This CD crept out from the shadows without an accompanying statue, magnificent tour or half-hour multi-million dollar promotional video. Instead, Blood On The Dance Floor is an interesting collection of eight remixes of his HIStory collection and five brand new songs. The remixes are, as remixes tend to be, danceable pop. But the new tracks are really something else. They offer a glimpse into the tortured and scared mind of the world's most famous man. The title track, like Jackson's greatest work (Billie Jean, Who Is It), is a hip R'n'B workout that sees woman as predator once again, also offering a metaphor to the dangers of HIV. Morphine is a suprising dark and gothic industrial rock study of drug abuse that got the star in the mid-Nineties, whilst Superfly Sister further states Jackson's fear of sex in a style that salutes once rival, Prince. Ghosts is an attack against his enemies, largely the British press and Is It Scary is perhaps the enigmatic star's most interesting work since They Don't Care About Us. It is a heartfelt plea from behind the stage with lyrics that are guarunteed to raise those hairs at the back of your neck. This won't sell much but that's not its intention. It came without the blockbuster hype of his previous albums but with a alarming talent that reminds us why we made such a fuss over this guy in the first place. Its real success lies in Jackson's musical growth that should secure his position on his throne as the King of Pop.
