Home Celebrity Michael Jackson Album of New Songs In Limbo

by -
51 12195

That album of Michael Jackson‘s unreleased material?

I’ll tell you what: it’s in limbo.

Later this week we may get a sharper picture of what’s going on. But this much I’ve surmised from talks with various sources.

The best material available really comes from those sessions with Eddie Cascio in New Jersey circa summer 2007. Some of the songs were already written by Eddie’s brother Frank Cascio and recorded as demos with a local singer named Bobby Ewing. Michael put his vocals on them during that time he stayed with the Cascios in New Jersey.

At first there was a lot of skepticism about the tracks. I’m told that co-executor John McClain questioned whether the vocals were really Michael’s, or faked. But they are Michael’s. And they will be needed to round out the selections.

Teddy Riley and a couple of other producers have worked to fix up the Cascio tracks for release.

McClain was also working on tracks. It’s unclear how these have gone. I’m told, not so well. Many of them are outtakes from “Invincible,” an album that wasn’t so good in the first place. And no one’s bothered to approach Michael’s engineer, Bruce Swedien, about tracks from “Thriller” or “Bad” he might have in his archives.

There’s truly confusion now in the inner circle about how to proceed. Sony is waiting for delivery but there’s no album art or concept.

As for a cover: I am told McClain commissioned one a la “Sgt. Pepper” with a montage of drawings or caricatures of people in Michael’s life whom he admired. Funny: several lawyers were jammed in among Martin Luther King and Marvin Gaye. McClain’s picture, sources say, was larger than most of the others.

Needless to say, that’s been scrapped.

Share and Enjoy !

Similar articles
■Music
0 77

by -
■Books
0 931

by -
51 replies to this post

  4. hola michael te amo yo me llamo jessica y tengo 10 años te re amo y me hubiera encantado conoserte me vuelvo loca por vos y siempre pongo una cancion llamada “me robaste el corazon” y siempre digo ante de que empiese la canion dijo se la dedico a Michael Jackson bueno espaero que nadie borre el mensaje para vos y espero que lo leas te amo chau te re amo

  7. Yeah ,How dare you say Invincible wasn’t any good ,compared to what ? Thriller ? No one can top that .Invincible is my favorite album .You are out of touch with the reality of MJ fans . I think you need to maybe listen to the album again and check the worldwide sales again .

  9. I Think Bruce swedien should be included in the production of these releases and also quincy jones , as they are the ones that really saw what michael could acheive and the respect should be given to these 2 men.

  11. You guys are all insane … everything Michael touched turned to gold. He is, was and will always be a legend … the voice of an angel … the world will never replace him.

  12. […] As for a cover: I am told McClain commissioned one a la “Sgt. Pepper” with a montage of drawings or caricatures of people in Michael’s life whom he admired. Funny: several lawyers were jammed in among Martin Luther King and Marvin Gaye. McClain’s picture, sources say, was larger than most of the others. Michael Jackson Album of New Songs In Limbo | Showbiz411 […]

  13. People who refer to Invincible as ‘not that good’ make me crazy, this is an incredible album it is my favourite and i listen to it everyday, as for the new album, i am now worried that the fools associated with its release will stuff it up completely.Bruce Swedian needs to be involved in this, otherwise they will destroy MJ’s beautiful music and damage his legacy and image forever!

  14. Interesting. I recall your article from 2007 which goes like this:
    ————————
    Bruce Swedien, the man who recorded all of Michael Jackson’s adult hits including “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous” and “Off the Wall,” is out.

    Swedien, a lovely, soft-spoken man, said Jackson has cheated him out of about $500,000 in royalties from the 2001 “Invincible” album. Swedien said he’s tried over and over again to reach Jackson and get his money, but there’s been no answer.

    Ironically, Swedien said intermediaries for the former pop star recently reached out to him to see if he’d come work with Jackson on a new album.

    “I will never [work] with Michael Jackson again,” Swedien told me the other day. “I still love him and we made beautiful music. But never again.”

    Swedien also tried contacting Jackson to ask if he’d write a forward to a book the producer has just completed about their collaborations.

    “There’s nothing about Michael’s personal life in it,” he said. “It’s all about how we made the records. But I never heard back from him.”

