The Singles Jukebox

Even in death one cannot escape a JT collab.

[Video]
[5.82]

Anthony Easton: I think that the more Timberlake is in love, the less interesting his voice is. That he overwhelms a dead Michael is ghoulish, especially considering where the money is going in. It’s a relief the song is kind of terrible, because I don’t have to worry about not liking it. 
[3]

Alfred Soto: Jackson’s cowrite with, hm, Paul Anka boasts the gleaming post-disco arrangement of an Off the Wall track, except he recorded the demo in 1983, after he resolved — decisively, I’d say — what to do for an encore. The overdubbed duet partner is a dude who has never had trouble approximating OTW-era Michael because he and his collaborators find it an easier invocation than Dangerous, in which Jackson’s vocals caught up with his rhythmic innovations. Of course it sounds clean. Of course Timberlake sounds like a pro — this is what the boot camp called “The Mickey Mouse Club” was for. Of course he needs a Wikipedia note.
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Edward Okulicz: All the authentic-sounding frisky, swirling disco trimmings you could have hoped for  have been expertly attached to this old demo, but there’s the problem. It’s still something that ended up on the cutting room floor. It’s actually a fine vocal from Jackson (did he record bad ones?), but Timberlake gets the luxury of re-takes and he does not, and the 50-storey scaffolding of the track is far too large and imposing on the modest song to do anything other than completely drown it out. Michael Jackson does not, or should not, get drowned out by anything (viz. “Earth Song”).
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Katherine St Asaph: So this is weird. There’s no real way to discuss this without sounding like a name-dropping jackass, but I was at the listening party for Xscape. (It was above Rockefeller Center. It involved an open bar, and lots of plaudits from L.A. Reid, and lots of hoping from me that L.A. Reid never read the desperately snarky shit I wrote in old X Factor recaps.) They played the album, but thanks to leaks, none of it was really new. A couple tracks had guest vocalists when they leaked, but Xscape excised them all (mercifully, because one of the guests was Justin Bieber), the unspoken idea being that such adulteration was A) what was wrong with Michael and B) the exact kind of unthoughtful screwery that Xscape would avoid. So when I first heard “Love Never Felt So Good,” in what was presumably its final form, it was a version without any of this JT nonsense. My best guess is that it’s a last-second crossover push, “Xscape” (the actual first single) relegated to the “promotional single” memory hole and Timberlake thrown on to get it done after a few minutes of studio panting? It’s not that all songs aren’t this malleable before release; it’s just weird to experience the step-by-step. And Quincy-like disco doesn’t even need the futuresex or lovesounds to sound timely in 2014, but here they are, spliced in, making this a piece of flair for Timberlake as much as a showcase for Jackson. Cue the “I don’t know what to think” [5].
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Cédric Le Merrer: For an artist’s whose death was such a big deal, and whose posthumous comeback was so hotly anticipated, the reception of his first batch of postmortem releases was fairly muted. The fact was that by 2010, 50 Cent, Akon and Lenny Kravitz were not really the best names you could have found to flesh out unfinished demos. Justin in 2014 is, at least commercially speaking, a much better choice, even if his name has been tarnished by his latest releases not being up to his previous standards and the downfall of the fedora as a fashion statement. Having always been a studious disciple of Michael, Justin doesn’t have too much to bring to this song. His verse is like a muted version of what Michael does on his, and when he’s playing hypeman on the intro and the bridge, taking cues from what Timbaland does on his tracks, he’s not really adding anything that the faithful Off The Wall-esque backing track doesn’t achieve on its own. Still, even the turn toward a more modern, filtered bridge full of syncopated breaths and imprecations doesn’t last long enough to give you the time to cringe. This is light, breezy disco funk almost perfectly executed, with imperial phase Michael Jackson casually tossing out a great performance, and everyone around mostly not fucking it up.
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Patrick St. Michel: This is a perfectly breezy bit of disco pop, the sort of afternoon dance number that would have fit in wonderfully on Off The Wall. So why is this being released now, in 2014? The answer is “money,” but let’s drop the cynicism for a second. Timbaland has said “What I hope for in doing this project is that we defended his honor and remade the point that he was a great artist.” But was that ever in question after Michael Jackson died? If there’s a pop star who’s never going to fade into obscurity, it’s Michael Jackson, and rightfully so. So why is “Love Never Felt So Good” necessary (again, wipe the dollar signs from your eyes)? And why bother with the music fan fiction of putting Justin Timberlake on this song, his contributions being both weak and weird, like Drake cooing at Aaliyah. All Timberlake interacting with Jackson here does is remind how strange this whole thing is, and adds an uncanny element to it all.
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Thomas Inskeep: I know, aping Off the Wall-era MJ is supposedly “easy,” and a bunch of pop right now (the stuff that isn’t turbo-EDM) sounds like it. But if you’re gonna do Off the Wall manque, it helps to actually have MJ’s vocals, along with a guest spot from his would-be heir JT. (He’s not really his heir, but we’ll get to that later this week.) Because Michael’s vocal on this was originally recorded back in ’83 it’s got that breezy, effortless character he lost later in his career, i.e. it sounds gorgeous. And adding in the little touches from “Workin’ Day and Night” was a smart move on Timbaland’s part; they provide authenticity. I feared the worst for Xscape, but now have high hopes, since this would seem to be an indication that the folks to whom L.A. Reid handed the MJ master tapes treated them with the reverence they deserve. This is what pure joy sounds like.
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Scott Mildenhall: Of the three versions of this on the complete edition of Xscape, this is the best. The original piano take doesn’t sound like it should have stayed in that form, and the solo Jackson one is a little too stripped back, too light and lacking in “chat show house band” brass moments. On the other hand, while Timberlake does nothing wrong, his presence is totally unnecessary – if you’re trying to evoke the Jackson of 1979 (with a song written in 1983), it might be best to leave it to him.
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Jer Fairall: Anyone who says they hear a lost Off The Wall track in this are being ridiculously sentimental, of course; a smooth bit of Triumph-era post-disco is more like it. Timberlake’s bits feel as ghoulish as these kinds of things always do, and the mid-song breakdown is repulsive. When he and Timbaland aren’t fucking with this, however, grave robbing rarely sounded so good.
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Mallory O’Donnell: Decrying the post-mortem factory fakery that resulted in this song means ignoring the equally absurd, dehumanizing working conditions under which Michael Jackson created music while he was still alive. This is a warm, buoyant post-disco tune guaranteed to be a success for dancing or making out and we should count ourselves lucky to get something this successful from dead legends. Timberlake only mildly embarrasses the earth by his presence here, but it’s likely future editions will contain not only a JT-free version, but also the raw recordings and a set of musico-surgical equipment with which you can perform your own autopsy.
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Brad Shoup: I like Disney as much as the next person, but you reach your limit on jaunts through the Haunted Mansion. Disco’s current moment could justify this sonically; it’s always nice to witness a new form of Jackson’s vintage abandon. But Timberlake has to defend his presence, and he does so on the bridge, with a breathy recreation of his first record. And that just scuttles this for me.
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