Twenty Five

The title marks George's 25 years in the music business. But it is worth noting that, for the last 20 of those years he has, quite ingeniously, remained at the top of the tree while maintaining the workrate of an arthritic tortoise - just five new studio albums, and one of those was a covers collection.

OK, his disenchantment with the music industry is well known, but even diehard fans must be a bit miffed that the record release which coincides with his world tour is not a new collection of songs, but another retrospective.

It is only eight years since the "Ladies And Gentlemen : best of" with which Twenty Five's track listing overlaps considerably.

No amount of cunning packaging - such as dividing the collection into themed sections with the twee titles "For Living", "For Loving" and, on the triple CD version, "For The Loyal" - can disguise the fact that fans will be buying some songs for the second, maybe third time.

OK, that's the "buyer beware" message.

"Twenty Five" offers a handful of inessential new cuts (the likes of "Heal The Pain" with Paul McCartney, "This Is Not Real Love" with Mutya . . . yawn) but it is also a reminder of the gobsmacking range of Michael's work.

That means everything from the gorgeous, saccharine-tinged glory of "Careless Whisper" to the most cack-handed protest song ever in "Shoot The Dog".

It's a journey from the shuttlecock-down-the-shorts frippery of Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to the big band crooning of "My Baby just Cares For Me", from brilliant throwaway pop like "Faith" to songs of disarming autobiographical honesty like "My Mother Had A Brother".

George is a pop everyman capable of the sublime (the cover of Stevie Wonder's "As" with Mary J Blige) and the ridiculous (the afore-mentioned "Shoot The Dog").

Pity he's not capable of upping the work rate.