The King of Pop stakes out his 21st-century territory

Michael Jackson’s final studio album is a deep dive into his turn-of-the-century psyche. While the building blocks of his funk-pop remain intact, subtle touches—8-bit glitches on the pleading title track, hiccuping synth beats on the sultry “Heartbreaker”—reveal his close study of Y2K-era pop savants like Timbaland and Missy Elliott. The ballads, however, stick to classic soul-pop ideals; “Butterflies” swoons and sparkles, Jackson’s infatuation heightened by the song’s feather-light arrangement, while the steadfast “You Are My Life” focuses on his voice’s ever-potent sweetness.