George Michael
Patience

THE REVIEW

A bit lazy, sleepy, on a sofa lies the true essence of George Michael. A lascivious type, an artist who takes four to five years before recording new work, an artist who has never been able to recover since the now distant times of "Faith" (1987).

A guy who just a few days ago managed to make the front page of "Variety": "George Michael found drunk while driving his car in possession of a considerable amount of smoke". A guy like that, one who yawns on the sofa and goes around doing concerts with the sole purpose of always having money in the bank to buy drugs and sell himself to his buddies. Take it or leave it: many left him, others, instead, embraced him. Frankly, but they embraced him. I confess I've never appreciated "Faith," I've always found it a cunning album, sugary, polished with elbow grease. And as seductive as "I Want Your Sex" was, I couldn't fall in love with it. Over time my opinion has changed (as often, alas, happens): I have reassessed "Faith" and extensively reconsidered even lesser-known and less successful works (at least so they say) like "Older" or "Songs From The Last Century". But I haven't reassessed, because I've always found it quite passable, the last work of our hero: "Patience".

It is produced by Epic. And that's already news. George Michael has toured a thousand record labels: from Columbia to Virgin, then EMI, then Columbia again, and finally landing at Epic. He hasn't toured them all because he wanted to try the best, it's that his multiple commercial failures led the record companies to terminate his contracts, a sort of golden handshake with a batch of millions of dollars. "Patience" was released in 2004, fans have been waiting for something new since 1999, and inevitably the album climbed to the top of the American and European charts. Even in Italy, the reception is good, yet if you ask an average listener what songs are in the album, the answer will be: "I only know the anti-war one, I don't remember the title, but I know it. I don't know anything else". Not clear yet? Well, follow me.

Good old George Michael, to avoid record mishaps, decides to bet on a strong single, no love sun heart and various niceties, aim straight at the problem and scandal. The scandal is "Shoot the dog", a really lively funky where he mocks George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and even our former premier Silvio Berlusconi, all spiced with a "nasty" and vitriolic video clip. There’s the scandal for you, which isn’t really an outright act of war against the politicians and blood-stained Iraq, because George Michael doesn’t have the depth of Bob Dylan and because, above all, times have changed (Dylan quote, pardon). George Michael doesn't believe in what he sings, and if he does, he is not a frenzied political activist, he is just a sleepy and unstable guy, who in order to win back the fans' affection and the public's graces, would even sell his mother: and today, to be successful, it's enough to create a scandal. "Shoot the dog" however, for purely musical purposes, is a good piece, lively, rhythmic, and nice and lively. Then of course, not all that glitters is gold: "Freek" is lively and rhythmic, but it's pure banal and predictable, as predictable is "Amazing", the umpteenth sugary pop song in which Michael cites the Bee Gees and gets extremely shrill.

Neither do two other tracks that should be highlights shine: the title-track, unnecessarily split into two parts and "My Mother Had A Brother", a sappy track revisiting old childhood memories, disillusions, family conflicts, things already heard and reheard, but that fans always appreciate and so, why not please them? Contrary to this, however, are tracks like "Flawless" (impossible not to move at least one leg to the rhythm of the music), the frontal attack on British tabloids with "Through" (this is almost a real protest song) and the melancholic "John And Elvis (Are Dead)", possibly the most touching and successful track on the entire album, a disillusioned and deep tribute to two great myths of world music who, in one way or another, influenced almost fifty years of modern music. Even George Michael mourns them, because he loved them too: heartrending but without overdoing it. If only he didn't get caught by the police every so often, George Michael would be an honest English artist (better, much better than Madonna) capable of staying afloat in a stale and embarrassing European music scene and his fame would certainly gain in popularity and esteem.

But these are empty talks, after all, he's not reading what I'm writing. And so it's better to let it go, anyway "Patience" is perhaps George Michael's best album in many years. Listen to believe. Or vice versa.