Friday, 3 July 2009
Dangerous
This review is from: Dangerous (Audio CD)
This is probably my favorite MJ cd ever. It's packed with hard hitting dance hits, SFX, heartfelt lyrics, touching melodies and beautiful harmonies. It's a perfect capture of the MJ persona. It also sports one of the greates album covers of all time. Not only is it visually stunning to look at, but it can be read as a psychological exam of MJ himself! Notice that all the flash is a mask, hiding the real MJ behind it.
This special edition is remastered, given a booklet with 6 new photos (one featuring Eddie Murphy and Iman from the Remember The Time video) and a cardboard keepsake case. Dangerous was recorded with the best technology available when it was first released and this special edition doesn't sound that much better. Actually, as special editions go, it's pretty flimsy, but seeing that the original album is packed with 77 minutes of some of the best music from the 90's you can hardly complain. This cd is packed to the teeh already! Yes it would be nice to have a picture disc, a photo underneath the clear cd tray, a bonus song or two, but look at what you do get.
JAM - A slammin dance track that says all the worlds problems aren't enough to get MJ (and hence us) down. He can still jam!
Why You Wanna Trip On Me - A very personal song that still gets us to dance. Listen to that rock lick in there!!
In The Closet - MJ sexiest song yet! There is such a sexual tension running through out.
She Drives Me Wild - Great companion song to 'Speed Demon' from BAD. Great use of SFX, and a kicking beat. MJ's on the prowl, watch out!
Remember The Time - Beautiful layerd vocals, a chorus that won't leave your head. It's a song about a failed romance but somehow manages to be uplifting. Always brings a smile to my face. Showcases the power of melody and rhythm over lyrics.
Can't Let Her Get Away - MJ doin his funky best.
Heal The World - A beautifully written and sung message of hope for the world. Listen to his range on this song. MJ's still got it!
Black or White - A guitar riff to end all gutiar riffs, a positive message, and it's uplifting! How can you go wrong? You can't, just as long as you skip the spoken intro.
Who Is It - Haunting song of a broken relationship. Again MJ piles on the vocals to tremendous effect. He's an expert at the atmospheric, jilted lover type songs.
Give In To Me - MJ rocks out and give a preformance you'll not soon forget. Listen to that ache in his voice!
Will You Be There - Probably the stongest song on the album. Suprising in the fact that it's such a religious song. It oozes emotion.
Keep the Faith - Truly inspirational. It's songs like this, 'Will You Be There' and 'Man in the Mirror' that make me long fo rthe day when MJ makes a full out gospel album.
Gone Too Soon - A loving tribute that has MJ in top vocal form. Simple yet very powerful.
Dangerous - A kickin dance song to end the set. A therapist would have a field day with lyrics like "Deep in the darkness of passions insanity, I felt taken by lusts strange inhumanity". Hear the poety in that? This song is an entire film set to music. Stunning!
So pick up this CD not for it's special edition features, but for the music itself. You won't be disappointed. If you really want a special edition keep your eyes open for the rare Australian edition that featured an entire second disc of remixes or the extremely limited edition that came in a case featuring a pop up rendition of the albums cover art!
This is probably my favorite MJ cd ever. It's packed with hard hitting dance hits, SFX, heartfelt lyrics, touching melodies and beautiful harmonies. It's a perfect capture of the MJ persona. It also sports one of the greates album covers of all time. Not only is it visually stunning to look at, but it can be read as a psychological exam of MJ himself! Notice that all the flash is a mask, hiding the real MJ behind it.
This special edition is remastered, given a booklet with 6 new photos (one featuring Eddie Murphy and Iman from the Remember The Time video) and a cardboard keepsake case. Dangerous was recorded with the best technology available when it was first released and this special edition doesn't sound that much better. Actually, as special editions go, it's pretty flimsy, but seeing that the original album is packed with 77 minutes of some of the best music from the 90's you can hardly complain. This cd is packed to the teeh already! Yes it would be nice to have a picture disc, a photo underneath the clear cd tray, a bonus song or two, but look at what you do get.
JAM - A slammin dance track that says all the worlds problems aren't enough to get MJ (and hence us) down. He can still jam!
Why You Wanna Trip On Me - A very personal song that still gets us to dance. Listen to that rock lick in there!!
In The Closet - MJ sexiest song yet! There is such a sexual tension running through out.
She Drives Me Wild - Great companion song to 'Speed Demon' from BAD. Great use of SFX, and a kicking beat. MJ's on the prowl, watch out!
