What would you change about each album?

Kanye East

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OFF THE WALL
- use long version of Rock With You (more adlibs at the end)

THRILLER
- don't speed up Baby Be Mine
- add Hot Street
- use long versions of Billie Jean, Lady In My Life, and PYT with the longer adlibs at the end

BAD
- don't speed up any tracks
- Smooth Criminal with full second verse
- original album mixes of all songs instead of later edits

DANGEROUS
- split into 2 albums

  1. Will You Be There (without the unnecessary orchestral intro)
  2. Give In to Me
  3. Who Is It?
  4. Monkey Business
  5. Heal the World (without intro)
  6. Black or White (without intro)
  7. If You Don't Love Me
  8. Keep the Faith
  9. Work That Body
  10. Gone Too Soon
  11. Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
  12. For All Time




  1. Jam
  2. Why You Wanna Trip on Me
  3. In the Closet
  4. She Drives Me Wild
  5. Remember the Time
  6. Can't Let Her Get Away
  7. Serious Effect
  8. She Got It
  9. Slave To The Rhythm
  10. Ghost Of Another Lover
  11. Man In Black
  12. Dangerous
  13. Someone Put Your Hand Out



HISTORY
- cut the rain sound effect intro from Stranger In Moscow
- don't censor They Don't Care About Us
- remove Come Together
- use full version of You Are Not Alone (from TUC)
- remove the classical intro to Little Susie
- use the single edit of History
 
* i only did the main albums*

OFF THE WALL - Leave as is

THRILLER - Don't speed Baby Be Mine (heavy on that!) - use long versions of Billie Jean, Lady In My Life, and PYT with the longer adlibs at the end (heavy on that)

BAD - Leave as is

DANGEROUS - Make two separate albums. Add Tabloid Junkie, Come Together, D.S., This Time Around, and 2BAD Remove Keep the Faith, Gone too Soon, Heal the World and Will You Be There

INVINCIBLE - Remove Cry, Threatened, The Lost Children, Privacy, Speechless. Add Scream.

SANCTUARY (fictional album) - Threatened, Privacy, Cry, Little Susie, The Lost Children, Keep the Faith, Will You Be There, Heal the World, Gone Too Soon, Speechless and You Are Not Alone
 
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The only thing I would change is to remove JGF on Bad and include Streetwalker instead.
 
I'd replace "Keep the Faith" with "Someone Put Your Hand Out" on Dangerous. Other than that I wouldn't really change anything on Michael's albums.
 
Off The Wall - It's fine as it is.

Thriller - Maybe add another track to make it a 10 track album. Hot Street or Behind The Mask, maybe.

Bad - Replace Just Good Friends with Don't Be Messing Around or Streetwalker.

Dangerous - Replace Gone Too Soon with She Got It or For All Time

History - Replace DS, Smile and Come Together with Is It Scary, Morphine and Much Too Soon.

Blood On The Dance Floor - Add In The Back and Innocent Man as new songs.

Invincible - Replace Cry, Privacy, You Are My Life & The Lost Children with Xscape, We've Had Enough, Hollywood Tonight & A Place With No Name. Change the title from Invincible to Xscape.
 
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BAD
add Streetwalker

DANGEROUS
add Throwin' Your Life Away

INVINCIBLE
replace Cry with What More Can I Give (solo)
replace Threatened with Xscape
replace Privacy with Hollywood Tonight
add We've Had Enough
replace You Are My Life with Shout
replace The Lost Children with A Place With No Name
 
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HISTORY
- cut the rain sound effect intro from Stranger In Moscow
The rain sound effect (at the beginning of the song) is not out of place.

It indicates the need for finding a safe place for protection from an impending storm (storm as a metaphor here for the very bad events of his personal life at that time).

The Russian, spoken narrative (at the end of the song) is actually out of place.
 
Thriller: trim WBSS & TGIM and restore Hot Street as 10th song

BAD: replace JGF w/ Streetwalker

Dangerous: get rid of Trip, Get away, Drive me Wild, Heal The World & Gone Too Soon, add Earth Song, Monkey Business, Serious Effect, and 2 more MJ penned songs - release HTW & GTS as standalone projects

History: ES already out (moved to Dangerous), get rid of TTA, DS, CT, yana, history and add Morphine, IIS, Changes, innocent man, On the line, Faces

Invincible: just ignore Rodney Jerkins
 
Off The Wall - Leave it

Thriller - Remove The Girl Is Mine i would prefer Say Say Say on it and add For All Time or Carousel

BAD - Masterpiece dont touch

Dangerous - Remove Cant Let Her Get Away and Keep The Faith

HIStory/BOTDF - Remove Little Susie and This Time Around, Add BOTDF and Ghosts on it, the rest of BOTDF is good but can live without

Invincible - Remove Dont Walk Away, Cry, The Lost Children and Whatever Happens, add What More Can I Give, Xscape, We've Had Enough, Blue Gangsta (with a decent name) or Fall Again
 
Damn, Michael got cancelled hard in this thread 🙁

Got to Be There: leave

Ben: replace In Our Small Way with Twenty-Five Miles

Music & Me: leave

Forever, Michael: add Girl You're So Together and Farewell My Summer Love.

Off the Wall: leave

Thriller: leave

Bad: leave

Dangerous: leave

HIStory: remove YANA, shorten some songs

BOTDF: Why not add A Place with No Name, Blue Gangsta, Chicago, Hollywood Tonight.

Invincible: Remove Cry, Break of Dawn, Heaven Can Wait, You Are My Life.
 
I'm not sure why there was a battle between Another Part of Me and Streetwalker when they both could've been on the album if JGF was left out.
 
I'm not sure why there was a battle between Another Part of Me and Streetwalker when they both could've been on the album if JGF was left out.
'Streetwalker' could not co-exist with the 'The Way You Make Me Feel' on the same album because they are very similar songs (musically and thematically).

