About the Album
“Thriller brought Michael Jackson a level of fame that no human should ever have to endure.” EK “A better title for this would’ve been Monster.” VB Michael had been a star since age 11 when he fronted his brothers in the Jackson 5. Throughout the ‘70s he alternated between group and solo albums, reaching a seemingly unbeatable peak in 1979 when his Off the Wall album became only the second album in history to spawn four top-ten songs, two of which went to #1. It eventually sold an astonishing 20 million copies. However, he attained unheard of new heights with Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.
Thriller “brings all the promise that Jackson demonstrated from the moment he walked away from his brothers to fruition.” EK One “can still hear glimpses of the astonishing little boy who took all the lessons he learned at the feet of the Apollo Theater masters and turned them into something new.” EK “He establishes himself as the funk-pop heir apparent to Stevie Wonder (who had basically abdicated by that time).” EK For good or bad, “almost as soon as Thriller arrived, that little boy was gone.” EK
The King of Pop:
“Jackson’s smooth delivery and catch phrases defined popular music in the 1980s and became the yardstick for universally accessible sound.” CS His “keen pop sensibilities” NRR “elevated the concept of the all-conquering, blockbuster album to reality.” WR Thriller gave MJ “artistic acclaim and monumental commercial success.” BN Its effect “on the record industry and subsequent popular music is immeasurable.” NRR It “was an album that…almost everyone could favorably agree on.” BN “If you grew up in the ‘80s, this isn’t just an album; it’s the soundtrack to the first half of your life. Your first dance, your first summer romance, your first (and, rest assured, not your last) heartbreak.” EW’12 When “Jackson declared himself the King of Pop, everyone agreed.” RV
These are “nine air-tight pop songs as precise as an Exacto blade and twice as sharp.” PM This is a “mature, feisty and hit-laden pop set” UT “that fire[s] on all cylinders. “PM “As an album, there’s no excess, no concept and no gimmick.” PM It “stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good.” AM In fact, seven of the album’s nine cuts went top ten on the U.S. pop charts, including two #1’s. The album has reportedly sold more than 70 million copies worldwide.
Quincy Jones/Production:
Quincy Jones served as the producer for Off the Wall and returned to that role here. The National Recording Registry cited Jones’ “expert production” NRR as one of the reasons for the album’s blockbuster success. He gave the album “a luxurious production” BN and tapped “the most expensive studio talent that money could buy, yet it never sounded manufactured or contrived.” BN Jones and Michael “applied elements of rock, funk, soul, disco and New Wave.” PM
However, detractors – most notably Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn in the excellent PopMatters’ “Counterbalance” series – say that “sonically Thriller is forever locked in its time;” EK that as you put the album on, “you are acutely aware of when this album was made. It’s like, ‘BLAM! Welcome to 1982! We have drum machines!’ There aren’t too many highly regarded albums where you can narrow down the release date to within three years almost immediately.” JM
Mendelsohn says he is struck by “the high level of production values” JM and “overly-groomed quality.” JM It feels like a “prefabricated attempt at solidifying Jackson’s pop icon status.” JM He suspects “Jackson wasn’t allowed to mature on his own,” JM “that there was someone behind Jackson’s every move, whether it was Papa Joe, or his brothers, or Quincy or the record label. Everything Jackson did seemed so pre-planned.” JM He thinks “Jones was pushing a square Jackson into a round hole” JM noting “vaudeville-esque forced smile and feel-goodness (see ‘The Girl Is Mine’, ‘P.Y.T.’, and ‘The Lady in My Life’)” JM and “the pressing, unrelenting nature of the album to show off an artist who has “matured (see ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’’, ‘Beat It’).” JM He posits that “it wasn’t until Bad that we got to hear and see more of the ‘real’ Jackson.” JM
Rolling Stone’s Chris Connelly argues that the sound isn’t at all overdone, but actually “sparer than usual, and refreshingly free of schmaltz.” CC Of course, Klinger would disagree here, calling “The Girl is Mine” a “schmaltz-fest” EK and “The Lady in My Life” “even schmaltzier and less festive.” EK
Connelly points out that Jones is “working with what might be pop music’s most spectacular instrument: Michael Jackson’s voice. Where lesser artists need a string section or a lusty blast from a synthesizer, Jackson need only sing to convey deep, heartfelt emotion.” CC And, as even Mendelsohn acknowledges, “coupled with the undeniably catchy nature of these songs that is borderline hypnotic, I can see why people won’t stop buying this record.” JM
An Underlying Darkness:
Klinger notes it is surprising “to hear so much darkness on an album that became so inextricably linked to pop innocence.” EK “Jackson cooked up a zesty LP whose uptempo workouts don’t obscure its harrowing, dark messages.” CC Klinger suggests that “Thriller is the sound of a man trying impossibly hard to keep the darkness at bay through slick production and moonwalking.” EK
Unquestionably, “Thriller introduced dread into Michael Jackson’s solo work. By 1995’s HIStory, this element curdled into overwhelming self-regard and out-of-touchness, but here it’s bracing.” AZ “Particularly on Jackson's own compositions, Thriller’s tense, nearly obsessive sound complements lyrics that delineate a world that put the twenty-four-year-old on the defensive. ‘They’re out to get you, better leave while you can. Don’t wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man.’” CC
“It was a challenging time for Jackson…and he responded to those challenges head-on. He dropped the boyish falsetto that sparked his hits from ‘I Want You Back’ to ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’ and chose to address his tormentors in a full, adult voice with a feisty determination that is tinged by sadness. Jackson’s new attitude gives Thriller a deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency than any of his previous work, and marks another watershed in the creative development of this prodigiously talented performer.” CC
In the post-Thriller era, Jackson became “so unbelievably famous that all avenues of normality [were] closed to him.” CS His increasingly bizarre behavior and accusations of molesting children turned him into tabloid fodder that threatened to overwhelm how unbelievably gifted he was as a once-in-a-generation musician. At the time of Thriller’s release, however, Michael was 24, “had the instincts of a musical prodigy…was private, but not inaccessible, and nearly everything that would come to drag down his legacy hadn’t yet occurred.” CM The “flashes of paranoia” CM on Thriller humanize Jackson, “whereas on subsequent albums he would disappear into a carefully designed illusion.” CM
Video Made the Radio Star:
To reach iconic status, Michael had to do more than deliver “a cavalcade of justly deserved hits.” BN While built “on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall,” AM this is not a “reheating [of that album’s] agreeably mindless funk.” CC “That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience,” AM but Jackson also benefited because Thriller “arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star.” AM
A large part of the success of Jackson’s visual presence had to do with his “trendsetting moves that were praised by dance legends Bob Fossee, Gene Kelly, and Fred Astaire.” CS
Conclusion:
“After so much world-wide exposure, it remains a playable record,” WR “a big, bold, glossy, and gripping tour de force that consumed the pop world.” BN “Put it on right now and you’ll be amazed at how easily the most frightening public image of the late 20th century melts away.” TL “There’s an uncomplicated reason he remains a pop icon to many: The music is simply unassailable.” CQ It is Jackson’s “masterwork and a decade-defining album of the ‘80s.” BN “It has become the foundation for every single piece of pop-music released since the 1980s, and escaping its influence is nearly impossible.” JM
Notes:
The full track listing for the reissues Thriller: Special Edition (2001), Thriller 25 (2008), and Thriller 40 (2022) are listed above.
The Songs
Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.
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