His music has been one long stoner's drone for the best part of a decade. A shame the talent has gone to waste.

Which brings me back to my old discussion - why does so much talent fade with age (and success?). Not all does. It's easy to understand why pretty boys and girls get less commercially attractive when they age. Their talent was youth and it's faded. But writers, producers, singers SHOULD improve with the learning of experience. Marlene Dietrich (who never could sing) kept adapting her charisma (like Madonna) and was still pure magic in her 70s. Sinatra's voice went physically but he could still transform lyrics and melodies with his interpretations late in life. Nina Simone (you'll notice I've chosen singers of Everyone's Gone To The Moon as examples) was magnificent right up to her death.

As you so rightly say about singles v albums, George seems to only record forgettable album tracks these days, and then releases them as singles! And he's really always been a singles artist. He seems to have forgotten what he did best, rather than improved on it. His singles lack structure, pace and point. They must make sense in his own mellow yellow world but they don't seem to mean much to most other people. I say this sadly as someone who really admires what he can do at his best, I'm just so frustrated by him these days.

Probably the more established an artist becomes, the less input they accept from other people, and this often means that songs are self indulgent and twice as long as they should be.

I wonder if it's just a change of interests and priorities for some people.

I see it with Elton John. There was a time when his life was all about music and I can imagine that all he wanted to do was strive to be bigger and better. Now he has a family and other interests, music is just what he happens to do for a living but the hunger and flare are gone.

This is an interesting thread and a number of people are making good points.

I would disagree with you Hashtag that George Michael has always been a singles artist. I think Wham! were definitely a singles band and I agree that George has also made some great singles in the past ('A Different Corner' 'Faith', 'Fast Love' in particular) but as a solo artist I think George has always been about albums.

I think it also boils down a lot of the time to wanting a different challenge. Making a great single is one side of the spectrum but crafting a whole album of stuff is another. The snag with 'crafting' an album is that very often individual tracks do not stand out well on their own and sound better slotted in to the right place as part of the album.

i have always admired George Michael as a songwriter because he can write throw away pop floss like 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' and meaningful classics like 'Father Figure' and 'Praying For Time'. Not many people can do both...

I do agree though that when people 'make it' and then get full artistic control they do have a tendency to 'over-egg the pudding' and often a good edit would sound much better. George is guilty of this sometimes with numerous tracks running into 6-7 minutes.

As for this latest effort, well, its nicely sung and has a haunting feel to it but its never going to come across on radio. Be good to challenge George to take a step back in time and return to his pop roots and then see what he came up with...

Tony May wrote:
This is an interesting thread and a number of people are making good points.

I would disagree with you Hashtag that George Michael has always been a singles artist. I think Wham! were definitely a singles band and I agree that George has also made some great singles in the past ('A Different Corner' 'Faith', 'Fast Love' in particular) but as a solo artist I think George has always been about albums.



I disagree. His later singles have flopped. That doesn't mean he's now an albums artist.

This is not actually George's song!
Let Her Down Easy was written & recorded by Terence Trent D'Arby for his third album Symphony Or Damn - and was a UK Top Twenty hit single in November 1993

Chris Retro wrote:
This is not actually George's song!
Let Her Down Easy was written & recorded by Terence Trent D'Arby for his third album Symphony Or Damn - and was a UK Top Twenty hit single in November 1993



We know that!