Been thinking about this for a while. Like his music, films & dance, the covers of Michael’s albums best known are pretty iconic. But it’s not just the covers for me. As someone who grew up with the albums on vinyl & CD the aesthetics of the inside, the song lyrics & the back cover etc., really matter.
OFF THE WALL
I love this cover, although at this stage I’m still not sure what the original cover was without Googling it. I’m sure at first it was just the feet? But everything I see now is the face. Either way, I love both. The face version, if just MJ at his most carefree & happiest. The child star becoming a man. Everything he’s learned from Quincy & his time at Studio 54 coming into fruition. The confidence, the realisation that he can do this alone – you can see that in his smile.
At this stage the back cover/booklet was pretty standard & low-key, and I love the chalk graffiti font used the cover.
THRILLER
Possibly the most iconic cover of all time, except for maybe Bad. Michael seems more sombre on the cover, maybe reflecting his transition into fully fledged solo star & adulthood and all the pressure this brings. This is also reflected in the lyrics of his written songs on the album (WBSS, BJ).
This time the booklet is more in depth, we have some gorgeous artwork couresy of MJ himself, with caricatures of Thriller and The Girl Is Mine. We have the lyrics, the before they were editedversions with a longer Billie Jean and the full Lady In My Life.
The font on Thriller is iconic with the signature style name that is often used today. Plus special mention to ‘Billy’ Jean being spelt wrong on the CD & inside cover!
BAD
I love Bad, it seems plain in many respects, and it is, but it works. I like it because most everything else is OTT. On the back of the end of the Thriller campaign, which was, lest we forget, the Thriller short film I love that Bad started so low key with IJCSLY, everything Thriller wasn’t – a ballad with no video. And then you pick up the album, a relatively straightforward cover, only shocking due to a more S&M style outfit and a changed appearance. A small back cover photo & a middle photoshoot that was obviously done in a hurry (after the veil pics were ditched for being too Prince like). I loved the original back cover though as it said the length after each song (I always like that!)
The lyrics in the booklet are printed in a simple form, but I’ve always loved them as they even detail every Hoo, Aaow & hee-hee. Something I’ve done myself over the years when writing MJ lyrics.
Also, the cover is notable for being the last album to fully feature his photo.
DANGEROUS
Well, what haven’t we said about this over the years. The cover sums up the album: dark, mysterious, full of hidden layers, riddled with paranoia, frustration but most of all brilliant.
But the cover has its own thread on here so I’ll concentrate on the inside/back. The inside is beautiful. The way those lyrics are displayed. Such thought has gone into this. The black on gold writing. The gorgeous font. The shape they make up (how clever is the woman shape on Dangerous. The way the pieces of artwork from the cover are used for each song. Even the way the tracklisting is written on the back.
The vinyl cover is to behold & even on CD it works. Those who have only experienced Dangerous on MP3 are missing out big time.
Oh & the CD itself? Glorious & the first time I recall having something that was not standard silver & boring. This was black (or gold if you have the pop up special edition) with those eyes and the tracklisting etched in beautifully.
It’s quite simply fitting for the best album of all time.
HIStory
I spent years hating the HIStory cover, and the fact that the first thing that happened when I opened the CD case was a merchandise booklet falling out. I’ve sorta made my peace with it over the years (you’ll be pleased to know), but it was MJ at his most pompous I thought.
I do love the back cover through, I liked the storm cloud affect that was also used on the Scream cover, and the way the song titles were arranged & aligned.
The inside is also lovely, with some career spanning photos & like Thriller some great artwork by MJ (notably Childhood), but I was frustrated by not all the new songs having lyrics printed. Especially when it came to Tabloid Junkie as you had no chance of understanding them.
Could the booklet have used less plaudits & compliments by his peers? And ideally a discography rather than list of awards? Probably, but I get that a lot of HIStory was about PR.
The gold CDs were a nice touch with the statue on them.
BOTDF
Simply put - never liked the cover. But I like the chessboard artwork that’s reflected on the back. And the HIStory era photos inside. If I remember rightly we also got a few lyrics from HIStory that weren’t in the original release (SIM & History). Again a nice looking CD also.
INVINCIBLE
Well, I imagine you may think I’ll be against this one, but I liked it. Similar to how different Dangerous was to Bad, this is the same. From the self-important & grandiose HIStory, Invincible is beautiful in its simplicity. I would have liked a proper photo, but I get why not. The insides are just unassuming & almost artless. Just a nice font & simple photoshoot. Almost reinventing himself. I liked that.
