The currently-intended track list for the forthcoming Michael Jackson album ‘Xscape’ has been somewhat confirmed today after music journalists attended an exclusive album playback session.
Following The Estate of Michael Jackson’s recent announcement that a brand new album of eight unreleased recordings by the King of Pop will be released on May 13 this year, Jackson fans around the world, naturally, began speculating about which songs would make the cut.
So, I decided to take a research-based ‘process of elimination’ approach to decipher which songs might make up the 8-track album by analysing the information revealed by a number of sources, including engineers, record executives, songwriters, producers and The Estate of Michael Jackson themselves.
I published my findings in an article citing the songs that I believed would, according to the intel available to me, be included on the album, and the reasons I formed those beliefs. Click here to read the full article.
Since publishing the article it has been revealed that L.A. Reid, Chairman and CEO of Epic Records, hosted a private playback session for the album today with a number of music journalists.
One of those journalists, Kevin Hughes, mentioned his attendance in a tweet shortly after the session was complete.
“Great night at the Michael Jackson #Xscape playback,” said Hughes. “Goosebumps hearing that amazing vocal. LA Reid has chosen well.”
Hughes, who explained that journalists were permitted to take photos at the conclusion of the playback session, went on to tweet a series of images and statements regarding the music, confirming which songs were, and were not, included.
As expected, the likes of “A Place With No Name”, “Blue Gangster” and “Chicago” were all there. The mysterious “Can’t Get Your Weight Off Of Me”, however, was not.
#Xscape Still buzzing from what I heard tonight.. Do You Know Where Your Children Are. Wow! #MJ pic.twitter.com/VgmezdDido
— Kevin Hughes (@Popprince) March 31, 2014
One after the other fans continued to enquire regarding specific songs, until Hughes had identified eight tracks – the total number announced as being included by The Estate of Michael Jackson.
It was believed that those eight songs would form the basis of the album. However after further research it has become apparent that two of the titles mentioned – “She Was Lovin Me” and “Chicago” – are in fact the same song. That makes seven confirmed title and one unconfirmed title.
- Xscape (title track)
- Do You Know Where Your Children Are (aka 12-O’Clock)
- Slave To The Rhythm
- She Was Lovin’ Me (aka Chicago)
- Blue Gangsta
- A Place With No Name
- Love Never Felt So Good
These are seven of the eight tracks that are believed to part of the Standard Edition 8-track ‘Xscape’ album – available on May 13. All eight tracks on the album have been remixed by the likes of Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins, Stargate and others.
The album, which is now available for pre-order via iTunes, will also be released in a special Deluxe Edition for the more hardcore Jackson enthusiast.
The Deluxe edition features 17 songs (eight remixes, eight original versions, and one bonus track) and 2 videos.
The individual tracks are not yet detailed on iTunes.
UPDATE: The bonus track is believed to be “Hot Fun In The Summertime” by Michael Jackson (featuring D’Angelo and Mary J. Blige)
Discuss below…
Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
