George Michael - Faith

Stepping out of Wham! and into the spotlight alone, George Michael made Faith a pop album with a rock star's swagger and a soul singer's heart, and it is back on vinyl.

Released in 1987, it was his first solo studio album, and he kept tight control of almost every part of it, writing, producing and playing much of it himself. The gamble paid off on a massive scale. Faith became one of the defining albums of the decade, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year.

The title track opens with a solemn church organ before snapping into a Bo Diddley shuffle, all hip-swivel and acoustic twang. Father Figure slows things down to a hypnotic, gospel-tinged crawl, One More Try stretches a bruised ballad across nearly six minutes of aching restraint, and Kissing a Fool closes the record in a smoky, late-night jazz haze.

Under the gloss, Faith is a surprisingly personal record, full of desire and doubt, and it showed just how much range George Michael had as a writer and a singer. Decades on, it still sounds sharp and sensual.

This pressing brings his solo breakthrough back to the turntable, where those grooves and that voice have always felt most at home.