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It is a state of affairs that leaves George Michael in a curious position. A lot has happened to him in the eight years - including the death of his mother and an arrest for public indecency - since he last released an album of original material, most of it bad. He has been vilified both for his sexuality and, more recently, for his political views. In addition, his star has waned: neither his collection of jazz standards, Songs From the Last Century, nor the subsequent singles Freeek! and the anti-war Shoot the Dog packed his usual commercial punch. Patience feels like a comeback, which, given the current climate, should seal its fate in the eyes of the record-buying public.
Its sound remains largely the same as ever. The man who signified his ascent to maturity via the moody sax solo of Careless Whisper has never really found it necessary to update his vision of how urbane adult pop should sound, and Patience arrives bearing such examples of 1980s musical sophistry as the twang of the fretless bass and sampled choral voices oohing and aahing. Yet the album's sound scarcely seems to matter when the songwriting is strong.
My Mother Has a Brother is a remarkable piece of writing, which delves into Michael's family history to reveal a gay uncle who committed suicide around the time the singer was born.
Perfectly measured, it never slips into mawkishness; the effect is heart-rending in the extreme. Round Here is a depiction of Michael's childhood, packed with nostalgic detail. Its description of Wham! as "two little Hitlers" might tend towards overegging the pudding - it seems unlikely that he and Andrew Ridgeley ever actually planned to invade Poland - but otherwise it's a superb performance, set to a sublime melody.
However, not everything works so perfectly. There are moments that suggest his loudly trumpeted love of pot may be affecting his artistic judgement. The remake of The One's camp house hit Flawless is fun - but not seven minutes' worth of fun - and there are lyrics that defy rational explication. In John and Elvis Are Dead, an awakening coma victim questions God's existence because some rock stars have died during the 30 years he was asleep. "His words made me cry, I knew exactly what they meant," sings Michael.
An artist who once straight-facedly released an album called Listen Without Prejudice, George Michael is not big on irony, a point underlined by Freeek! and Shoot the Dog, which tie themselves in knots attempting to take a wry view of current events. Michael has said that Freeek! is a song bemoaning internet pornography, but it is hard to detect any satirical intent in its bump-and-grind rhythm and panting vocals; it sounds as if he thinks internet pornography is a splendid idea. Similarly, Shoot the Dog needed a video depicting Tony Blair as Dubya's poodle to make its point. Shorn of the visuals, the song makes no sense: it depicts the emergency services "getting jiggy" after a terrorist attack and suggests that Cherie Blair should "spliff up" and "watch the World Cup".
The fact that Michael has included these two former singles highlights Patience's other big drawback. As has already been noted, a lot has happened to Michael in the last eight years. Patience tries to do too many things at once: express unimaginable personal grief, set the world to rights, snarl at the media, and hymn a new love, Texan boyfriend Kenny Goss. At 70 minutes, Patience is too long. Had Michael lost its weaker moments, its impact would have been greater. Listeners would not find themselves in the uncomfortable position of finding their attention wandering around track 11 - just as Michael launches into Please Send Me Someone, a song about Anselmo Feleppa, a boyfriend who died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage.
Perhaps the reasons that pop music seems so unforgiving in 2004 is because audiences have a shorter attention span. That bodes badly for Patience, an album that requires considerable effort. It gives the listener an awful lot to plough through, but anyone willing to persevere will find George Michael's finest work is buried within it.