Rolling Stones gives Faith: Special Edition four stars.

Why wasn’t George Michael’s “Hard Day” one of the biggest hits of 1988? Because every other song on his album already seemed to be on the charts. Faith — which produced six Top Five singles — established Michael as a full-grown Brit-funk stud, with “I Want Your Sex” setting up his female fans for years of disappointment. The album holds up as one of the Eighties’ smartest megapop statements, full of passion and surefire hooks. This edition adds a CD of 12-inch mixes and B sides (check out Shep Pettibone’s nine-minute “Hard Day” mix) and a DVD of videos, so you can see George write “Explore Monogamy” on some lucky lady’s bare flesh in lipstick.

The Washington Post also has a review:

Twenty-four years on, “Faith” still represents the apotheosis of Michael’s career, the moment when everything was just right: He was newly soulful, but still interested in crafting mammoth pop melodies. He was serious, but not yet insufferable. Now stricken with what the British tabloids are calling “creative malaise,” Michael hasn’t released an album of new material in almost seven years, and an album of good material in going on 15.