MICHAEL JACKSON
The ULTIMATE COLLECTION

2004 ****1/2

1. I Want You Back (The Jackson 5)
2. ABC (The Jackson 5)
3. I'll Be There (The Jackson 5)
4. Got to Be There
5. I Wanna Be Where You Are
6. Ben
7. Dancing Machine (Single Version) (The Jackson 5)
8. Enjoy Yourself (The Jacksons)
9. Ease on Down the Road (with Diana Ross)
10. You Can't Win (from "The Wiz")
11. Shake a Body (Early Demo)
12. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) (The Jacksons)
13. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
14. Rock with You
15. Off the Wall
16. She's Out of My Life
17. Sunset Driver (Demo)
18. Lovely One (The Jacksons)
19. This Place Hotel (The Jacksons)
20. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
21. The Girl is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
22. Thriller
23. Beat It
24. Billie Jean
25. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (Demo)
26. Someone in the Dark
27. State of Shock (The Jacksons with Mick Jagger)
28. Scared of the Moon (Demo)
29. We Are the World (Demo)
30. We Are Here to Change the World (from "Captain EO")
31. Bad
32. The Way You Make Me Feel
33. Man in the Mirror
34. I Just Can't Stop Loving You
35. Dirty Diana
36. Smooth Criminal
37. Cheater (Demo)
38. Dangerous (Early Version)
39. Monkey Business
40. Jam
41. Remember the Time
42. Black or White
43. Who is It (IHS Mix)
44. Someone Put Your Hand Out
45. You Are Not Alone
46. Stranger in Moscow
47. Childhood (Theme from "Free Willy 2")
48. On the Line
49. Blood on the Dance Floor
50. Fall Again (Demo)
51. In the Back
52. Unbreakable
53. You Rock My World
54. Butterflies
55. Beautiful Girl (Demo)
56. The Way You Love Me
57. We've Had Enough

A comprehensive box set of Michael Jackson's best material, spanning his entire career, is a difficult task. It would be damn near impossible to collect all the songs fans want. This set does an admirable job, but it sacrifices a lot of genuine hits for demo recordings and previously unreleased material. The demos and unreleased songs are interesting, but there's a reason a lot of them were never released. They just don't hold up well against the likes of "Thriller," "Billie Jean," and all the other brilliant works of this tortured genius. The only demo on here that I actually enjoy listening to is the demo of "We Are the World." In fact, I think it's actually better than the original song. This is still an amazing collection, though. It just tried to appeal to too many people and fell short along the way. It tried to appeal to the die hard fans by giving them stuff they've never heard, but it also tried to appeal to people who wanted a one-stop-shop for all the hits. It's an attractive package, to be sure, with four CDs, one DVD (the amazing Live in Bucharest video), and a very informative booklet. No one will be displeased with this set, as a whole. It's only once you really start dissecting what's present vs. what's missing will you be a bit disheartened. I, for one, am sad that my favorite Michael Jackson song of all time is MIA ("Music and Me," if you're curious).

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION on AllMusic.com
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