George Michael: Older

PACKAGING HAS RARELY had more to say about the content of an album. Older's booklet interleaves lyrics with full-page shots of George Michael frowning, hanging his head and, in one shot, posed like an art object in a marble hall. The visual statement is "Look at me and take me seriously" – a readjustment since his last album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 when he'd concluded that to fulfil his longing for credibility he had to become faceless.