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![Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]](http://www.shopping2d.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/michael-jackson-25th-anniversary-of-thriller-extra-tracks-original-recording-remastered1.jpg "Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]")
Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] Reviews
I woke up from a nap and there were three text messages on my phone. Nobody ever texts me, so I knew it must have been big news. I thought there was a fire or something. Turned out, Michael Jackson is dead. I was startled, to say the least, because MJ never seemed like the kind of person that could, you know, die. To be honest, he never really registered in my consciousness as being a person; Michael Jackson was the androgynous sexual panic of “Billie Jean,” the breathless seduction of “P.Y.T.,” the thrilling kitsch of “Thriller,” the chattering afro-popisms of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” The idea that he had a human body, one that needed food and air and sleep, never really clicked in my mind. But then again, I guess that’s to be expected. I mean, how can a mere human being really be thought to be capable of creating something as monstrous, as mechanical, as all-encompassing, and as awesome as Thriller? This kid wasn’t the king of pop; he was the whole damn kingdom. And we, the audience, are not his loyal subjects; we’re just reading the travel brochures.
The point is, Thriller is one of the greatest moments in the history of pure pop. Which is to say, it’s plastic, mass-produced, jugular-grabbingly commercial, and completely unconcerned with originality, artistic merit, or honesty. And goshdarnit, I wouldn’t have it any other way! With songs and performances as irresistible and ecstatic as the ones found here, artfulness will only get in the way. Because when you have a song as swooping, as ethereal, as hypnotic, and as unashamedly romantic as “Baby Be Mine,” there’s really no need to question its validity. Just let those labyrinthine keyboards and yearning vocals carry you away to a shiny place. And when “Beat It” comes roaring out of the gates, it does so with such force and brutal eloquence that you completely forget how absurd it is for Michael Jackson to take on the role of a street-smart hoodlum. As a vision of ghetto reality, it’s a nonsensical failure; but the important thing to remember is that, on a purely visceral level, it SOUNDS more convincing and more immediate than its more authentic counterparts.
And then there’s “Billie Jean,” whose lyrics are either shockingly amoral or completely uneventful, but which still manages to be one of the most magical, irresistible, and emotionally charged moments in the history of music. And if we found ourselves getting annoyed by the idea of having to root for a child-abandoning father, then we can just remind ourselves that it’s only a pop album. An stunning pop album, to be precise.
Listening to “Thriller” some 25 years on is still a stunning experience. Michael Jackson sold so many of these albums before the backlash set in (and Eagles – Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 overtook “Thriller”) that everywhere you went, a Michael Jackson song was likely playing from 1983 through 1984. As an example, the first Top 40 Radio station I worked for (in 1983) had both “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” in its top ten, with “The Girl is Mine” and “Thriller” (even before it was a single) in rotation, plus an album cut from a Michael Jackson/Steven Spielberg E.T. related special album. Not to forget every record Michael had a hand in (Rockwell, anyone?). That meant at least one song from Michael was going to come up per half hour, and maybe more. Jackson single handedly rewrote the rules when “Thriller” became a phenomenon.
More examples. Prior to “Thriller,” the idea of more than two singles from an album was pooh-poohed, it was considered a way to kill album sales. When Jackson dropped four singles from Off the Wall, it was considered to be a fluke occurrence. Seven of the nine songs here charted as top ten hits, two as number ones. Jackson wove multiple-musical threads into his tapestry, which meant that Eddie VanHalen was on board to rock “Beat It” and Paul McCartney was there to bring on board the Adult Contemporary crowd with a cheesy pop-duet ballad. VanHalen forced “Thriller” onto rock stations (which went as far as refusing to introduce the artist or say the record was Eddie VanHalen with Michael Jackson), and the funk of “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Starting Something” made this a club savvy smash.
Oddly, it is “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” that give the first clues into the freak show that Jackson would eventually devolve into…both paranoid and obsessive, these songs both broach Jackson’s Us Vs Them psyche to come. As he sings “You’re a vegetable, they hate you, they eat off you, you’re just a buffet, you’re a vegetable,” one wonders what made this and “Billie Jean” so venomous. But that throbbing bass and the moonwalk performance (on the DVD!) sealed the deal. Add MTV to the mix and there was no stopping him. The demand was so great that a cottage industry in Michael Jackson imitators started touring to fill the demand.
Yet 25 years and some 40 million sold LP/CD/downloads later, what of the music? Quincy Jones was an immaculate producer…this remaster proves just how pristine “Thriller’s” pop was. The staccato strings in “Something,” the throb of “Billie Jean,” the smooth soul of “Human Nature”… there is hardly a bad sounding moment on the album. Granted, the title track is probably the song that has held up the worst and maybe the chipmunk voices on “PYT” rank second, but this album is a textbook example on just how to engineer and produce great music. One needs merely to listen to the bonus tracks to catch that.
After all, why fuzz up “The Girl Is Mine?” Will.I.Am should left well enough alone. Barking out a new rap instead of McCartney’s playfully cloy counterpart just sounds like a forced fit. Fergie adds nothing to “Beat It” other than bad karaoke. Akon and Kanye West at least make it sound relevant…but when you listen to the smoothness of Quincy Jones’ work on “Billie Jean” as juxtaposed to the ragged sound of Kanye…well, you realize that West still has a long way to go. The lone original new track, “For All Time,” sounds like it should have been there to start with (and in the CD era, probably would have).
Having lost “Thriller” from my collection a long time back, I decided to go back for the new version. It was totally worth it. While every era has records that define it, “Thriller” not only captured the time it was released, but boldly restructured what the future of pop would be.
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