With Michael Jackson's posthumous album Xscape set to drop May 13, information has slowly been trickling out over the last few weeks about what's in store. Here's a complete breakdown of what we know about the King of Pop's new album.
1) It's a lean eight songs
The tracklist for Michael Jackson's forthcoming, posthumous album Xscape is out, and according to MichaelJackson.com, it features his "strongest unreleased songs" that have been "polished with state-of-the-art production." The tracklist is:
2) Michael sampled classic rock band America for one of these tracks
"A Place With No Name" uses the folk-rock group's radio-staple "A Horse With No Name" as its foundation. You can check out MJ's original reworking of it here.
3) The idea was to modernize Michael
According to LA Reid, who serves as the project's executive producer, "Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with."
4) Timbaland serves as the primary producer
A version of "Slave to the Rhythm" featuring Justin Bieber surfaced last year. While we do know a Timbo-helmed "Slave to the Rhythm" is on Xscape, we don't know if the Biebs made the cut for this album. You can listen to Bieber's MJ "duet" below.
5. There's a great crop of special guests
According to funk guitarist Jesse Johnson (of Morris Day & The Time), Xscape features D'Angelo (playing sitar!), Mary J. Blige, Questlove and himself.
6. The first single is reportedly "Chicago"
Which, unlike most of the songs on Xscape, has not leaked in demo form over the years.
7. Xscape comes with the original MJ demos
A lot of Xscape tracks have been circulating on the Michael Jackson bootleg circuit for years, and the deluxe version will feature the original recordings as Michael left them. So you can make your own remixes! Check out demos of these tracks below.
