Invincible

A 30 million dollar mess, or laundering scheme? Who knows.

Yeah like even still considering the fact that two versions of this album were made and the excessive amount of producers on this, it doesn't make sense on how this much money was wasted on making this. The production is very messy, with some tracks sounding somewhat adjacent of the Quincy Jones MJ we love while others sound more like the typical drum machine infused RNB and Hip-Hop of the time. And then you have '2000 Watts' and 'Privacy', which are even more distant sonically that you start doubting if this is an actual album, and not a compilation of MJ's biggest hits. And by hits I mean MJ's biggest flops, where only 'You Rock My World' and 'Butterflies' ever entered the Billboard 100 charts, never ranking higher than #10, which for MJ standards is quite low. The album itself sold fairly well despite the previous circumstances, getting certified platinum in less than two months.

Now don't get me wrong, despite me calling this album a mess and a flop, it's actually surprisingly decent. Sure the album is nowhere near cohesive, but the songs themselves are for the most part pretty enjoyable, and at worst are just a tad boring. Some tracks that were note-worthy were:

'Unbreakable', which is a really fun track that elegantly evolves his sound into the new millennium, and honestly would've loved that he followed through with it instead of experimenting with other styles. The Biggie feature was a pleasant surprise, bit of a shame that it's not an original verse for the song though and instead just samples his verse off 'You Can't Stop the Reign' by Shaq.

The electronic beat on 'Invincible' sounds like something made in a cheap home studio from the time because it's really basic and even dare say cheesy, but I still like it a lot.

'Break of Dawn' is probably the closest we get to old MJ on this album, being themed around love and taking a more relaxed tone compared to the rest of the album, it's such a banger and my personal favorite.

'2000 Watts', like I previously mentioned, is the most unique from all the songs, where its theme revolves mostly of MJ trying to sound futuristic and using a lot of electrical terms, while being backed up by funky rock production. This is also the same case with 'Privacy'.

'Whatever Happens' is a more heartfelt story, where Michael describes a couple that aren't doing so well and the boy doesn't know what to do, since she is the only thing that could make him happy. Very lovely track.

'Threatened' is basically 'Thriller 2', with the production progressively sounding more busier as it tries to replicate a nightmare.

There's also tracks like 'Xscape' and 'Blue Gangsta' which I find really odd that weren't included in this album since they were definitely better picks than a few tracks on this. At least we got phenomenal updated versions of both later on.

Some of you might wonder why I skimped over the two songs that were actually somewhat popular, but I honestly don't have much to say about either, I just think they're solid but nothing particularly unique. There's probably dozens of reviews that'll cover those two, or you can listen to them on your own to form your own opinions.

Overall, it was a messy experience. It was trying to do too much but it never had a set objective. Nonetheless, if you ignore a couple of tracks, it's way more fun than many make it seem to be.