History Past, Present and Future Book I
HIStory's 2 CDs (one hits, the other new) were Jackson's attempt to connect his glorious past to a dodgy present and--given it's commercial and artistic performance--cast a shadow on his future. Conceived as his formal coronation as the "King of Pop,"HIStory's second disc instead presents Jackson as an epauletted, single-gloved Richard III. By turns paranoid, angry, bitter, sentimental, and, in one instance, possibly anti-Semitic,HIStorywas less a collection of songs than a case history. A few tracks--mostly those produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis--are sleek, modern pop/soul, but too much ofHIStoryhas the overblown vacuousness of a musician who knows his time is past, but is unsure as to how to react to the situation.--Steven Mirkin