Michael Jackson top albums, life and his family today: The $4 million, 11-minute unedited telecast of “Black or White” ranks among the Smithsonian-worthy artifacts of ’90s pop monoculture—up there with Nirvana trashing their instruments at the ’92 VMAs, the premiere of “Summertime” after The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Hillary Clinton hitting the Macarena at the ’96 DNC. No one ever had more juice than Jackson did at the time, and it’s difficult to imagine that anyone ever will again. This was right around the time when they named him an official king of the Ivory Coast. In Gabon, 100,000 greeted him with signs reading “Welcome Home, Michael.” His universal popularity was on par with pizza and the polio vaccine. Safe enough to be Captain EO at Disneyland, hood-certified enough to throw up the set with the Crips.
Every song here has its flaws, though; after all, there’s a reason Jackson himself didn’t release ’em. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some things to take away. “(I Like) The Way You Love Me” works off this dreamy piano melody and some incredibly rich instrumentation that lets Jackson soar high. It’s probably the greatest highlight on the album and the one that feels the most natural, too. “Keep Your Head Up” should succeed in making you smile, sounding like one of Jackson’s ’90s classics. With a clean, sophisticated finish, Jackson finds himself swimming here, thanks to some pretty spot-on production work by Christopher Stewart. It’s easy listening, but done well. “Hollywood Tonight” could have used some tweaking to keep it from sounding like a Madonna tune (What were you thinking with that spoken word, Teddy Riley?), but regardless, it’s still a fast-paced spitter that’s decadently enviable.
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book 1 (1995) : This is a very tough album to rank. On one hand, it has the unfair advantage of being a pseudo greatest hits album – the number of classic songs reissued here alone should thrust it into the top 3. But the other half of the album features new material that, while not as legendary as the hits, still deserve plenty of props. However, for every memorable cut like “You Are Not Alone” or “Scream,” there are several more inferior cuts to drag down the experience. Despite the uneven nature of the album, it still succeeds, thanks to MJ’s ability to diversify his sound, willingness touch on social issues and, of course, the inclusion of his impenetrable collection of pop hits.
Michael Jackson family: Mocienne Petit Jackson’s (Michael Jackson’s daughter) books are now available in french! For our french visitors: La deuxieme partie de l’autobiographie en trois parties de Mocienne Petit Jackson commence par une description detaillee de l’enlevement de Mocienne et de sa vie aux Pays-Bas (Le Cote Sombre des Pays-Bas – Mocienne Petit Jackson). Par la suite, le recit nous devoile comment se deroule sa vie avec sa famille adoptive, chez qui elle reste en compagnie de la cousine Delivrance. Petit a petit, elle decouvre que son vrai pere est Michael Jackson. A l’age de 15 ans, elle quitte sa famille adoptive et vit dans un internat pendant 4 ans, avant de s’installer vivre toute seule. Nous la suivons tout au long de son adolescence et de son entree dans la maturite, ce qui n’a pas toujours ete facile. Mocienne rencontre un homme avec lequel elle a un enfant. Cependant, cet engagement ne dure pas. Nous en apprenons davantage sur les problemes qu’elle rencontre avec les Services de Protection de l’Enfance, suivis de nombreuses affaires judiciaires. Au debut, celles-ci portaient sur sa propre personne, plus tard, elles se transforment en bataille pour la garde de son fils. Une situation inacceptable prend le relais d’une autre situation inacceptable. Nous sommes egalement mis au courant de nombreux evenements traumatisants vecus par le personnage principal, de ses depressions et de ses nombreuses luttes pour faire face a la misere impregnee dans sa vie et a son combat pour s’en debarrasser. L’auteur explique clairement ces luttes a travers de vifs flashbacks.