Classic Albums #3 - Michael Jackson - Thriller

[Shireblogger]

We've had a 60s and a 70s album, so I thought an 80s pick would be appropriate. I deliberated for a while, before deciding that Haven should pass verdict on the best selling album of all-time.

So, Michael Jackson "Thriller" from 1982 is the 3rd classic album for Haven to review.


1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" 6:03

2. "Baby Be Mine" 4:20

3. "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) 3:42

4. "Thriller" 5:57

5. "Beat It" 4:18

6. "Billie Jean" 4:54

7. "Human Nature" 4:06

8. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" 3:59

9. "The Lady in My Life" 5:00



Total length: 42:19

[o]

Nice popular choice, think I prefer Dangerous myself, but this has the more classic songs on it, and obviously was the big step up for him to super mega star!

[thehitparade]

First one I don't own. And the first one my Mum doesn't (as far as I know) although my brother has it. I heard it a lot when I was a kid but I haven't listened to the whole thing in ages.

[Razzle Dazzle]

good choice, one I know very well from the singles but never listened to all the way through

[rubcale]

Great album with Billie Jean the standout track. The one dud track for me is the duet with Macca which is pretty anaemic.

I'm one of those who prefer Bad.

[raliverpool]

Michael Jackson - Thriller





So the third Haven classic album is only the biggest selling album of all time, whose impact changed the face of popular music as well as help fund Michael Jackson being able to change his face. But is it the best album of all-time?

Thriller was the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, the second of his Epic Records releases after he and the Jacksons (bar Jermaine) escaped the clutches (and an awful record deal) of Motown records. This was the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall, and the middle of the trilogy of seminal MJ albums produced by the production genius that was Quincy Jones. Thriller explored and expanded similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary music.

Michael wrote 4 of the tracks on this album (the first four singles: The Girl Is Mine; Billie Jean; Beat It & Wanna Be Startin' Somethin) one more than he managed on Off The Wall.

This album won Jackson a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of the Year. That same year, Jackson won eight American Music Awards, the Special Award of Merit and three MTV Video Music Awards. Thriller was recognized as the world's best-selling album on February 7, 1984, when it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records.[50]It is one of four albums to be the best-seller of two years (1983–1984) in the US. Whilst the album was also the first to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles.

Personally, I feel the album's success was a case of perfect timing to capitalize on the rise of MTV with some of its (unoriginal ideas wise) videos which highlighted what an utterly brilliant (at the time) and magnetic performer Michael Jackson was. However, I feel Michael's finest album was Off The Wall, and some of his singles with the Jacksons (Can You Feel It; Walk Right Now; Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground); Lovely One) were better than some of the singles released on this album. Hence I feel he had already creatively peaked as an artist, and as is frequently the case the public caught up with his amazing talents with this album, not least as visually and image wise MJ was at his peak before the combination of sappy ballads, songs about saving the world, children, a persecution complex, his drug addictions and all his operations to his face took their toll resulting in the genius that is Quincy Jones bailing out after the Bad album. I'm very much in the camp believing the production work of Quincy Jones and it's very clean condensed sound for the time was the critical key to Michael Jackson's supernova success as an artist, and things went very much downhill after their partnership ended.

Track Rating:

1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" 7.5
2. "Baby Be Mine" 5.5
3. "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) 3.0
4. "Thriller" 9.5
5. "Beat It" 9.0
6. "Billie Jean" 10.0
7. "Human Nature" 10.0
8. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" 7.0
9. "The Lady in My Life" 8.0

If I was to recommend a similar sounding album which I think is superior then I'd have no hesitation in recommending Michael Jackson - Off The Wall www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDhFkkVVxx8

So my Thriller album rating is 8/10 (69.5 divided by 9 = 7.722)

My Michael Jackson album rates:

Off The Wall 9
Thriller 8
Bad 7
Dangerous 6
History Continues 7 (the CD of new original material)
Invincible 6
Michael 4

[smokeyb]

Michael Jackson "Thriller”

Can I say right from the off that I am not a fan of MJ. I don’t mind some of his songs from 79-83 but I’ve never liked him as a person then or during all the controversy that followed him subsequently. I will try to put that aside to review this album however. First observations are how did he manage to milk 7 singles from a 9 track album, talk about ripping of his fans.

