To call
\nOff The Wall<\/i> Michael Jackson’s solo debut would be
\nincorrect; most people know he had solo albums on Motown in the
\n’70s, long before this disc came out in 1979. And to call it his
\nofficial break for Motown would be incorrect as well; he had been
\nrecording with his brothers as The Jacksons on Epic for a few
\nyears. (The band was coming off their biggest hit to date, “Shake
\nYour Body (Down To The Ground)”, shortly before
\nOff The Wall<\/i> was released.)<\/p>\n
What this album is, in fact, is Jackson’s declaration of
\nindependence. Never mind the fact he would record a few more albums
\nwith his brothers; this was the coming out party for Jackson the
\nadult singer. And while the dance motif of this disc is a bit
\ndated, the singles this album is noted for are still as fresh today
\nas they were 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
I remember this album mostly for the video for the opening
\ntrack, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”. When I was a teenager, one
\nof the UHF stations in Chicago started playing this video during
\nthe whole
\nThriller<\/i> craze, as if they had a world exclusive on their
\nhands. Of course, they didn’t, but it was still exciting to see and
\nhear this song that I wasn’t familiar with at the time. And I have
\nto admit, this track is still very much a guilty pleasure for me. I
\nknow it doesn’t have a lot of substance, and the falsetto vocals
\ncan get on one’s nerves, but I just
\nlike<\/i> the song.<\/p>\n
\nOff The Wall<\/i> had three other notable singles. “Rock With
\nYou” is probably the best-known of them, a solid effort that is the
\nbest song on the album. Jackson and his backing band lay down a
\nslightly funky groove that is instantly addictive, and might cause
\nspontaneous dancing in the living room when it blares out of your
\nspeakers. Immediately following is a faster-paced, funkier number,
\n“Working Day And Night”. This one, again, doesn’t have too much
\nsubstance, but is kind of fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
Jackson dips into ballad territory with the three-tissue
\ntear-jerker “She’s Out Of My Life,” the tragic tale of how one
\nman’s uncertainty of entering into a commitment costs him the woman
\nof his dreams. It almost sounds at the end like Jackson himself is
\ngetting choked up from the tale – possibly suggesting that this
\ncould be autobiographical?<\/p>\n
The one thing that strikes me about
\nOff The Wall<\/i> is that some of its aims are incredibly dated.
\nNot that Jackson was trying to be a disco artist, but songs like
\n“Get On The Floor” and “Burn This Disco Out” have their feet
\nplanted way too firmly in the musical past. I’ve heard worse,
\nadmittedly, but these are two cuts that have not aged very
\ngracefully.<\/p>\n
And while there are some interesting cuts that didn’t get a lot
\nof media attention like “It’s The Falling In Love” (I know someone
\nelse did that song, but I was too lazy to look it up prior to
\nwriting this review) and the Paul McCartney-penned “Girlfriend,”
\nthere are other tracks like “I Can’t Help It” and the title cut
\nthat just don’t impress that much.<\/p>\n
You have to admit, though, for an album like
\nOff The Wall<\/i> to still have moments that sound fresh 20 years
\nafter its release is a rare thing. But this was not to be the
\nmusical path that Jackson would follow; he was just a few years
\naway from creating an album that would forever change the face of
\npopular music… but that’s another story for another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5802],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39190","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michael-jackson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39190"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39190"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}