    Instead, Rod Temperton, who wrote many of Jackson’s hits, has written the introduction. “It’s beautiful,” Swedien said.

    Swedien also tells me that Jackson has recently had contact with his other former producer, Quincy Jones. “But Quincy has no interest in working with Michael, and he and I work together. It’s not going to happen.”

    For the record, Swedien — who recently moved to Florida from Connecticut and set up a new state-of-the-art studio — said he never saw anything untoward concerning Jackson and young boys.

    “If it was there, we didn’t know about it,” he said.

    Swedien did confirm, however, that Jackson routinely had strange rules in the studio, including prohibiting underlings from looking at him or speaking to him.
    —————-

    Enough said, I think. Best regards to your friend Mr. Swedien.

  15. Sorry press the publish button by mistake
    But continuation:

    “Invincible” was re-introducing the younger crowd to the King of Pop. At the end, even though invincible didn’t do great, it did hold its own. Invincible has many great songs that I believe should’ve been released as singles as well as a music video to go with it. The only problem I have with the album is that its pretty long, “2000 watts” shouldn’t have been in the album. But clearly, I think the album is great and shouldn’t be put down so much by people and the media.

    As for the new album, I don’t know why this is such a problem. Take these great demos and unreleased songs and have these people that are suppose to fix them up fix them up. Me as a DIE HARD Michael Jackson fan I’m dying for this album, I know as well as every MJ fan out there, that there is great material from MJ that has never been released. I could careless about who has the best material, because at the end of the day I want to hear ALL of it. Make the album, and make it great, make the album as if michael was making the album, no errors.

  17. What I liked most about ‘Invincible’ was the quality of Michael’s singing voice. The vocals were absolutely incredible. To this day, when I pop on that CD, I’m blown away by the uniqueness and beauty of the singing. No one else like that. It’s the kind of voice that makes you play the CD multiple times.

    Still hard to beleive he’s gone. But thank God he left for us a great musical legacy, both known and yet to be known. I will always purchase Michael’s CDs.

  18. Invincible was indeed a suprisingly underrated album and possibly one of the better works of MJ. In particular, I reommend the skeptics take a listen to “Whatever Happens”, “Break Of Dawn”, “Unbreakable”, “Butterflies”, “You Rock My World”. These 4 were clearly stand-out in this album. My be the album had some which were not so good but these 4 songs already make it one of his best works.
    Can’t wait for the next MJ CD.

  19. This is a complex situation. On the one hand, Michael has so many fan’s the world over that would dearly love to hear new material. on the flip side, I detect a gaggle of greedy vultures waiting in the wings ready to swoop in and reap the financial rewards. Is this material being released as a gift and a fitting tribute to the Legend? Or is it a cynical money making ploy from already over bloated music and legal execs?
    Bottom line is this. Michael was a perfectionist. Any new album(s) released should reflect this. There should be a coherent theme to the work, and the tracks should preferably be those that Michael had originally intended to be released. They should be treted with dignity and respect, and most of all Love. The man when alive always wanted to give to his fans. There is nothing really wrong with making a profit from this work, after all, that is what the entire entertainment business is about, it should just not be the primary focus. When the work is truly ready and true to the spirit of what Michael had in mind, when the work is sparkling and as perfect and cohesive as it can be, then everybody can be happy, music execs, and most of all the, the fans.
    p.s. When the reporter of the above article mentioned Invincible as not being Michael’s best work, he was just following popular concensus. Obviously that choice is down to the individual listener, but I feel in this case the reporter was mostly drawing on actual record sales, although 10+ million is still an outstanding achievment by any standard, but any work by Michael is automatically compared with Thriller, which is his status quo.

  20. I respect the varied opinions on MJs work from his fans. It demonstrates we are not a monolith and “rabid” as we have been described in this column before.

  21. I have to disagree with the haters of the INVINCIBLE album. I have not heard a more unique song than, THE LOST CHILDREN. The romantic and sexy songs were a welcome surprise and CRY and YOU ARE MY LIFE I think are the most personal songs. You can hear him really emote on them.

    This album is far from horrible!

  22. Michael’s Invincible album was great! his talent shines in his every album! and there is no diference in his albums all of them are the best! and it doesn’t matter what other people think about this album! I think some like AL shoul study more about music and michael’s talen !