Billy Jean is the stand out track for me which I would rate an 8.5/10, the video certainly helped the single. I quite like Beat It which would get an 8 from me, and once again the video stands out. The title track Thriller would get a 7.5, with the lavish video easily remembered as one of the musical events of the time. The rest of the tracks I don’t really like much so would rank them from 2 - 4

1 "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (4/10)
2. "Baby Be Mine" (2/10)
3. "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) (2/10)
4. "Thriller" (7.5/10)
5. "Beat It" (8/10)
6. "Billie Jean" (8.5/10)
7. "Human Nature" (3/10)
8. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" (3/10)
9. "The Lady in My Life" (2/10)

Total score 40/90 or 4.5 out of 10.

As you can see I’m not a big fan, I don’t own anything by him, nor will that change in the future.

[o]

We have one Michael Jackson greatest hits cd that gets played a fair bit in the car as the kids and Mel like it, I like certain singles, and not others. Nice to listen to a whole album by him and see what I make of it.

1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" 7/10
2. "Baby Be Mine" 4/10 dull
3. "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) 2/10 hated it when it came out, still do.
4. "Thriller" 8/10 classic, still remember taping the video when it used to be on late at night, and watching it back later the next day!
5. "Beat It" 7/10 Simple, but catchy and also loved the video!
6. "Billie Jean" 6/10, prefer Thriller.
7. "Human Nature" 4/10 was this released as a single in the UK, only charted after he died?
8. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" 6/10 Catchy and liked it at the time.
9. "The Lady in My Life" 3/10 zzzzzz dull ending

Total = 47/9 = Overall rating of 5.5, some classics, some dirge.

[Shireblogger]

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Context
I was in my mid-teens when Thriller was released, and I was able to afford one album purchase each month. That meant that every choice was carefully deliberated. Thriller came out in December 1982, while “The Girl Is Mine” was in the charts as the lead single. I didn’t give it a second thought – there were far more interesting LPs around at the time. But “Billie Jean” caught my attention, and when “Beat It” surfaced the following April, it became my selection for the following month. So, of the 50-60 million copies sold so far, I must have been in the first 10% or so.
5/10

General Overview
It is amazing it sold so extraordinarily well. Thriller has some excellent tracks, but it also has some filler. And many of those tracks which are pretty average, haven’t aged especially well. Perhaps it is over-familiarity, but this album no longer has the capacity to excite me.
7/10

Intro & Outro
First impressions count, and Thriller was pressed back to front. If side 2 had been side 1, then the album would have opened with “Beat It” and closed with “Thriller”, which would have been awesome. As it is, we get the vocal histrionics and over-long synthetic funk workout of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” to lead us in; and the maudlin dirge “The Lady In My Life” to leave us feeling rather nauseous.
3/10

Music
The combination of cutting edge contemporary dance sounds recorded with the best studio technology available, and Eddie Van Halen’s wailing guitar, on “Beat It”, was a breakthrough sound. The only disco + rock example I can think of that precedes it is the Rolling Stones efforts to hit the dance floor in the late 70s, and that didn’t really work very well. “Billie Jean” is recognisable instantly from its simple, layered percussion. It was designed to perfectly complement Jackson’s vocal stylings. “PYT” has an instrumental introduction that sets the mood before the singing starts, and then fills the gaps between Jackson’s lines with interesting sounds.
8/10

Lyrics
“Thriller” is genius. “You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run, You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun”. And Vincent Pryce intoning “And grizzly ghouls from every tomb, Are closing in to seal your doom”, is Hammer House of Horror par excellence. I’ve always been intrigued by “Human Nature” which has some interesting lines, enabling the lyrics to create a mood of their own. “Electric eyes are everywhere, See that girl, She knows I'm watching, She likes the way I stare”.
7/10

