With reception lukewarm at best for Tuesday’s release of Invincible, Michael Jackson‘s first album of original music since 1995, many are speculating whether the self-crowned “King of Pop” still has what it takes.
Retailers are expecting strong sales in its first week, which is good news for Epic Records. The Sony-owned label spent a reported $30 million on the album.
Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard, told Reuters the album would probably be Billboard’s next number one album.
“It will start somewhere north of 300,000 units,” he said.
HIStory, Jackson‘s last album, opened with 391,000 units and sold a total of 2.1 million copies. The figures come nowhere close to Jackson‘s 1980 Thriller heyday. Thriller remains the biggest selling album in history with sales of more than 40 million worldwide.
Though first week estimates for Invincible are respectable enough, it hardly outshines recent chart-topper DMX, whose Great Depression sold 440,000 units in its first week. Janet Jackson moved 650,500 copies of her latest album All For You when it debuted in April. The record, however, goes to ‘N Sync. The pop group’s album Celebrity sold 2.4 million units in its first week last year.
While a recent rash of television specials on MTV and VH1 and several high-profile concerts will probably help Jackson‘s record sales, it’s hard to convince some people that the 43-year-old singer has not passed his prime.
Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times was quoted in Reuters as saying, “There are some inspired moments in the 77-minute collection, but there are also stretches that are sappy, derivative and labored. The excesses show what happens when you have an unlimited budget, no time constraints and an uncertain vision.”
Jackson‘s album may also face competition from the Backstreet Boys’ The Hits–Chapter One, though Reuters estimates the album is running closely behind Invincible.
In other Jackson news, psychic spoon-bender Uri Gellar claims Sony Records removed several words and symbols from a booklet accompanying the Invincible CD. The booklet features images of a man and a woman, the pyramids, a UFO and other symbols. Uri claims Sony took out the words God, Jerusalem, USA and Angel 2000 and replaced a Star of David with a pentagram.
Uri and Jackson are close friends and, according to Reuters, Jackson was best man at Gellar’s wedding in March–although he arrived two hours late. Uri claims he does not understand why “the creator’s name” was eliminated.
