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What was Michael Jackson's best album?

Mister_Jay_Tee said:
No, I hate when people say this about Bad. Bad is super cohesive as a great studio album. Compared to what kind of album does it not flow?

If you wanna talk greatest hits, keep it to Thriller. That literally is just 7 huge cuts and some B Sides, exactly two.
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Apparently @ssj means that it lacks sonic cohesion, which is true because sonically the 'BAD' album is all over the place.

For example, it has funk songs (such as, 'BAD'), it has ballad songs (such as, 'Liberian Girl'), it has hard rock songs (such as, 'Dirty Diana'), it has gospel songs (such as, 'Man In The Mirror'), it has pop songs (such as, 'Smooth Criminal'), and so on.
zinniabooklover said:
This nicely illustrates the point I was just trying to make. Michael was on fire. It's so hard to choose.

Although I'm still sticking to my choices. I almost wanna choose BODTF over Invincible bc it works as a sort of snapshot of Michael. SS doesn't sound dated to me but it does hark back to classic 80's Michael. IIS is gothic opera (along with Little Susie) on a grand scale. Morphine is the rock song, it's so revealing and personal and anguished and harsh and beautiful. BOTDF is just classic Michael for any era.
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'Morphine' with all these mechanical, abrasive and experimental sounds of machines should be called an industrial song with funk elements, rather than a rock song.
 
mj_frenzy said:
'Morphine' with all these mechanical, abrasive and experimental sounds of machines should be called an industrial song with funk elements, rather than a rock song.
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And I will continue to call it a rock song. Also, have you never heard any rock songs with industrial / funk elements? They do exist, I can assure you.
 
filmandmusic said:
Thriller

Perfect length and 9 world class tracks. I feel it has a warm cozy sound that is very easily digestible over the coldness and metallic sounding beats of later works. Vocally Michael aso sounded very vibrant, fresh and lively compared to the later raspy And often mumbled vocals. The album cover actually perfectly sums up the sound of thriller. It is groovy, laid back and classy.
It has not only Michael’s own best written songs of his career but also Rod Temperton’s who remains easily MJ’s best songwriter.
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Beautifully written , you have described Thriller perfectly.
 
Лучшее для меня непобедимое, потом триллер. Это единственные альбомы, которые я люблю слушать полностью.
 
mj_frenzy said:
Apparently @ssj means that it lacks sonic cohesion, which is true because sonically the 'BAD' album is all over the place.

For example, it has funk songs (such as, 'BAD'), it has ballad songs (such as, 'Liberian Girl'), it has hard rock songs (such as, 'Dirty Diana'), it has gospel songs (such as, 'Man In The Mirror'), it has pop songs (such as, 'Smooth Criminal'), and so on.

'Morphine' with all these mechanical, abrasive and experimental sounds of machines should be called an industrial song with funk elements, rather than a rock song.
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Well none of Michael’s solo album has been sonically cohesive going by this logic and that wasn’t done by accident. Thats the way MJ wanted it to be
 
I could make an argument for all of them, espicially Bad, Dangerous and HIStory but there's something astounding to me about Bad.

Bad cemented Michael's legacy as the greatest ever. He didn't do a Prince or Beatles and go in a completely different direction, he took his time and crafted a phenomenal follow up to the biggest selling album in history. You could really feel his passion and determination, running throughout those 48 minutes
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Well none of Michael’s solo album has been sonically cohesive going by this logic and that wasn’t done by accident. Thats the way MJ wanted it to be
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It is a fallacy to believe that none of Michael Jackson's solo albums have been sonically cohesive.

For example, one can also say that even the 'Blood On The Dance Floor' album is a sonically cohesive album.

Or, the 'Thriller' album, which again is a sonically cohesive album (comprised mostly of up-beat, pop songs).

Or, the 'Off The Wall' album (already brought up by @Mister_Jay_Tee), which seems to be his most sonically cohesive solo album.

The list can even become bigger if one includes the singer's 4 pre-adult solo albums, but I do not count them because Michael Jackson was too young to decide by himself and apparently he was told by the heads of Motown Records what sound to include on these 4 albums.
 
mj_frenzy said:
It is a fallacy to believe that none of Michael Jackson's solo albums have been sonically cohesive.

For example, one can also say that even the 'Blood On The Dance Floor' album is a sonically cohesive album.

Or, the 'Thriller' album, which again is a sonically cohesive album (comprised mostly of up-beat, pop songs).

Or, the 'Off The Wall' album (already brought up by @Mister_Jay_Tee), which seems to be his most sonically cohesive solo album.

The list can even become bigger if one includes the singer's 4 pre-adult solo albums, but I do not count them because Michael Jackson was too young to decide by himself and apparently he was told by the heads of Motown Records what sound to include on these 4 albums.
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Going off of this description

"To make an album sonically cohesive is to make it fit together. Each song has a connection with the other, that's based on the vibe, rather than the lyrics or the emotional theme"

MJ has never done an album like that. Thriller is hardly a cohesive album when you have a rock song, a duet ballad, pop songs, soul songs etc. Not all songs are up beat pop songs as well. Maybe you have a different opinion about what Sonically cohesive mean. I will say though that Off The Wall is the closest thing.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Going off of this description

"To make an album sonically cohesive is to make it fit together. Each song has a connection with the other, that's based on the vibe, rather than the lyrics or the emotional theme"

MJ has never done an album like that. Thriller is hardly a cohesive album when you have a rock song, a duet ballad, pop songs, soul songs etc. Not all songs are up beat pop songs as well. Maybe you have a different opinion about what Sonically cohesive mean. I will say though that Off The Wall is the closest thing.
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Off The Wall is sonically cohesive, period.
 