 
Production & Sound
The clean sound of all of the album’s cuts, and the positioning of Jackson’s voice to the fore demonstrate that Quincy Jones had completely mastered the studio. And the sound effects on the “Thriller” track were deserving of an Oscar.
9/10

High Points
Tracks 4, 5 and 6 may be the best consecutive trio of pop songs ever committed to vinyl. Rod Temperton’s “Thriller”, then MJ’s “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” are pure genius. 30 years on, and they still work brilliantly.
10/10

Low Points
Epic knew they had a few weak tracks on the album, because they didn’t bother to release them as singles. “Baby Be Mine” with its squelchy synths is pretty irritating, whilst “The Girl Is Mine” is a decent song in totally the wrong hands. It is simply inconceivable that Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney could, in any universe, be fighting over the same girl. I’d have liked to hear a Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart version of this – that might have been quite entertaining. But the low points are few, and aren’t diabolical.
5/10

Packaging
The album artwork isn’t my cup of tea, and the sleeve notes are lazy. But Thriller’s packaging is all about the videos. “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” were visually strong, and served their purpose in promoting the songs effectively. But “Thriller” was in a different league to any video ever produced at that point. At the time it was breathtaking, and my friends talked about little else for several days after its grand unveiling. Pastiche and technology have reduced its impact today, but it is a landmark in popular culture.
10/10

On balance
I was reasonably impressed by Thriller when I bought it in May 1983, and I still like it today. It has never been one of my all-time favourites, but at no time has it drifted completely out of favour either. Maybe I should whisper it, but it isn’t actually MJ’s best album. And nor is “Bad”. It is “Off The Wall” that is the most consistent, most enjoyable MJ release of them all.
7/10

TOTAL SCORE
I’ll make you see that’s it’s a Thriller night.
71/100.

For Haven:
7/10

[wonderwall]

Do not own any studio albums of his but history the best of is the one to own by mj

[o]

Raliverpool will choose October's album, Smokeyb will do November, Vastariner December, and then possibly thehitparade in the new year, then we might all start with our 2nd choices unless we get some new reviewers in...

[wonderwall]

Ill do a pick if you want Andy ?

[raliverpool]

Sept 29, 2013 11:04:45 GMT 1 o said:

Raliverpool will choose October's album, Smokeyb will do November, Vastariner December, and then possibly thehitparade in the new year, then we might all start with our 2nd choices unless we get some new reviewers in...

I'll post my selection either tomorrow night (31st), or Tuesday evening (1st).

[o]

Sept 29, 2013 12:42:21 GMT 1 wonderwall said:

Ill do a pick if you want Andy ?

You have to review the albums wonderwall, then you join the list of the pickees...
We've had David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, plus MJ and Thriller.

[vastar iner]

OK, Thriller. Not an MJ fan, and many of the tracks are familiar from single releases. So how do they sound on an album?

The start of the album. The beginning is anonymous, kind of like a number of tracks around the time, thinking of Boystown Gang and Galaxy and so on. It’s not a clarion call or a bang impact; it’s also not a quiet lead-in.

Then Michael Jackson starts. This is “Wanna Be Starting Something”. Vocals are definitely different to what happened before; primal, urgent, part yelp, part staccato. The voice as an instrument. Perhaps it is due to the voice as being an instrument that I cannot make out the lyrics; perhaps they are banal. But this sounds unlike a single release, it is like “Float On”, a theme, a link, a sting. The verse and chorus sound identical, the backing is plastic, repetitive. I would suggest it is a jam, a section taken from a whole session, only more Coco Pops than jam; there isn’t even the hint of anything natural in there, it’s a computer concoction, an artificial creation.  Still, it has some appeal.

Second track. Is this George Benson? This is more of a song than the opener, but it doesn’t have the danceability. “Give me the night”? It is George Benson. And pure filler. I can understand why this was not a single release. Even the production work sounds knocked off in a few seconds. Cliched.

