vainandy said:

But Invincible is'nt mid tempo shit-hop OR all ballads. It's a upbeat and as funky as HIStory. With better songs.

Invincible was Michael's first truly bad, uninspiring album. It's no wonder Sony lost faith in him after that piece of dirge. We know Michael is capable of much better and hence why I know his next album will be fantastic.

larksanders said:

It's not even the same...not even close...

RitaQoS said:

and it was very expensive wasn't it? Didn't he hire a lot of producers for this cd?

wonder505 said:

Yes, it surely was and although he hired Teddy Riley, Dr. Freeze, and Rodney Jerkins, he played most of the instruments, wrote, and produced a large percentage of the album himself also.

I thought that Invincible was a pretty good album. I wish he could've trimmed some of the weaker stuff like 2000 Watts, Heartbreaker, and Speechless from the album. But Invincible was probably one of Michael's more progressive records, having him get some of his urban roots back reminiscent from let's say from the Jacksons era to the Off The Wall period. But some of the material sounded like some of the music that was popular during that 2000-2001 period like Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and The Neptunes.
[Edited 9/24/06 16:27pm]

silverchild said:

Okay...I have to say first that I'm an old school MJ fan (J5, Off The Wall, Thriller...The Jacksons Destiny and Triumph albums, ect, ect...and i dig some of the Dangerous album...)...That said, I laugh when I hear some fans make claim of MJ's instrumental abilities...Besides the fact that Invicible was not a strong effort ("Butterflies" and a few of the Teddy joints were cool...But Rodney Jerkins just didn't fit well...)in my 34 years of living I've never seen MJ pick up an instrument and play it onstage or in a studio....To me, in his prime he was a great vocalist, an awesome live performer who was capable of writing strong and maleodic material, especially pushed by the right producer...But dude was and is far from a self contained unit...MJ doesn't need that type of revisionist history hype to prove his worth...
[Edited 9/24/06 16:52pm]

murph said:

I don't believe his instrumental abilites are that strong at all. Back in the J5 days, I saw pictures from articles with him playing drums in his parent's garage, but that didn't really show he was a talented multi-instrumentalist, IMHO. Then on the Bad album credits, he was credited as a synthesizer programmer and I was applauded because I didn't recall him being a true "instrumentalist"...

silverchild said:

Saying that Mj "played most of the instruments" is calling him a multi-instrumentalist...But it's all good...

murph said:

Just going by what the album credits to Invincible stated, which can only mean he played synthesiers and modern drum machines...

silverchild said:

Or it means he likey told Teddy and Jerkins the melodies he had in mind...

murph said:

exactly.

RitaQoS said:

Sony lost faith in him even before the release of History, nevermind Invincible. Yeah, publicly they were all "We're behind him 100%... blah blah blah" but privately they were shitting it. They were banking on History being a flop with the hope that they could claim he was an unmarketable star and force him to hand back millions of dollars he'd earned from deals he'd done with them over the previous decade. You Are Not Alone becomes the first ever single to go in at number one on Billboard and suddenly Sony stop promoting him in America, the most profitable of all music markets. If you think Mike wasn't giving his all on Vince then maybe there was a reason for it.
Still, fuck you, I like it.

In opinion, "Invincible" is his best cd since "Off The Wall". It was his first legit attempt at good sounding melodies and great ballads. Not since "Lady In My Life", have I heard such well written material. I cannot for the life of me figure out why people hate on this CD.
[Edited 10/25/06 5:56am]

shorttrini said:

Me neither. Maybe people needed videos to appreciate it. If I could be bothered to compile a list I reckon almost half the album would make it into my Jacko top 25. How any fan can say the likes of You Rock My World, Break Of Dawn, Butterflies, Unbreakable and Whatever Happens are crap is beyond me.

Realistically, only You Rock My World, Speechless, Heaven Can Wait and Unbreakable would've made the cut on any of his 90s albums.

