Dangerous [Remaster] - Jackson, Michael (CD 2001)

Following the multi-platinum success of Bad , pop superstar Michael Jackson took a characteristic four-year break before entering the Nineties (and the compact disc era) with the New Jack Swing sound of Dangerous . Having ended his decade-long association with producer Quincy Jones, this record sees Teddy Riley and Bill Bottrell take the musical reins to equally beneficial and detrimental results. Although it s quite refreshing to hear Michael update his style to incorporate then-contemporary elements, the music here has little of the depth or nuance of his Jones-produced work, and ends up being tied to its era in a way that Thriller and Bad managed to elegantly avoid. More importantly, listening to these albums sequentially suggests that Jones was capable of encouraging Michael s musical ambitions while curtailing his more fanciful ideas (such as having Bad cut from its original thirty-song concept to a more palatable eleven). Now, that calming influence is gone, and the levels of martyrdom, paranoia and (worst of all) self-absorption without self-awareness are beginning to skyrocket and as history has revealed, they d only get worse as time elapsed.

Worrying portents aside, this album proves interesting in that its biggest flaws have little to do with the actual songwriting. By far the most pressing one is that it runs for seventy-seven minutes, which is completely unnecessary considering its basic musical ideas and structures. Any Dangerous virgin would be strongly advised against trying to hear it all in one sitting (unless you re looking for an insomnia cure) nine of its fourteen songs run past five minutes, bloating out on prolonged intros, dreary breakdowns and endlessly repeated choruses. It doesn t help that the instrumental values have been seriously dumbed down all of the up-tempo tracks are built upon near-identical, simplistic programmed rhythms looped ad nauseam, which are reasonably danceable but get rather annoying due to their prominent mixing and the lack of other motifs. I can t help but wonder why the drum machine sequencing wasn t made a little more complicated (perhaps with some additional cymbal, snare and kick-drum hits atop the primitive main rhythms), or why some interesting samples, interpolations or synthesiser melodies weren t incorporated to flesh things out a bit. There are occasional offbeat segments that spark interest from time to time, but it s safe to note that if you were to strip the vocal melodies from the fast numbers, they d be pointless computer dirges not worth a second spin which isn t something I could say about any of Michael s previous three records.

When approaching the slower tracks, the quality of the arrangements tends to go up (such as on Who Is It s sighing synth-strings, and the atmospheric guitar from guest star Slash during Give In To Me ), but this is matched by an equal increase in the quantity of pretension and schmaltz masquerading as emotional depth. For the most part, it s hard to question the thematic sincerity of songs like the pro-peace anthem Heal The World , but pieces like this try too hard and go way over-the-top in the process. Michael seems to keep missing the point that it s perfectly possible to portray vulnerability and honesty with just vocals and piano/guitar, yet songs like Heal , Will You Be There , Keep The Faith and Gone Too Soon bury their good melodies beneath mounds of gospel singers, precious-soul-of-the-innocent-child spoken intros, gloopy piano chords, Beethoven samples and breathy, sobbed monologues that scream 'overwrought' and 'phoney'. Like so much of the material here, they re fundamentally decent tracks spoiled by a lack of subtlety, and feel like conclusive evidence that the "King of Pop" chalice is indeed a poisoned one.

With the coffins of both restraint and taste having been lowered into the ground, it s a relief to see that Michael s general songwriting abilities haven t completely abandoned him. Tedious arrangements and mushy sentimentality aside, each song has some kind of vocal hook, and these are usually forced into attention by commanding performances. The introductory pieces Jam , Why You Wanna Trip On Me and She Drives Me Wild show a great combination of propulsive rhythms and determined, emotionally compelling singing, and their extended running times ensure that their refrains lock into memory after a couple of listens. The likes of Remember The Time and Black Or White also instantly tick the catchy box (curiously enough, they re also among the briefest songs), despite inspiring frustration that similar amounts of brevity couldn t be employed elsewhere.

In summary, Dangerous is essentially a respectable dance album dragged down by what s either a disregard for or outright dismissal of self-control. If most of the songs were chopped in half and given additional instrumentation, then mixed back with the original vocal deliveries, this would sit very comfortably with Off The Wall , Thriller and Bad as a high-quality LP warranting Michael s extraordinary level of fame. As it is, it s certainly worth investigating if you re an established fan of he or New Jack Swing, but outsiders should exhibit caution and stick with its three forebears. 3 stars.