Third track. Slower. Sprinkle of synth sound that is straight from a Minnie Riperton songbook. They are getting more song-like. And blander. “The Girl Is Mine”. It seems to reach a natural end point before Sir Paul comes in, his voice sounds surprisingly like Jackson’s on this. Did he really sing “the doggone girl is mine”? Don’t remember that. It’s a bit gee-willikers...I remember at the time hating this, I don’t think anyone at school bought it either. No wonder, we had Madness and Echo & The Bunnymen at the time, I think. Time has not rescued its reputation - it is hideously repetitive and seems to have been sold on the sole premise that it has two of the biggest names in music on it. I don’t however hear anyone clamouring for a Kanye West remix of “Peggy Sue”. Oh God, it’s STILL going? Now they’re talking over it in one of those fake joshing “aww shucks” ways. This is really, really embarrassing.

OK, finished. What’s now? Creaky door. Must be the title track. Horror noises. Hello, something spacey coming in. This sounds a bit more interesting. Bit “No Doubt About It”. There you go, the sting of the title. And now the backing, for once, sounds like it fits a song. There’s a sort of warmth about it. That underlying synth fills the sound. But what lets it down is the chorus. It sounds a bit flat at the top note. And as if it’s trying to be a cliffhanger that doesn’t quite make it. More lugubrious voiceover in the bridge, tries to rhyme “blood” with “neighbourhood” which doesn’t quite work. Like a cross between “Land Of Make Believe” and “Monster Mash”, but with the humour of the first and the pretension of the second. Theme park horror.  It's hardly Birthday Party-sinister.

Hm, sounds like a Kraftwerk out-take now. And now a guitar. It’s funny how tinny it sounds now, an imitation of a guitar. “Beat It”, of course. It’s been a while since I’ve heard it, but it’s still not very good. Formulaic, the one interesting thing is the chorus basically two words surrounding a bridge. But it just goes on and on and on and on, with occasional added yelps. Even the fade is the same thing over and over again.

Drum and hi-hat. Rumbling bass. Sh-sh. Can only be “Billie Jean”. That four note synth and more yelping. In an album context it stands out much, much more than even as a single. A distinct set-up. Go dancing, on the floor, in the round. Should be a chorus now, but instead a second verse. Nice. And a bridge before the chorus. Which contains the same four note synth; again the emphasis on the voice. This was well-credited as a solo album. Concentrating on listening to it, it’s very well structured, the constant “go dancing on the floor” reprise acting as a second peg around which the song is wrapped. Incessant earworm. Very well done. Ooh, second time around it’s slightly different, vocals off the beat and slightly delayed. Yes, this is an excellent track.

Back to reality. Something incredibly soft and wet. God, this is total crap. I can’t be bothered to critique it, it just cannot be over soon enough. And now he’s gone falsetto. “Human Nature”. I hope not or we won't be around for global warming to finish us off.

It’s finished, and seems to be replaced by the same track again. Only worse. Augh, now it’s gone all fake-funky. Like I’m being forced to have a good time. No thank you. “PYT”, according to the rushed chorus. Someone’s grunting now. This sounds less a song and more a random collection of material thrown together because they found they were short at the recording sessions.

Fade out, surprise surprise, and something else now. My God, I didn’t think it could get any more bland, yet somehow it does. This is an out-take from a 1976 Top Of The Pops where they decided not to show The Damned or Sex Pistols, and instead went with Tony Monopoly. This is TERRIBLE. “The Lady In My Life”, apparently. It makes “The Lady In Red” sound like “White Riot”. God almighty. It brings to mind The Carpenters, that horrid Fire & Rain thing from The US 100 Club, Debby Boone, all the total and utter rubbish that topped the US charts in the seventies when we had Slade instead. It’s so irredeemably bad Charlene would be proud to cover it.