The up-tempos largely sucked. Invincible was a good album bogged down with some tired, un-inspired songs. Cry and Privacy are just so paint-by-numbers it's tedious to listen to. I see what he's going for with Don't Walk Away and You Are My Life... a kind of modern-day Farewell My Summer Love etc. But it just didn't work. It made him look tired and dated. And the God-awful video to You Rock My World didn't help matters.

If he cut it down to ten tracks it would've worked better. It still would've been a disappointing album though... where was the Who Is It or the Morphine or the They Don't Care About Us of Invincible? Those powerful, elegant masterpieces made his 90s work so exciting. There was nothing like that on Invincible.

I just did a latest MJ album rank the other day:

1. Off The Wall
2. Dangerous
3. HIStory
4. Bad
5. Thriller
6. Got To Be There
7. Blood On The Dancefloor
8. Forever Michael
9. Invincible
10. Music & Me
11. Ben
12. Farewell My Summer Love

I like what my friend Chris had to say about HIStory:

Ellie said:

I only agree with the OTW position.. I will put Ben and Music and Me above the likes of Dangerous, History and Vince.

And you know another thing that is not making sense; how comes Michael sounds more classy and sophsticated has a 14 yr old than a 35 yr old.?..because they ain't nothing sophsticated and classy about songs like Bad, Black and White, Scream and Heal The World.

MattyJam said:

I like Don´t walk away. It´s one of my favourite ballads on Invincible. I find it sincere, human, real. I just like it. You are my life is way too sweet for me.
What do you have against the video for You Rock My World? There are much worse videos on MTV? The short version is nothing special, but the full version is cool. I like the bit when they are making music by sweeping floor etc.

As for my favourite album. Dangerous is my number one. Than probably History and after that it´s hard to say.

whatsgoingon said:

Seriously, you're like an even MORE broken record than me with Janet!

dag said:

One of my faves on the album. His vocal is just...

Imo 'Invincible' was pretty weak. 'Off the Wall' and 'Dangerous', I think are his best albums. But that was then ...

Why can't Michael just bring it on with a good, strong LIVE funk band, instead of the 20 producers and programmers he seems to need as a security blanket? Yes, there's a place for electronics, synths etc, but in MJ's case, imo he desperately needs to get some good new songs and sing them in front of a good modern funky band. Also, not every MJ album has to be this over-hyped 'event'. Prince releases all sorts of albums, some more publicised than others. MJ seems to die by his own hype.

He just needs to chill out and get back to his roots and the music. It's not that hard.

Oh yeah, and he should be forcibly prevented from releasing any new songs about children (very bad idea, guilty or not. Just don't go there, I say!) and media coverage of his private life. That stuff got old 10 + years ago.

I'll exclude his kid albums since little Mike is almost a totally different entity.

1. Thriller
2. Off the Wall
3. Dangerous

This is a bit of a Stevie Wonder situation here, because each one of those three can be my favorite on a given day. Thriller has the best songs, Off the Wall is the most cohesive, and Dangerous, with two excellent halves put together, is the most impressive. I love them all!

4. Bad
5. HIStory

Some of HIStory's best moments outshine just about all of Bad ("Stranger in Moscow" and "They Don't Care About Us" for starters), but I think the latter has less filler and is better overall.

6. Blood on the Dance Floor
7. Invincible

Invincible has some great songs, but it's too uneven to be anything other than his worst album IMO.

Miles said:

If Thriller didn't become the biggest selling album of all time, things would have been different.

No hype
No pressure
No King of Pop
No gimmicks

AlexdeParis said:

I like how you described Off The Wall, Thriller, and Dangerous! But Invincible wasn't that bad of an album,IHMO. I like it better than HIStory almost. Invincible is more of a back to basics, urban-pop record, while HIStory is a little over the top in its production, concept, and the content of some of the songs. HIStory was the real "beginning of the end" for Mike.

Miles said:

A live funk band ain´t a bad idea.

dag said:

A live funk band would be a first....since nobody really uses a "live" band nowadays. Seriously, Michael just needs to go back to basics and just do it. Incidently, on Nov. 2nd, access hollywood is showing him a in the studio with Will I. Am. He looks old in the clip, but he seems to be at home. Just wanted to let y'all know.