speeddemon531's Full Review: Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael by ...
It's been twenty years since George Michael exploded out of the "Choose Life" T-shirt and short shorts with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". Although he (along with Wham! pal Andrew Ridgeley) had been a star in his native Britain for two years, "Wake" marked his U.S. breakthrough. Since then, he's maintained a public profile even though his success has diminished slightly. He's gone through several public transformations-from boy-toy teen idol to smoldering leather-jacketed sex god. From high-minded (pretentious) wanna be "artiste" to public laughing stock to triumphant gay icon, George Michael has covered quite a bit of ground.
Although the man's only released five solo albums in his career (one of them coming after the release of this compilaton), there's no doubt that the man deserves this double-CD greatest hits compilation. In addition to his many singles, this set also includes 2 new songs (three if you pick up an import version), as well as a ton of one-off singles, popular album cuts, duets, remixes and live tracks, making this set the ultimate George Michael experience.
Amid the public hoopla over George's sexual interests and his own high-minded complaining (some might say whining) abouot the music industry, what's been lost is that George has few peers as a singer or songwriter. This has become more apparent over the years as George's songs have grown increasingly more personal. Originally, George's plan was for his career to be in the same stratosphere as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince. While that career plan only worked for a fleeting moment here in the States (he's still a demigod overseas), he stands right up there with those icons from an artistic standpoint. And then there's his voice. Much has been made of the "blue-eyed soul" resurgence, as represented by (pick an ex-boy-band member here), but George is a true soul singer-capable of pulling off seductive ballads, torch songs, and mildly dirty (or supremely dirty) dance jams with equal ease. There's a reason "Faith" became the first album by a Caucasian artist to hit #1 on Billboard's R&B albums chart-as 3rd Bass might say, George's got soul comin' out of his a**hole.
"Ladies & Gentlemen" is smartly split up two ways. "For The Feet" contains george's uptempo jams, while "For The Heart" is all sentimental ballads and torch songs. Both CDs are exceptional, although thematically, they're pretty different. On the fast cuts, George is almost all libido, whereas the more contemplative, reflective side shows up on the ballads.
"For The Feet" has one GLARING misstep. "I Want Your Sex", George's breakthrough solo single, is nowhere to be found. Why? Sony Music wants people to buy both "Faith" and "Ladies & Gentlemen", so "Sex" is what a friend of mine likes to call the "hostage track", the one hit that gets left off of a greatest hits album in order to sustain sales of the artists's catalog. In it's place is the horny (and horn-filled) "Part II" reprise that was actually the B-side of the single when it was released. it's pleasant, but "Sex" was a classic and the exclusion of it leaves a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
Want your fix of mechanical 80s sounds and cryptic lyrics? For starters, there's "Hard Day". This electro-funk jam was obviously heavily influenced by Prince, and the end of the song features George singing as himself and as his own lover (with his voice sped up for that "feminine" effect...ahem.) How many people knew "Monkey" was about drug addiction? This funky jam appears on a George Michael album for the first time in it's popular Jam & Lewis remixed version.
Even in the 90s, George still had an affinity for the 80s. "Fastlove" is a slow-burning lecherous late-night club jam where George pines for a quickie over a snatch of Patrice Rushen's 1982 "Forget Me Nots". On "Star People '97", George cries out against self-pitying celebrities (with the memorable line "who gives a f*ck about your problems darling?/when you can pay the rent"), while combining the melody line from The Gap Band's "Burn Rubber" and the bassline from Quincy Jones' "Stuff Like That".
The struggle with celebrity has been an issue of long-standing concern for George, as his own problems dealing with fame are detailed on several of these songs, most notably "Freedom 90", which was George's first real repudiation of the mass success that he found himself sucked into. It doesn't hurt that George set his whining to such a butt-shaking groove, with hollow drum sounds and saloon piano all over the place. His music has always had some kind of social awareness. In addition to "Monkey", there's the jazzy "Spinning The Wheel", where George finds himself staying up all night waiting for a lover that he knows is out on the town chasing tail. It's a sobering message concluded with the line "you've got a thing about danger, baby...one of these days you're gonna bring some home to me".
"For The Heart" could be subtitled "Magic & Loss". Most of the songs here spring from a place of confusion and regret. it's a place that gives birth to some very emotional music. After 1993, when George lost his lover, Anselmo (to a brain hemmorhage), the songs took on an even more personal meaning, as George mourned through his music. "You Have Been Loved" is boring from a musical standpoint
but the lyrics are striking, as George tries to make peace with his loss and moves on. It was also George's first public coming out, although no one noticed it. The words "'take care, my love, he said....you have been loved'" sound pretty obvious to me.
Anyway, there's much more on the ballad side than that one song. "Careless Whisper" contains probably the most easily recognizable sax lines in history, and was the first instance where people saw a mature, confident songwriter in George. It also began George's annoying habit of saying the title only once in a song. The haunting "Father Figure" is so lyrically convoluted that you can't tell whether it's about two lovers or an actual "father figure" and a child. george's whispered vocal combined with B-horror movie synths and a gentle pulse for a beat helped make this a huge hit in '88.
His vocal performances on these ballads are nothing short of amazing. The heartbreaking "One More Try" is a particular triumph, as George painstakingly details having his heart broken by his first love (the "teacher" of the chorus). "Kissing A Fool" and "Cowboys & Angels" are both songs with a heavy jazz influence, and what's notable about these songs is that George plays a mean bass on both of 'em.
Two things George has become increasingly known for are duets and covers. While I was never a fan of his Elton John duet on "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", I was a fan of the Aretha Frankin duet "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". George goes the husky route on this song and manages to stand with the Queen Of Soul for 4 minutes without getting blown away-a pretty admirable feat, if you ask me.
George also managed to fulfill a childhood fantasy by serving as the frontman of Queen for a night during the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. Their performance of "Somebody To Love" is spine-tingling, especially the call-and-response with the audience towards the end of the song. One of the best moments on this album, however, is a live rendition of the Bonnie Raitt classic "I Can't Make You Love Me". This acoustic version places the emphasis of the song squarely in George's dramatic reading of the lyrics. Personally, I think his version is better than the original.
The two new songs are nothing special, but their frivolity makes them fun in light of the increasingly serious direction George's music had been moving in. "Outside" is an upbeat, disco-fied sleazefest that pokes fun at George's public indecency arrest. Anyone who can winkingly deliver the line "I'd service the community...but I already have, you see!" gets major cool points in my book. "A Moment With You" is a lush R&B ballad with a very seductive undercurrent. If you pick up an import version (like I have), you also get George's excellent version of the Stevie Wonder classic "As" in a duet version with Mary J. Blige, who recorded this just around the time she realized she could sing a whole song in key. It's an excellent duet, damn shame that label politics (Mary's record company ruled out the song's release in the US after George's arrest and subsequent coming out).
This compilation appears to have come at the right time. his most recent album, "Patience" was a maudlin collection of morose ballads (amid the occasional stereotypically "queer" dance track), and George has made comments about leaving the music industry. It's hard to enjoy George's music sometimes amid the general pretentiousness and b!tchiness he exudes, but "Ladies & Gentlemen" is an appealing collection of pop/soul from one of the most interesting and talented singer/songwriters to emerge in the past quarter-century.
"Ladies & Gentlemen...The Best Of George Michael"
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Repeat: "Hard Day", "Fastlove", "Father Figure", "I Can't Make You Love Me", "One More Try", "Careless Whisper"
Skip: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", "Jesus To A Child", "You Have Been Loved"
Great Music to Play While: Wondering whether all the people who actually thought George Michael was straight were just delusional or smoking crack.
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