Review Summary: Overall, this album still showed that MJ was the king of pop, despite the child molestation scandal. Much of the album addressed the allegations directly.
Michael Jackson's HIStory is a double album released in 1995 with the first part being a collection of his greatest hits and the second part being 15 new songs to compliment the greatest hits collection. This is was the first album after his child molestation allegations and some of the new songs deal with that issue directly. It is evident that the allegations had affected him significantly and the album is his most personal album yet, with many of the songs being paranoid and angry.
There is no need to review the greatest hits and almost all are 5/5 songs.
So, I will give a review of the new material.
1. Scream- a new jack swing/electrofunk/dance-pop banger. It is a duet with Janet Jackson and produced with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Lyrically, the song is about Jackson's detractors and is incredibly retaliatory in nature. The song can interpreted as Jackson's furious response to the tabloid media that destroyed his image for the last couple of years when covering the allegations. The song is up-tempo and starts of with electronic noises. After the noises Jackson sings "Ahhh" and the track kicks in with a bang. the chorus is amazing with Jackson even dropping an f-bomb in it. There is a nice interlude with Janet Jackson speaking and then an instrumental, which is great. Jackson sings with gusto and bite and his ad-libs at the end of the song are great and marvelous. Janet also is convincing in her singing and their voices really complement each other. The production is killer too and the track is really catchy. Just a perfect dance song. It deserves a 5/5.
2. They Don't Care About Us- A highly unique and original song with a minimalist drum beat and great atmospheric sound effects. The song is about fighting injustice, racism, and the corrupt system. It references the allegations as well ("I am a victim of police brutality"). It got controversy because some perceived some of the lyrics as anti-semitic, but later on was viewed as one of the highlights of the album. And it sure is. Jackson's singing is emotional, rough, and angsty and his ad-libs at the end (We're deep in fire) are sensational. The guitar chords which come in the middle of the song complement the drum beat really well. A great song and one of his classics. 5/5.
3. Stranger in Moscow- the song that got me onto MJ. A rain-soaked ballad and his slowest song. The lyrics deal with his feelings of loneliness and alienation and the "How does it feel" chorus is absolutely hypnotic in a good way. Jackson's ad-libs at the end are top-notch as usual and the production is great. This is a song that builds on you after each repeated listen. One of his best songs and an underrated gem. 5/5
4. This Time Around- A new jack swing/funk/hip-hop effort. A return to the angry lyrics and a direct reference to the child molestation allegations. This song can be viewed as a direct shot at Evan Chandler and Jackson cusses again in this song. The lyrics deal with Jackson claiming that his enemies cannot bring him down even though they are trying to "abuse me", "falsely accuse me" etc. etc. The song is produced by Dallas Austin and has a Biggie verse, which complements the song well. The beat is catchy and the production is top-notch as usual. However, Jackson squeezes his voice a little too much on the song and that can turn some off. He really comes off as angry and spiteful, which is a good thing given the nature of the lyrics, but he didn't have to clench his vocals that much. I give it a 4/5
5. Earth Song- A blend of opera, R'B, gospel, rock, and soul, this is another highly unique ballad. The lyrics deals with worry over environmental degradation, war, and the state of the earth. It also invokes religious imagery. The production is top-notch and atmospheric and the chorus (aaaah-ahh and oo-ooooo) is great. I also like the "I used to dream, I used to glance beyond the stars..." lyrics and the Andrae Crouch Choir is a real plus. However, the thing I don't like about the song, surprisingly, is Jackson's vocal delivery. His voice is too overemotional in this song and his ad-libs at the end are drowned by the Choir. It can also come off as a bit preachy and bombastic. I commend the unique production, the stellar message, and the chorus, but overall, I didn't like the song that much. I recognize that most other people really like this song and I can understand why. However, I give it a 3/5
6. D.S.- a new jack swing/hard rock/funk collaboration with Slash. This song is a direct shot at Tom Sneddon and the lyrics deal with a racist hit man who is on Jackson's heels and his verbal retaliation against him. The song is up-tempo and really catchy. The chorus (Tom Sneddon is a cold man) is great and super-catchy and the Slash solo is top-notch as usual. The guitar chord can get a little repetitive, just played with more verve in the chorus; however, it is super catchy and doesn't really need to be changed in my opinion. The "please just please just" lyrics before the end of the song is just genius. Jackson's vocals are solid and menacing. The only real problem I have with the song is the repetition of the chorus after the Slash solo. It is repeated one too many times before going into the "please just please just". If Jackson cut one of those chorus verses out, this would be a great song. However, it is still good and I give it a 4/5
