{"id":41532,"date":"2009-05-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/bad\/"},"modified":"2009-05-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-31T00:00:00","slug":"bad","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quite a bit of expectation was weighing heavily on the shoulders of the Michael Jackson\/Quincy Jones team in 1987. The impending release of Bad<\/i>, their third and final album together, had the public and critics alike wondering if they could hit it out of the park once again. Thankfully, their efforts did prove to be monumentally successful, even if they couldn\u2019t quite reach the same lofty sales heights as the juggernaut known worldwide as Thriller<\/i>. When heard back-to-back, Off The Wall<\/i>, Thriller <\/i>and Bad <\/i>each has its own identity and a healthy crop of radio singles that have all taken on lives of their own.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When it comes to #1 hits, Bad <\/i>managed to top Thriller<\/i>\u2019s tally of two <\/i>(\u201cBillie Jean\u201d and \u201cBeat It\u201d) by spawning four. There\u2019s the title track \u201cBad,\u201d which has so many \u201choo\u2019s\u201d and \u201cshamon\u2019s,\u201d you could have one hell of a drinking game while playing it at a party. All I can think of when I hear it now, though, is Weird Al\u2019s \u201cFat\u201d video parody. Another upbeat song on this album to go straight to the top of the chart is \u201cThe Way You Make Me Feel,\u201d which is possibly the most whimsical, fun song that Jackson has ever recorded. It\u2019s got a wondrous loping melody and undulating synth line as its hook. Needless to say, when I first heard the song back in freshman year of college, I was hooked. Then again, Michael Jackson has always been something of a guilty pleasure.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The pair of #1 ballads are found lumped together in the second half of Bad<\/i>. The lead-off single \u201cI Just Can\u2019t Stop Loving You\u201d is a by-the-numbers song that both Michael and Quincy can do in their sleep. I\u2019ve always found it to be safe, predictable and boring. The one that has more going for it is \u201cMan In The Mirror.\u201d Yes, it\u2019s got that \u201cWe Are The World\u201d vibe, but it\u2019s also more substantial and one of those tracks I always seem to hear something new whenever I listen to it. The other #1 on this album is something of a surprise, namely \u201cDirty Diana.\u201d I\u2019ve always had a hard time figuring out what was so great about it, other than the rumor that it had something to do with Michael\u2019s best friend Diana Ross. Something of a throwaway, \u201cDirty Diana\u201d feels half-baked and not at all up to Quincy Jones\u2019 usual high standards.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the other hand, \u201cSmooth Criminal\u201d is one single that deserved a better fate on the charts than it received. The punk outfit Alien Ant Farm knew a good thing when they heard it, so they opted to cover it in 2001 with great success. Not only is \u201cSmooth Criminal\u201d the best song on Bad<\/i>, but it is among the most inventive things Michael Jackson has ever attempted. As for the duet between Michael and Stevie Wonder, \u201cJust Good Friends\u201d received zero headlines or airplay, nor did their follow-up \u201cGet It.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Guess their collaboration just didn\u2019t have the same magic as when Jacko teamed up with Paul McCartney. Still, for two big names to fall so flat was a huge disappointment.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bonus tracks \u201cLeave Me Alone\u201d and \u201cStreetwalker\u201d are infinitely better than \u201cSpeed Demon\u201d and \u201cLiberian Girl,\u201d which begs the question: whose decision was it to initially leave them on the cutting room floor? Oh, well, at least they\u2019ve both been restored on the limited-edition, re-mastered version. Now that I\u2019ve finally been able to hear the whole story, I can honestly say with conviction that Bad<\/i> is anything but.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5802],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41532","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\/41532","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\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41532"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41532"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}