Is it really Jackson on ‘Breaking News’?

Die-hard Michael Jackson fans are puzzled and outraged by a new track claimed to have been recorded by Michael Jackson.

Record company Sony Music premiered the song, “Breaking News” on the website michaeljackson.com on Monday morning. It is the lead single off “Michael”, an expected December album, but the release has already been embroiled in a controversy that has raged across the webverse all weekend.

The 4.17-minute song is vintage Michael, featuring the singer’s signature beats, ceating mental pictures of the singer's unforgettable dance moves, even as it picks up one of his pet themes: the media. Typically, the fourth estate gets a battering in what sounds like a piece of ressurectionist literature.

“Everybody wanting a piece of Michael Jackson/ Reporters stalking the moves of Michael Jackson/ Just when you thought he was done, he comes to give it again," he sings. "They want to see that I fall, cause I'm Michael Jackson/ You write the words to destroy like it's a weapon."

Part of the song is extracted below:

But is it really the King of Pop?

“It sounds just like ‘Smooth Criminal’", one Emirates 24|7 staffer said. Another reporter likened the track to work by Usher, suggesting it was more studio enhancement than original vocals.

Online, fans had mixed reactions on the official website. Apart from a torrent of messages declaiming their love for the departed pop icon, people compared the vocals to R&B singer-songwriter Jason DeRulo and to Jason Malachi, the Italian-American singer often described as vocal doppelganger for Jackson. Lovechild said: "To me that doen't sound like him. It sounds like one of the Backstreet Boys. It doesn't sound like MJ's voice at all to me. The pitch seems off and weird. Unless they used electronics on it and maybe he didn't want it released because it sounded so not like him!! I just have a hard time believing this is him singing. If so it was really tweaked with a lot on the vocals. The song is really good though. I like the beat. Just don't sound like him to me at all."

Jackson’s own mother weighed in barely days ago, suggesting the upcoming album isn’t genuine, while his sister LaToya told the gossip website TMZ.com: "I listened to it ... It doesn't sound like him."

On Friday Katherine Jackson reportedly gave TMZ.com what it called a new track: “Opis None”. Her business partner Howard Mann said the track had been put out for free "in an effort to overcome the confusion as to the authenticity of the track the estate has recently released."

Immediately, fans identified it as a remix of Jackson's 1979 track “Destiny”, taken from the album of the same name. On the fan site MJFU.com, TwistedVision wrote: “God God! That remix is awful and it just goes on and on. Thanks Katherine. Now this has been all over TV and people think it's something to do with the album. Who the hell is going to buy the album after hearing this s***?

“It's almost as if it's intentional. To sabotage the Sony project. It actually hurt my ears.”

Jackie Jackson then denied it on Twitter, "Dear fans: I just spoke with my Mother and she did NOT authorize the release of the demo track called Opus None (sic). I personally think it was sampled together by an unauthorized party.... Please don't believe gossip sites...."

Mann has since backtracked.

On the other hand, celebrity producer Mark Ronson believes Jackson's own vocals will be included on the forthcoming album. The white-hot singer/producer told the Daily Star that his track submission for the album, "Lovely Way", definitely features Jackson's voice."It was definitely him singing. I was given a vocal track to work with but I never actually met Michael," he said."It's in the vein of Elton John's 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and John Lennon's 'Imagine'."

Or is it Jackson with a little help from his friends?

Meanwhile, Sony Music Group insisted forensic studies proved the authenticity of the songs: "We have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael that the vocals on the new album are his own,” the company said in a statement.

What’s clear on listening to the track even once is that it clearly wasn’t a finished product, and we’re of the opinion that Jackson, a legendary perfectionist, would have been unhappy to have put it out even as it sounds right now, even with all the recent studio work.

And Jackson's father said last week his son would never have wanted to release incomplete and unfinished songs.

It's easy to imagine a conspiracy at work, with suggestions flying about that famous names have been roped in to elevate the quality of the album and perhaps even embellish Jackson's vocals to bring them up to slick, polished levels we’ve come to expect from the man who gave us some of the most iconic hits of our times.

We tend to agree with longtime Jackson collaborator Quincy Jones, who told Entertainment Weekly a few days ago that extra songs from the "Bad", "Thriller" and "Off The Wall" sessions were never meant to see the light of day. "That’s the reason we took them out in the first place. At the end of a record, I’d take the four that I thought were the weakest out of the other ones and try to find the four that are stronger than anything else on the album. And it always works for me. We went through 800 songs to do 'Thriller'. That’s a lot of songs, man."

In the year since his death last June, biographers have speculated that Jackson's fearsome talent had begun to wane in middle age and that he was too ill to lay down a track equivalent to his finest work, so it's possible that the singer himself may have wanted to rel-release cleaned up versions of old tunes to get his debtors off his back. Possible, even plausible, but either way, we'll just never know.

What we can say is that while "Breaking News" provides further proof of Jackson’s awesome talent, we can’t shake the feeling it is in no way an evolution of his sound (Tell us what you think. An excerpt is available above for you to decide, but the entire song can be listened to at michaeljackson.com). Sentiment withstanding, it's certainly not his best work.

What it will do, though, is generate piles of cash for everyone involved -- as will a Cirque Du Soleil show, dance videogame and complete DVD set of his pop music videos, all, like "Michael", backed by the singer's estate.

Even this controversy about the authenticity of the album can only pique audience interest -- and sales. So perhaps the King of Pop is having the last laugh after all.

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