Review
Thriller - 25th Anniversary Edition
Release Date: 02/12/2008 12:00
Reviewed by Kelefa Sanneh
How do you improve pop’s biggest blockbuster? You don’t.
It’s been a quarter-century since Michael Jackson released Thriller. Or, as his record company is now pleased to call it on the front cover of a new reissue, “The World’s Biggest Selling Album of All Time”: That’s 104 million copies worldwide. And it has taken 25 years for pop music to catch up.
Yes, it’s genius. Also (not coincidentally) short; if a pop star released a nine-song album today, fans would demand their money back. But it feels longer than 40 minutes, partly because it’s so weird. This is a profoundly quirky and omnivorous R&B mash-up, making room for hard-rock guitar (Eddie Van Halen’s deliciously gaudy contribution to “Beat It”) and soft-serve balladry (the silk-sheets masterstroke “Human Nature”). Though Jackson has a small, freaked-out voice, he stands tall in the face of zombies (“Thriller”) and babymama drama (“Billie Jean”).
Like many former child prodigies, Jackson has often seemed younger than he is. By the time of Thriller, he was 24 (the same age Kurt Cobain was when Nevermind came out), with five solo albums to his credit. Still, this was the one that really cut him loose from the Jackson 5 and turned him from an R&B sensation into a full-fledged pop celebrity.
Jackson and virtuoso producer Quincy Jones brought the whole R&B genre with them. In the years following, singers from Prince to Whitney Houston conquered the pop mainstream. And in this decade, young stars (some of whom weren’t even born in 1982) have taken to flaunting MJ-isms: herky-jerky dance moves; sobbÂing, hiccupping vocals; high-fructose R&B hybrids. From Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (with its rock & roll backbeat and clubby synthesizers) to R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” (the weirdest music video since “Thriller”), from Usher to The-Dream, the sound and spirit of this album are everywhere.
So it’s reissue time. Thriller–25th Anniversary Edition looks grand but feels a bit skimpy; it unveils precisely one (relatively lackluster) outtake, “For All Time,” and no liner notes. (A bonus disc contains the groundbreaking music videos.) Still, it’s hard to stay mad at any CD that includes these nine audacious songs.
Five remixes constitute the main draw—and the biggest risk. Fergie trades lines (why?) with Jackson in “Beat It 2008”; Kanye West adds new drums (why?) to “Billie Jean 2008”; will.i.am contributes beats (why?) and rhymes (why, oh, why?) to “The Girl Is Mine 2008” and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 2008.” Only Akon proves equal to the task: His “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008” begins, shockingly, with a tinkling piano and some mildly smutty lyrics, and adds melancholy harmonies to tug the tune in a new direction.
As for the original tracks, most are so well known that it can be hard to hear them afresh. This is an album with only one deep cut, “The Lady in My Life,” and even that is familiar—it was sampled in “Hey Lover,” the hip-hop slow jam by LL Cool J and Boyz II Men.
But all of them reward close attention. For starters, there’s the way “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” morphs from a playground chant (“I took my baby to the doctor … ”) to an anti-jealousy anthem (“You really can’t make him hate her/So your tongue became a razor”) to a social-responsibility lecture (“If you can’t feed your baby/Then don’t have a baby”). By the end, Jackson is paraphrasing not only Rev. Jesse Jackson (“I am someone”) but also Manu Dibango, an Afropop star from Cameroon. (The song’s famous chant, “Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa,” is adapted from Dibango’s 1973 hit “Soul Makossa.”) This ageless dance-floor killer—and crossover hit—is also a subtle black-pride anthem.
In light of what came after—more money, more problems, no more Thrillers—it’s easy to focus on the album’s paranoid streak. (In “Beat It,” Jackson comes right out and sings it: “They’re out to get you.”) But though the disturbing stories and cruel jokes have tarnished his name, they haven’t dampened the exuberance in his best jams. Thriller is as flabbergasting as ever. Or, to quote Kanye West’s rap in its entirety: “Uh-huh. Y-y-yeah. Number one!”
