Michael Jackson Thriller – Album Review
People often talk about how the number of copies of Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Suspense novel has sold. People often mention that it is the best-selling album of all time. They bring out all the awards you’ve won.
All of that is great for the trivia nerd in all of us (and I certainly have one in me) but what it really does Suspense novel remarkable is the music itself. While most pop music from 1982 sounds positively dated today, I think most of the Thriller tracks still sound as fresh in 2009 as they did 27 years earlier.
The album opener “Wanna Be Startin ‘Somethin'” is the most exaggerated song on the album and it says something that he opens the album with it. There is so much content in this song that it is about to explode. These days, most hit songs have about 1/3 of the imagination that this song has put into it (and that’s being generous).
The three best known songs on the album are “Thriller”, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”. In fact, these are possibly the three best-known songs of Michael Jackson’s entire career. Surprisingly, they come one after another on the album. How many albums have three such memorable songs one after the other?
It seems like the music video for “Thriller” is talked about all the time. But what about the song itself? The video wouldn’t have been so great if there wasn’t an amazing soundtrack for it.
“Billie Jean” is so cool that I don’t even have to say anything about it here. It is the best dance pop song. It requires you to hit the dance floor but it also has an irresistible melody and interesting lyrics that ask you to sing.
“Beat It” featured rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. When you think about it, it’s quite an interesting move for an R&B pop artist like Michael Jackson. People forget the original idea that it was for him to make such a rock melody at that time. His groundbreaking ideas were so influential that it is now difficult to see them in their original context.
Those three songs are fantastic, but it’s some of the others that really tickle me these days. “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)”, “Human Nature” and “Baby Be Mine” are wonderful songs that weren’t big hits, so they are sometimes overlooked by casual fans. They are great songs. Forget “Greatest Hits” albums because they don’t include great songs like these. You need to get Suspense novel.
Even the minor songs on the album have their moments and their charms. “The Girl is Mine” is a silly duet with Beatles legend Paul McCartney, but it’s actually quite nice once you accept it for what it is. “The Lady in my Life” takes a little while to get going, but once the beat starts, it’s a great song.
One thing I definitely feel is overlooked too often with Michael Jackson is his songwriting skills and Thriller was really the first proof that he was a great songwriter (although he did write a song, the # 1 hit “Don’t Stop ’til You Get enough “to Outside the wall.)
Michael Jackson has the only songwriting credit on four of the nine songs on this remarkable album: “Wanna Be Startin ‘Somethin'”, “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and “The Girl is Mine”. Writing four songs for Suspense novel it was just the beginning, because since 1987 Bad through 2001 Invincible Jackson would write about 90% of the original songs on his album (not counting his covers of “Smile” and “Come Together” in my quick and dirty estimate).