Artist News Releases

New Michael Jackson album Xscape announced

By | Published on Tuesday 1 April 2014

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson will release a new album called ‘Xscape’ in May. Well, he’ll not really be involved with the release, what with being dead and all. But Epic Records boss LA Reid has pulled eight unreleased tracks out of the king of pop’s vault, called in a few producers to tidy them up, and then said various things that he hopes will make you think it’s a proper LP.

One of the things Reid said was: “Modern music and artistry would look and sound completely different if not for the groundbreaking contributions Michael Jackson gifted to the world. Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with. We are extremely proud and honoured to present this music to the world”.

The music on the album, originally written and produced by Michael Jackson and Rodney Jerkins, has been through a process referred to by Reid as “contemporising”. Overseen by Timbaland, additional production work was also carried out by Jerkins, Stargate, Jerome ‘Jroc’ Harmon and John McClain.

The title ‘Xscape’ was chosen because this might have been the name Jackson himself would have chosen – the singer having explicitly chosen single word titles that sound a bit edgy ever since ‘Thriller’. Hence ‘Bad’, ‘Dangerous’, ‘Invincible’ and Jackson’s previous posthumous album… ‘Michael’.

The executors of Jackson’s estate, John Branca and John McClain, said of the release: “Michael was always on the cutting edge and was constantly reaching out to new producers, looking for new sounds. He was always relevant and current. These tracks, in many ways, capture that spirit. We thank LA Reid for his vision”.

The album is available for pre-order from today, before being released through Sony/Epic on 13 May. As previously reported, it was rumoured that the release would be made available exclusively through Sony’s new Xperia mobile phone. Clearly this is not the case, though there are still announcements to be made, so there may as yet be some sort of tie-up.

Meanwhile, have yourself a little look at the pretty terrible artwork for ‘Xscape’ here.



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