Michael Jackson: Love Never Felt So Good (feat. Justin Timberlake)
Details
Genre: Pop, R&BPros:
King of Pop delivers a warm, lovely disco-ish gem that would have easily fit into the Off the Wall collectionCons:
Some sound quality issues prevail in the mixVault demo from Michael Jackson gets new life and facelift with superior additions, Justin Timberlake duet
Vault demo from Michael Jackson gets new life and facelift with superior additions, Justin Timberlake duet
Timing is everything. And that’s probably why Michael Jackson‘s posthumous single “Love Never Felt So Good” sounds appropriate now. Had it been released in 1983 when the original demo was made, it would have felt like a drop in the can when compared with the mighty dominance aboard MJ’s Thriller soundtrack. It’s a fluttery, feelgood love song sprinkled with Off the Wall-era blemishes. Listen carefully and you can hear his infamous breathing samples and percussion breaks from “Working Day and Night” trapped inside the arrangement. There’s even lyrical snapshots of O’Jays’s “This Time Baby” (“in and out my life/in and out, baby”) inside the chorus. The overlooked demo, co-written by Jackson and Paul Anka, has been modified with a fresher production, perfectly timed fades, enhanced strings and a picture-perfect guest appearance from Justin Timberlake. There are a few sound frailties aboard; you can hear the poor demo tape qualities piercing through the stacked additions and musical arrangement. But there’s definitely a lot of hit potential here, especially considering that the single from the forthcoming Xscape album sounds far superior with anything heard on JT’s 20/20: The Experience – Part 2. Even from the grave, Jackson continues to prove that even his lightweight stuff is worth checking out.
