Immortal (Michael Jackson album)

Background and release

On October 3, 2011, Sony Music Entertainment announced that over 40 of Jackson's original recordings were redesigned and reimagined by the Justin Timberlake and Rihanna producer Kevin Antunes throughout a year-period work in the studio with original multi-track master recordings. Hence it's expected that Immortal will continue a similar mixing production to the soundtracks to previous Cirque du Soleil's shows: 2006's Love, with the remixed music of The Beatles (to the show of the same name), and 2010's Elvis Presley-themed remix soundtrack Viva Elvis (to the show of the same name).

Being released by Epic Records in conjunction with estate of Michael Jackson, Immortal features an alternative version of The Jackson 5 song "ABC", as well as a series of mashups and remixes such as a choir-assisted rendition of "They Don't Care About Us". Despite over 60 songs had been used for the stage show, the album release will be available as a 20-track album or a deluxe 27-track album only.

Immortal is the eighth album to be released by Sony and Motown/Universal since Michael Jackson's death on June 25, 2009. It is also the third set of remixes of Jackson's music released posthumously, following two 2009 collections, The Stripped Mixes, Jackson's early songs with most of rhythm section edited out, and four EPs under the common title The Remix Suite.

Promotion

The debut track from this album entitled "Immortal Megamix", which was composed of four of Michael's greatest hits - "Can You Feel It," "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," "Billie Jean," and "Black or White" had been unveiled on AolMusic on October 31, 2011. Following the premiere on AOL, the track became available to stream at www.MichaelJackson.com and on Jackson's Facebook page. On November 1, 2011, the track became available as a digital download on iTunes and amazon.com. There was no television promotion or radio airplay.

The week before its release, several tracks were unveiled on SoundCloud & Billboard.com:

NOTES:

The whole album was unveiled via NPR on November 18, 2011.

Commercial performance

In the United States, an early estimate predicted Immortal would sell 50,000 copies in its first week. The album opened with 43,000 copies sold, debuting at No. 24 on the Billboard 200. Immortal's opening week was larger than the acrobatic troupe's take on Elvis Presley's Viva Elvis, which debuted and peaked at No. 48 in 2010 with 13,000 sold first week. In Japan, 150,000 CD copies of this album had been sold during the first week of its release.

Immortal was ranked number 174 on the list of the 200 best-selling albums of 2012 from the year-end charts of Billboard. It also was ranked number 35 on the top-selling 100 R&B albums of 2012. It is estimated that sales of Immortal as of 2013 are above 2 million units sold worldwide, with over 500,000 of those from the U.S. during 2012. It is currently the second-best selling Cirque show release, after Love from the Beatles inspired show of the same name.

Critical reception

The debut song "Immortal Megamix" received mixed reviews from music critics. Scott Shetler from Popcrash said the original songs were "left intact on this remix with only slight musical embellishments, such as a "Michael! Michael!" chant that appears during 'Billie Jean'", and despite other mixes as the "HIStory Megamix" that preceded his 1995 double-album were better, "with his (Michael Jackson's) legacy of musical gold, it would be nearly impossible to create a bad mix."

The album received mixed reviews. Ann Powers from NPR said, this soundtrack "adds another dimension to the Jackson omnibus," and it "crafts a new version of Jackson's life story through remixes of his biggest hits and a few obscurities, as well as his own stated favorite songs. " Kevin Antunes the musical designer for Immortal said, "There are jewels throughout this entire CD … put there so you can truly appreciate Michael's musicality," and, "It lifts you up, it challenges, it makes you feel. Being a super-fan myself, having the ability to work on this music is a true honor." Randall Roberts from latimes.com gave this album two and a half stars out of four, "the soundtrack is beholden to the Cirque/Immortal story line and therefore sequenced not for the dance floor but for a Las Vegas-style production." Chad Grischow from IGN said, "the collection at least does a fine job pulling from the various eras of his career", and "most of the songs are simply clipped into a shorter version of themselves, with the occasional sound effects to enhance the choreography left feeling odd without it."

Killian Fox of The Observer said, "not much here is new", "the album tries to justify its bulky existence", "but they add little to a catalogue of music that has already been superbly produced." Arwa Haider from metro.co.uk said, "the original songs are obviously fantastic", but "without the accompanying Cirque du Soleil acrobatics, these slightly spooky mixes don't add much to his canon. " Michael Langston Moore from African American Entertainment Examiner said the album "deemed to be a bit sacrilege". Gary Trust and Keith Caulfield from Billboard pointed out that "consumers surely didn't seem that interested in the mash-up style album." Nekesa Mumbi Moody from The Associated Press said, "much of the album seems disjointed. Some songs are oddly chopped up, others are spliced together without much finesse, and there are a myriad of sound effects — bullets firing, glass shattering, the whistle of a train, basketballs bouncing — that just sound like noise," and "on stage, it probably all makes sense beautifully", "but without that visual picture, the listening experience is a disappointment."

Track listing

MJJ Productions Inc, the record division of The Michael Jackson Company LLC, announced the titles of the tracks on Immortal and Immortal (Deluxe) as follows:

Track elements

Credits taken from the liner notes.