George Michael is releasing his sixth (solo) album Symphonica on March 17th. Add to that the three albums he recorded with Wham! and the various compilation albums and we must be looking at approximately 15 George Michael albums. I have them all. From the very first Wham! album (Fantastic in 1983 which I bought with my own pocket money) to the latest download of Symphonica, which I will be buying on March 17th, we’ve had 31 years together, George and I. How time passes by so quickly. I was just talking to a friend of mine about George’s new single Let Her Down Easy and she quite quickly pointed out how we haven’t changed at all but George Michael looks so gray. She was joking of course. We have changed and George looks very distinguished in his gray hair and beard, but really, it feels like we were all just in our early twenties.
Let Her Down Easy is a beautiful and intimate Terence Trent D’Arby cover. I have to admit whilst I do remember Terence Trent D’Arby very well, I don’t remember his original version at all. I suspected that might also be the case with many of you, so I included the original video for the song at the end of the post. George’s version is a live recording from his Symphonica tour in which he performed some of his prettiest songs (along with some famous covers) with a full orchestra. When I say Let her Down Easy is live, I mean his vocals are live. They’ve had to edit out all the audience noise from the track as apparently British radio won’t play tracks with audience ambiance anymore. Weird rule.
There are two videos for Let Her Down Easy. The first is an elegant black and white circus themed video directed by Vaughan Arnell. (He has been directing music videos since the 1980s. His career spans from Dead or Alive to Robbie Williams to One Direction.) The other is a live video from the Symphonica tour. As pretty and delicate as the Vaughan Arnell video is, nothing beats a spotlight, George Michael and a microphone in my opinion. That’s my favorite version. Which one is yours?
If you go to georgemichael.com and connect with Facebook, you get a free preview download of “Praying For Time” from the new album.
All images: George Michael, Symphonica Tour Booklet, Let Her Down Easy video screen grabs.