Can’t we do a what is Michael’s most overrated album?
I’m not going to make that topic as some weird posters would crawl out of the woodwork to ask me “are you even a fan”?
To which I would then have to reply “yes I have been since the late 80s” and “ I’ve seen him live twice, how often did you see him?”
But but “ how old are you then?” does the shocked fan say to which I go ”I am 40”. By now completely flabbergasted the accuser now goes ”oh I’m only 12 and a fan since 2021”.

My pick is “bad” and I’m ready for war!
 
filmandmusic said:
Can’t we do a what is Michael’s most overrated album?
I’m not going to make that topic as some weird posters would crawl out of the woodwork to ask me “are you even a fan”?
To which I would then have to reply “yes I have been since the late 80s” and “ I’ve seen him live twice, how often did you see him?”
But but “ how old are you then?” does the shocked fan say to which I go ”I am 40”. By now completely flabbergasted the accuser now goes ”oh I’m only 12 and a fan since 2021”.

My pick is “bad” and I’m ready for war!
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ooh, it's gonna heat up now, lol.

I don't have an answer to this myself but why did you pick Bad? Not looking for an argument, genuinely interested.
 
@zinniabooklover

I don’t like the sound, my guess is most real instruments had been replaced by synths at this point but I am sure @DuranDuran will be coming in to bombard me knowledge that isn’t relevant at all. 😝😜
It is the only MJ album I put on and think “it sounds dated”.

I also think it sounds too “pop” too safe. I think only 2 songs would be good enough to be on thriller, namely liberian girl and dirty diana. These songs have a good timeless sound.

Overall the songs are good, quality singing as well, I just would have liked them in another jacket.

Dangerous now that was radical! Almost none of these songs are radio friendly except for the handful who also became worldwide top 10 hits.
 
filmandmusic said:
@zinniabooklover

I don’t like the sound, my guess is most real instruments had been replaced by synths at this point but I am sure @DuranDuran will be coming in to bombard me knowledge that isn’t relevant at all. 😝😜
It is the only MJ album I put on and think “it sounds dated”.

I also think it sounds too “pop” too safe. I think only 2 songs would be good enough to be on thriller, namely liberian girl and dirty diana. These songs have a good timeless sound.

Overall the songs are good, quality singing as well, I just would have liked them in another jacket.

Dangerous now that was radical! Almost none of these songs are radio friendly except for the handful who also became worldwide top 10 hits.
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Nah, Bad was in fact too ahead of it's time. I'd wager it's so futuristic it's only just now we're understanding how groovy it was. It took me a long time to appreciate Bad but it is easily his strongest single sighted effort. The 80s sound is in again anyway.

It's actually quite sad MJ never went back to it much later, it's so versatile. If it was made like Off the Wall, analog, people would not be able to get enough of it. The grooves of the instrumentation would be too much. And yet it could easily be modernized in the Xscape tradition and basically like modern music. Like, even the outtakes have that energy, that strength and vitality.

And it wasn't supposed to sound like Thriller so that's good that you think that. Though it's funny that you say that because those two songs were made in the Thriller era. Like 1983, that early. And there's quite a lot of songs from that period. Then APOM is like 1985 I think. As is Smooth Criminal And everything else is 1986-87 right? So it's a pretty steady progression material wise.
 
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filmandmusic said:
Can’t we do a what is Michael’s most overrated album?
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I'm going to sound insane,but,for me, that would be a tie between Thriller and Invincible. (Thriller by the general public and Invincible by the fandom. Both records contain a couple of masterpieces,though)
 
PurpleThriller said:
I'm going to sound insane,but,for me, that would be a tie between Thriller and Invincible. (Thriller by the general public and Invincible by the fandom. Both records contain a couple of masterpieces,though)
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Most fans are just hurt that Invincible flopped so badly so they try to make up by claiming it is a masterpiece 😜
I’m happy thriller is loved by the general public though i’m currently following a radiostations poll of the 500 best albums ever. We’re currently at nr 128 and thriller so far hasn’t appeared yet.
I thought you would love thriller with your name and all…
 
filmandmusic said:
Most fans are just hurt that Invincible flopped so badly so they try to make up by claiming it is a masterpiece 😜
I’m happy thriller is loved by the general public though i’m currently following a radiostations poll of the 500 best albums ever. We’re currently at nr 128 and thriller so far hasn’t appeared yet.
I thought you would love thriller with your name and all…
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Every time somebody disses Invincible it just goes viral again. Y'all need to keep the aged opinions away.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Going off of this description

"To make an album sonically cohesive is to make it fit together. Each song has a connection with the other, that's based on the vibe, rather than the lyrics or the emotional theme"

MJ has never done an album like that. Thriller is hardly a cohesive album when you have a rock song, a duet ballad, pop songs, soul songs etc. Not all songs are up beat pop songs as well. Maybe you have a different opinion about what Sonically cohesive mean. I will say though that Off The Wall is the closest thing.
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I agree, except the Motown albums are the most sonically cohesive. Among them, I will nominate Got To Be There.
 
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