Oh well, that's me procrastinating doing some actual work for an hour...any thoughts?
OFF THE WALL
I love this cover, although at this stage I’m still not sure what the original cover was without Googling it. I’m sure at first it was just the feet? But everything I see now is the face. Either way, I love both. The face version, if just MJ at his most carefree & happiest. The child star becoming a man. Everything he’s learned from Quincy & his time at Studio 54 coming into fruition. The confidence, the realisation that he can do this alone – you can see that in his smile.
At this stage the back cover/booklet was pretty standard & low-key, and I love the chalk graffiti font used the cover.
THRILLER
Possibly the most iconic cover of all time, except for maybe Bad. Michael seems more sombre on the cover, maybe reflecting his transition into fully fledged solo star & adulthood and all the pressure this brings. This is also reflected in the lyrics of his written songs on the album (WBSS, BJ).
This time the booklet is more in depth, we have some gorgeous artwork couresy of MJ himself, with caricatures of Thriller and The Girl Is Mine. We have the lyrics, the before they were editedversions with a longer Billie Jean and the full Lady In My Life.
The font on Thriller is iconic with the signature style name that is often used today. Plus special mention to ‘Billy’ Jean being spelt wrong on the CD & inside cover!
BAD
I love Bad, it seems plain in many respects, and it is, but it works. I like it because most everything else is OTT. On the back of the end of the Thriller campaign, which was, lest we forget, the Thriller short film I love that Bad started so low key with IJCSLY, everything Thriller wasn’t – a ballad with no video. And then you pick up the album, a relatively straightforward cover, only shocking due to a more S&M style outfit and a changed appearance. A small back cover photo & a middle photoshoot that was obviously done in a hurry (after the veil pics were ditched for being too Prince like). I loved the original back cover though as it said the length after each song (I always like that!)
The lyrics in the booklet are printed in a simple form, but I’ve always loved them as they even detail every Hoo, Aaow & hee-hee. Something I’ve done myself over the years when writing MJ lyrics.
Also, the cover is notable for being the last album to fully feature his photo.
DANGEROUS
Well, what haven’t we said about this over the years. The cover sums up the album: dark, mysterious, full of hidden layers, riddled with paranoia, frustration but most of all brilliant.
But the cover has its own thread on here so I’ll concentrate on the inside/back. The inside is beautiful. The way those lyrics are displayed. Such thought has gone into this. The black on gold writing. The gorgeous font. The shape they make up (how clever is the woman shape on Dangerous. The way the pieces of artwork from the cover are used for each song. Even the way the tracklisting is written on the back.
The vinyl cover is to behold & even on CD it works. Those who have only experienced Dangerous on MP3 are missing out big time.
Oh & the CD itself? Glorious & the first time I recall having something that was not standard silver & boring. This was black (or gold if you have the pop up special edition) with those eyes and the tracklisting etched in beautifully.
It’s quite simply fitting for the best album of all time.
HIStory
I spent years hating the HIStory cover, and the fact that the first thing that happened when I opened the CD case was a merchandise booklet falling out. I’ve sorta made my peace with it over the years (you’ll be pleased to know), but it was MJ at his most pompous I thought.
I do love the back cover through, I liked the storm cloud affect that was also used on the Scream cover, and the way the song titles were arranged & aligned.
The inside is also lovely, with some career spanning photos & like Thriller some great artwork by MJ (notably Childhood), but I was frustrated by not all the new songs having lyrics printed. Especially when it came to Tabloid Junkie as you had no chance of understanding them.
Could the booklet have used less plaudits & compliments by his peers? And ideally a discography rather than list of awards? Probably, but I get that a lot of HIStory was about PR.
The gold CDs were a nice touch with the statue on them.
BOTDF
Simply put - never liked the cover. But I like the chessboard artwork that’s reflected on the back. And the HIStory era photos inside. If I remember rightly we also got a few lyrics from HIStory that weren’t in the original release (SIM & History). Again a nice looking CD also.
INVINCIBLE
Well, I imagine you may think I’ll be against this one, but I liked it. Similar to how different Dangerous was to Bad, this is the same. From the self-important & grandiose HIStory, Invincible is beautiful in its simplicity. I would have liked a proper photo, but I get why not. The insides are just unassuming & almost artless. Just a nice font & simple photoshoot. Almost reinventing himself. I liked that.
Oh well, that's me procrastinating doing some actual work for an hour...any thoughts?