10 years of Xscape - do you still listen to it?

Short & sweet - no, I haven't listened to anything off it for years now. Don't remember how long ago!

I like it a lot but I haven’t played it for a long time

Xscape is wonderful for the same reasons many of us enjoy it so much; it doesn’t take itself seriously. In fact, what makes Xscape work so well are all of the reasons why precisely it shouldn’t; a collection of seemingly random tracks all thrown together and remixed by a bunch of über contemporary misfits such as Timbaland, Stargate, J-Roc, L.A Reed whilst also including Rodney Jerkins and Dr. Freeze, who, Ironically produce two tracks that are completely unlike what they did on Invincible, but we also get their originals as well.

The remixes range from fun to really fun, and as a one-off I enjoy it for precisely that very reason. There’s no deep thinking involved here. No instances in which we need to remind ourselves of the horrors and injustices of the world, save of course for the children; Do You Know Where Your Children Are? But even then, via the remix it’s turned into something less weighty and a little more hands-in-the-air-singalong and is almost celebratory.

It also done exceptionally well, what with the amount of promotion and the various promotional campaigns around a few of the tracks that were slightly odd if not amusing. The worst being the Slave To The Rhythm holosham that claimed to be an authentic hologram. Everything else though, weird as it was, all helped to hype things up. Heck, the album itself was odd so the different promotional campaigns deliciously tied-in to the whole über modern vibe.

And the Love Never Felt So Good remix was great in that it was constantly on the radio in my house and even my neighbour blasted it from her car stereo for the duration of that summer.

I can’t really talk about it in comparison to Invincible. Invincible is canon and Xscape is posthumous. I’ll take canon all day long over posthumous, but I’ll take Xscape on a summer’s evening in the back garden over The Lost Children. Don’t want to scare the neighbours. There’s a time and a place, Y’know?

That said, if I had to choose, I’d choose Invincible. I like Invincible more today than I did over 20 years ago.

Yes, I still listen to the originals of A Place with No Name, Loving You, Do You Know Where Your Children Are, and Blue Gangsta.

I’m listening to Xscape right now and halfway through it and the one thing I will say in relation to Invincible is that Xscape -for me- is an absolute breeze to listen to whereas with Invincible I always feel like I almost have to book a day off work to get through it. Yet I would choose it above Xscape but it can feel like such a slog by comparison. 

For me, Xscape is as easy as Bad to listen to. The gold version. 

A Place With No Name is weirdly wonderful. Both versions!