George Michael

Listen Without Prejudice

Compelling. So much more than just "nice music"...

Review Score:

(10/10)
Words couldn't do this CD justice. For me, this album conveys some of the most intimate feelings any CD by any artist has ever stirred in me (much in the same way George's "Older" album does). This is supposedly George's venture into more philosophical grounds (whatever that means), it surely finds George delving into some of the darker places he'd ever visited up until that point. "Praying For Time"'s touching lyric "so you scream from behind the door, say what's mine is mine and not yours!" might be construed as social commentary, I think it's just everyday situation. "Freedom 90" is positively an all-out liberating song, not from anyone else but from your own reliance on external banalities. It's become a way of living for me, anyway. "They Won't Go When I Go"'s haunting live arrangement will leave you shaken. Otherwise, "Waiting For That Day" is a joyous but melancholy-charged opus to leaving your past behind and moving on. "Soul Free" is this album's funkiest moment, its delicious bass-line will make you wanna dance.
"Cowboys & Angels" is one of George's most achingly beautiful songs... words cannot describe it.
However, this album's most sublime moment comes with its last song, "Waiting (Reprise)", a poetic, sad yet hopeful composition in which George ponders his own life, interests and his relationship to others.
This album is a much superior effort (in quite a different way) than "Faith" (a pop masterpiece in its own right) and a illustrous predecessor to "Older", George's OTHER masterpiece.
Buy this, you won't regret it. Especially if you're catching up backwards, ie. if you got "Older" first than any other George album.

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