Overall, on listening to the whole thing as an album, I don’t see its appeal at all. Why is this hailed as a masterpiece? Or a breakthrough? Just not getting it. There’s nothing new on it, much of the album would have sounded dated five years earlier. It smacks to me of getting a pioneer vote - namely that it was the first album by an American that properly exploited the medium of video, and the first album by a black man that properly exploited the medium of video. Way, way behind the capabilities of the British, but the Americans got caught by Beatlemania once, they weren’t going to concede again. And those who could have shown real impact - Funkadelic, for example, or Grandmaster Flash - were too extreme for the extremely MOR American tastes (ten - TEN - weeks for “Physical” at number 1?  What did we have?  The Human League and Bowie).

What surprised me was the production work. Quincy Jones had been lauded to the skies for it. But, listening to much of it for the first time in 30 years with the 30 years’ of extra musical experience, I found it...mundane. It sounded so artificial. There was no  soul or pizzazz or emotion in it. It sounded entirely produced by computer. Entirely remote from humanity. I cast my mind back to Roxy Music of that era, for example, and although the production work was similar on their records, it sounded real. This did not.

And then again think back to the early Jacksons. “I Want You Back”. There was a joie de vivre about that. Where had that gone by the time this came along? Even later self-parodial stuff like “Can You Feel It” had more va va voom.

Overall, it had one superb track, a couple of others mediocre and the remainder purest filler. Without “Billie Jean” I’d give it maybe 1 out of 10; can I give it much more because it has one track shoehorned onto it that makes the entire rest of the album sound even worse? Hm. As a collection of tracks I’d give it 3 because of that one song; as a coherent single unit whole I’ll stick with the 1.

And, given that the pattern of the music industry was changed by this album, to move away from sound to image in its near entirety, it’s lucky to get that...

[thehitparade]

Only an hour of September to go so I'll have to try and do this more or less live, streaming an album I haven't heard in full for ages but knew pretty well as a kid: my brother went through a Michael Jackson phase about 25 years ago after my dad bought Bad on the same night as our first CD player, so that and Thriller were on pretty heavy rotation back then, especially in school holidays. Sorry Mum.

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' is the opener and from the title alone one of the more sensible sequencing decisions on an album that seems a bit random in places. Not a song that gets mentioned much these days nor played on the radio but I've always rather liked it - the words are stupid but the production has a tight, slightly minimalist quality and a faintly hyperactive energy that blends well with Jackson's manic and slightly surreal vocal delivery. Admittedly part of this is the bits he ripped off from 'Soul Makossa' - he did subsequently come to a financial settlement, although apparently Rihanna forget to pay the writers when she sampled this track.
One of the handful of tracks from a Jackson best-of I bought for 99p that I actually bothered to put on my MP3 player.

Baby Be Mine is one of the few tracks from the album that was never released as the A-side of a single - it did make it to the B-side of one of the Bad-era singles though, I remember seeing it on a jukebox in France. It's pretty standard early-80s soul-pop, with an above average singer. I used to like singing along but maybe too much of a potboiler to come this early in the running order?

The Girl Is Mine was with hindsight an infamous choice of first single, though presumably it made sense in 1982 when Paul McCartney still had some claim to be the biggest pop star in the world. If this had been as big a hit as hoped, we might now see it as a sort of symbolic moment when the baton passed to Jackson as the biggest star in the world. It didn't quite work that way because the song was neither good nor suited to the duo - they don't sound at all convinced by it and you can't blame them. McCartney got the better end of the deal on their collaborations, keeping 'Say Say Say' and 'The Man' for his own album. My favourite part of this track is when McCartney sings "the girl is mine, yup she's mine" in a really low voice, because it sounds a bit like he snuck into the studio and dubbed that on while Jackson wasn't around, which is the most believable part of the track. Unfortunately that's followed almost immediately by the hideous spoken section and it just collapses.

