Michael Jackson "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I"

On episode 23 of Past Prime, Steve and Matty revisit The
King of Pop's penultimate album, which was really a double album,
consisting of one greatest hits record and one lavish, eighty
minute, fifteen track selection of new songs. "HIStory" was made
while Jackson was being investigated by the Santa Barbara
District Attorney for child abuse & endangerment, while he
was also in the midst of his brief, mind-exploding marriage to
Lisa Marie Presley, and while every aspect of his public and
private persona was being obsessed over by paparazzi, headlines
and gossip. Suffice it to say, it's a lot.


The credits for "HIStory" name 260 individuals, including R.
Kelly, Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Notorious BIG, David Foster,
Shaquille O'Neil and Elizabeth Taylor. It features defiant New
Jack Swing, goopy ballads and thinly veiled defenses and threats.
But, most of all, it features the most famous man on the planet
assuring us that he could never hurt a child because he is the
true victim and the true savior. Though it's perhaps the saddest,
angriest and least relatable album Michael ever made, it is also
luxurious in its arrangements and quite fierce in its rhythms.
There will never be anything else like it and while Matty cowers
from its tawdriness, Steve is more than a little fascinated by
its psychological thrills. Buckle up -- Wacko Jacko is Backo.


To read more about "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I,"
check out the full essay at Past Prime.