Though it's being marketed as a new album, Symphonica is really a placeholder, recorded live on his 2011/12 orchestral tour and released to keep fans going until Michael's fifth studio album (scheduled for this year, a full 10 years after his fourth). For a live record, though, this collection of 10 covers and seven originals has an oddly manicured feel, with a lack of the mistakes and ad-libs that pump oxygen into live recordings. Despite the applause and sporadic bits of improvisation (he changes the lyric to Praying for Time and banters on Feeling Good: "It's too much to expect a white man to do it like Nina"), these tracks could pass for studio versions. Michael glides through the songs like a pop swan, foregrounding his elegance as a balladeer. Really, the album is all about technique – his and the orchestra's. To be fair, he can croon the stuffing out of the most well-worn covers (Brother Can You Spare a Dime is a searingly emotional trip through several octaves), but it's at the expense of spontaneity.