Thriller, I noticed when listening, is almost twice as long as the track before it but it seems to go by faster. Obviously few people in the world need to be told what this song sounds like, but it does spark a couple of (possibly inaccurate) memories from my own childhood: seeing the scary video at an inappropriate age when my aunt was babysitting, and some time later singing this song at a party at my grandparents' house. I also remember Lenny Henry doing a parody where he sang "these guys are really scary and they look like they are fans of Aston Villa," which I thought was the funniest thing in the world then.
I do recognise this as a classic track, playing up the eccentric qualities that helped make him the star he was, although not one I go out of my way to listen to because I hear it so often. It can only be a week or two from re-entering the chart.

Beat It opens with what I discovered recently (through the book Perfecting Sound Forever) is supposed to be a synthesised gong. I believe there was some royalty dispute over that too. One of my favourite songs a quarter-century ago, and I remember learning all the words, doing air-guitar, miming that knocking sound in the middle etc. It hasn't aged that well though, partly because that rock/rnb crossover idea is obviously less radical, partly because I don't like 80s rock as much now as I did then, partly because the weaknesses of the song itself are more apparent now. I never did understand why the pool tables in the video didn't have pockets though. 

Billie Jean, the Michael Jackson song that even people who hate him like, is as familiar as the title track and as hard to find new things to say about. This one did make it to my MP3 player, which I guess is a sign of quality after I've heard it so many times. Of course, when it was originally out I didn't know what it was about (although I did mishear one lyric as "risking her glands" so maybe I wasn't so far off!)

Human Nature was the point when I remember feeling like the album was starting to wind down, the propenultimate track. Not a hit here in his lifetime, though it was a US single. One of the more mysterious songs on the album, it seems to be set in some sort of dystopian surveillance state. Unless he's just singing from the perspective of a perve who gropes women on public transport. One track I probably like more now than at the time, because I'm older and can appreciate the backing track. 

P.Y.T Was a big favourite when I was a kid because of the daffy voices, although it's only really got nostalgic appeal now. It does at least liven up the later stages of the album. 

The Lady In My Life would certainly have been my least favourite track circa 1988, soul balladry not being that appealing to a ten-year-old. I can appreciate it more now, and the singing is good - as it is throughout - but this is still one of the lesser tracks. I think it's the only one not to show up on the A-side or B-side of a single. 

So an album with a couple of classic tracks and only one real clunker, but a few too many fillers for a set of only nine songs. Probably only a 6/10 from me now, more like a 9/10 if you'd asked my ten-year-old self.

[o]

Vas, you got a rating?
Cheers everyone, and even though September is over, the albums can still be rated!

[vastar iner]

Yes, penultimate paragraph. 1/10.

[meister]

Well you Haveners are an alternative lot. My musical tastes are a little more pop / mainstream and this is possibly the only album I could justifiably review (edit : just seen the list properly - I could review about 10 others).

Yes this album and the singles from it have probably been overplayed but if you think back to the 80s, this stuff was avant garde and hooks / melodies have been mimicked for generations. For me the standout tracks are the lesser known ones (if that’s even possible) and dare I say it the cheesier cuts (The Girl Is Mine).

1. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" 10 Stands the test of time as a dancefloor filler!
2. "Baby Be Mine" 10 Gorgeous smooth late night soul. Very George Benson like someone mentioned.
3. "The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney) 9 Yes the dialogue bit is cheesy but it has a strong melody and builds up nicely at the bridge.
4. "Thriller" 9 A bit tired of this track now but back in the day I couldn’t get enough of it.
5. "Beat It" 9 (see Thriller)
6. "Billie Jean" 8 The only track that Haveners rate highly is probably my second to least favourite.
7. "Human Nature" 10 Stunning melody – a classic!
8. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" 10 This one has grown on me again after many years. A masterpiece in feelgood music! I too like the chipmunk / Daffy bits.
9. "The Lady in My Life" 7 Listenable but the weakest track on the album. Doesn’t really go anywhere.

So overall score : 82 / 90 = 9.1 / 10

[Shireblogger]

I've really enjoyed reading all the reviews posted on "Thriller". Some interesting perspectives, and an entertaining range of opinions too. There are a few people here who could probably earn a living as professional music critics.