in my opinion this is michaels best album, his most beautiful and best sounding, with his best songs, and artistically and production wise reached a new level and a new high. i cant stop listening to it right now, its so dark, deep and haunting, i wish michael had of made a proper album with these songs with all new material. those 5 new songs are simply put, masterpieces, and those 5 songs alone make this my favourite album of his.

so who else loves this album and thinks it deserves more respect and praise than its been given. this album proves to me michael still has it in him, and his artistic ability is even greater than it ever was in the past (and yes im aware this cd was made in 1997, but people were saying even then that he had lost his touch) all i think what michael needs is motivation and around this time he had a heap of it. now i dont want to turn this into an invincible discussion as this is a botdf appreciation, but i think invincible wasnt so good and didnt show michaels talent because he didnt have the motivation he had normally had. but now, with what he has just been through im hoping for another masterpiece like botdf

i also really love the cover and the drawing on the actual cd, it really adds to the mood and suits the album perfectly, i think its michaels best album art work also.

Is It Scary and [especially]Morphine are some of his best and most interesting songs

"Demerol, demerol oh God he's takin demerol.Ooh! Your dog's a bitch baby.."

I remember when this came out, I was so surprised. We'd had history only a couple of years before and i simply wasn't expecting half an albums worth of new material, and good material at that (Better than a lot of what was on HIStory). Blood on The Dancefloor, Morphine, Is It Scary, Ghosts all great tracks. In a way i liked it because it wasn't a big new jacko release. It was a few songs tagged onto a remix album, and i think they were better for not having to live up to a load of hype.

LOVE them! All apart from the title track. Morphine is in my Top 20 MJ songs ever too.

The funny thing is, even though it's a drawing of him on the cover it's the only album cover of his where Michael actually looks like he does in real life.

Blood On The Dance Floor
Morphine
Superfly Sister
Is It Scary

All winners.

Seriously, those songs sucked major ass.

'Is It Scary' would be better if it had been the original version recorded in the early 90s. Not that I've ever heard it, but Jam & Lewis remixing it and tampering around with it to produce the one we know makes it all rather messy. I think it's over-produced and MJ's vocals are drowned out. That's fine to do with weak singers but not on this. That's why I prefer 'Ghosts' with that cool sound of rattling chains as the beat.

i always thought this album sucked

Xavier23 said:

well, i think you should do yourself a favour and take another listen to it

It was nice to get something new so soon but it was pretty average. The remixes chosen were some of the worse and out of the new material Morphine is the strongest. Superfly Sister sounds like a leftover from the Simpsons project. The title track got an extra boost because of the video and I think fans were just happy to have something unexpected and new.but I always thought it sounded a little dated even then.

Well it was really just a thing on the side to promote the tour in Europe anyway. Morphine was the only "new" track. The others were just re-produced old album leftovers, but I still love them!

sucked. Ghosts is a good song though.

Blood on the Dancefloor.

Of course, it is better than Invincible. (that's not saying much).

JediMaster said:

doubt it


Invincible had 2 great songs on it.

lilgish said:

True, but it also had some really bad, awful crap on it, so it almost negates those two good tracks.

Even if it was a filler release or a promo project or whatever, there's no excuse to release crap and that's what 99% of BOTD was. Maybe that's just the kind of stuff leftover in the 'valult'--most of which I haven't really been thrilled by. Sometimes I wonder if the mojo wasn't lost a long time ago.

Morphine & Superfly Sister are two of his best songs, in my opinion. Tailor-made for headphones. Brilliant stuff.

Obviously most of you on this here thread have something very wrong with you.

Cloudbuster said:

lilgish said:

I agree, it was 4 songs too long.

You all wrong. It had 4 great songs on it, about 6 passable ones and 6 shit ones - that's off the top of my head - and it sounds better in a different order.

Never been interested in this...maybe I'll check it out.

Ellie said:

Okay, which was which?

OK, now my boss is out I can do this

Ahem, in my opinion...


Great:
Whatever Happens
Butterflies
You Rock My World
Speechless

Good:
Heaven Can Wait
Break Of Dawn
Don't Walk Away
Unbreakable


Good if you're an obsessive fan and are willing to listen 100 times and force yourself to like:
Threatened
Invincible
2000 Watts
The Lost Children


No redeeming qualities whatsoever:
Heartbreaker
You Are My Life
Privacy
Cry

Ellie said:

Interesting. The first four you mentioned and Unbreakable were the obvious singles on the album. All five are killer. The other three of the first eight are indeed good songs. Threatened, Invincible and 2000 Watts I actually like but admittedly are not among his very best work, although I think the latter could've been a single. A lot of folk dislike it with a passion but with a cool vid I think it would've made a mark. It's different, at least. Heartbreaker is one of my faves on the album. I love the skittishness of the music - another one for the headphones. You Are My Life is essentially a lullaby, nice but not very memorable. It has very pretty backing vocals, so there's your redeeming feature. Cry has grown on me somewhat but it's not a great song, I'll grant you that. Privacy has a good rhythm track but it's a weak song and a tired subject. And The Lost Children is shit.

So we meet somewhere in the middle on that one. I guess that will have to do.

Here's how I would break it down:

[Edited 8/15/05 8:15am]

Seriously, I think Whatever Happens is one of the best things he's ever done. I can't fathom how anyone could dislike it so much

Ellie said:

Agreed. Damn fine track.

How can anyone not like WH?Whatever Happens is a lost treasure. The music, the vocals, the lyrics... It's a damn shame nothing ever happened with that song. You Rock My World is real average. Again, I think it's over hyped because it was the first single and fans were starving.

So many songs on Invincible I forget about until I see them written out. Knock off about 5 songs and it would have been close to perfect or at least better.

JackieBlue said:

Unbreakable
Heartbreaker
Heaven Can Wait
Invincible
Butterflies
Speechless
2000 Watts
Break Of Dawn
You Rock My World
Don't Walk Away
Whatever Happens
Threatened

The other four can go chase a turd.