Wednesday 17 March 2004

Georgie says goodbye

George Michael is the world's most indecisive pop star. First he fights his original label - dinky little Innervision - until they succumb and allow him to fully sign to CBS sub-label Epic.

He then cried foul at the treatment from Epic (now being a sub-label of Sony Music, itself a sub-company of Sony Electronics, the Japanese powerhouse) and leaves to join Dreamworks in the US (and Virgin for the rest of the world).

Having fulfilled his commitments to those labels, he takes things into his own hands and auditions distribution labels for his new music - you see, he's gone and signed himself to Aegean, his own label, and he just needs someone to get discs in stores.

Polydor get the chance to release a couple of admittedly weak singles - 'Freeek!' and 'Shoot The Dog' - and the whole experiment underperforms.

Cut to late 2003 and Georgie boy announces the label he's going to allow to release his new album 'Patience' is none other than Sony.

Man. Does George not remember the hell and lawsuits he went through in the early 90s being nothing more than a piece of "Sony software"?

Obviously not.

Just to add salt to the wound, during this week's promotion of the album, George has announced he's sick of being famous and is retiring from the record-label release game. Any further music will be on his terms, his timescale and downloadable from his website.

Hope Sony weren't hoping on getting any further material to release.

Decent Album

Following this track record, who's knows what will actually happen. One thing is certain, 'Patience' is quite a decent album. There's snippets of the prominent George Michael phases here - the quiet introspective stuff from 'Listen Without Prejudice' and the stoming dancefloor anthems like 'Outside'. His hits album's division - For The Heart and For The Feet - still sums up his output.

Standout tracks - 'Flawless (Go To The City)' and 'Precious Box'.

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