Download: “Human Nature,” “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”
It’s been a quarter-century since Michael Jackson released Thriller. Or, as his record company is now pleased to call it on the front cover of a new reissue, “The World’s Biggest Selling Album of All Time”: That’s 104 million copies worldwide. And it has taken 25 years for pop music to catch up.
Yes, it’s genius. Also (not coincidentally) short; if a pop star released a nine-song album today, fans would demand their money back. But it feels longer than 40 minutes, partly because it’s so weird. This is a profoundly quirky and omnivorous R&B mash-up, making room for hard-rock guitar (Eddie Van Halen’s deliciously gaudy contribution to “Beat It”) and soft-serve balladry (the silk-sheets masterstroke “Human Nature”). Though Jackson has a small, freaked-out voice, he stands tall in the face of zombies (“Thriller”) and babymama drama (“Billie Jean”).
Like many former child prodigies, Jackson has often seemed younger than he is. By the time of Thriller, he was 24 (the same age Kurt Cobain was when Nevermind came out), with five solo albums to his credit. Still, this was the one that really cut him loose from the Jackson 5 and turned him from an R&B sensation into a full-fledged pop celebrity.
Jackson and virtuoso producer Quincy Jones brought the whole R&B genre with them. In the years following, singers from Prince to Whitney Houston conquered the pop mainstream. And in this decade, young stars (some of whom weren’t even born in 1982) have taken to flaunting MJ-isms: herky-jerky dance moves; sobbÂing, hiccupping vocals; high-fructose R&B hybrids. From Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (with its rock & roll backbeat and clubby synthesizers) to R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” (the weirdest music video since “Thriller”), from Usher to The-Dream, the sound and spirit of this album are everywhere.
So it’s reissue time. Thriller–25th Anniversary Edition looks grand but feels a bit skimpy; it unveils precisely one (relatively lackluster) outtake, “For All Time,” and no liner notes. (A bonus disc contains the groundbreaking music videos.) Still, it’s hard to stay mad at any CD that includes these nine audacious songs.
Five remixes constitute the main draw—and the biggest risk. Fergie trades lines (why?) with Jackson in “Beat It 2008”; Kanye West adds new drums (why?) to “Billie Jean 2008”; will.i.am contributes beats (why?) and rhymes (why, oh, why?) to “The Girl Is Mine 2008” and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 2008.” Only Akon proves equal to the task: His “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ 2008” begins, shockingly, with a tinkling piano and some mildly smutty lyrics, and adds melancholy harmonies to tug the tune in a new direction.
As for the original tracks, most are so well known that it can be hard to hear them afresh. This is an album with only one deep cut, “The Lady in My Life,” and even that is familiar—it was sampled in “Hey Lover,” the hip-hop slow jam by LL Cool J and Boyz II Men.
But all of them reward close attention. For starters, there’s the way “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” morphs from a playground chant (“I took my baby to the doctor … ”) to an anti-jealousy anthem (“You really can’t make him hate her/So your tongue became a razor”) to a social-responsibility lecture (“If you can’t feed your baby/Then don’t have a baby”). By the end, Jackson is paraphrasing not only Rev. Jesse Jackson (“I am someone”) but also Manu Dibango, an Afropop star from Cameroon. (The song’s famous chant, “Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa,” is adapted from Dibango’s 1973 hit “Soul Makossa.”) This ageless dance-floor killer—and crossover hit—is also a subtle black-pride anthem.
In light of what came after—more money, more problems, no more Thrillers—it’s easy to focus on the album’s paranoid streak. (In “Beat It,” Jackson comes right out and sings it: “They’re out to get you.”) But though the disturbing stories and cruel jokes have tarnished his name, they haven’t dampened the exuberance in his best jams. Thriller is as flabbergasting as ever. Or, to quote Kanye West’s rap in its entirety: “Uh-huh. Y-y-yeah. Number one!”
Download: “Human Nature,” “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”
