Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1

Upbeat and fun pop songs, melodic and haunting ballads, George Michael does it all. His voice is just so powerful, regardless of the style; it simply suits everything. The album's lyrical material is also great, moving me emotionally track for track. Love the mix of instruments heard throughout the record like the different synth sounds and acoustic guitars. This album is pretty heavy on side 1 and alright on side 2, but the reprise making the experience more cohesive certainly pleased my ears. Very high 4, wonderful singer.

Freedom 90 is quite good. It could have been by the Mock Turtles. Elsewhere he’s very deliberately being a serious artist and demanding we Listen Without Prejudice. I did it’s artfully put together toss. Wham! Was real. Real young people singing about real life things, a bit naff a times but ten times better than studious pretension that began George’s solo career.

There's a lot of lower-key, broody tracks on here, but I prefer those to the more upbeat ones. There's quite a nice atmosphere in general, and he's a good singer.

3.5 rounded down.

The Good: We are listening without prejudice!
The Bad: We realize that prejudice, sometimes, is not a bad thing...
The Ugly: Our prejudice telling us what it is thinking...

Jorge, Jorge, Jorge... what the fuck?
Freedom was a smash hit, it could've used a little more of that smash and a little less of the "look at me trying to be something else".

Not that this album was bad, it just wasn't what I had hoped it would've been... I love the album Faith because it is just fun... it oozes fun... this oozes pretentiousness, and I am not a big fan of that...

So, a coin was flipped... and 3* will be given.

This albums feels like it's trying too hard to have poignant lyrics and instead they just come across as preachy and on the nose. Really brings down songs that are otherwise simply fine. Disappointing, I thought I liked George Michael more than this.

Trevligt att lyssna på

Another fine album. Kind of poppy and generally enjoyable to listen to. 3/5

I thought this was pretty solid and has some parts worth coming back to. 7/10

Wasn't amazed by it, but solid.

Unfortunately, I did listen with préjudice. I have ears, and thus could hear that this sounds like shit.

I guess it would be nice if i could listen to this album

actually i did. it was quite nice but no one touched my body while listening to it

Freedom 90 and Soul Free have a fun Baggy infused upbeat feel and irreprible, if extremely smooth, energy to them. The rest is extremely boring ballads for radiostations that play in places where music has to be on but can't upset anyone.

ANOTHER GEORGE MICHAEL ALBUM! Michael’s sophomore effort comes from a decidedly different place than anything he has attempted so far. Where his previous album, Faith, was largely a continuation of his work with Wham, a perfectly fine, and at times incredibly iconic and high-quality work with obvious mainstream intentions, this is something much different. Michael approaches his art with a vision of something seemingly greater than that: where Faith purposefully arrived with a polished sound that catered to seemingly as many people as it could, this album takes greater risks: songs about social issues, songs dealing in personal life and struggles, and also songs with greater musical variety, such as the use of alternative dance-derived drums on “Freedom! ‘90,” one of the album’s two main standouts, a driving, soulful anthem to letting go judgment and living authentically, pertaining in no small part to Michael’s identity as a gay man (something that, while not necessarily known to the public, is evident in retrospect). The other standout is the jazzy, waltzy, seven-minute “Cowboys and Angels,” an emotional powerhouse that largely achieves that effect through the beautiful use of instrumentation throughout it, and Michael’s reserved yet pained vocals and lyrics. I really really enjoyed this album all the way through, and I’m super glad to have listened to it today.
8.9/10

I don’t know if it’s because this album brings me back to my youth but I found it excellent, both musically and lyrically.

Really solid collection of great vocal tracks. Love George for his earnest and heartfelt camp even though I grew up on punk. The older I get the more I just respect his vocal prowess.

In my mind this is exactly what the 90s sound like, all while avoiding sounding generic. It's not exactly an album I'd reach for, but I enjoyed it quite a bit!

Standouts: Freedom!'90 • Cowboys and Angels • Heal the Pain • Soul Free

I remember his music to be more interesting, but this bored me. Freedom! '90 is a good song but the rest I didn't really care about. And I did listen without prejudice.

First off, you really have to respect the sheer balls it took for George Michael to follow up the massive, image driven success of Faith with an album cover that doesn't even feature his face. It was a huge, defiant statement to ignore the pop idol persona and take him seriously as a songwriter. But as for the music itself, it ends up feeling like a bit of a mixed bag. It heavily relies on one undeniably hot track, "Freedom! '90", surrounded by a lot of slow, somber filler. Granted, some of that "filler" is actually quite beautiful, and the acoustic, mature vibe really works when you're in the right mood. But as a complete, front-to-back listen, it gets a bit too bogged down in its own serious intensity to be an absolute classic.

I kinda get it, and culturally important. But the music really doesn’t do it for me. All a bit cheesy.

Prejudice-free assessment:
1 over the top ballad but I kind of liked it
2 bop
3 boring ballad
4 boring ballad
5 ballad but marginally more interesting
6 this was ok
7 boring ballad
8 dishwater
9 music from the Streets of Rage beach level
10 pointless reprise