Michael Jackson's 'Xscape' feels shockingly vital

This is one of the best reviews I've read yet. Im so  happy that Randall Roberts  " Gets it"  both the music and how wonderful this album really is. You can tell he is excited about it as well, with his beautiful words describing the songs and the concept.  Please email to thank him, as there are no comments. ~ Qbee

Michael Jackson's 'Xscape' feels shockingly vital
Randall Roberts LOS ANGELES TIMES
randall.roberts@latimes.com

• How good is 'Xscape'? Michael Jackson's 'A Horse With No Name' re-imagining makes the band America sound funky

• Michael Jackson's 'Blue Gangsta' on 'Xscape' is toe-curlingly gorgeous with a 'Smooth Criminal' vibe

• Put on 'Xscape' and dance

Even as a tyke he captivated with tonal purity, and in the intervening four decades and 10 studio solo albums that voice was a unifier, one nestled not just within universal playlists but our very neurons — as anyone who's ever awakened with the bass line to "Billie Jean" or the chorus to "Rock With You" out-of-the-blue rolling through their heads can attest. "You've got to feel that heat" indeed.

Nearly five years after his death, that voice remains, and is at its most powerful on the new album "Xscape." Eight songs that use Jackson demos as blueprints to construct modern, vibrant tracks, the artist's second posthumous album of studio recordings feels shockingly vital, as though the producers charged with re-imagining this work had harnessed dance floor defibrillators.

Equally alive are the eight demos of these songs included with the deluxe package, resulting in a strong addition to the King of Pop conversation. At nearly every turn, "Xscape" succeeds in its intended goal of "finding new and compelling ways to capture the essence, the excitement and the magic that is Michael Jackson," as stated in the liner notes.

Considering one of those eight is a riff on soft rock band America's "A Horse With No Name," that's no small feat. (The deluxe package's final track pairs inheritor Justin Timberlake with Jackson for a fake duet of "Love Never Felt So Good." It's superfluous.)

Equally alive are the eight demos of these songs included with the deluxe package, resulting in a strong addition to the King of Pop conversation. At nearly every turn, "Xscape" succeeds in its intended goal of "finding new and compelling ways to capture the essence, the excitement and the magic that is Michael Jackson," as stated in the liner notes.

Considering one of those eight is a riff on soft rock band America's "A Horse With No Name," that's no small feat. (The deluxe package's final track pairs inheritor Justin Timberlake with Jackson for a fake duet of "Love Never Felt So Good." It's superfluous.)

From the first lines of the first song, the Paul Anka-penned, "Love Never Felt So Good," "Xscape" confirms that hearing Michael sing "new" material can still be a mystical experience, and throughout the freshly produced recordings the sound of a still-vital spirit rushes into the present with revived energy.

You can hear his breath in the slow-burning "Chicago," about an innocent tryst gone wrong, can nearly touch the quiver in his falsetto during "Loving You." "Blue Gangsta" is pure funk, with a vocal take that's toe-curlingly gorgeous and a conceit that ups the "Smooth Criminal" vibe. That crack of emotion, heard in headphones, races to the pleasure center, while the track's producers, including Dr. Freeze, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, build a sonic Robocop to support it.

n fact, "Xscape" often passes the skeptic's test.

 Does it swing? Yes
 Does it feel like a contractual obligation album? No.
 Does it honor Jackson's legacy? Yes.
 Can you dance to it? God yes.
 Can you mash to it? Certainly.

continue at  > http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music