7. Money- A mid-tempo new jack swing/funk number denouncing greed and the lust for money. Jackson speaks his verses and sings the chorus. The background vocals are great and it is an interesting song with a simple production. The beat is actually quite catchy and the lyrics are fantastic. The chorus is also solid enough. I give it a 3.5/5
8. Come Together- A hard-rock ballad and cover of the Beatles classic recorded in 1987. It is a great cover of the Abbey Road record, but I don't understand why Jackson put it on his album. His vocals are great and have a nasty bite to them, but it seems like blatant filler. Why didn't Jackson just put another new song on the album. I give it a 3/5
9. You Are Not Alone- The No.1 hit on this album and a collaboration with R. Kelly. R. Kelly wrote the lyrics and did a demo. Jackson liked it and hooked up with Kelly to work on the song. The song is thematically similar to Stranger in Moscow and the song is slow R'B ballad as well. The lyrics are great, all though they may come of as a little sappy to some. However, I think they are just fine. I especially like the "Your burdens I will bear" lyrics. The great thing about this song is Jackson's vocals, which are just amazing. He puts in the right amount of emotion into the song and lets his voice really shine when the choir comes in, holding his notes for extended periods of time. A real tear-jerker and a phenomenal ballad. Ranks with his best material. 5/5
10. Childhood- An operatic ballad in which Jackson moans about his broken childhood. The production is fine, if a bit Disney-like, and Jackson's singing is nice enough. However, the lyrics are just too self-pitying. Lines like "No one understands me" and "before you judge me, try hard to love me" just kind of ruin the song for me. It is an unusual song and brutally honest, and anyone with a broken childhood will connect with it. However, Jackson just seems to want to sympathy and overtly tries to elicit it in this song. I give it a 2.5/5
11. Tabloid Junkie- a new jack swing/ funk banger. It is reminiscent of Rhythm Nation's production. This song is really Scream 2.0, with a more direct attack at the tabloid media. The production is killer and top-notch and the song starts of with tabloid snippets about MJ over the years. Then the drum beats start and much like Scream the production kicks in with a bang. The chorus is also amazing with his grabbiest refrain in years, which is "Just because you read it in a magazine or see it on a T.V. screen don't make it factual". Jackson's "They say he is homosexual" and "She's blind and she's bisexual" lines are funny and done in good taste. Jackson's ad-libs at the end are great and torching. However, his delivery on the verses is too terse as he is essentially just whispering menacingly, which makes it a little weird. The tabloid snippets occur again after the interlude and can be visibly heard while Jackson sings, which is annoying. The song does end of really well with Jackson dissing "You're so damn disrespectable". If Jackson had just sung his verses and shortened the tabloid snippets at the end of the song, this song would have been perfect. However, it is still solid. 4/5
12. 2 Bad- A hip-hop influenced uptempo funk dance number. The song features a guest verse from Shaq and sees MJ channeling his idol James Brown. The song is a spiritual successor to Bad and works well as it. The second verse features excellent background vocals, which amazingly combines with Jackson's vocals. The song is only ruined by Shaq's guest vocals. Shaq on a MJ album? Really? Why couldn't MJ get Biggie to do another verse? Just for that, I give this song a 3.5/5
13. History- Jackson's collaboration with Boyz 2 Men gone awry. WTF is this song. The song doesn't kick in until the 1 minute mark and is completely ruined by sound effects. The lyrics are generally great and the chorus is classic MJ. But the sound effects just hamper the song. WTF was MJ thinking. This song had so much potential, but MJ just ruined it. 1.5/5
14. Little Susie/Pie Jesu- a classical music-inspired inspired operatic ballad about infanticide. Interesting. I just love the classical music played before the song, but I dislike the la-la-la sung by the child right before the song starts. The song then starts. Jackson's vocals are fine and the lyrics are good enough, but the song doesn't really have a chorus of any kind and the production is a bit bland aside from the amazing strings. I give it a 2.5/5
15. Smile- Jackson's cover of the Charlie Chaplin song. Jackson's vocals are amazing in this song. Flat out amazing. They are incredibly emotional and heart-wrenching, at times matching his performance in You Are Not Alone. The production is great with a slight drum beat kicking in right after the beginning of the song, giving it more rhythm. Jackson’s la-la-la is also perfect and suits the song. The best of his operatic pop songs on the album. I only disliked the fact that it was a cover. 4.5/5
