Michael Jackson — Invincible

Throwback Review | August 2024

A $30 million production cost, but a strained relationship with Sony Music. Michael Jackson’s Invincible became the global icon’s last, and his least beloved project. How did this happen to the man that produced the highest selling album of all time?

Michael Jackson during a record signing in New York City for Invincible 

Is there any point of an artist introduction to Michael Jackson, one of the most famous human beings of all time? A star since he was a child with his brothers as the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson would become a Pop icon by the turn of the late-70s and throughout 1980s, obtaining a level of success never seen before or since. An incredible three album run between 1979 and 1987 with Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad led Jackson to become one of the most successful artists of all time. Each album would include multiple hit singes, from “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”, “Billie Jean” to “Man In The Mirror”. By the 1990s, Jackson became a legacy act and whatever he made would easily go number one and perform commercially well. 1991’s Dangerous marked a huge change in Jackson’s career as he no longer worked with Quincy Jones - the record producer behind that incredible three album run - instead opting to work with Teddy Riley, who was the curator of the new popular New Jack Swing style that infused both Hip-Hop and R&B. Though being another commercially successful album, selling 25 million copies within three years after its release, Dangerous marked the beginning of the end for Jackson from a musical standpoint. Along with his next album - 1995’s HIStory - Jackson’s albums in the ‘90s weren’t as consistently great or flawless, rather being projects that were a mixed bag with great memorable tracks, but also an incredible amount of filler.

Jackson’s Invincible would mark his tenth solo project, and would take four years to produce between 1997 and up to eight weeks before its October 30th, 2001 release date. With so many songs produced, multiple people involved with producing the album, and not to mention Jackson’s perfectionism, this all led to the album being pushed back, and having a high production cost of up to $30 million - making it the most expensive album ever produced. This was just one of the reasons that led to Jackson’s relationship with Sony Music becoming constrained. By 1995, Jackson would own 50% of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and would start to develop friction with his relationship with Sony, perhaps due to not liking the fact that an artist owned half of their publishing and had quite a bit of power. This tension would end up culminating in Jackson falling out with Sony and in particular - Tommy Mottola, the CEO of Sony Music at the time - who Jackson accused of being a racist and purposely refusing to give Invincible the proper promotion for it to become a commercial success.

If the promotion of the album wasn’t great, sadly the quality of the album wasn’t any different. It must be mentioned that there are bright spots on this album, and perhaps there was some form of potential for Invincible, however the amount of great moments on this album is incredibly scarce. The most consistent run of good songs are between track number four, “Break Of Dawn” to track number seven with “Butterflies”. “Heaven Can Wait”, which is the fifth song on the album is easily the best song on the whole album. It’s a slow ballad that is incredibly well written and produced by Jackson and Teddy Riley, if Invincible had the more songs with the same quality of “Heaven Can Wait” it would be a completely different album, and for the better. The lead single for the album, “You Rock My World”, is another bright moment on the album. Removing the fact that it has a really cringe worthy intro with Jackson and actor/comedian Chris Tucker, “You Rock My World” was Jackson’s last great single. The single was produced by Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, who produced almost the entirety of Invincible and was one of the most in-demand R&B producers of the late-90s and early-2000s, producing hit singles for the likes of Destiny’s Child, Toni Braxton, Brandy and Monica. Like “Heaven Can’t Wait”, there are other great slow-love ballads on the album, with that being “Break Of Dawn” and “Butterflies”. The last couple of tracks that are also worth mentioning, are “Whatever Happens” and “Heartbreaker”, with the latter having the quality of being a successful single if it was released as one.

Michael Jackson

There are however many points were the album is just not delivering the great standard that you’d expect from a Michael Jackson album. Right from the start with “Unbreakable”, which lazily uses a previously released verse from The Notorious B.I.G, which was originally used on Shaquille O’Neal’s, “You Can’t Stop The Reign”. Another weak track from the beginning of the album is “Invincible”, which features the rapper Fats - who also makes an appearance on the previous track, “Heartbreaker”. Considered to be Darkchild’s protégé, he sadly doesn’t have a strong verse nor presence on either track he is on. It’s incredible how a fairly unknown rapper, was able to gain two guest spots on a Michael Jackson album, and never had anything else released before or after. “Speechless” simply has a melodramatic chorus, whilst “2000 Watts” consists of really bad production work and fails to deliver this futuristic, new millennium sound and atmosphere. There more bad records to mention, notably “Privacy” and “The Lost Children”, which are both really difficult to get through. Simply, Invincible is all over the place and has clearly suffered from the lack of direction and perhaps the distractions that were going on during the album’s production.

With his passing in 2009, Invincible was sadly Jackson’s final album and it’s unfortunate that we never received another album. It’s understandable being Michael Jackson and struggling to out do your previous work, having the legacy of being so innovative, how would you do that again in the new millennium. The days of competing with his contemporaries during his peak in the 1980s were over, Jackson was now in releasing an album during an incredible and innovative time period for R&B. Acts such as Usher, Destiny’s Child and TLC were creating the best R&B music they had ever produced, whilst D’Angelo, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott were helping to push a new sub-genre of Neo-Soul. MJ’s Invincible wasn’t innovative and if he was trying to capture the sound that was popular during that time period, he failed at producing a great album and putting his stamp on the sound. Hence why many - beside hardcore Michael Jackson fans - tend to dismiss or forget that this album exists, with only “You Rock My World” genuinely being the only song remembered from this album.