Always

Always

Michael’s sophomore effort was Always, an album built around a collection of much more familiar songs. There are classics tunes everywhere you turn, from ‘Cry Me A River’ to ‘A House Is Not A Home’ and ‘Stormy Weather’.

Michael does a great job on ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ and he is clearly having fun with ‘On Broadway’, but while his vocal on ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ is flawless, here the production lets the side down, with the then trendy thin guitar tones, artificial drums and synthesized keyboards coming across as very dated compared to the superb instrumentation on later records. Again not available on streaming or digital, you can buy the CD (there are two versions, identical in content but with different covers).

However, the best stuff from this album can also be found on compilations.