And yet for all that, the new disc does feel like an act of courage on Jackson's part--in its sheer, surprising joylessness. The skin-deep lyrics themselves may not take us too far into his thinking, but the downbeat tone does: He's sad, he's sad, he's really, really sad. More..." class="gallery-slideshow-photo" height="410" width="410">

Inasmuch as the album sells itself as his most deeply personal body of songs, yet doesn't offer up much sense of real personal revelation beyond mere defensiveness, "HIStory" is principally an album of denial, probably in more ways than one.And yet for all that, the new disc does feel like an act of courage on Jackson's part--in its sheer, surprising joylessness. The skin-deep lyrics themselves may not take us too far into his thinking, but the downbeat tone does: He's sad, he's sad, he's really, really sad.