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We find ourselves nearly at the threshold of Ferragosto: summer is in full swing and, along with it, the avalanche of sad and repulsive hits that radio and TV channels lovingly offer us: half-baked nickel songs made just to shake our rear ends long enough to complete the indulgences of August, performed by individuals of dubious provenance and morality, firmly intent on retreating back into the perpetual shadow of their "artistic" background once the fever of the trash-hit fades and the scorching summer temperatures give way to the chilly embrace of the Po Valley fog and the Triestine bora. We Italians, just to never deny our inclinations, are the eternal champions in consuming such garbage and, as soon as we cross the June solstice, here come the sales charts filled with pitiful pseudo-latin concoctions complete with pitiful accompanying clips.
Songs that are certainly making the masses of the Romagna Riviera and Versilia happy; however, for those who remain rigid and impassive in the shade of city sycamores or anxiously await delayed departures, the truzzo-dance or Spanish-Brazilian moves are (perhaps) not quite suitable for their non-vacationer state. It often happens (at least for the undersigned) to want to break free from contemporary trends and, whether out of nostalgia or melancholy for times gone by, to seek some sound, some artist, some track, some album that reeks of mothballs and past glories.
"Older", dated 1996, probably represents the last great hallmark of George Michael's discography before the explosion of sex scandals and the recent substance abuse: a work that was dutifully meant to inherit the massive weight of "Faith" and the more modest reception of "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1" and took on the daunting task of getting the career of one of the most notable eighties remnants stranded among the new pop mainstream recruits back on track. With this third studio album, Michael temporarily shelved both the carefree funky vein of the Wham! era and the Christian rocker look of "Faith" in order to conceive a refined resume of jazz, lounge, organic, ethnic, and ambient sounds mixed together with a delightful R&B-pop mood: except for a few sporadic frivolous dance hints, most of the tracks are deeply infused with calm, subdued, relaxed, even ascetic and "spiritual" atmospheres, all shaping a multi-faceted and composite tracklist in its brief yet intense moments of radiant reflection.
The debut of "Older" is almost dialectically divided: on one side, the famous soft-melodic and tearful ballad Jesus To A Child, dense with "parabolic" strings, painful passion, and exacerbated emotion in the style of Careless Whisper, on the other, the danceable flavor as well as lounge/jazz-inspired of FastLove that seems regrettably to betray the softness invoked by the debut, yet determined to resurrect with orchestral/instrumental carousels of retro-jazz influences in the title track Older and You Have Been Loved.
With the gloomy The Strangest Thing, the omnipresent lightness temporarily abdicates the trump of instrumental tracks arriving at a valid trance-lounge experiment enriched with ethnic-oriental sounds that, however, cannot supplant the eternal jazz-soul triumph of the ultra-soft Spinning The Wheel or the "old school" It Doesn't Really Matter and Move On. To conclude the dances (naturally in a figurative sense), the friendly funky-gospel hints of Star People and the almost entirely instrumental Free, a sort of revised and corrected reprise of The Strangest Thing sounds.
Here you go, dear debaseriani, a completely different summer musical recipe from contemporary wigglings, suitable for any afternoon spent lazily napping on a hammock and thinking about the photo album that in these three months of heatwaves and popsicles could not be filled as desired.
George Michael, "Older"
Jesus To A Child - FastLove - Older - Spinning The Wheel - It Doesn't Really Matter - To Be Forgiven - Move On - Star People - You Have Been Loved - Free
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Jesus to a Child (06:51)
Kindness in your eyes
I guess you heard me cry
You smiled at me like Jesus to a child
I'm blessed I know
Heaven sent and heaven stole
You smiled at me like Jesus to a child
And what have I learned from all this pain
I thought I never feel the same about anyone or anything again
But now I know
Chorus:
When you find a love
When you know that it exists
Then the lover that you miss
Will come to you on those cold, cold nights
When you've been loved
When you know it holds such bliss
Then the lover that you kissed
Will comfort you when there's no hope in sight
Sadness in my eyes
No one guessed and no one tried
You smiled at me like Jesus to a child
Loveless and cold
With your last breath you saved my soul
You smiled at me like Jesus to a child
And what have I learned from all these tears
I've waited for you all those years
Then just when it began he took your love away
But I still say
Chorus
So the words you could not say
I'll sing them for you
And the love we would have made
I'll make it for two
For every single memory
Has become a part of me
You will always be my love
Well I've been loved so I know just what love is
And the lover that I kissed is always by my side
Oh the lover I still miss... was Jesus to a child
02 Fastlove (05:24)
Looking for some education
made my way into the night
all that bullshit conversation
well baby can't you read the signs?