Remember The Time - Beautiful layerd vocals, a chorus that won't leave your head. It's a song about a failed romance but somehow manages to be uplifting. Always brings a smile to my face. Showcases the power of melody and rhythm over lyrics.
Can't Let Her Get Away - MJ doin his funky best.
Heal The World - A beautifully written and sung message of hope for the world. Listen to his range on this song. MJ's still got it!
Black or White - A guitar riff to end all gutiar riffs, a positive message, and it's uplifting! How can you go wrong? You can't, just as long as you skip the spoken intro.
Who Is It - Haunting song of a broken relationship. Again MJ piles on the vocals to tremendous effect. He's an expert at the atmospheric, jilted lover type songs.
Give In To Me - MJ rocks out and give a preformance you'll not soon forget. Listen to that ache in his voice!
Will You Be There - Probably the stongest song on the album. Suprising in the fact that it's such a religious song. It oozes emotion.
Keep the Faith - Truly inspirational. It's songs like this, 'Will You Be There' and 'Man in the Mirror' that make me long fo rthe day when MJ makes a full out gospel album.
Gone Too Soon - A loving tribute that has MJ in top vocal form. Simple yet very powerful.
Dangerous - A kickin dance song to end the set. A therapist would have a field day with lyrics like "Deep in the darkness of passions insanity, I felt taken by lusts strange inhumanity". Hear the poety in that? This song is an entire film set to music. Stunning!
So pick up this CD not for it's special edition features, but for the music itself. You won't be disappointed. If you really want a special edition keep your eyes open for the rare Australian edition that featured an entire second disc of remixes or the extremely limited edition that came in a case featuring a pop up rendition of the albums cover art!
Bad
This review is from: Bad (Audio CD)
I know some of you are going to say it's just plain sacrilegious but hey, just because everybody jumps into the lake.... "Thriller" is a great album with great tracks and because of a variety of fortunate reasons e.g. timeliness, MTV etc, has become the biggest selling album of all-time but that doesn't mean that everything else that MJ comes up with later that doesn't sell as much is crap.
In fact, this is the album when MJ's weirdness first became pretty obvious. "Hey! Is that really Michael on the cover?" was my reaction as well but I chose to look beyond the looks and not to judge the book by the cover and just listened to the tunes. Some of my favourite MJ songs ever are on this disc.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" is an MJ classic and clearly among his top 5 ever songs. "Smooth Criminal" was always a great track even before Alien Ant Farm showed us why, "Liberian Girl" and "Man in the Mirror" are also great tracks and the rest of the tracks cannot be called album filler by any stretch of the imagination.
The sound quality of this special edition has also been remastered to near perfection and the bonus interviews and tracks are a real bonus to fans. This album grows on you over time and for me has aged a lot better than "Thriller" has. Maybe I've heard "Thriller" too many times but give me a choice between the two if I had to put one of them on the cd player, I'd choose "Bad" any time and if not "Off the Wall" before I'd reach for "Thriller."
Get over the Wacko Jacko hangup and just judge the cd for the tracks if you can and then you'll see just how great this album really is. This very well remastered and special edition is very highly recommended.
I know some of you are going to say it's just plain sacrilegious but hey, just because everybody jumps into the lake.... "Thriller" is a great album with great tracks and because of a variety of fortunate reasons e.g. timeliness, MTV etc, has become the biggest selling album of all-time but that doesn't mean that everything else that MJ comes up with later that doesn't sell as much is crap.
In fact, this is the album when MJ's weirdness first became pretty obvious. "Hey! Is that really Michael on the cover?" was my reaction as well but I chose to look beyond the looks and not to judge the book by the cover and just listened to the tunes. Some of my favourite MJ songs ever are on this disc.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" is an MJ classic and clearly among his top 5 ever songs. "Smooth Criminal" was always a great track even before Alien Ant Farm showed us why, "Liberian Girl" and "Man in the Mirror" are also great tracks and the rest of the tracks cannot be called album filler by any stretch of the imagination.
The sound quality of this special edition has also been remastered to near perfection and the bonus interviews and tracks are a real bonus to fans. This album grows on you over time and for me has aged a lot better than "Thriller" has. Maybe I've heard "Thriller" too many times but give me a choice between the two if I had to put one of them on the cd player, I'd choose "Bad" any time and if not "Off the Wall" before I'd reach for "Thriller."
