Michael Jackson
Blood on the Dance Floor (HIStory in the mix)

THE REVIEW

When I signed up on this site to write reviews, I had no idea what the first one would be—could it be a newly released album, a music classic, a greatest hits of some great or small artist, or just another album that enjoyed due or deserved success and now everyone has forgotten about it. Instead, for my first review, I chose a particular album, a particular project that, however, was released in 1997 and immediately fell into oblivion, becoming indeed the most unknown and underrated album of the artist. The album in question is "Blood On The Dance Floor" from 1997 by Michael Jackson, the undisputed "King of Pop." Starting with the production of this album, it should be said that it is not an album entirely desired by the artist. In fact, it was created and forced by the record company to accompany the second part of the "History World Tour" and is a remix album, or rather divided into two parts, namely the first 5 tracks are previously unreleased tracks by the artist that are mostly songs discarded from previous albums, like the title track that was originally supposed to appear in "Dangerous" of 1991, but was only later completed and rearranged to be included in this album, or "Is It Scary," a track better known for its long production rather than the song itself. In fact, it was supposed to be the soundtrack for "The Addams Family 2" movie, and indeed Jackson himself prepared a special video clip for the song with the two main actors of the movie making cameos in the video. Unfortunately, following the well-known 1993 allegations, the video remained unfinished, and the song ended up in the record company's archives until the production of this album. But why does the album, in my humble opinion, turn out to be an album simply released at the wrong time, with wrong production, but that can actually be truly considered not a masterpiece but at least on par with the previous one, namely "History"? Starting with the fact that the real downside of this album are the remixes, unfortunately, although they were made really well with great experts of the genre, the remixes appear weak due to the simple fact of having used songs that were not suitable for remixing, like "Earth Song" or "You Are Not Alone," which are tracks meant to be listened to, not danced to. Indeed, they are among the slowest tracks in Jackson's career, so converting them into a remix version can only harm both the track and the album itself. Other remixes are otherwise entirely lively and danceable, although they are just like every other Saturday night club song. This doesn't mean that it shouldn't have been the effect it was meant to provoke, but from a great artist like Michael Jackson, everyone always expects the best when he tries to experiment with new techniques or musical genres. Instead, in this case, the classic types of remixes that every artist made during that period are resorted to without novelty. If it were for the remixes, the album would be a failure, yet as I mentioned above, the previously unreleased tracks raise the album and make it a truly beautiful work worthy of Michael Jackson. Now let's talk about the previously unreleased tracks. Then the first song, which is also the first single, is also the title track. It's a really particular pop song in the artist's career. Indeed, it has a chorus that is hard to forget but also a much darker instrumental section compared to other tracks by the artist. In fact, even the really strange and entirely dark lyrics actually narrate the story of a murder in a club. All these qualities, along with a completely instrumental part (typical of Jackson's tracks) really well produced with synths and special effects, are cutting-edge at the time, making this track already an unusual masterpiece in the singer's discography. It continues with "Morphine," which is also a completely dark and black song about morphine (as the title suggests) and the inability to sleep. A song that spans pop but also rock with an entirely singular guitar riff in the singer's career, indeed a riff that seems very heavy metal. This song also uses (in a perfect and brilliant way) a sample from the "Elephant Man" movie, sampling exactly one phrase, yet the fact remains that even not being a single, the track is itself a half masterpiece, and you can feel all the rage of the singer, who was not having a good time during that period. Then it goes on with "Superfly Sister," which is perhaps the only song that vaguely recalls Michael Jackson's style, however, from the "Dangerous" period, thus a classic RnB only as Jackson knows how to do it. Then it reaches another single, namely "Ghosts," where in this case, the video clip of the song itself is more famous, a video presented even at the Cannes festival and written together with Stephen King. The idea was to redo or recreate the success of "Thriller" from the last decade with a song with dark horror tints but at the same time pop and danceable, with a video clip that seems like a film full of special effects. Unfortunately, despite all the premises, the video clip of "Ghosts" almost went unnoticed, and the single did not reach the top10, so the idea of a new "Thriller" was not entirely successful. However, it remains that "Ghosts" is a nice song, but it is not at all comparable to "Thriller"; it doesn't even seem like a single as it is a nice song to listen to, but it doesn't have a great chorus, it is not entirely danceable, and then the video clip is blatantly an attempt to recreate what had been done with "Thriller," but multiplied by ten; indeed, it is much longer, has many more special effects, many more sets, and even many more actors, but the fact remains that you don't need grandeur (like special effects or sets) to make a great video clip but a good song and, in this case, it was not entirely up to par. But as I mentioned, the track runs well. It may not be a masterpiece; it didn't deserve (in my opinion) to be a single, but it is not to be thrown away either. The section of the previously unreleased tracks concludes with the already mentioned "Is It Scary," which instead results in more or less the same formula as "Ghosts," namely a dark but at the same time pop song, much better and danceable than the latter. It has a really nice chorus worthy of being a single, and then special effects and a rhythm that faintly recalls gothic-rock. Unfortunately, however, this great track is a single only in some parts of the world, not internationally. This makes this track not remembered and mostly played at some concerts, but it remains another masterpiece of this album. At the end of this very long review, I wanted to say that despite being the most unknown album by the artist with not entirely famous tracks and a completely weak and in some cases indecent remix section, the album remains (in my opinion) a forgotten masterpiece, mostly in the unreleased section with entirely different tracks from the classics of the "King of Pop" both concerning the instrumental part concerning the genres but also concerning the lyrics. As already said, they address very hot topics such as murder or drugs, so it stands to reason that as an album, I cannot but recommend it regarding the unreleased tracks, and at least let's try to discover it more because today, it remains simply a remix album of Michael Jackson and nothing more. Thank you for reading.