Michael Jackson Album: “Michael Jackson's This Is It”

As a fan, I bought this 2 disc release with mixed feelings and it is with mixed feelings that I rate this 5 stars after listening to the album. I went straight to Disc 2 because I've already heard (and own many times over) the other tracks. I suspect MJ is turning in his grave knowing that this first posthumous release is really just a re-release of tracks to match the movie, almost taking advantage of his fans. However, as a fan, I'll likely buy anything that is released in his name after his death.

Having said that, I'm giving this 5 stars because of the demos. The $9.99 that I've spent is well worth what I've received listening to the demo of "Shes out of my life". It's the first time (aside from Speechless from the Invincible album) you get to hear MJ's voice in all it's purity. It's touching and it's searingly beautiful.

After listening to the "new" tracks (the demos and the poem), you're left with a sad realization that his life truly ended too soon.

OK. If you're like me, who own every single album of MJ music, and have all his songs, then you MUST have MJ's "THIS IS IT"! It is worth every penny. The booklet is beautifully designed and composed. It just shows how much MJ respected and loved his fans, he always wanted for us to have the best of HIM. When I listened to the first track on disc 2, I became litterally speechless and tears just automatically filled up my eye sockets. OMG, that's all I can say. You have to get the CD and experience it yourself. Michael Jackson is truely the ultimate entertainer of our time. His music and soul are so beautiful, so genuine, so gigantic that overwhelm you, but at the same time you feel you cannot get enough of HIM. MJ, you're still the THRILLER!

I want to add an extra note on "This Is It". Like most of MJ fans, I hate Sony for the way they treated MJ in the past (but I think that period of time got a lot to do with Tommy Mottola). However, I got to give kudos to Sony for the way they technically handled "This Is It". The quality of the sound and mixing techniques is SUPERB! This time around, (putting MJ's angelic vocal aside) the sound engineering on each track is so great that I feel like listening to those songs for the first time. Kudos to whoever did the sound engineering for "This Is It". MJ would have been very happy and proud!

Before I get to the review of the actual product, I just want to say one thing about Michael Jackson, the man. I have been a fan and collector of his music all my life, accumulating a number of CD's, t-shirts, and even Barbie dolls in his likeness. So when he passed away this last summer, it was really disheartening for someone like me, who actually appreciated him in his lifetime, to see him suddenly deified and commercialized in so many ways. Even a year ago you'd be hard pressed to find someone admit to liking Michael Jackson, but now that he's gone he's "cool" again. Hypocrisy at its finest.

But anyhow, whether the "This Is It" CD would have been released as a treat to his fans anyway or if it's just another attempt to capitalize on his image after his death, I don't know, but either way it's actually a high-quality collectible that should be appreciated by both hardcore fans and casual/new fans alike. With so many MJ compilation albums available, this may at first seem like a pointless purchase, and in many ways it is redundant. When it was first announced that this album was going to be released, I was under the impression that all the songs would be updated remixes of the versions he was was planning on performing in concert, but unfortunately that isn't the case after all. The main incentive here is the one new song, a ballad called "This Is It," which actually isn't new at all as it is a demo recording from the 1980s, with newly recorded background vocals from the rest of the Jackson brothers. I personally find it underwhelming and dare I say boring, but at this point it's being marketed as his swan song so it's kind of bittersweet. Disc 2 is a short collection of unreleased rarities, with three demos of early songs and a spoken poem. The standout is a nearly acapella version of "Beat It," a very interesting take on a song we all know so well.

The real treat here is the packaging. Bound in a hardcover case, is a 36-page booklet chock full of photos from the This Is It concert rehearsals, many of which are previously unseen. My only concern is that the sleeves which hold the discs are not entirely sealed along the bottom, with only a small dab of glue at either end keeping them together. I'm sure regular wear and tear will eventually take its toll and cause the discs to slip out altogether. Overall I rate this item pretty highly, even though much of it is just a rehash of music we already have, because all taken together it's the closest a lot of us will get to experiencing the stage show we'll never get to see, and it proves once again that his music is amazing and timeless no matter how many times you hear it.

This is a review of the movie, don't have the CDs...yet.

Buried within the previews before the movie started was a plug for some musician babe named Orianthi. The Girl leaned over to me and said, "I've never heard of her." I hadn't either.

Well, we have now. She is a white-hot guitarist featured on the new documentary of Michael Jackson's rehearsals for the ill-scheduled This Is It shows that the world would have been seen in England, starting this past July.

This Is It is a love letter to Michael Jackson's fans, which, of course inhabit most of the planet. And it is fascinating. About fifteen minutes into it, I realized I was watching MJ being a human being, meticulously working on every detail of his last live appearances (yeah right).

Filmed in a documentary format and slightly grainy , you feel as if you're seeing something forbidden, something that wouldn't have remained buried in a box in somebody's archive if it hadn't been for Michael's demise (and financial straits).

