I believe it’s safe to say that, were Michael Jackson still
alive, we’d
never have this album. Michael would have meddled
and drowned eight good songs in an additional seven really bad
songs. Xscape presents an incredibly satisfying idealized
Jackson the real Michael, lost in his narcotics-fueled haze,
would never have permitted us to hear. Despite the producers’
repeated claims to the contrary, this album succeeds largely on the
strength of creative people who love Jackson’s music finally
unencumbered by Jackson himself.
The
Record We'd Never Hear
I really don’t pay much attention to music charts anymore,
mainly because most of what passes for music these days really
is quite bad in every conceivable sense. A friend brought to my
attention that, in 2013 black acts were almost completely
missing from the top levels of Billboard’s Hot 100, replaced
instead by white acts making a fortune by sounding black—
Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and
others. Meanwhile, over on the Gospel charts, we have a
different phenomenon: black acts finding commercial success by
sounding white. Hezekiah Walker, J. Moss, [More} all now seem
eager to follow in the Oreo footsteps of Kurt “Angry Moose”
Carr, Israel Haughton and like-minded Gospel music sellouts
who’ve abandoned most anything that sounds like soul or, for
that matter, Gospel to instead produce mainstream (i.e. white)
Contemporary Christian music: banal, repetitious four-chord
ditties consisting of barely a handful of lyrics repeated ad
nauseam until the audience is hypnotized into a religious
frenzy. This frothy, lightweight pap is several French fries short
of a Happy Meal and an embarrassment to the art and tradition of
Gospel music in that it lacks both substance and anointing. Were
I still pastoring, I would not allow this pap to be
sung in my church or, alternatively, would insist actual lyrics
which actually feed people spiritually be written for it. Thus,
we have this new phenomena of white acts sounding black in
mainstream pop, while black acts (and everybody else) is
sounding white in “Gospel” music.
I am deeply grateful to Michael Jackson or, more accurately, to
John Branca and John McClain, administrators of Jackson’s estate,
for crafting Xscape, the second posthumous Jackson release, and
reminding us of how crossover music is actually done. The
problem with the white-sounding black Gospel acts is they sound
disingenuous, like they are chasing a fad more so than
expressing a true inspiration of God. In that sense, Xscape,
which does not pretend to glorify God in any way, sounds much
more pure than virtually any black Gospel I’ve heard in years,
likely because the nucleus of these highly calculated commercial
tracks were private experiments of Jackson’s and thus, much more
personally inspired. Xscape puts the lie to all the white acts
trying to sound black, providing a roadmap for commercial
artists which does not include profanity, misogyny, nudity
(thank God), and that deals with issues of sexuality in
realistic ways, including moral and emotional consequences often
absent in the more prurient and morally bankrupt pop music of
our day. Without stooping to any of those negative factors
deemed so vital to today’s popular music, and absent any
parental warning label, Jackson’s Xscape effortlessly mops the
floor with virtually all pop music out there—secular and sacred
alike—while shattering the race and gender barrier. Now, mind
you, this isn’t a pure work of Jackson’s who, at the end of his
life, was lost in a sardonic, drug-induced stupor, but is an
idealized Jackson construct fabricated out of seeds of
brilliance long ignored by Jackson himself. Whatever it is, I’ll
take it. I receive it as perhaps the most genuine expression of
Jackson’s art we’ve seen since his Quincy Jones heyday when
Jackson trusted people who loved him to steer the ship, a ship
Jackson himself repeatedly rammed into icebergs after his ego
demanded he alone be in command.
An Idealized Jackson
I believe it’s safe to say that, were Michael Jackson still
alive, we’d never have this album. We’d have something much more
like Michael, 2010’s stillborn posthumous effort that just
depressed Jackson fans rather than uplifted them. However,
Michael was much closer to where Jackson was creatively when he
died and likely presented a more accurate portrayal of the
artist as he was. Xscpae, on the other hand, presents the artist
as we best remember him—as the positive, punchy, fun, spirited
young singer with the soaring, grand ideas and themes. Michael
was more about the cynicism Jackson obsessed over, his tremendous
gifts weighed down by his increasing isolation and
disconnect from everything and everyone. In that sense, Xscape
is an amazing gift; the producers choosing a sublime level of
discipline over ego producing an obvious labor of intense love,
a love letter to Jackson. Whereas Michael was a misguided effort
to finish what Jackson started (complete with obvious patches
from a Michael almost-soundalike), Xscape is a far more
successful biopic effort to bring objectivity and clarity to Jackson’s
art by aligning it with his very best qualities.
Were Jackson living, I believe he would have meddled and
tinkered and re-re-re-re-recorded and shelved the songs again,
recorded a few dozen more and tinkered with them. He would have
drowned eight good songs in an additional seven really bad songs
ranging from syrupy pleas to save the rainforest to
sound effects-laden clankity paranoid whining about people out
to get him. Somewhere around 2016, maybe, we’d have a disc that
would sound more like Michael than Xscape because
Jackson would never have released an album this good.
The cover art is terrible, the bizarre
Michael-as-spaceman-trapped-in-a-speaker with faux-Prince glare
(Michael’s been trying to perfect that for decades. He’s not Prince)
reinforcing Michael’s “Wacko Jacko” image. The cover art, which is
the only pics we get of the singer, should have been used to the
same effect as the idealized music tracks: they should have selected
art that helped normalize Jackson and evoke our memories of him from
earlier and more creatively productive times. Instead, we’re creeped
out. Again. Still. I’ll hazard a guess that the art was generated,
in some way, by Jackson himself (as was the equally bizarre cover
for Michael), but since we’re playing a bit of fantasy
football with Jackson’s tracks, I’d have preferred the producers
overrode the singer’s penchant for the mysterious (if not bizarre)
and given us a family-friendly cover of Michael petting a tiger cub
or something. Despite the producers’ repeated claims to the
contrary, this album succeeds largely on the strength of creative
people who love Jackson’s music finally unencumbered by Jackson
himself.
Of course, we have no way of knowing how much material is left in
the MJ “vault,” but Xscape has certainly set the high bar for
what these posthumous discs are mean to achieve. The goal should
not be accolades for the producers or talent, but to bring to
light more of Jackson’s brilliant art. I believe it no accident
this disc’s release was timed to chart near the anniversary of
the singer’s passing. I can only hope the sparse 8-song
collection charts well (Love Never Felt So Good deserves, by all
rational thought, to hit #1 pop while the eponymous Xscape,
the best and most authentically MJ-sounding track among very good
tracks, should do serious business on both pop and R&B).
Sadly,
record buyers today are largely kids to whom Jackson is more an
iconic historical figure than a reality, and music these days is
so bad that actual good music will likely not do very well
because these kids won’t be able to identify with it. Thus, Xscape could well be just a nostalgia item for the fogies like
myself, or it could go straight to the top, returning Jackson,
finally forgiven for his eccentricities and likely creepiness,
to the rightful position of his prime.
I imagine if the CD is a huge hit, we won’t have to wait another
four years for the next collection. In the accompanying
documentary, Producer L.A. Reid says they had about two dozen
songs to work with and distilled them to these nine. That could
mean a second disc is already prepared or in the works if Xscape
catches fire.
Christopher J. Priest
19 May 2014
editor@praisenet.org
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