  23. Dear Roger, even though I do not agree with your taste when it comes to Invincible, I am happy that you report news about Michael’s upcoming album every now and then. And about other things regarding the Estate etc. Please keep on doing this, respectfully. I for one can’t wait to hear all the unreleased tracks in the coming few years. And I hope for his children’s sake that Michael’s name will be vindicated.

  25. jeff said: “Yes it’s great that they found more tracks and that they are obviously of a high standard but he was working with the likes of Will.i.am, Ne-yo, Akon, Red-one, Rodney Jerkins etc etc. The biggest guys in music, so I find it hard to believe that none of this music will challenge the Cascio stuff in terms of quality.”

    Agree totally. I’m completely unfamiliar with Eddie or Frank Cascio’s previous work. If they were capable of better work than the aforementioned big names in the music business, I think they would be better known. In fact unless they have a considerable body of outstanding work done without Michael Jackson, I’m inclined to believe they were just in the right place at the right time to cash in on the Jackson name.

  26. “Invincible” was a HORRIBLE album! That album was the most expensive album ever recorded in history, and it was trash! He even released a song on it that had been recorded by another artist just years prior, and it wasn’t even noteworthy song. So embarrassing. You can tell that Michael was on some major drugs when he wrote and recorded it. The old Michael was gone. What a horrible album to have as your last. Michael should have retired after the 90s.

  27. Re: Invincible Album

    Truly, I think Invincible is Michael Jackson’s greatest album. Even though his other albums are excellent, Michael’s voice and interpretaion of the musical content on Invincible takes my breath away. When I listen to Michael’s emoting on Invincible, it still brings me to tears, it is so amazingly beautiful. I think MJ’s wish came true: the soul of Michael Jackson is bound on the music of Invincible. Also,I have never read that MJ was dissatisfied with Invincible.

    Also, it is really starting to grieve me about all these new Michael Jackson projects that have come out, and are coming out. No one cared at all about helping Michael Jackson when he was alive. Now the estate is making a pretty penny…the lawyers and executors are immediately benefitting…but Katherine Jackson and the kids get an allowance…and Katherine’s portion dies when she dies…

  28. Roger, have you ever listened to Invincible? “Wasn’t so good” – are you kidding??? You must have gotten confused somehow.

    I suggest you take a listen….

  29. invincible is ok though mjs weakest album since he joined epic.
    some tracks are outstanding – unbreakable & speechless in 1st place –
    but just too many are decent at best 4 mj. theres a reason why, he just didnt write enough tracks on his own here. remember, most of his biggest hits mj wrote on his own.

  30. INVINCIBLE is the album I listen to over and over again, discovering great new riffs and back beats each time I do. In fact, these days I can’t go to sleep unless I have the CD cued up. There are some smashing ballads on it. And, best of all, Michael’s three and a half octaves voice and his unique treble really shine. Plus, there’s a good variety of dance beats and ballads. What Michael did better than anyone is give us meaningful songs about something other than just boy-and-girl-had-a-fight-and-are-breaking-up songs. In fact, I am certain some of Michael’s best work is on this album. If he had been allowed to showcase the tunes with appropriate music videos, most of them would have been high in the charts. His genius was that the visual and auditory experience always went hand in hand. If there had not been any videos for his previous work, there would have been less number ones. So listen up, people. A voice like that, a talent like that, a visionary like that won’t come to us again any time soon. Even This Is It, which he discarded, is good because he was unable to give anything less than his best to whatever he sang.

  31. I was just saying the thing about how big a fan i am so some idiot wouldn’t come back at me with the lame response that i wasn’t a “true” fan and didn’t listen to the album. I think “Bad” is WAY better than “Invincible” by miles. It didn’t sound like anything else at the time. “Invincible” sounded like EVERYTHING else at the time. And while it may have been better than what was out at the tims in that genre, the truth is there was nothing good in that genre to begin with. One thing i always loved about MJ was his originality, and i felt there was nothing original about “Invincible”.

  32. How much does this guy actually know?

    I question because he says the invincible unreleased tracks have not been working well and that the album was no good in the first place, blah blah blah, however you have people like Rodney Jerkins and Teddy Riley who actually say that the best material was left off of invincible because it sounded like classic Michael Jackson and for invincible he wanted to do something different. Just a bit strange that these ‘sources’ are contradicting the guys who are actually WORKING on the tracks. Shouldn’t they know this stuff?

