Before I get to the Friday Throwback, I wanted to quickly write about an interview that R. Kelly did with BET. Why did he do this interview? I have no idea.
If you didn’t watch the video, the moral of the story is that whoever told him to do this interview is an idiot. The interviewer asked him if he likes teenager girls. R didn’t immediately say no or get upset about the question. He asked for clarification. Now, I’m not sure if R is just that specific or what, but when you’re a 40 year old man and another man asks you on TV if you like teenage girls, the correct answer is “Hell no!” unless, well, you do. Then R asked if teenage girls meant nineteen years old. The interviewer is so befuddled that he paused and said that it could be anywhere from nineteen and on down. Then R admitted that he has nineteen year old “friends”, but he said he doesn’t like anyone “illegal”. Again R, the correct answer should’ve been no.
Further on in the interview, R basically says that no one should listen to speculation about his life from people he has hired and then fired, or people he has hired and are currently on staff. Huh? I think what he was trying to say is that people who are no longer on his staff are spiteful and want to bring him down. But that makes no sense as far as why we shouldn’t listen to the people who he hasn’t fired yet. I’m not sure that R is sane.
Now, after reading about this interview (and now watching it), I started to wonder how I could’ve ever been a fan of the man and his music. I specifically thought about two songs that I can still listen to and not have to immediately turn off. One is Half On A Baby and the other is I Can’t Sleep Baby (If I).
If you bought into the hype spewed by the mainstream press and Michael Jackson’s detractors, 2001’s “Invincible” was a flop of colossal proportions. Of course it was no “Thriller” or “Off The Wall”, but it stands as a fairly contemporary, often good, and occasionally awesome album from the King of Pop. Was it a sales bust? Considering only about 20 or so albums a year sell over 2 million copies (with only one so far in 2008), and this one broke that barrier, I would say no.
After the debacle that was 1995’s “HIStory”, Michael retreated back to the lab to create an album that would focus less on his personal problems and more on just making good music. In the six years between the two albums, he had also seen the entire teen-pop industry build back up on a sound he created. From Sisqo to Usher to Beyonce to Britney to Backstreet & *Nsync…damn near every pop or soul artist coming up owed a big debt to Mike…a trend that’s grown even more prevalent in the seven years since this album’s release.
The first thing you notice is that Michael the balladeer is back. The man hadn’t whipped out a slow jam since “Bad”‘s “Liberian Girl” in ’87, but “Invincible” finds him bringing sexy back about 5 years before Justin Timberlake. “Break Of Dawn” is a summery song that finds The King Of Lotharios promising to “make sweet love till the break of dawn”. Get the visual out of your head and concentrate on the song’s sweet melody, the calming background arrangement and the effervescent chorus. “Butterflies” is more of the same. Over a thumping groove from neo-soul producers Dre & Vidal, Mike testifies about a girl who makes him ridiculously nervous. This song wouldn’t sound out of place on “Off The Wall”, with it’s deep bottom, airy harmonies, and Michael singing in a casual cadence that’s ever-so-slightly behind the beat. It’s easily Michael’s best performance in years. His vocal is exquisite, especially when he slips into a mind-melting falsetto in the second verse…a vocal even more impressive when you realize the man doesn’t have a nose to sing through.
“2000 Watts” finds Michael jumping straight into the space age with an energetically jumpy production. The lyrics make no sense, but the high-energy arrangement makes you dance, and Michael brings out his deepest vocal tones for this song. First single “You Rock My World” is sunny and pleasant enough, although it sounds like a watered down version of “Remember The Time” (which, in itself was a watered down “Rock With You”). Nevertheless, the song’s got an addictive chorus and reasonably uncluttered production, not something you’d necessarily associate with the track’s producer, Rodney Jerkins.
Jackson occasionally finds himself lost amidst the more modern-sounding production. The opening track, “Unbreakable” is a mission statement that favors 1991’s “Jam”, but Michael’s overwhelmed by the bloops and bleeps that come crashing through. It also features a post-mortem verse from the Notorious B.I.G.-one that was lifted from a Shaquille O’Neal album released about 6 months before the rapper’s death. Biggie verses? Generally cool. Exploiting the dead? Not really cool. The album’s title track starts off slow but picks up steam towards the end when the army of Mikes commanding the vocals break it down over a menacing-sounding piano loop and finger snaps. The Timbaland-esque “Heartbreaker” is nice, but much of the production just sounds like the audio equivalent of trying to modernize a classic car with garish paint. Michael doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to make great music. Another demerit agains the album is that, ever since “Dangerous”, Michael has felt the need to fill every last second of a CD’s 79 minute running time with music. It’s not necessary. Give us 10 songs of great music, not 16 songs where we have to skip around to find the 10 good ones!
“Invincible”s crowning achievement is “Whatever Happens”. For once, Michael stops singing about being persecuted and concentrates on the story of a man and woman’s unconditional love in the face of great odds. This song would have been an inspired choice for a single and could’ve made an awesome video. Its got a slow motion, cinematic feel, Mike’s vocal performance is top-notch, and Carlos Santana pops aboard to add a blistering guitar solo. Classic stuff here.
On the poppier side of things, “Don’t Walk Away” is a stunningly heartbreaking ballad that The Backstreet Boys would still salivate in their sleep for. It’s by far the best of the easy-listening type things on the album. “You Are My Life” is a goopy ballad which put the final nail in the coffin of the songwriting career of the once-reliable Babyface. Meanwhile, R. Kelly pops in for the world-peace anthem “Cry”, which just sounds like an inferior version of the not-that-good-to-begin-wit “I Believe I Can Fly”.
