Thriller [SUPER AUDIO CD]

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Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the bestselling album of all time, with 45 million worldwide sales powered by seven Top 10 U.S. singles and eight Grammy Awards. The 1982 album was also a success from which the pop superstar never really recovered–subsequent albums seemed to have no other goal than to beat the records set by Thriller. The highly-polished sound of Quincy Jones’s production sounds almost organic compared to Jackson’s more recent work, and in the same regard, Thriller was significantly slicker than its predecessor, Off the Wall. Both albums established a Jackson style that aimed for the dance floor with songs built on a state-of-the-art bed of percussion and keyboards. Elements of milestone Thriller tracks like “Billie Jean” (arguably Jackson’s best-ever performance) and “Beat It” (with its hard-rock solo by guitarist Eddie Van Halen) influenced not just Jackson’s records, but those of the entire dance-pop world. On the song “Thriller,” Jackson indulged his taste for the juvenile and invited Vincent Price to rap in a really scary voice. With Thriller the album, Jackson created a different kind of monster–a hit album of such magnitude that it would have an irrevocable impact not just on the singer’s art, but on his altogether kooky life.

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These days Michael Jackson seems to be more of a cartoon character than a recording artist. His exploits get more than attention than his music. Forget that his best friend is a chimpanzee and he lives at a place called Neverland and just listen to the music. The album crosses across all music genres and gives the listener a little bit of everything. There’s pop, rock, r & b and dance rhythms; slow, fast and midtempo songs. “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” gets the album moving. It’s a disco inferno and builds up to a chanting crescendo. The next two songs slow things down after the frenzied opening. One of the two non-singles, “Baby Be Mine” is a nice mid-tempo song and then comes the superstar duet with Paul McCartney “The Girl Is Mine”. The song shows off both the artist’s vocal talents as they trade verses fighting over a girl’s affection. You can almost see the song as a passing of the torch from the Beatles to Jackson as the world’s biggest act. The humorous “Thriller” follows and it contains Vincent Price’s debut as a “rapper”. “Beat It” is the song that pushed the album into the cultural phenomenon that it was. By employing guitar god Eddie Van Halen on the song, Jackson was able to break out of the mold of an R & B artist and reach a vast white audience. Jackson showed he was able to transcend all labels and reach listeners of all colors and musical tastes. The first number one song on the album follows. It was a searing performance of the song, “Billie Jean”, on the Motown 25th anniversary special that helped show Jackson’s amazing dancing abilities and push album sales into the stratosphere. It was also the first video by a black artist to gain major airplay on the predominately white MTV, setting the stage for other black artists like Prince to start reaching a more diverse audience. “Human Nature” is a pretty ballad and “P.Y.T.” is has more of a a hard edge. His sister Janet sings back up on the tune. The album closes with another ballad “The Lady In My Life”. This album went on to sell 25 million copies and for a long time was the biggest selling album in history. It almost single handily pulled the recording industry out of it late 70’s, early 80’s sales funk and made MTV into the marketing machine it is today. It takes a very special album to do that and this is exactly that.

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