“Xscape,” out today, features eight previously unreleased Michael Jackson tunes, completed by top tier producers. There’s a reason these songs probably didn’t make it onto the albums they were written for at the time and that reason is that some of the songs are downright dreadful lyrically. They are saved by Jackson’s voice, which is treated lovingly here, and some of the best producers in the world — Timbaland, Babyface, L.A. Reid, Rodney Jerkins—dressing them up in current beats and lots of effects. For the most part, the producers push Jackson’s vocals way up in the mix because he sounds that good. Vocalists in training should listen to Jackson’s voice here and study how he uses it going from a whisper to a scream and shifting easily from one register to another. Plus, his vocal trademarks, from the heavy breathing to the little yelps and other hiccups are all here.