincidentally birthed two of the album’s best songs, “Unbreakable” and “Threatened”).
There absolutely are. Nearly every outtake we’ve heard to date has been better than most of what made the actual album. Not to mention that the material MJ had on his radar in his final years was excellent (at least the songs we’ve since heard).
That is not true.
Bringing an unknown, unexceptional guy to rap on certain songs (of your album) does not necessarily mean that you do not care about your album.
Lol you know your argument is flawed when MJFrenzy tears it to shreds
he also rapped on Cheater 2001.
Yeah, he did a short rap, and only once. With Fats, we're talking two (actually 3, apparently, if Cheater counts?) long raps, plus the guy sucks, while Aquil did a good job.
Was that ever confirmed? I haven’t seen a legitimate source for it.