“The Lost Children” is unlistenable. Even before the trial, this song was unlistenable. It’s like Michael got kidnapped by Raffi and decided to make a song either about runaway kids or a loosely metaphorical song about folks who have had lost childhoods. Either way, the song is easily one of the 5 worst things he has recorded in his adult life.
All told, “Invincible” is not the piece of shit most claim it to be. A leaner structure to the album and some more sympathetic production would have resulted in a classic. However, when placed against what passes for pop/R&B these days, “Invincible” holds up better than a lot of the junk on radio waves now.
Hey Mikey. Sorry I deleted your comment. Oops!! (he mentioned “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar as one of the other courtroom videos from the mid-Eighties. See, man? I’m giving you your props.)
It’s been…hmmm…about two weeks since I last bought a CD, which is fairly major stuff for me. I went record shopping in Cambridge yesterday, though, although I was tempted to break my streak and buy Eddie Murphy’s “So Happy” on CD (which would actually give me the entire Eddie Murphy non-comedy collection on compact disc…yes, I’m lame), I ended up picking up a few records, including Talking Heads’ “Fear of Music” (which only cost $1 and I already own on CD, but the dualdisc won’t burn onto my computer), LaBelle’s “Chameleon”, Spandau Ballet’s “Greatest Hits” (because I misplaced the CD), and this little gem.
I’ve seen pictures of Mike Sembello performing “Maniac” on TV, and he looks like this burly, heavy-set dude. So why the hell did he decide to come out with what might be the gayest album cover in history? Beats me.
Anyway, the current tally on the iPod is currently over 17K. Let’s get right down to bidness.
Track One: “Say You Want it All” by Amel Larrieux
Those of you not familiar with the name may remember Amel Larrieux as the voice behind the R&B duo Groove Theory, who had a Top 10 hit in 1995 with “Tell Me”. I’m surprised it wasn’t a bigger national hit because they played the shit out of it in New York City. Anyhow, she only made that one album with GT partner Bryce Wilson before going solo. To date, she’s released three pretty good albums of new material in addition to one collection of standards that I really haven’t devoted a lot of time to. This song is pretty standard midtempo neo-soul, with the addition of a peppy horn section, and it comes from her second solo album “Bravebird”. If you cross Sade with Erykah Badu, you’d have a pretty good idea of what Amel sounds like. Good stuff.
Track 2: “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing” by James Brown
Can’t go wrong with The Godfather, who was also the master of catchprases. “Say it Loud-I’m Black & I’m Proud”, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, that line “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!!” from “The Payback”. We miss you JB. Hmmm…I wonder if we can find that Eddie Murphy “singers” skit on YouTube. Well, I’ll be…
Track Three: “Better Days” by JOE
R&B singer Joe Thomas, who until recently used only his first name professionally, has actually been in the news recently. Apparently, he’s been accusing his former labelmate R. Kelly of sabotaging his career by calling radio stations and telling him not to play Joe’s songs for fear that Joe would take some shine away from him. While I wouldn’t put that past Kells, didn’t he give Joe two of his “Loveland” leftovers for one of his albums? Wouldn’t that almost be self-sabotage, then? Regardless, Joe, despite being somewhat inconsistent, overall is a much better listen than Kelly, capable of writing songs that are nuanced and melodic. This is the title track from his somber 2001 album, which took some inspiration from the 9/11 tragedies. It’s a pleasant midtempo song with an uplifting message, and it also starts with a quote from The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child”, adding to the song’s optimistic feel.
Track 4: “Territorial Pissings” by Nirvana
And now for a COMPLETE change of pace, let’s go with one of the most frenetic offerings from “Nevermind”. Two things come to mind when playing this song. One is, did Nirvana really kick-start the whole alterna-rock changing of the guard, or did R.E.M. do it six months earlier with “Out of Time”? Second, this song opens with a sarcastically sung snatch (ooh! alliteration) of The Youngbloods’ “Get Together”, making it the second straight song (ooh! alliteration) played that references another song in it.
Track 5: “Selena” by Wyclef Jean feat. Melissa Jimenez
True story: Wyclef Jean’s “Carnival 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant” is actually good (much better than you’d expect from ‘Clef after a trio of solo records that went from OK to terrible to OMIGOD this sucks!). Unfortunately, this belated tribute to the Tejano superstar is…oh, about 13 years too late and is one of the weaker songs on the album. I think I’ll be unchecking this. Actually, there’s a pretty neat breakdown in the middle of the song that elevates it to average status. I won’t be unchecking it, but it’s still one of the weaker tracks. Still, check the album out. You might be surprised. Who else can get Paul Simon on a rap record?
Track 6: “Tell Me What You See” by The Beatles
This is definitely one of the more incidental songs on the “Help!” soundtrack, although even incidental Beatles songs are pretty good. Some interesting organ playing on this (shades of “Louie Louie”!) and some pretty harmonies too.
Track 7: “Sulky Guy” by Elvis Costello
The man who was originally Declan MacManus ranks as my favorite Elvis (hell, if I had that name, I’d change it too), and while I can’t place what album this song may have originally come from (I burned it from a compilation), it sounds late Eighties/early Nineties, right in line with songs like “Handle With Care” by Traveling Wilburys (only slightly messier and garage-y) or “My Brave Face” by Paul McCartney (a song that Costello co-wrote). My two questions of the evening to close this edition of the Sunday Seven out.
1) How in the name of Jeebus did Elvis Costello snag Diana Krall? That’s almost as bad as Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri!
2) If Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello did a duet, would you be able to tell who was singing what??
