AOTW #15 - Thriller
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 10:32PM | RyanSilb As I said on Twitter when I found out, "The King of Pop is dead! Long live the King!" Whether than is an oblique Elvis reference or not is for you to decide. But right now, it seems obligatory to honor Michael Jackson, and this is the best format I have to do that. Thriller is one of my favorite albums, and was on the mental list to showcase here when I decided on this feature.
Wanna Be Startin Somethin - Michael Jackson
Technically I have the Thriller25 version, but the first nine tracks are the important part, and that's what I'll focus on here. The ultimate crossover album, Thriller cemented Jackson's appeal on both the Pop and Rock charts. It opens with "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin,'" a Jackson-penned pop piece that has a wonderful pulsing bassline, and is a great way to open the album as well as many concert performances. The song builds and builds within its funk beat to the instrumental break at ~3:50, and then churns to the African-sounding chant at the end.
Then it transitions into a disco-beat song, the Rod Temperton-written "Baby Be Mine," which has some excellent vocal work by Jackson. While I primarily think of him as a dancer, thanks to the videos from this album, he also has some amazing vocal chops here.
Following this is the first ballad on the album, "The Girl Is Mine," a duet with Paul McCartney. While not the first time they had recorded as a duo, it was surely the most successful, despite being a fairly by-the-numbers ballad. Reflecting on the recording, Jackson said:
"One of my favorite songs to record, of all my recordings as a solo artist, is probably "The Girl Is Mine", because working with Paul McCartney was pretty exciting and we just literally had fun. It was like lots of kibitzing and playing, and throwing stuff at each other, and making jokes. We actually recorded the track and the vocals pretty much live at the same time, and we do have footage of it, but it's never been shown."
The song ends with a spoken word section that feels like it was mildly over-rehearsed and less natural than the rest of the vocals.
The title track is easily my favorite Jackson song, even when divorced from the film. It has an amazing bassline that makes you instantly want to dance, and pairing that with the infectious chorus makes it an unbeatable combination. As bored as Jackson sounds on "The Girl Is Mine," he sounds fully engaged in this performance. The sound effects aren't even distracting, because they are so well crafted with the song.
I don't even have to say anything about the video, but here it is for your enjoyment:
Just an amazing film, and a preview of the next 25 years of music video choreography.
On the album, this is followed by "Beat It," aWest Side Storysend-up and Jackson's major rock-crossover hit, in no doubt helped by Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo. This was important in many ways, and Greg Burk gives it a lot of credit: "Without the Van Halen precedent, there might have been no collaboration of Run-DMC and Aerosmith on the 1986 rap/rock version of "Walk This Way." This brought 'black' music back towards 'white' in a real way, not as separate music, but as intertwining. The lyrics also express Jackson's hatred of violence, arguing that the bigger man is not 'macho,' but to "stay alive," you just need to walk away, despite peer pressure.
Already we are at "Billie Jean," the climax of the album. It's about a groupie claiming that the singer is the father of her child, and the singer denying it. It furthered Jackson's rise to the top, breaking him into MTV, as it was his first video to receive major airplay. It also was the song that Michael Jackson debuted "the Moonwalk" to here. Also notable is the prominence of Jackson's "hiccups" throughout the song. Perhaps my favorite part of the song is the drum beat, which is incredibly fresh and unique.
"Human Touch" is next, a buttery smooth album with fantastic vocals by Jackson. It was a pioneer (and perhaps the first) song in the "Adult R&B" genre, and listening to it over 25 years later shows just how much talent Jackson had compared to singers today. No Auto-Tune here.
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) - Michael Jackson
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," like Baby Be Mine, is a more disco-flavored song, and I especially like the interplay between the lead vocal, the backup vocal, and the synth part in the chorus, as they pass off the P.Y.T. part. "The Lady in My Life" is another "Human Touch" style ballad, smooth and polished.
Spanning at least three or four genres of music, Thriller is a massive achievement. There is something on this album for everyone, and it's all so very impressive. Definitely one of the Top Five Essential Albums of the last 30 years.
Where to buy:
[iTunes] <- the version I have, comes with videos!
[Amazon mp3]
Album of the Week appears every Wednesday at Knowhere. Each week Ryan discusses an album in context of influence, artistic merit, and whatever else seems slightly relevant.
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