Get over the Wacko Jacko hangup and just judge the cd for the tracks if you can and then you'll see just how great this album really is. This very well remastered and special edition is very highly recommended.
Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)
This review is from: Michael Jackson 25th Anniversary of Thriller (Audio CD)
I woke up from a nap and there were three text messages on my phone. Nobody ever texts me, so I knew it must have been big news. I thought there was a fire or something. Turned out, Michael Jackson is dead. I was startled, to say the least, because MJ never seemed like the kind of person that could, you know, die. To be honest, he never really registered in my consciousness as being a person; Michael Jackson was the androgynous sexual panic of "Billie Jean," the breathless seduction of "P.Y.T.," the thrilling kitsch of "Thriller," the chattering afro-popisms of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." The idea that he had a human body, one that needed food and air and sleep, never really clicked in my mind. But then again, I guess that's to be expected. I mean, how can a mere human being really be thought to be capable of creating something as monstrous, as mechanical, as all-encompassing, and as awesome as Thriller? This kid wasn't the king of pop; he was the whole damn kingdom. And we, the audience, are not his loyal subjects; we're just reading the travel brochures.
The point is, Thriller is one of the greatest moments in the history of pure pop. Which is to say, it's plastic, mass-produced, jugular-grabbingly commercial, and completely unconcerned with originality, artistic merit, or honesty. And goshdarnit, I wouldn't have it any other way! With songs and performances as irresistible and ecstatic as the ones found here, artfulness will only get in the way. Because when you have a song as swooping, as ethereal, as hypnotic, and as unashamedly romantic as "Baby Be Mine," there's really no need to question its validity. Just let those labyrinthine keyboards and yearning vocals carry you away to a shiny place. And when "Beat It" comes roaring out of the gates, it does so with such force and brutal eloquence that you completely forget how absurd it is for Michael Jackson to take on the role of a street-smart hoodlum. As a vision of ghetto reality, it's a nonsensical failure; but the important thing to remember is that, on a purely visceral level, it SOUNDS more convincing and more immediate than its more authentic counterparts.
And then there's "Billie Jean," whose lyrics are either shockingly amoral or completely uneventful, but which still manages to be one of the most magical, irresistible, and emotionally charged moments in the history of music. And if we found ourselves getting annoyed by the idea of having to root for a child-abandoning father, then we can just remind ourselves that it's only a pop album. An stunning pop album, to be precise.
I woke up from a nap and there were three text messages on my phone. Nobody ever texts me, so I knew it must have been big news. I thought there was a fire or something. Turned out, Michael Jackson is dead. I was startled, to say the least, because MJ never seemed like the kind of person that could, you know, die. To be honest, he never really registered in my consciousness as being a person; Michael Jackson was the androgynous sexual panic of "Billie Jean," the breathless seduction of "P.Y.T.," the thrilling kitsch of "Thriller," the chattering afro-popisms of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." The idea that he had a human body, one that needed food and air and sleep, never really clicked in my mind. But then again, I guess that's to be expected. I mean, how can a mere human being really be thought to be capable of creating something as monstrous, as mechanical, as all-encompassing, and as awesome as Thriller? This kid wasn't the king of pop; he was the whole damn kingdom. And we, the audience, are not his loyal subjects; we're just reading the travel brochures.
The point is, Thriller is one of the greatest moments in the history of pure pop. Which is to say, it's plastic, mass-produced, jugular-grabbingly commercial, and completely unconcerned with originality, artistic merit, or honesty. And goshdarnit, I wouldn't have it any other way! With songs and performances as irresistible and ecstatic as the ones found here, artfulness will only get in the way. Because when you have a song as swooping, as ethereal, as hypnotic, and as unashamedly romantic as "Baby Be Mine," there's really no need to question its validity. Just let those labyrinthine keyboards and yearning vocals carry you away to a shiny place. And when "Beat It" comes roaring out of the gates, it does so with such force and brutal eloquence that you completely forget how absurd it is for Michael Jackson to take on the role of a street-smart hoodlum. As a vision of ghetto reality, it's a nonsensical failure; but the important thing to remember is that, on a purely visceral level, it SOUNDS more convincing and more immediate than its more authentic counterparts.
And then there's "Billie Jean," whose lyrics are either shockingly amoral or completely uneventful, but which still manages to be one of the most magical, irresistible, and emotionally charged moments in the history of music. And if we found ourselves getting annoyed by the idea of having to root for a child-abandoning father, then we can just remind ourselves that it's only a pop album. An stunning pop album, to be precise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)