New Michael Jackson Album, XSCAPE, Set For Release This Year
He is The King of Pop. He is still the most recognisable pop-icon in the world. He holds the record for the bestselling album of all time. And many consider Michael Jackson to be, undoubtedly, the greatest, most successful singles artist in music history.
And unfortunately, in 2009, we lost him. However, today it was announced that his estate has granted permission of the release of brand new MJ material, scheduled for release this May.
Jackson’s singing career began professionally at the age of 10, as part of the much-loved youth group, the Jackson 5. And over his career, Jackson released a total of 26 studio albums; 16 as part of the Jackson 5 and 10 solo. This new eleventh solo studio-album will consist of 8 never-before-heard singles.
The new album, XSCAPE, has been compiled by, and is scheduled for release, through Epic Records, and, during a press release on Monday, they promised that all featured tracks, ‘the world will be hearing for the very first time’.
The tracks have been compiled from an archive of over four decades of unheard material, and then placed in the hands of multiple producers; including Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins, Jerome “Jroc” Harmon, Stargate and John McClain.
Epic Records Chairman and CEO, L.A. Reid, has also vowed to fans to ‘contemporise’ the songs and create ‘the best music you’ve never heard’. (I just hope ‘contemporise’ doesn’t mean Timbaland featuring on each track making inaudible utterances like, ‘Ehyah’).
Collectively, Jackson held over 70 #1 singles worldwide, and his solo studio albums have acquired 46 #1 spots on album charts across the globe. There is no doubt XSCAPE will etch that figure past 50.
Jackson’s 1982 album, Thriller, holds the record for being the bestselling album EVER, with over 55,000,000 sales – a figure that no-one could ever dream of replicating. It’s even more impressive when you consider that this was achieved during a time when internet downloads didn’t exist. One must consider it a symbol of a time when illegally downloading music was not the accepted norm.
John Branca and John McClain, the co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson, praised the producers for injecting a new life into MJ’s archives.
They stated; ‘Michael was always on the cutting edge and was constantly reaching out to new producers, looking for new sounds. He was always relevant and current. These tracks, in many ways, capture that spirit. We thank L.A. Reid for his vision’.
As a huge Michael Jackson fan, I can say that I hate the album’s name, but love the promise of the entire project. I’m just praying it’s not royally cocked up.
I’ll also be making sure I order the Deluxe Edition, which is said to feature the original and untouched recordings of all eight tracks… my money is that I’ll prefer them to the “rejuvenated” versions.
XSCAPE is available for pre-order on iTunes from April 1st
