I can hear the questions now: Why have we waited over four years
\nto feature Michael Jackson’s 1982 album
\nThriller<\/i> here on “The Daily Vault”? The answer is quite
\nsimple: I like life, and I don’t like death threats.<\/p>\n
Whether I had formed an opinion on this album or not, tackling
\nthe best-selling album in history is no easy task. Daring to say
\nsomething that might not be positive about this record would be the
\nequivalent to playing a Slayer album during an audience with the
\nPope. It can only invite opportunity to be slammed harder than a
\nprofessional wrestler.<\/p>\n
Yet, here we are. And there Jackson was back in 1982. If one
\nsteps back and thinks about the time this disc was released in,
\nJackson happened to be in the right place at the right time. He had
\nalways been the subject of idolatry since his days with the Jackson
\nFive, only now, he had streamlined his look (compare the cover
\nshots of
\nThriller<\/i> and
\nOff The Wall<\/i>) and his sound. Oh – and he utilized a little
\ndevice known as the “music video”, despite MTV’s initial reluctance
\nto program his work.<\/p>\n
It was a powder keg waiting to be set off – and Jackson’s
\nappearance at the Motown Anniversary, where he upstaged his
\nbrothers for the umpteenth time, was the match that lit the fuse.
\nThirty-five million albums later, the ka-boom is still heard.<\/p>\n
Enough padding – how is this album? Musically, it’s a step up
\nfrom
\nOff The Wall<\/i>, ditching the dancing references and getting
\ndown to the funk at times… but there still is a little bit of
\nfiller. More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n
There is something to be said for the freshness of this record.
\nNearly 20 years since its release (Christ, I can’t believe I just
\nwrote that – seems like only yesterday I was buying this record at
\nK-Mart), tracks like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” still sound like
\nthey could have been written and recorded yesterday. (Yes, they’re
\noverplayed – but that doesn’t mean they’re not good.) “Wanna Be
\nStartin’ Somethin'” tries to pick up the funk where he left off on
\n“Workin’ Day And Night”, and while it’s not quite in the same
\nleague, it does feel like Jackson is trying to cut loose from his
\nfreshly-pressed image by having some fun in the vocals.<\/p>\n
Not everything has held up as well, though. “The Girl Is Mine,”
\na duet with Paul McCartney (at least when the two were still
\nspeaking to each other – did they ever kiss and make up?), sounds
\nabout as flat as any of McCartney’s solo material from that time
\nperiod, and is more of a time capsule kind of song than anything
\nthese days. Likewise, “Human Nature” sounds a little out of place
\nwith some of the harder-edged stuff Jackson was doing on this disc
\n– but then again, I didn’t like this song back in 1982. “The Lady
\nIn My Life” is a better love song than this. And the less said
\nabout “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”, the better.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nThriller<\/i> has held up surprisingly well over the years… and
\nJackson has yet to prove he wasn’t deserving of all the fame and
\naccolade this record brought him. (Never mind the fact that he
\nseemed to go fruit loops with some of his eccentricities.) We could
\nargue for over several hours over several beers whether
\nThriller<\/i> truly is the best album ever recorded, and each
\nside would be right in their opinions. Let’s leave it at this: for
\nthe time it was recorded in,
\nThriller<\/i> was the best album, and still is worth your time
\nand attention today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5802],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39484","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michael-jackson","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39484","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=39484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39484"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}