A superbly crafted mainstream
pop/rock masterpiece,
Faith made
George Michael an international solo star, selling over ten million copies in the U.S. alone as of 2000. Perhaps even more impressively, it also made him the first white solo artist to hit number one on the
R&B album charts.
Michael had already proven the soulful power of his pipes by singing a duet with
Aretha Franklin on the 1987 smash
"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," but he went even farther when it came to crafting his own material, using sophisticated '70s
soul as an indispensable part of his foundation. Of course, it's only a part.
Faith's ingenuity lies in the way it straddles
pop,
adult contemporary,
R&B, and
dance music as though there were no distinctions between them. In addition to his basic repertoire of funky
dance-pop and airy, shimmering
ballads,
Michael appropriates the
Bo Diddley beat for the
rockabilly-tinged title track, and proves himself a better-than-decent torch singer on the
cocktail jazz of
"Kissing a Fool." Michael arranged and produced the album himself, and the familiarity of many of these songs can obscure his skills in those departments -- close listening reveals his knack for shifting elements in and out of the mix and adding subtle embellishments when a little emphasis or variety is needed. Though
Faith couldn't completely shake
Michael's bubblegum image in some quarters, the album's themes were decidedly adult.
"I Want Your Sex" was the most notorious example, of course, but even the love songs were strikingly personal and mature, grappling with complex adult desires and scarred by past heartbreak. All of it adds up to one of the finest
pop albums of the '80s, setting a high-water mark that
Michael was only able to reach in isolated moments afterward. ~ Steve Huey
![The Best of INXS [Rhino]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227825126_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Best of INXS [Rhino]")
![Greatest Hits [1992]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0715187759220_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Greatest Hits [1992]")
