Recording
Michael spent the most part of 1987 writing and recording the songs for the Faith album. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording except for one, "Look at Your Hands", which he co-wrote with David Austin. Using the then-revolutionary Synclavier 9600 Tapeless Studio, Faith was Michael's first digital recording. A contemporary pop-R&B album, Faith showcases the vocals of Michael in a new-style mode. It features songs littered with introspective lyrics, generating controversies about Michael's personal relationships at that time. Most of the material was recorded at P.U.K. Studios in Denmark and Sarm West Studios in London.
Some of the material was more graphic than Michael's previous efforts with Wham! Such a song was "I Want Your Sex", which had three parts, the first part was titled "Rhythm 1: Lust", which was the version that would eventually be released as a single and featured electro funk influences, the second part was titled "Rhythm 2: Brass in Love", which mixed a more instrumentally-based funk live instrumentation with a smoother R&B arrangement during the verses. A third part, which was edited to be the final song on the album, was titled "Rhythm 3: A Last Request", with lyrics of Michael and his date and Michael drunkenly trying to convince his suitor to his bed. This mix featured a jazz-influenced, quiet-storm R&B sound. The title track began with an organic coda that was actually the music to Wham!'s "Freedom", played as if in a cathedral. Afterwards, the song featured a rockabilly sound similar to Bo Diddley while Michael added his own style with his vocals. "Father Figure" originally was a dance-styled production until Michael removed the snare drums from it and kept it that way because he loved what he heard, making the song a mid-tempo R&B ballad. "One More Try" was a soul song in tradition to the songs of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder with lyrics of a man who pushes his lover away out of fear of repeating past relationships, only to accept the invitation in the end.
"Hard Day", much like the first two-halves of "I Want Your Sex" was inspired by funk, mainly from Prince, in "I Want Your Sex" and in "Hard Day", Michael even applied a vocal emulator where his vocals were sped up much like Prince's records at the time. The social commentary song "Hand to Mouth" had a slight pop and folk approach while a similar social commentary song, "Look at Your Hands", co-written by Michael and David Austin, produced a pop song with rock elements with the piano and saxophone. "Monkey" returns to the funk influences of some of the other songs. A remix of the song by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis brings a New Jack Swing approach from the original. "Kissing a Fool" is a jazz-influenced ballad with its lyrics solemnly describing a breakup.
Read more about this topic: Faith (George Michael album)
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)