Also, it appears that Michael Jackson wanted, for the 'BAD' album, a successor to the 'The Girl Is Mine' duet song (which explains the inclusion of the 'Just Good Friends' duet song).
 
What a fun thread!

Not sure about all the albums, but here's my set list for History if anything can go anywhere:

No Disc 1- should have been released separately after History

Disc 2:
Scream
TDCAU
SIM
ES
YANA
Money
TJ
IIS
Childhood
SPYHO
Morphine
History BOTD remix version
Smile
 
Off The Wall - Girlfriend is the black sheep here, barely hanging.

Thriller - Maybe P.Y.T. for Carousel. But propably not.

Bad - I want Fly Away somewhere on the album, but I see nowhere to place it.

Dangerous - Serious Effect replaces She Drives Me Wild. Maybe some fat trimming on some of the longer songs.

History - History is replaced by HIStory (7'' HIStory Lesson Edit)

Invincible - Privacy, 2000 Watts, Invincible removed. These songs can be B-sides on vinyl releases/bonus tracks. We've Had Enough, Fall Again, In The Back, Xscape is added. Unbreakable is on the album, Invincible isn't, so the album is now called Unbreakable instead. On vinyl releases, Invincible is B-side to Unbreakable, which is now released as a single. I want to keep You Are My Life, but remove The Lost Children (too saccharine). To be fair, I'm not a fan of Heartbreaker (too "boyband pop") and Don't Walk Away either. Some serious trimming needed here.

It does makes sense that Michael decided to keep the best songs off the album once his feud with Sony started.
 
Off The Wall - Girlfriend is the black sheep here, barely hanging.

Thriller - Maybe P.Y.T. for Carousel. But propably not.

Bad - I want Fly Away somewhere on the album, but I see nowhere to place it.

Dangerous - Serious Effect replaces She Drives Me Wild. Maybe some fat trimming on some of the longer songs.

History - History is replaced by HIStory (7'' HIStory Lesson Edit)

Invincible - Privacy, 2000 Watts, Invincible removed. These songs can be B-sides on vinyl releases/bonus tracks. We've Had Enough, Fall Again, In The Back, Xscape is added. Unbreakable is on the album, Invincible isn't, so the album is now called Unbreakable instead. On vinyl releases, Invincible is B-side to Unbreakable, which is now released as a single. I want to keep You Are My Life, but remove The Lost Children (too saccharine). To be fair, I'm not a fan of Heartbreaker (too "boyband pop") and Don't Walk Away either. Some serious trimming needed here.

It does makes sense that Michael decided to keep the best songs off the album once his feud with Sony started.
It cracks me up how every album has a line or two and then Invincible has a whole paragraph 😂
 
The songs on Thriller were shortened for a reason. They did not want to make it a 2 record album, which would have been more expensive. If they put the songs on there like they were on a single LP, then the sound quality wouldn't have been that good, like some of those old K-Tel compilation albums. Prince's 1999 album (which came out around the same time period) was a 2 record set with a bunch of long songs
 
Without changing too much about any of them,

Off the Wall:
>Remove "Girlfriend" and "It's the Falling in Love".
>Use longer mixes of "Rock with You", "Off the Wall", and "Burn This Disco Out" with extra adlibs.

Thriller:
>On the CD version of the album, include the full versions of "Billie Jean" and "The Lady in My Life".

Bad:
>Remove "Just Got Friends" and "Another Part of Me" (the latter can be the bonus track on the CD version of the album if there needed to be a bonus track).
>Include "Leave Me Alone" on all versions of the album.

Dangerous:
>Remove "Can't Let Her Get Away" and "She Drives Me Wild".

History:
>Remove "Come Together" altogether.
>Make the number of tracks on the first disc 14 to match the now 14 tracks on the second. I'd drop "Heal the World" from first disc.

Invincible:
>Swap the tracks around to improve pacing.
 
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Invincible: ballads out, faster songs in

1. Unbreakable
2. Heartbreaker
3. Invincible
4. You Rock My World
5. Get Your Weight Off Of Me
6. Threatened (In Christianity 666 is the number of the beast.)
7. What More Can I Give (Solo Demo)
8. 2000 Watts
9. Shout
10. Whatever Happens
11. A Place With No Name
12. Speechless
13. We've Had Enough
14. Xscape
 
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This thread is summed up for me by one point... The fact you would change Thriller, the greatest selling album of all time!

I wouldn't change a single thing 😆
 
Off the Wall - If I had to do anything, I’d cut “Girlfriend” and “It’s the Falling in Love.” I like them both well enough, but they aren’t necessities in my eyes.

Thriller - Nothing.

Bad - Swap “Just Good Friends” with “Cheater.” If we’re really dreaming, make it a duet with Stevie.

Dangerous - “Jam,” “Why You Wanna Trip on Me,” “In the Closet,” “Can’t Let Her Get Away,” “Who Is It,” “Give In to Me,” and “Dangerous” are all too long and could lose 30 seconds to a minute each, minimum. Cut the prelude to “Heal the World” and the Beethoven intro to “Will You Be There.” Also trim the industrial “Dangerous” intro.

HIStory - Remove “Come Together” outright. Cut the rain intro to “Stranger in Moscow” and the “Pie Jesu” intro to “Little Susie.”

Blood on the Dance Floor - Cut the remixes and make it a five-song EP, as intended.

Invincible - Cut “Heaven Can Wait,” “You Are My Life,” “Cry,” and “The Lost Children.” Replace “Invincible” with “Escape.” Replace “Privacy” with “Shout.” Rearrange the track listing a bit so the second half isn’t so ballad-heavy. Swap “Unbreakable” and “Threatened.”
 
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