At the Berlinale in 2004 he happily presented his film biography “A Different Story”, and a month later his first solo album in eight years. He joked about his slowness in the studio and the increasingly long gaps until the next record. He gave the previous work a self-referential title, “Older,” and now he thanked us for our “patience.” George Michael would live for twelve years afterwards. The 41-year-old could not have imagined that “Patience” would become his legacy.
There are traces of an early work on this album. With the house of “Flawless (Go To The City”), Michael talked about the suburban teenager’s dream of ditching McJob and roaming downtown at night; the techno rhythms are appropriate to the satellite city atmosphere.
The ballads tell of pain and the doomed attempt at a life without burdens. For the first time he sings about his uncle’s suicide, committed on the day of George Michael’s birth (“My Mother Had A Brother”), he reports about his childhood as the son of a Greek immigrant (“Round Here”), and about his partner’s death from AIDS (” Please send me someone”), and, a theme since the Wham! days, doubts about the value that pop stars have for society (“John And Elvis Are Dead”).
In the “Shoot The Dog” cartoon video he parodies Tony Blair and George W. Bush, whose Iraq war he took a stand against. It is his most important political song, and George Michael was prepared to risk his career – public criticism of Britain’s Middle East policy angered the Yellow Press. In his former second most important market, the USA, he was boycotted long ago after his coming out in 1998.
Today, none of the twelve “Patience” songs, let alone one of the six singles, can be found at the top of the “Best of George Michael” rankings. Unfortunately. Because on no other of his albums has he summarized his life in such a concentrated manner. Until the very end, he opened his concerts with the piano ballad “Through”; it seemed that he wanted to shed a burden from himself for the following two hours: “Is that enough? I think it’s over / See, everything has changed / And all this hatred may just make me strong enough / To walk away.”
Another album song, “Precious Box,” says, “Have I a family? I guess not/ Because no one comes in the morning/ No one comes in the evening time.”
At last he was lonely. On Christmas Day 2016, the “Last Christmas” singer was found lifeless in his bed.