michael jackson, "you rock my world": maura's review of the new mj single on nylpm says quite a lot, even with its economy of words. there's something very, oh, three years ago about the track, from the title, to michael's you've-got-to-hear-it-to-believe-it "she is bangin'" in the intro, to the beat itself: maura says "the girl is mine '01" which, i take it, is a reference to the mj/macca single of the same name from thriller; i've been thinking that she meant brandy & monica's "the boy is mine" (does rodney jerkins, who i assume produced this, know only one synth string arrangement?) -- i think we're both right. mj has been away from the game for the while, so maybe this has been sitting on the shelves. the only thing that gives it away is chris tucker's presence in the intro: he wouldn't have been on this had it been that long ago.

that said, i still like it. it's incredibly small-scale for a jackson single, particularly a lead-off single. where are the guest stars? the epic production? the monuments to his own crapulence? it has the easy-going lilt and assurance of a fourth single which may be the key to its charm. for once, he isn't trying to impress us; he's just being. thirty years into the game, it's about time, i'd say. still, we don't listen to michael jackson for the sublime and the discreet: we want the pretension, the crotch-grabbing, the grand statement! in short, we want our world rocked, not gently swayed.