A lot of books are written about Michael Jackson and I do my best to read majority of them but to be honest not all those books excite me. While I can go without ever reading another Michael Jackson biography; I value the books that provide new information, new insights, and anecdotes from the people who were around Michael. It’s those books that help us understand Michael Jackson - the artist, the philanthropist, the person, the father- more.
Michael Jackson’s music and art has a special place for all of us. After all his music, dance and short videos are the reason why we became fans in the first place. While authors such as Joe Vogel, Chris Cadman, and Susan Fast have done commendable job in writing about Michael’s music, fans are still striving to find information about Michael Jackson’s unreleased and mostly unknown music. On Michael Jackson fan forums I have seen post after post trying to gather information about such songs.
Xscape Origins by Damien Shields sets to provide the very much sought after information about the songs on the posthumous Xscape album. Now I know, posthumous albums are a controversial issue among fans and I’m not talking about contemporized versions of the songs. Even releasing original songs that Michael did not finish and release in his lifetime could be seen as a topic of debate among fans. However Xscape Origins goal is to provide the reader with the story of the creation of the songs on Xscape album. As far as the Xscape Origins book goes, it doesn’t matter if you are for or against posthumous albums, it doesn’t matter if you prefer contemporized versions or the originals. The correct question to ask is “Do I want to know the story of these songs, learn about their creation history?” If your answer is “Yes”, Xscape Origins is the book for you.
Stories of the songs are told by Michael’s collaborators, the very people who worked on these songs with Michael Jackson. Xscape Origins main strength come from the exclusive interviews with Matt Forger, Michael Prince, Cory Rooney, Fred Jerkins, Brian Vibberts, John Barnes and CJ Devillar. They tell their first hand experiences and provide new and detailed information about the origins of songs on the Xscape album. Damien Shields explains he intentionally used a quote-heavy writing style to allow the stories to be told in the words of the people who were there. I actually quite liked that style as reading Xscape Origins felt like I was in the room with collaborators of Michael Jackson and I was listening to them tell the stories of the songs.
Xscape Origins also delivers on providing insight about Michael Jackson. Multiple of his collaborators explain Michael as the world’s biggest perfectionist, you get an insight to Michael’s personality, his work ethic, his humbleness, his uniqueness. You get mesmerized by his creative genius. You feel the awe MJ’s collaborators felt when they heard him sing.
Overall Xscape Origins provide you detailed information about the eight songs on Xscape album; it puts a smile on your face and makes you appreciate Michael Jackson’s talents more – if that’s even possible.
Note: I want to thank Damien Shields and James/Modegy for providing me an advance copy of Xscape Origins.
To buy Xscape Origins visit http://www.xscapeorigins.com/