The day has come I never thought I’d see, I have a copy of ‘Older’ on vinyl! I paid £35 for this double disc, translucent green edition which seems a little pricey but is an absolute snip compared to the £900+ an original 1996 pressing was going for the last time I checked eBay.
For those unfamiliar with this album (where have you been?!) it was the first release from him after a 6 year battle with Sony to get out of his contract with them after they, in his eyes, failed to properly promote his previous album ‘Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1’.
It is a monster of an album, going to number 1 all over the world from Australia to the UK although it wasn’t as big of a hit in the US surprisingly, only reaching number 6 in the Billboard 200.
It produced 6 singles, 2 of them (‘Jesus To A Child’ and ‘Fastlove’) hitting number 1 in the UK with ‘Spinning The Wheel’ only being kept off the top by ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls.
Michael won an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Songwriter of the Year’ and was also voted ‘Best British Male’ at the MTV Europe Awards too. Not a bad return after a long lay off.
Personally, I reckon ‘Older’ is his best work, a view shared by the man himself who said as much in a 2007 interview.
Tracks To Try: ‘Jesus To A Child, ‘Fastlove’, ‘Spinning The Wheel’, ‘Star People’, ‘You Have Been Loved’
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