George Michael: Songs From The Last Century

George Michael's personal life has been the subject of considerable commentary in the past few years, but what about his bizarre recording career Remember when, after 1990's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, he had a falling-out with his label and spent a good chunk of the '90s essentially frozen out of the industry Then, remember when he came back six years later with Older, a ponderous snore no matter how long the absence preceding it A lot of artists in Michael's shoes (like XTC, which endured a similar label-related hiatus throughout much of the decade) make up for lost time, releasing exciting material they've had pent up for years. But it's been nearly four years since Older, and his new album is a collection of covers so boring they make Older sound like a dance-club staple. Songs From The Last Century does the exact opposite of what's wrong with Duran Duran's similarly ill-conceived Thank You: Whereas that band took chances covering songs it had no business touching ("911 Is A Joke"), Michael sticks entirely to earnest, mannered, predictable, one-note mush. "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" "Miss Sarajevo" It's all horrifically plodding and dull, from the self-serious photos to Phil Ramone's more-is-less arrangements, to an unforgivably dull take on The Police's "Roxanne." Buried where no one could notice it—it came out in mid-December, just in time to render The Onion A.V. Club's "Least Essential Albums Of The '90s" list incomplete—it's bound to be forgotten by the time you read this.