With Halloween coming around the corner, the Michael Jackson estate and Sony Music couldn’t resist releasing a new album with a scary theme to fit this time of year. Let’s face it, no one could pull off creepy better than Michael Jackson.
“Scream” is a collection of some of Michael’s creepier songs, like “Ghosts”, “Scream”, “Blood on the Dance Floor” and “Dangerous”. In order to make the release more appealing, two DJs were allowed to work their magic on some of the songs. Remixer The White Panda made a mashup of “Blood on the Dance Floor” and “Dangerous” and Steve Aoki made a remix of “Thriller”, which is a dangerous assignment (pun intended), because it’s only Michael’s biggest hit. No pressure…
“Blood on the Dance Floor x Dangerous” is actually a little bit of a mega mix of a bunch of the album’s tracks. It’s fairly true to the sound and feel of Michael Jackson and theme of the album; it captures the essence of Michael as an artist and it’s pleasant to listen to. Though, midway through, I have my doubts about the transition from “Leave Me Alone” to “Blood on the Dance Floor”. I don’t find it as natural as some of the other transitions. However, that’s my only negative.
Steve Aoki had a bigger challenge with “Thriller”. As said, it’s a song well known and well-loved and people usually don’t like changes. And maybe I’m one of them, but I’m not really sure what to think of his “Midnight Hour Remix”. This one really had to grow on me, even though I initially felt like he rearranged the song more than I felt he’d remixed it. That’s a good thing, because it stays very true to the original, but somehow I expected Steve, who represents todays dance scene unlike any other, to update it more than he did. After a few go-rounds, I am starting to like this version and I can see this be a welcomed mix on the dance floor during a Halloween party.
In life Michael Jackson was keen to try on new techniques and even after death, Sony, the Michael Jackson estate in collaboration with Shazam and the creatives from Flight Studio, made sure that Michael would be the pioneer of another new thing: “Scream” is the first album to offer an augmented reality experience.
I wish I could tell you about the experience, but this is one of those moments where I really hated that I’ve been running out of storage space on my phone. All the augmented reality experiences (one on the album, and one through promo posters) are triggered by the Shazam app that I’ve removed again. Maybe that’s a good thing, I hear it’s creepy. Good luck!