I won't bore you with the details baby
I don't even want to waste your time
let's just say that maybe
you could help to ease my mind
baby, I ain't Mr. Right
But if you're looking for fastlove
if that's love in your eyes
it's more than enough
had some bad love
so fastlove is all that I've got on my mind
What's there to think about baby?
Looking for some affirmation
made my way into the sun
my friends got their ladies
they're all having babies
but I just want to have some fun
I won't bore you with the details baby
gonna get there in your own sweet time
let's just say that maybe
you could help to ease my mind
baby, I ain't Mr. Right
Chorus
What's there to think about baby?
get yourself some lessons in love
In the absence of security
I made my way into the night
stupid Cupid keeps on calling me
but I see nothing in his eyes
I miss my baby
I miss my baby, oh yeah
so why don't we make a little room in my BMW babe
searching for some peace of mind
hey, I'll help you find it
I do believe that we are practicing the same religion
you really ought to get up now
Looking for some affirmation?
03 Older (05:33)
"I should have known
it seemed too easy
you wer there
and I was breathing blue
strange
don't you think I'm looking older?
but something good has happended to me
change is a stranger
you have yet to known
well you're out of time
I'm letting go
you'll be fine
well that much I know
you're out of time
I'm letting go
I'm not the man you want
I should hav known
it seens so easy
you were there
I thought I needed you
strange
don't you think i'm looking older?
but something good has happened to me
change is a stranger
who never seem to show
well you're out of time
I'm letting go
you'll be fine
(or maybe you won't)
you're out of time
I'm letting go
I'm not the man that you want
I never should have looked back in your direction
I know that
just the same old fights again, baby
these are wasted days without affection
I'm not that foolish anymore"
04 Spinning the Wheel (06:21)
Five o'clock in the morning you ain't home
I can't help thinking that's strange
Baby I just want you to know I won't go through this again
Yes, those clouds are closing in
Chorus:
And I will not accept this as a part of my life
I will not live in fear of what may be
And the lessons that I learned
I would rather be alone than watch you spinning that wheel for me
You've got a thing about danger
Ain't you getting what you want from me
You've got a thing about strangers
Baby that's what we used to be
You've got a thing about danger baby
I guess the hungry just can't see
One of these days you gonna bring some home to me
Six o'clock in the morning you ain't home
I can't help thinking it's strange
It seems that everybody takes their chances these days
Oh yeah, we're standing in the rain
Chorus
How can you love me when you're playing with my life
You say give me time and I'll do better I swear
Give me time and I'll lead you back to despair
And I don't want to go back there
07 To Be Forgiven (05:21)
I'm going down
Won't you help me
Save me from myself
I hear the sound of a memory
Maybe time will tell
Suddenly my life is like a river
Taking me places I don't want to go
But like all good men who swim too well
It takes all that I have just to cry for help
Then that voice in my head
Tells me no
I'm going down
Won't you help me
Save me from myself
I look around for a fantasy
Maybe
Who can tell?
Let me live my life beside the river
Take me to places where a child can grow
And then
Maybe the boy inside will forsake me
Maybe
The child in me
Will just let me go
I'm going down
The cold, cold water is rushing in
I'm going down
And I would beg to be forgiven
If I knew my sin
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Other reviews
By alcol2
George Michael is a complete composer and performer, his lyrics dense and moving, his sense of melody a truly rare gift.
"Older" takes shape as an unmatched outcome of a difficult artistic-existential journey worthy of respect and admiration.
By Abraham
"Just before gathering the strength to prepare ‘Older’, he lost, in 1993, the love of his life, Anselmo Feleppa."
"‘Jesus To a Child’, ‘Older’, ‘To Be Forgiven’, and ‘You Have Been Loved’ are truly milestones if taken as a benchmark in the artist’s catalog."
