Freeek!

by

George Michael

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True to form, George Michael pushes the sexual envelope again with this tantalizing single. Like he proved in the clever 1998 single "Outside", George is taking his public bathroom PR nightmare and being very tongue-in-cheek about it.

The single itself, and the Max Reich mix, are enough to make you want to go out and dance until dawn with a lusty stranger.

But the REAL reason to get this version of FREEEK! is George's stunning cover of "The Long and Winding Road". It's a live recording and George is in BEAUTIFUL voice. His exploits and risque lyrics have often overshadowed the fact that he has one of, if not THE, best male voice in pop music. I can't wait for his next album, but until then, this funky single and gorgeous cover are plenty enough to satisfy.

In a sense, George really went off the deep end with this 2002 song "Freeek!"--it's an absolutely intense, overwhelmingly ominous, thumping dance track that can barely be classified as mid-tempo, plus it's loaded with expletives--not exactly the most radio-friendly track you ever came across. It's true that sometimes less is more, but "Freeek!" shows that sometimes over-the-top is the way to go. This track is absolutely explosive and gets under your skin big time, stuffed with insanely catchy hooks, and unhinged sexual lyrics which make "I Want Your Sex" seem like baby food in comparison. It's rather surprising to see this song coming from George at this point in his career, because what he's really doing here is turning back to clocks to the tongue-in-cheek days of early Wham!. George has been determinted to mature musically over the years, and he has done so to terrific effect, and yet "Freeek!" ranks with "Wham! Rap" & other tracks from Wham!'s debut album as the most over-the-top thing George has ever done. And being the incredible artist he is, George stunningly pulls it off. With the computer terminology of the track, "Freeek!" is obviously about cybersex, and it's done in a wonderfully intense way, and yet with George's tongue firmly in cheek. Some may indeed cry "sell out" and/ or find this to be a regression for Michael, because if you're looking for the rewarding sophistication that's in abundance on his "Older" album, forget it. But what the hell, this is an irresistible track--the way George pulls it off is characteristic of his enormous talent, yet it's still beyond all belief. One thing though that I can't forget to mention is that George is still in absolute peak form vocally here.

If you own both "Freeek!" 1 & "Freeek! 2, you're all set; however, all the contents of those 2 CD singles are found on the 5 track version of "Freeek!", thus making it the ideal version to have and highly recommended.