Michael is back, and he’s weirder than ever. It has been 10 years since Jackson’s last full-length album, Dangerous, and unfortunately that time apparently wasn’t spent on perfecting songs for his latest release, Invincible. Granted, for most artists Invincible would be a decent album, about half the songs are good or even great. However, expectations are considerably higher for a musical genius like Michael Jackson.
The album begins well enough with the song “Unbreakable” featuring a guest appearance by the deceased Biggie Smalls. Jackson uses the song to address the critics who have been linking him to scandals for years and declares, “You can’t stop me … I’m steady laughin,’ while surfacing.” Whatever. Unfortunately Jackson doesn’t limit himself to addressing the problems that he has faced from the press to just this one song. In fact he devotes three other songs to the to just this issue; “Invincible,” “Privacy” and “Threatened.”
Along with the running theme of Jackson’s victimization by society, there is the ever-present theme of romance. Invincible runs thick with love songs. Most of them are incredibly unoriginal. Songs like “Butterflies” and “Speechless” are marred by childish lyrics that would make them more appropriate for a Jackson 5 album and not the work of a man over 40 years old.
“You Rock My World,” the first single off Invincible, is the exception to the rule. Jackson manages to create a true pop classic, complete with a genuine sense of sexual feeling that has become harder to believe from Michael Jackson following his farce of a marriage with Lisa Marie Presley along with the various accusations of his sexual deviance.
Overall, Invincible does not rely on the excellent studio production that has been featured so heavily on every previous Michael Jackson album. The songs come off as unpolished and amateurish. It is striking that Jackson chooses to work with lesser talents on his album when he is still so highly regarded in the musical community that nearly any performer would jump at the chance to collaborate with him. His obsession with his own personal problems in his music draws attention to a part of Michael Jackson that most of us are tired of hearing about. At the same time the anger of these songs contrasts greatly with the plethora of sappy love songs and thus there lacks a unity to Invincible that leaves the listener wondering exactly what the point of the album is. The King of Pop may be suffering from the same problem that the other great MJ, Michael Jordan, has faced, being over the hill without realizing it.
