Patience

Michael re-signed with Sony Music on 17 November 2003, and Patience was released on 15 March 2004, his first album for the company since 1990. Its first two singles, Freeek! and Shoot the Dog, had been released by Polydor in 2002, when the album was originally due. Shoot the Dog, which samples the Human League's Love Action (I Believe in Love), attacked George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US edition, released on 18 May 2004, left it off. Michael told Attitude that the vocals were more confident and more certain, and that songs such as My Mother Had a Brother and Through went further into the truth.

It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. In the US it peaked at number 12, and it has sold about four million copies worldwide. Amazing reached number four in the UK, and Flawless (Go to the City) reached number eight in the UK and topped Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart. On 10 March 2004 Michael told BBC Radio 1 that it would be the last of his albums sold as a physical release, and that later music would be offered for download with donations to charity.