The Details

Michael Jackson 'Immortal'

Like the Grammy-winning soundtrack to The Beatles Love, the Michael Jackson compilation Immortal presents a free-flowing mash-up that serves as the backbone of a Cirque du Soleil stage production (see Page 47). Unlike Love, though, Immortal wasn’t crafted by someone who worked on the original material; producer Kevin Antunes never collaborated with Jackson, and there isn’t much of a personal touch to Immortal. It doesn’t function well as a hits package, since classic songs are often relegated to short snippets. The recontextualizing isn’t strong enough for Immortal to stand on its own, either, and the long instrumental stretches and collections of samples don’t have much listening value divorced from their Cirque-created visuals. A lot of the music on Immortal is great, and it does offer a showcase for neglected album tracks like opener “Working Day and Night,” but it’s an incomplete piece on its own, and there are plenty of better options for anyone looking to hear Jackson’s hits.