"25"

2006
-by george michael
An interesting question has been popping around my head. If Americans were to be polled on whom they consider more depraved, George Michael or Michael Jackson, how do you think those numbers would go? I wonder whether they might be very revealing of how bizarre our values are.
I've been a fan of George in a way that's contrary to popular trends. I was a mild fan when he made it big, and as his popularity has waned, my appreciation has steadily waxed. Moreso than any pop star i can think of, he has experienced profound artistic growth as his star dims. His lush, intricate melodies and arrangements...the humor and honesty in his lyrics...he is often both brilliant and inspired.
Our society's views on homosexuality have had an interesting affect on his career. What do you suppose his career might look like had he started out a self-acclaimed homosexual, and then one fateful day was busted in a heterosexual police sting? Scandalous! And if he then proceeded to deal ever more openly in his music with his long-hidden lust for women?
"Brilliant and inspired" are words true of almost all the new songs on his new collection, 25. I was a little put out that he was releasing a new "best of" at all, as it wasn't so long ago that the last one came out. There should be a far more strict statute of limitations on hits packages in the music industry. Or any statute at all. But there were holes in LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, so i was game to see what George had to offer. Well, he addressed some holes, and created new ones. Big yabbity-hoos for leaving out his most annoying song, "Monkey", and also "Hard Day". Bully for giving more play to Wham! selections (though we didn't need the original "Freedom"). But how he could have a retrospective without "I Want Your Sex" is mind-boggling, and "Star People '97" and "The Edge of Heaven" are also sadly absent. In fact, the entire "I Want Your Sex" suite would have been a shining choice. As i'm veering close to nit-picking, just one more comment. How on earth was it decided to have every track from his most recent album included in this collection? This is so unprecedentedly bizarre that one has to speculate about a drunken wager. Or maybe he wanted to be the only artist who has ever put every track of an album on an anthology? But even for THRILLER that would be a strange choice, and after the five or so brilliant tracks from PATIENCE, it ain't no THRILLER. He even uses "Through" as the final cut on this collection. George, it seems just the tiniest bit insincere to end two consecutive releases with the very same declaration of being done with the music business. Couldn't you have at least done the re-mix "Really Through"?
But i kvetch. It's a lovely collection, and the new stuff is as good as anything he's ever done.