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 Just A Cynic01 Tuesday Apr 2014 Posted by Syl Mortilla
I’m trying hard these days to not descend into cynicism. So hard. Therefore, bearing this in mind, I’m just going to throw a sentence out there:
The Xperia smartphone is being promoted by the Xscape album.
With the tracklist unofficially released, we now know that there are just two songs on the album that haven’t been previously leaked (She Was Lovin’ Me and Chicago).
Karen Faye, Michael’s companion and make-up artist for decades, who prepared him for his funeral, who he trusted to see him without make-up, who assisted Michael in his whims of make-up change, as well as in making the best out of the consequences of vitiligo, is a woman who I, personally, implicitly trust.
Karen didn’t want to get involved in discussions regarding the new album, saying that she was simply proud that people continued to be excited by new releases. She did observe, though, that the cone circling Michael’s neck in the Xscape artwork was akin to those that are used to restrain animals. In a tweeted comment to her, however, it was noted that the lips on the photoshopped figure adorning the album cover seemed rather large, and that the eyebrows were different to the ones Michael had sported in the Arno Bani shoot, the pictures from which, the artwork appears to have been inspired by.
Pictures that Michael requested be burned.
Karen has also described remembering how Michael cried upon discovering how much longer he had left on his contract with Sony; and how he whooped with joy when it finally drew to a close. He had spent a decade of his life trying to escape their chains.
Michael was devastated when he learned there were demos included in the Thriller 25 package. A 1999 interview with TV Guide illustrates the level of perfectionism Michael strived for. Remember, this was the man who cried after his Motown 25 performance, believing himself to have failed for not maintaining a toe-stand for long enough. In conversation about the Thriller album, he confessed:
TV Guide: You also said [Thriller] was a sad time.
Michael Jackson: Yeah. If I don’t get exactly what I’m looking for, I get very depressed.
And let’s not forget the 1998 Black&White interview, in which he explicitly complained about the remixes on Blood On The Dance Floor, stating for the record that he didn’t like other producers tinkering with his work.
All this talk of ‘reimagining’ and ‘contemporising’ tracks on Xscape is mere PR spin. Sony Music, in collaboration with the Estate, are doing something that Michael would have despised. The grievances Michael had with Sony speak for themselves, what with the protests he organised, where he held aloft signs that read, “Sony Kills Music”, “Sony Sucks” and “Sony Is Phony”. Sony was the one and only company that Michael ever explicitly rallied against. Even Pepsi, who burned him then abandoned him in his hour of need, remained unscathed. Which is what made the quote from the Xscape press release, “Michael has long been a treasured member of the larger Sony family” so nauseating.
These people are trying to make money from you in the same way ‘psychic’ mediums do. They are preying on your craving to hear from Michael. They are shameless charlatans. All that glitters ain’t gold, as they say. And the Xscape album certainly fits into that pyrite category.
The caricaturisation of Michael Jackson continues apace. The record-breaking philanthropist and catalytic culture converter is being reduced to a photoshopped graphic of half a face peering out of what appears to be a sparkly condom, luring us to purchase it as if we are all whorish, turncoat magpies. Michael is their golden calf; but to us, he is the rotating ox: he is our homecoming and food. It is materialism versus spiritual nourishment. It is, once again, soul versus sequins. It will take the stamina and stoicism of warriors to remain focussed in our fight for Michael’s legacy.
Perhaps once pertinent questions with regards the signing of Michael’s will when he was provably at the other end of the country, the mechanics behind the three-quarter-of-a-billion tax ‘error’, the non-fulfilment of the 20% charitable donations pledge, and the attempted use of an imposter to pull the wool over fans’ ears for profit, are satisfactorily answered and explained, we might take some time out to relax.
Until then, it’s unrelentingly tough, I know. This ongoing attempted obliteration of what he stood for hits me hard. So hard.
But, me? I’m just a cynic.
http://sylmortilla.com/2014/04/01/just-a-cynic/
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