Not a Thriller!

It is the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". How can I put this delicately. This is the most overrated album in the history of the pop era. Yes it sold well, but in my opinion, this album just doesn't do it.

I'm including my review I wrote for Amazon.com here. This has nothing to do with the fact of who Michael Jackson is. Yes Michael Jackson is a freak., however in this case I just happen to think the music on this album really isn't there.

When an album sells somewhere around 30 million copies and it is the biggest selling album in the history of the music business, it does garner my attention. Therefore, separating out Michael Jackson's personal life from his music - I decided to review his 1982 release "Thriller". Looking at this album strictly from a creative musical standpoint, I do think this album is overrated. For this album, Jackson and producer Quincy Jones assemble a powerful team of musicians. These musicians - while very talented probably weren't the reason why this collection became the monster-selling album that it became. Simply put, this album sold because it came along at the right time - and was marketed very well to fit in with the times.

The musicians that contribute to this album are big names. There probably aren't many names bigger than Paul McCartney. McCartney is well known for his entertaining duet with Jackson on "The Girl is Mine". However, there are many other big names that contributed collection as well: James Ingram (background vocals on "Wanna Be Starting Somethin'", songwriter of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"), Toto's David Paich (an arranger on "The Girl is Mine", Synthesizers on "Human Nature" and "The Lady in My Life"), Mega-producer David Foster (Synthesizer arrangments on "The Girl is Mine"), Vincent Price (provides the famous sinister 'rap' on "Thriller"), Eddie Van Halen (a guitar solo on "Beat It"), Toto's Steve Porcaro (Songwriter of "Human Nature", Synthesizer on "Beat It", "Human Nature", and "The Lady in My Life"), Toto's Steve Lutkather (Guitars and Bass on "Beat It", Guitars on "Human Nature"), Toto's Jeff Porcaro (Drums on "Beat It", "Human Nature", and "The Lady in My Life"), and LaToya and Janet Jackson (background vocals on "P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing)" Finally, acclaimed keyboard player and studio musician Greg Phillinganes (who worked on Lionel Richie's "Cant' Slow Down" and Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" - two outstanding albums in this era) contributes to several of the tracks on the collection. As for the Toto band members, I do feel their contributions are overlooked. They had only one year ago released their own critically acclaimed album - "Toto IV" and now they were working on "Thriller" and Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down" - two of the largest selling albums of this time period.

I don't feel it was Michael Jackson's vocals or any of the outstanding talent that helped this collection become the blockbuster seller that it became. This album was released in December, 1982. This was a time the music industry was undergoing change. This was the beginning of the age of music video. I give Michael Jackson and his management team credit. They take what I consider a mostly average set of songs, but they marketed it with some very clever music videos. Say what you want about Michael Jackson's music - but he did make the most of this medium. The videos basically became a marketing machine for this album - and it resulted in seven Top 10 hits of the 9 songs on "Thriller" in the United States. (The title track "Thriller" is probably the best example of this).

There are several reasons why this album is "average" at best:

- The Percussions are awful. Despite having one of the best drummers and musicians in the business in Toto's Jeff Porcaro, this album basically takes a bunch of music and puts a disco dance beat behind them. There is very little in the way of any solid drumming on this album.
- There is little in the way of any cohesion on this album. Yes it did have a mixture of styles (the Rock-edge on "Beat It" to the R&B Style of "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady in My Life" to the campy "The Girl is Mine"). A lot of times this happens when there are "too many cooks in the kitchen" - while there was a vast array of talent, I do feel that eventually this impacted the final product (even Quincy Jones couldn't fix that).
- There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of the music on this album. Yes, the music videos were groundbreaking - but not the music.
- One thing I discovered is that Michael's songwriting didn't really shine. I thought it was the songs written by "outsiders" that were better. The Steve Porcaro "Human Nature" penned song is probably the strongest effort on the collection. Rod Temperton is very underrated on this album. Many people don't realize that he wrote the "Thriller" track (while it isn't my favorite, it is probably the only innovative track of the collection). Temperton also wrote the two underrated R&B tunes - "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady in My Life".

As for the positives:
- The strong points are the contributions of the Toto band members. As mentioned, "Human Nature" is probably the strongest track. While I've never been a fan of "Beat It", there is some good instrumentation in there. I actually feel if "Beat It" was just done as an instrumental without the disco beat - it would sound good.
- Eddie Van Halen does give a terrific solo on "Beat It".
- If you are a Synth-Pop fan, this album (with the exception of "Beat It") is going to provide plenty of it.

The liner notes include all of the lyrics and do a good job at providing musician and songwriting credits. Overall, when I look at this collection - I just don't think it is the greatest album of all time. I would even say that for the year it was "Album of the Year" that The Police's "Synchronicity" and Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down" were miles ahead of "Thriller". The bottom line is that if there were no music videos, this would have been just another 80s Synth-Pop album. If you are curious on what all the hype is - then you may want to get this collection - otherwise I don't recommend it.