Hear Michael Jackson's Controversial New Album

Anthony Harvey/WireImage

Michael, the new album featuring previously unreleased studio recordings by Michael Jackson, doesn't come out until Monday — but the entire LP is currently streaming on MichaelJackson.com.

Check Out All of Rolling Stone's coverage in "Michael Jackson Remembered."

In a three-star review in the current issue of Rolling Stone, Jody Rosen writes that Jackson "would not have released anything like this compilation, a grab bag of outtakes and outlines assembled by Jackson's label. And yet, it's a testament to the man's charisma that Michael can be compelling."

Several people close to Jackson, including his brother Randy, claim that Michael isn't singing on certain tracks on the album. The singer's estate issued a detailed press release denying those claims. While Jackson's vocals sound treated on certain songs, particularly "I Like the Way You Love Me," the voice on the album does still sound unmistakably like his.

"Blue Gangsta" and "All I Need," two unreleased Jackson recordings that aren't on the album, leaked last week.

Jackson's site doesn't give specific recording information about every song but notes that the album is "primarily focused on songs that Michael worked on recently, [although] there are also earlier compelling tracks." It will be streaming on Jackson's site for one week.

Listen to the Entire Michael Album

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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