MoeJack
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- Jul 25, 2011
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Hey guys 
! This is a concept I have been thinking about for some time: The anatomy of Michael’s albums, as in how the song selection and sequence can affect the experience of listening to the album and its flow. It was first brought to my attention many years ago when Quincy mentioned how they would take the weaker 3 songs in the middle and replace them with the 3 strongest, which ends up leaving the album as 3 sets of 3. (Wanna Be, Baby, The Girl - Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean - Human Nature, PYT, Lady). The closest I’ve seen someone tackle this idea is Susan Fast, who divided the ‘Dangerous’ album by theme, which was quite interesting, but nonetheless different from the sonic breakdown. In my estimation, and with all due to respect to the album, this is one of the reasons why ‘Invincible’ seems so much longer and less cohesive than ‘Dangerous’ or ‘HIStory’ even though they’re all pretty much the same length. In my mind it's akin to the editing of a film, which can either make a 2-hour film a long and incohesive bore or a 3-hour epic not long enough.
This is my breakdown. How would you break down the listening experience for each album? Ofcourse, for those who grew up in the vinyl era, that breakdown maybe influenced much more by which songs were on Side 1 and Side 2..but it would be interesting to hear nonetheless!
1. Off the Wall: Quintet, Singlet, Quartet
2. Thriller: Triplet, Triplet, Triplet
3. Bad: Triplet, Triplet, Singlet, Quartet
4. Dangerous: Sextet, Singlet, Triplet, Quartet
5. HIStory: Quintet, Triplet, Doublet, Doublet, Triplet
6. Blood on the Dance Floor: Quintet
7. Invincible: Sextet, Doublet, Quartet, Quartet
! This is a concept I have been thinking about for some time: The anatomy of Michael’s albums, as in how the song selection and sequence can affect the experience of listening to the album and its flow. It was first brought to my attention many years ago when Quincy mentioned how they would take the weaker 3 songs in the middle and replace them with the 3 strongest, which ends up leaving the album as 3 sets of 3. (Wanna Be, Baby, The Girl - Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean - Human Nature, PYT, Lady). The closest I’ve seen someone tackle this idea is Susan Fast, who divided the ‘Dangerous’ album by theme, which was quite interesting, but nonetheless different from the sonic breakdown. In my estimation, and with all due to respect to the album, this is one of the reasons why ‘Invincible’ seems so much longer and less cohesive than ‘Dangerous’ or ‘HIStory’ even though they’re all pretty much the same length. In my mind it's akin to the editing of a film, which can either make a 2-hour film a long and incohesive bore or a 3-hour epic not long enough.This is my breakdown. How would you break down the listening experience for each album? Ofcourse, for those who grew up in the vinyl era, that breakdown maybe influenced much more by which songs were on Side 1 and Side 2..but it would be interesting to hear nonetheless
! 1. Off the Wall: Quintet, Singlet, Quartet
2. Thriller: Triplet, Triplet, Triplet
3. Bad: Triplet, Triplet, Singlet, Quartet
4. Dangerous: Sextet, Singlet, Triplet, Quartet
5. HIStory: Quintet, Triplet, Doublet, Doublet, Triplet
6. Blood on the Dance Floor: Quintet
7. Invincible: Sextet, Doublet, Quartet, Quartet