Album Review: Michael Jackson - Off The Wall (1979)

My childhood love of Michael Jackson extended largely to the Thriller and Bad era albums - most notably the latter, as I was getting into Michael Jackson in a big way when that album was still fresh.  I always loved some of the material from Off The Wall, the album that I'm reviewing here, as well, especially the opening track, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", given that my gutter mind always gravitated to entirely different subject matter altogether whenever I heard the opening monologue.  Plenty of top notch disco ditties going around here - the aforementioned opening track aside, of course, and omitting the classic "Rock With You", as everyone knows that song, I'm loving "Get On the Floor" and "Off The Wall" as much as I always revered "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." And Jackson's cover of Paul McCartney's "Girlfriend" is always good listening to boot.  The last three tracks on the album - "I Can't Help It", "It's the Falling in Love" and "Burn This Disco Out" are the only real duds to be found here.  A great precursor to the legendary Thriller album, this is definitely an album worth checking out, if you haven't done so already.  A-

Album Review: Michael Jackson - Dangerous (1991)

I was big on the music of Michael Jackson since the mid-late 1980s, when I was very young.  In fact, "big" is probably the wrong word to use - "fanatic" is perhaps more appropriate, and it's a label you could've used to describe a great number of people back in those days.  I mean, Michael Jackson was HUGE.  And even when he was seemingly put on the back burner, not forgetting of course, the molestation scandals that dragged him back into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, he was still pretty damn big.  The scandals made a mockery of his public image, and he was of course the butt of numerous jokes for many years.  But it took his death for the world to snap out of it and really appreciate the unparalleled musical genius that he was, and that his loss was a significant one, not just for popular music or popular culture, but perhaps also for the history of humankind.  But even when his popularity was supposedly waning, he still had the magic.  Dangerous was released when it seemed his career had reached an impasse, and it was still as brilliant as his previous works.  There's plenty of great songs on this album, fillers are well and truly far and few between here, and that's what I like.  Much of the raw emotion and passion from the previous album is on here, "Jam", "Give In To Me" and "She Drives Me Wild" all resonate with that energy that made his stage presence so powerful and so enamoring.  Of course there was the "softer" side of Jackson - "Heal The World" comes to mind here, and even though it's a song I wouldn't play on the daily, I still find myself going back to it once in a blue moon, albeit, perhaps, merely for the sake of reflection and reminiscence. Everybody will know doubt know about "Remember the Time" and "Black or White" too, but I care little for them.  There's the rest of the album to be savored.  A

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

Michael Jackson danced like a one-legged sparrow having a fit on an electric fence.  But that's a very good thing.  Fast, spontaneous, improvized and electrifying, Jackson is one of history's greatest entertainers for a reason.  And at the peak of his career, prior to the kiddy-fiddling accusations and his general decline into even deeper eccentricity and obscurity, he was the best in the business.  The world hadn't seen a pop star like him.  Even when his more eccentric proclivities became more and more public, in death he was remembered for the megastar he really was.  And that's how he should be remembered, really.  His breakthrough album, Thriller, sold countless millions of records and is still the best selling album in all history.  I personally grew up on his Bad material, and I personally prefer that album myself to this one.  But there's good songs here aplenty too, as you should expect from the best-selling album in history.  "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Thriller."  Those are the staple classics here.  But "Human Nature" and "Pretty Young Thing" are good enough to be played more than ten times as well.  Not my favorite Jacko album, but still a very good album nonetheless.  A-

Album Review: Michael Jackson - Invincible (2001)

In the late 70s, Michael Jackson, the child star of the Jackson Five, was once again a star in the making, and this time it was on his own terms; in the 80s he was by far the world's biggest and most popular pop star, putting out top-selling albums such as Thriller and Bad, and becoming a household name and a familiar face to young, aspiring pop music fans everywhere (including me). However, in the 90s his star began to fade and an ill-deserved reputation of being a child molester would, until his death tarnish his public image badly. In 2001, he released his final, proper studio album in six years, called Invincible. Never to be the best-seller that Thriller was, and after listening to the album a dozen times and putting aside my bias toward modern music in most of its forms, the album most certainly has its charms and that perfectionist aura characteristic of most MJ albums. It is well made, it sounds good, and most importantly, it still sounds like Michael. Tracks like "Heartbreaker", "Heaven can Wait", "Threatened" and "You Rock my World" all do it for me, and are worth playing at least ten times each. As for the rest of the album, I wouldn't regard them as being fillers - some of them are good enough for relaxation purposes, which, all in all I guess, makes for an adequate album. B+

Album Review: Michael Jackson - Bad (1987)

Michael Jackson died a tragic death in a number of ways. Firstly, prior to his death, he'd become a recluse, accused of molesting children and being perceived as a freak, a stark contrast to his Thriller days. Secondly, after his death people were suddenly reminded of how great and how talented an entertainer he was, and sadly, it took his death for this irrefutable fact to come to light once again. The man is a genius, and anyone who says they can surpass him as an entertainer is either lying, or in need of a shrink or a firing squad. An estimated 100M+ sales of Thriller to date is clearly testament to this.

My first exposure to MJ came in the form of a song called Bad. I was five years old, it was 1987 and it was the best thing I ever heard. And it was another 8 frustrating years until I finally got my grubby paws on the album. It was my very first CD, and owning a copy of this fantastic album was, for me about as liberating as a hooker offering half-price specials to fat, bespectacled nerds at a Star Trek convention. It had consistency, melody and that superstar aura to it that made it stand out like facial hair on some street-trawling harlot from Budapest with more kids than teeth and halitosis that'll set off a geiger counter. And it sounds like pop, unlike it's predecessors, which were more disco, funk, and R&B orientated. And despite being taken down a peg by most critics, I still regard this album as a cracker of a record. A-