During the press conference, part of which if shown at the beginning, Michael says, "I'm going to be doing all the songs my fans know and want." And boy do they. As expected, the set list draws heavily from Bad, Dangerous and especially Thriller. Probably the most interesting part of the set would have been the Jackson Five numbers, the rehearsals for which show a seventies big-round lettered background and airy pop numbers.

As for Michael's performance...well, the song rehearsals are just amazing. Between the songs, as it shows Michael's hard work and perfectionism is plain interesting. We get to see Michael as a human being, the guy just like us that we've known he used to be, and that we've always hoped was still there, behind all the weirdness.

It's a cliche to say that the best musicians torture themselves and everyone around them to replicate the precise sounds they hear inside of their heads. However, were Michael Jackson stands apart from all other musicians is that he can replicate any of the sounds he wants to hear with his mouth. He sings a high falsetto for Orianthi to play as he admonishes, "This is your time to shine!" He keeps at her until she tortures her guitar strings to wring out the exact note.

Another time on the terrifically-rearranged intro to The Way You Make Me Feel, he tells his musical director to slow down the tempo, spelling it out for him, "Do it like you're getting out of bed." Then, when the same guy comes into the melody of the same song, Michael wants him to hold the pause longer, saying, "Let is simmer. Just let it simmer."

The definition of a self-actualized person is a person so secure in themselves that they could walk into a black tie event wearing tennis shoes and not notice they were dressed inappropriately. Some of MJ's attire during these rehearsals pushes that point. Mostly he's wearing tight red pants and different sequined ones. One of his outfit looks like something straight out of the movie Beetlejuice, with wide white lapels and too-pointy shoulders. Other costumes replicate the looks we've come to know from the videos, a red jacket for Thriller, the yellow zoot suit for Smooth Criminal. Michael knows how important dress is to the overall package as the rehearsal of Beat It ends with him throwing down the red jacket he'll be wearing and pretending to stomp it out, telling everyone, "It's too hot, too hot to handle."

Could he have made it through the grueling schedule of fifty shows? I doubt it. Even viewing the footage, which certainly was the most flattering of what was shot, it is apparent that we are watching a sick man. Next to Michael, all of the dancers and even razor-thin backup singers look plump. His health also appears to show up in his voice, which, even enhanced and amplified, a lot of times sounds thin. It's obvious that some of the songs were lip-synched. At one point Michael evidently feels the need to rationalize the state of his voice, repeating, "I've got to conserve my throat."

I think Micheal would have played as many shows as he could handle, maybe half of 'em, then called off the tour due to health reasons, which over the years has always seemed to be his m.o. when things were getting too intense. I'm sure tickets would have been refunded, then perhaps another five date rescheduled, "The Last of the Last," with tickets for double the price of the original. Then another five, until all fifty dates were done. I think Michael would have pulled every dollar out of those shows, and everyone would have known what he was doing...but would have paid the prices anyway, and when the smoke cleared we'd all have realized that, once again, the King of Pop played us again...but we wouldn't have cared.

Toward the end things do get a bit preachy, as a terrific movie plays before, during and after a song dedicated to the environment. Michael even says something about "The world is sick, it's got a fever, and this is our last chance to heal it," then says something about only having four years to save it. Oh well, he seems absolutely and utterly sincere, but once again, we're another witnessing yet celebrity telling us about the earth's fate while oblivious to their own mindlessly wasteful personal consumption.

Toward the end, we see Michael and his entourage in a scene that we somehow knew they had. They are all in a circle and Michael is giving them a pump up talk. He tells them not to be nervous and to have fun. Then he articulates a distilled wisdom that we've always known was the key to why Michael Jackson is so great. He says, "People want escapism. Go out there and show them your talent."

In spite of all all the physical changes MJ's made to himself, there are moments where he's singing and the camera angle is just right, when you can see the little boy that was singing onstage with his brothers, the kid who's surprised and delighted us all for all of these years.

For two hours, This Is It delivers it's message non-stop: Michael Jackson was brilliant. And that the King of Pop was also the King of entertainment, whether it was dance, music video, Broadway-style production numbers, blues, rock and gospel.

And now he's gone.

CD1....As far as I am concerned this is it, is the biggest piece of crap and scam ever put out by Sony. WTF, I was expecting an album with all the songs from the movie like a.....soundtrack!!!!!, not a bunch original songs I already have. I've been a fan since I was 12, I am now 53, and I can tell you...Michael would have no let this garbage out, unless it was all material from the movie. This is what I really call taking advantage of someone's death.

CD2 ..... is OK, but 3 songs and a pom doesn't cut it for all the hoopla raised by the release of this CD. Heck buy the MJ remixed suites I,II,III and IV mp3s separately, that's much,.... much better than this garbage and it is how I better remember Michael....with the J5.

Sorry SONY this is FRAUD!!!!!!and very missleading,... and if i am reading the reviews correctly, there are a lot of pissed off people out there.

WL