"Faces" is an unreleased song written by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson intended for his 1995 double album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. (
listen)
Background[]
"Faces" was recorded in September 14, 1994, with Brad Buxer behind the production. Unfortunately, Jackson never got around to recording any vocals except for the spoken intro. Originally, the intro was gonna be recorded by Nelson Mandela, but his advisors told him to not to do it due to the allegations surrounding Jackson at the time.
"Faces" first leaked online in 2017 as a low-quality snippet from a seminar. On August 26, 2018, the song leaked in full by MJ Leaker as a low-quality recording from Brad Sundberg's seminars. In September 2020, the song was leaked again, this time, from a seminar in Poland. On January 27, 2023, the same version was leaked in HQ after Brad's laptop was stolen.
Lyrics[]
[Intro]
These are the worst of times and these are the best of times
Racism, bigotry, egocentrism, prejudice, hatred and violence are breaking the heart of our Planet and strangling it’s soul
And yet, we are coming alive, as never before!
Nelson Mandela: a black man, a former symbol of subjugation and slavery guides South Africa
Democracy and freedom flourish as never before and a new consciousness proclaims the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, where survival of the fittest is replaced by survival of the wisest
Let us dream of the great and sudden splendor of a new tomorrow
Let us dream of the full flowering of a new collective consciousness
Let us dream of a tomorrow where we can hold our heads high and stretch our arms toward perfection
Let us dream of a tomorrow where we no longer fragment and fracture our global village with narrow domestic walls, where tribalism no longer services under the pretense of nationalism and patriotic fervor and where we can truly live from the soul and know love as the ultimate truth at the heart of all creation
Let us dream of a tomorrow where our children are nurtured and protected and our elders revered and journeyed and venerated
Let us dream of peace and harmony and laughterr
Let us dream of joy and ecstasy
Let us dream of dancing the cosmic dance
And, as we dream, let us remember those who dared to dream before us, and sacrifice their yesterday, so we could have our tomorrow
Trivia[]
- During the laptop theft, a video featuring dancers rehearsing "Faces" leaked online, indicating that the unreleased track was most likely gonna have it's own music video.