Michael Jackson – Xscape

180-gram vinyl LP featuring eight new tracks by the King of Pop!

To answer your first question: Yes, it is any good. And about your second: Better than you think.” — Billboard

“Xscape lives up to the legend.” — USA Today

Writes reviewer Joe Levy for Billboard magazine: “To be sure, it’s a strange project: a Michael Jackson record of vocals out of the vault and all-new music from producers Timbaland and Jerome ‘J-Roc’ Harmon, Stargate, Rodney Jerkins and John McClain.”

The recruited global hitmakers took a cappella vocals recorded by Jackson, retaining his essence — smooth ecstasy and pained grit, swoops, pops, shouts and grunts — and created new tracks to thrill legions of fans of one of the world’s most revered and best-selling artists, as well as revealing Michael to a new generation.

L.A. Reid — who oversaw Xscape as the chairman and CEO of Epic Records — calls it “contemporizing” Jackson’s archival material, recorded between 1983 and 1999, or from the time just after Thriller to the time just before Invincible.

The title of this album honors Michael’s album naming process. He always chose a song from the album to name his projects and, beginning with Thriller, used only one word titles, each with an edgy quality to them. This is true of the new project.

Xscape also features a posthumous duet by Jackson with Justin Timberlake on “Love Never Felt So Good.”

Timberlake wrote “Gone” more than a decade ago, a slow jam he hoped to collaborate on with Jackson. But initially he thought Jackson had passed on the song. So the tune became a part of ‘N Sync’s 2001 album Celebrity and it became a hit single (it peaked at No. 11in the Hot 100) and was nominated for a Grammy. Jackson called later and said he had wanted to make “Gone” into a duet between them, leaving Timberlake regretting his hasty decision.

“I’m on the phone literally punching myself in the face,” Timberlake told Oprah Winfrey.

John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson said, “Michael was always on the cutting edge and was constantly reaching out to new producers, looking for new sounds. He was always relevant and current. These tracks, in many ways, capture that spirit. We thank L.A. Reid for his vision.”

Michael Jackson is the most successful entertainer and one of the most influential artist of all time. To date, he has released 13 No. 1 singles, been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, set Guinness World Records and sold more than 1 billion records worldwide. Jackson’s sound, style and dance moves continue to inspire today’s artists and his fans all over the globe.