Twenty Five

iTunes Review

In his native Britain and elsewhere, George Michael remains so beloved that this collection — originally released in the UK to celebrate his first quarter-century in the pop wars — impressively debuted at #1 in Britain and made the Top 10 in another dozen markets. Focused largely on his solo career, it’s an expansive career overview that stretches from his early, Rock-of-the-‘80s days as frontman for the duo Wham! and such bouncy, irresistible New Wave-Meets-Bubblegum hits as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Last Christmas” (one of the era’s biggest holiday recordings) to his massive solo debut success “Careless Whisper” and beyond. Tellingly, it eschews such early solo successes as “I Want Your Sex” in favor of material that better represents the pop star’s growth as an artist. George’s duets with Mary J. Blige on “As” and his turn with Elton John on the latter’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” display another side of his vocal prowess, while two of the collection’s three new tracks are also duets, the dramatic “This is Not Real Love” with former Sugababes star Mutya Buena, and a newly recorded “Heal the Pain” that pairs the star to good effect with another of his own boyhood idols, Paul McCartney.