This article is about the unreleased song. You may have been looking for the Eddie Cascio song.
"Monster" is an unreleased song written and produced by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson intended for the Invincible album. (
listen)
Background[]
"Monster" was recorded by Jackson in 1998. Brad Buxer was behind the production with Jackson. "Monster" is said to be the most complex recording Jackson has ever made.
| “ | Recorded 1998. Epic production. Lots of layers. It's dark. Heavy beat. Has a string section. MJ sang the strings in a voicemail left on Brad Buxer's answering machine, and Michael Prince brought them to life musically. Lyrics: "you created a monster" and that's it. | ” |
–Damien Shields, X, October 21, 2022[1] | ||
In an episode of the MJCast, engineer C.J. DeVillar shared his memories working on "Monster" at Record One. He described it as a 96-track recording, and featuring an orchestra, huge amount of percussion and "flies buzzing". The aforementioned lyrics were also confirmed to be the hook. He called it "very experimental, it sounded like a very personal Michael Jackson song to me, very personal," and "kinda one of his Sgt. Pepper songs". He remembered it feeling more like a piece of art rather than a pop song. One of the MJCast members who'd heard the song before recalled it being "the most complex Michael instrumental they've ever heard." A full transcript of the MJCast episode can be found here.[2]
On September 27, 2024 a snippet of "Monster" was provided by Michael Prince for the 4th episode of Damien Shields' Faking Michael podcast.[3]