Finished reading the book. Here is my review:
Michael Jackson's career is often reduced to his 80s albums in the mainstream media, but I always felt people who refuse to pay attention to his later work are missing out on some of his best work. Dangerous is one of my favourite albums, so I am very happy about this book. Yes, Thriller is great, yes Off The Wall is amazing, but so is Dangerous!
While I always instinctively loved and "felt" this album I was never really analytical about it why, so I was really curious about Susan Fast's take on it. Fast considers Dangerous a concept album. This may come as a surprise, because it's not obvious at first glance. In actuality, when the album was released many critics criticized if for its eclectic styles and (seemingly) eclectic themes, saying it was not coherent. Well, Susan Fast shows that this criticism is very superficial. Yes, there is R&B and there is rock and there is gospel and there is hip-hop on the same album (I always found it fascinating that MJ could do all that and more convincingly), but that does not make it incoherent. In the musical and thematical context of the album and what MJ wanted to express with it it all makes sense.
According to Fast Dangerous is MJ's "coming of age" album which may be another surprise considering he was 33-years-old at the time of its release, but I agree with her on it. By this time he left behind his artistic "father", Quincy Jones and he was the sole captain of his ship. As a result both musically and thematically he went to new territories and he explored landscapes he's never been to before. I think this is the album from which he opens up more about himself. His 80s albums are great but I think if you are curious about MJ the person you will learn about him more from his later work. (Well, perhaps with the exception of one hidden gem, the Jackson's 1978 Destiny album, which has some early examples of MJ's soul-baring. Listen to the lyrics there and you will know what I mean but I digress.)
At the beginning of the book Fast cites a critic who did not like the fact that thematically and musically similar songs are "clustered together" on the album. Fast counters that by saying that this structure is deliberate and it takes us to a journey through the album's concept in which we explore the themes that engaged Jackson at the time.
By the way, it's relatively easy to spot and many people noted that Dangerous is like two albums in one. The first part (track 1-6.) is the New Jack Swing part. (In my view just like Off The Wall took disco on another level so did Dangerous take NJS on another level. Although you can hear the NJS influence on Dangerous - obviously through Teddy Riley's involvement -, but it's a very Jackson-esque version of NJS which to me makes it superior to the generic NJS sound of the era, just like Off The Wall was superior to the typical disco records of the era.) The second part of the album (track 7-13.) is a more classic Jackson sound. The last track Dangerous (track 14.) goes back to New Jack Swing again, putting the album in a frame. Even less analytical listeners could easily realize this structure.
Fast however goes deeper than that and explores these so called "clusters" of songs on the album of which she identifies five:
Noise: Jam, Why You Wanna Trip On Me
Desire: In The Closet, She Drives Me Wild, Remember The Time, Can't Let Her Get Away
Utopia: Heal The World, Black or White
Soul: Who Is It, Give In To Me, Will You Be There, Keep The Faith, (Gone Too Soon)
Coda: Dangerous
Nosie, Desire, Utopia, Soul and Coda are the titles of the chapters in Fast's book.
In "Noise" she discusses the role of non-musical sounds in Jackson's music and in these songs in particular (after all the whole album starts with such a sound - the sound of breaking glass). She also puts it into the cultural context of black music and especially hip-hop and what noises mean in that music and how this influenced Jackson and also what the use of "noise" means in these socially conscious songs, Jam and Why You Wanna Trip On Me.
The cluster "Desire" contains the romantic-erotic segment of the album. In The Closet is Jackson's most erotic song ever and the first time he goes this far in song. His earlier love songs were pretty innocent and "vanilla". Not on Dangerous. These love songs are real, steamy, sweaty. But nothing is ever uncomplicated with him, not even romance, so there are a lot of things to discuss about these songs too, starting with why did he give that title (In The Closet) to a song about a clearly heterosexual relationship? Fast discusses musical structures as well, for example she draws attention to the fact that In The Closet's structure is a Middle Eastern structure, not Western, which I found interesting.
In "Utopia" we get to the start of the second half of the album where we abandon New Jack Swing. The segment starts with Heal The World which got a lot of flak from critics for being saccharine and overly sentimental, but maybe you will appreciate it more when you read Fast's analysis on it (both musical and thematical) and in the context of Jackson's "utopia". Black or White is also a part of Jackson's utopia and the song is discussed with its famous video in mind.
The segment "Soul" in my opinion is the highlight of the album - and Fast shares this view. I always thought that Who Is It was one of the best songs of MJ's entire career. Yes, to me it's up there with Billie Jean, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', you name it. A very typically Jackson-esque song as well. It's a shame that it remained relatively lesser known. The only thing I did not agree with Fast was that she said David Fincher's video did not do justice to the song. I actually love the video and I think it goes well with the song. Then MJ goes rock with Give In To Me and gospel with Will You Be There and Keep The Faith. This sequence of songs truly is the "Soul" of the album and MJ is baring his soul in front of us. Will You Be There is almost prohpetic too.
Then the album goes full circle with the "Coda", Dangerous which musically goes back to NJS again and thematically is one of MJ's femme fatale songs (like Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, Blood on the Dance Floor etc.).
Looking at those clusters it also seems to me that socially conscious and personal clusters alternated: Noise - socially conscious, Desire - personal, Utopia - socially conscious, Soul - personal.
Although in the song Dangerous it is the protagonist female who is Dangerous, but with this album it's MJ himself who became a lot more dangerous than before: more socially conscious, sexier, more outspoken - so the album title is fitting. Did I just say "sexier"? Yes, MJ was sexy to millions of women (and I guess gay men) and Fast spends some time on lamenting the fact that the media always refused to acknowledge that side of him when it's a fact that it's there. It's like the elephant in the room so why would they not acknowledge it? Was his unconventional masculinity too threatening to mainstream norms?
Fast also spends some time analyzing the intriguing cover of the album which is a painting by Mark Ryden (created with MJ's input) with lots of cultural and social references.
I enjoyed the book very much and I think it's a worthy analysis of a great album and a great piece of the 33 1/3 series.