    The other major flaw is regarding the Eddie Cacio material being the best there is. The Eddie Cascio tracks were unknown at the time of the deal being put down. The album was coming out long before they knew of these tracks, so there must have been some killer tracks already to warrant the ‘biggest contract in music history’. Yes it’s great that they found more tracks and that they are obviously of a high standard but he was working with the likes of Will.i.am, Ne-yo, Akon, Red-one, Rodney Jerkins etc etc. The biggest guys in music, so I find it hard to believe that none of this music will challenge the Cascio stuff in terms of quality.

    Oh yes and what about the music he did himself. After all he did write, Billie Jean, Black or white and 99 percent of his stuff anyway. This no good either?

    Any information regarding the album is great, it’s just I question the information because ten minutes of research tells you more and the impression that there is not a lot of great material is ridiculous. He had wanted to release a new album in 2003, 2007 AND 2009/10. That’s a lot of material and everyone who has heard this material says it is incredible.

    As for sifting through material from the album ‘BAD’, there is no need. The time will come but not on a new release. This album is all about the future that was Michael Jacksons music, not the past. We can celebrate the unreleased classics from the eighties on the re-release of bad that’s sure to come in time. But for now…

    He’s back…..!

  35. Well, I could not possibly be a bigger fan than Ian because… Well… He said so ;) however I can be a judge of my own tastes and while Invincible is not my favorite MJ work, it has excellent sound quality and beats BAD by a mile. MJ was not happy with Invincible but it beat ALL of it’s contemporaries and was essentially sabotaged marketing wise. Take a listen to it out of the context of everything surrounding MJ at the time and don’t compare it to anything else. It’s a work that stands on it’s own merit and is really good IMHO.

  36. The writer of this article is correct. Invincible sucked. It was not up to Michael’s standards. This is coming from a life-long MJ fan who probably has a larger collection than most of you. Even Michael himself said after that album he wanted to “get it right” with the next album.

    I will be anxious for an ‘unreleased tracks’ album. Especially after hearing so much quality material that’s leaked onto the internet.

  41. First of all, it is McClain and NOT McCain. And he is not an attorney, that is John Branca, McClain is a music executive and helped instrument Janet’s career when she was good back in the day.

  42. HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT INVINCIBLE WASN’T A GOOD ALBUM!!! DID YOU EVEN HEAR IT OR YOU ARE JUST REPEATING WHATEVER YOUR BOSSES AND THE MEDIA SAY, IT WAS A GREAT ALBUM DESTROYED BY MONEY HUNGRY PEOPLE LIKE YOU.

    HOW ARE YOU SO SURE THAT VOCALS ARE HIS IF THEY ARE DOUBTING THIS, ARE YOU AN EXPERT FOR SOME REASON!!!!!

    GET A LIFE AND STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM THIS WAY!!!! STUPID MEDIA!!!

  43. I would love to buy the CD, but only if every part of it receives the meticulous attention Michael would have given it. Do not release sloppy work. That was not what Michael was about. Get it right or we won’t get it!

  44. Oh Roger, it’s not in limbo whatsoever! Sony would not sign a $250 million dollar deal only to never release the new album. It’s absurd. Teddy Riley just finished his part and handed it over to the estate. We should be hearing about it any day now. There is too much money to be made here for the album to not release it at all.

    It’s still planned for a Nov 29th/30th release the last I heard and we should get the press release this week or early next week.

    You don’t have a clue what your talking about!

  47. Why in heavens name couldn’t McCain stay out of it. He is an entertainment attorney. Yeah I know there is more money if you actually can claim to have written, sung or produced, but really he is pulling down enough from the Estate as it is. There is no need to lick the platter clean and leave germs behind. Maybe one of them will read this post. People if you think I am going to buy an album with the faces of the same set of dead beats and vultures which populated MJ’s life on it and tracks mangled by non-professionals. Think again. Heck if this was the plan you shouldn’t have shoved Katherine out of the Estate Manager picture….At least she can sing.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© Showbiz411.com All rights reserved.

Share