Not a huge MJ fan but I've always had a weakness for this one. Besides the Greatest Hits on disc one, which offers some good selections (where is "Human Nature" though?) the new stuff on disc two is pretty good. A lot of it sounds like Janet cast-offs musically and "Money" steals the drum pattern from Prince's "Mountains" wholesale but overall, I like the beats and MJ is in good voice. "You are Not Alone" is one of his best recent songs and "Stranger in Moscow" is quite moving. MJ has a Biggie rap in one song and a Shaq rap in another that go down okay. (How in the hell he got Biggie on there is anyone's guess.) Every other song is a bit of a paranoid rant with MJ coming back at his accusers from the 1990's court stuff. Tom Sneddon could have sued him for libel for "DS". It's also funny to hear MJ curse, even throwing the "f bomb" out there on "Scream". Not a great album but MJ's best work of the 90's and the effort is definitely there.

Just thought I'd share...

Biggie alsomwas on his Invincible album. I think he took raps he did for ealier songs and put them on those. Although, in 1994 he was sill alive, wasn't he?

Haven't listened to Money in quite a while, but I can't remember thinking of Mountains at all.

calldapplwondery83 said:

Listen to Money again...the opening of the song has the same "Bump de bum did de bum bum de bump" beat.

Or maybe not.

I think the song "Stranger in Moscow" is one of Michael's most overlooked tracks- such a great beat, effects and his voice towards the end- wow! Also the lyrics that were, I think, written in Moscow when he was hiding from the worlds press. It goes to show that he could do 'real' without hiding behind any masks.
Also this is the album that produced the strangest songs he's ever made- "HIStory", and "Tabloid Junkie"- what the hell!?!
Complete with the "Scream" video, there are many reasons why you should love this album...
Goes without saying why Side 1 is fantastic!!!

stevenpottle said:[quote]I think the song "Stranger in Moscow" is one of Michael's most overlooked tracks- such a great beat, effects and his voice towards the end- wow! [quote]

I agree with you there. He has mastery over his gift on this one. And it is not overproduced, which is the weakness of so many of Jacko's 90's tracks.

which song is biggie on from HISTORY? i think that's a great combo

i LOVE LOVE LOVE MJ's vocals on "They Dont Care about Us"...chills down my spine when he sings "tell me whats become of my life"...dayum boy. i love you man.

badujunkie said:

This Time Around

Also, Tom Sneddon could not sue MJ over DS because its not made clear in the vocals that it is Sneddon who is the subject of the song, and the lyric book states Dom Sheldon. Very Very Clever move by MJ.

Money is nothing like Mountains.

Stranger in Moscow is a lyrical and vocal masterpiece. 2Bad is soooo funky

I never played "history" much.

If iam gonna hear a track off it, its proberly gonna be the last 3 tracks. I rarely heard those.

I always liked the title track though.

I thought it was a good album. What really impressed me was that MJ wrote half the new songs himself as well as producing them, to which they came out great. I dont know why he chose to use a bunch of run of the mill hitmakers for Invincible. I hope that with his next album, he writes himself.

Its not a bad album. There are some truely great songs on there, very well written and finely crafted but it has its share of filler. Its a multi-platinum double disc. Correct me if Im wrong, but isnt it one of the biggest selling double albums ever?

FunkyBrotha said:

I will go to my grave believing that the first 30 seconds of Money and the first 30 seconds of Money have similarities. Or not.

dreamfactory313 said:

Its actually THE highest selling double album of all time. It sold 18 million copies, so thats 36 million discs each, 'technically' its his second highest selling album beind thriller, although i dont really count it as. i like disc 2 much better then disc 1. history (disc 2) is my favourite michael jackson album ever, with dangerous and bad not too far behind. earth song, they dont care about us and stranger in moscow are the best songs michael has ever written. this album proves (along with bad and the second half of dangerous) that michaels best work is written by himself. im praying this is what he does with his next album. write most (if not all) the songs by himself
[Edited 10/6/05 19:09pm]

yeah i remember i couldn't tell anyone i liked that album when it came out.....i love Money, DS, Stranger in Moscow and They Don't Care About Us.....but none of those were huge hits were they?

pkidwell said:

Money and DS have never been issued as retail singles but They Don't Care About Us and Stranger In Moscow were both huge hits. The former sold 327.000 in the US according to Soundscan without major US airplay (due to the lyrical content), it was also one of the 10 european best sellers of 1996.
The latter's european success was reasonable were it reached the top 10 in most countries and #1 in Italy & Spain. On the Eurochart it reached #6 and remained in the top 100 for 17 weeks.

pkidwell said:

Well in the UK the HIStory singles were his most consistently successful from any album, ALL going Top 5. In fact, discounting 'Cry', he's not missed the Top 5 here since 'Gone Too Soon' in December 1993.

They Don't Care About us was a #1 in Germany and one of his biggest ever hits. Possibly France too - that was probably the most consistent country for any success Invincible had.
[Edited 10/6/05 23:12pm]

speeddemon said:

For what it's worth, Stranger in Moscow bombed in the US badly. It's a shame because it was a really strong single and had a pretty creative video.

This is where the Sony US conspiracy started against MJ and its never been made clear why they turned on him. It was certainly all Tommy Mottola's doing and probably had something to do with the ATV Cat.

The fact that Sony refused to release Earth Song in the US was ridiculous. Mj's biggest ever hit, number one everywhere, his best video in years, no 1 for 7 weeks in the UK. This single sold 1.2million copies in the UK alone and a further 6million throughout Europe.

Stranger in Moscow was a big hit in the UK reaching no 4 and no 1 in a few European countries, he also scored a EuroDance Number 1 with this song's excellent remix.

The History Era was great for MJ in the UK especially.

Scream - No 3 (bad week of release due to the Oasis/Blur face off, this was the biggest selling singles week ever and despite only going 2 number 3, any other week in history it would have been number 1.

You are not Alone - Entered at no 3, media freaked out said MJ was over, rose to no1 the following week and stayed there for 2 weeks, dropped to no 3 then rose again to no2.

Earth Song - Huge Hit, no 1 for 7 weeks and took the desired Xmas No 1 Spot, mj delivered a Xmas Msg on TOTP on Xmas Day.

TDCAU - No 4, radio didnt take to this one quite so well but the remixes were great.

Why - No 2, duet with 3T, this one surprised even the MJ fans, was only a few copies from the no 1 spot. 3T were huge in the UK, had a few top 3 singles

Stranger in Moscow - Big radio support, No4, amazing video

Blood on the Dancefloor - No1 big hit due to the remix album

History/Ghosts - No 5, the History Remix sold this one, but there was a lack of promo

FunkyBrotha said:

wow i didnt know earth song wasnt released in usa, i think if it had of been history would of been a bigger success over there, thanks for all the info

Apart from the great songs like Stranger in Moscow and Earth song I also love Smile and Little Susie - very powerful songs that one needs to be in a special mood for though, but once you are, there´s nothing like it.

hellomoto said:

yea its a shame too. I remember MTV played Earth Song like there was no tomorrow. And it was a great video, I may add. Why Sony didnt release it as a single in the US is a great mystery.

He had alot better luck in the UK with the singles. In the US, the only major hits were "Scream" and "You Are Not Alone" (the latter being his last memorable hit song) They Dont Care About Us did OK but not great(MTV had banned the video) and Stranger in Moscow was a major flop(it was a great song and video). I think Childhood did ok also, tho i think it was a Bside to Scream