The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

avecigrec said:
This is gonna be difficult.
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yeah, I'm with you. It's lost its luster for me over time. We'll see. It's also kind of like Prince's Purple Rain to me. There's just too much banging and it suffers as a result. I always thought Dangerous was his best album. I also think History is a more interesting album. Jackson is such a part of my DNA. It's funny because one of the Opus episodes for Billy Joel's The Stranger was based on the premise that it plays like a Greatest Hits record. Thriller and Purple Rain play like Greatest Hits records and really almost are.
 
Lee Newman said:
yeah, I'm with you. It's lost its luster for me over time. We'll see. It's also kind of like Prince's Purple Rain to me. There's just too much banging and it suffers as a result. I always thought Dangerous was his best album. I also think History is a more interesting album. Jackson is such a part of my DNA. It's funny because one of the Opus episodes for Billy Joel's The Stranger was based on the premise that it plays like a Greatest Hits record. Thriller and Purple Rain play like Greatest Hits records and really almost are.
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Thriller was my first favorite album as a kid. I still love it. Off The Wall might be the only other album of his that I like as much.
 
Bohnjaggs said:
Thriller was my first favorite album as a kid. I still love it. Off The Wall might be the only other album of his that I like as much.
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I was a huge MJ fan. I sold my copy of Thriller on vinyl when I excised the Ryan Adams stuff (the Aerosmith Vinyl was purged then too). I think I have everything on CD, but I don't pull them out (I didn't own any Adams on CD, unsure if I have any Aerosmith on CD). I don't change the channel when he comes on, but the constant and persistent allegations have colored my ability to enjoy his music comfortably. The older I get the less I am able to separate the artist and the art. It also means that I don't always want to know more about musicians - which is an interesting dilemma because I find myself wanting to read about music and musicians more and more.
 
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My completely unorganized thoughts about this record... sort of a stream of consciousness review. To clean it up would lead to a lot of writing I'm not willing to do right now on a subject that seems to be pretty divisive. People believe what they want to and my personal take on it all is not gonna change your opinion.

My parents gave me a copy of Thriller on cassette for my 10th birthday. It was already a phenomenon at that point. (I had previously purchased my first cassettes in 1982 - Buckner & Garcia - Pac-Man Fever and Survivor - Eye of the Tiger. A couple of years earlier when we moved to Jacksonville in the 1st grade, for Christmas I was given a denim clad suitcase turntable and 45s for Bee Gees - Stayin Alive b/w How Deep Is Your Love and Kiss - Detroit Rock City b/w Beth.) The gifts stayed with me more than those purchases. In fact, I can remember the first CDs I received as gifts from an Uncle (Sting - The Soul Cages & Boston - Third Stage) but have no clue what CDs I first purchased. There are moments I remember buying CDs - I remember picking up Ritual De Lo Habitual and Facelift my senior year of high school. I remember ripping into the longbox for Sgt Peppers that same year. I remember being at a midnight release for Vitalogy and Hoist. I remember standing in line at Best Buy for the Beatles' Anthology sets. Long story short, you tend to remember the things that mean something. I imagine my first CD purchases are things no longer in my collection and knowing me, probably from the bargain bin. I remember going to the Record Bar to buy the copy of 1984 I have on vinyl. I remember buying the Kenny Rogers - The Gambler b/w Coward of the County and Paul McCartney - Tug of War 45s at a school fair.

MJ was different than all that formative music. For my generation, I think it is a shared touchstone across race and other socioeconomic factors. I remember the kid next door having the vinyl and thinking it was so cool with its gatefold. Especially that tiger.

There is something special about the Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson team.

I remember the videos for Billy Jean and Wanna Be Startin and Thriller and Beat It. I remember loving the deep tracks Girl is Mine and Human Nature and PYT before it became a super problematic track for me.

Wanna Be Startin Somethin is a great way to start an album.

As I've gotten older, I've come to think that it might be poorly sequenced, but for the life of me, I'm not sure what I would change. It's lacks cohesiveness. It doesn't flow the way I think a great album should. Side A starts and ends strong. Side B is front loaded. As I said above, it also suffers from too much. When they all bang, they lose some of their bang. Same problem I have with Purple Rain. Can't fault it though, I mean in both instances, they are the records I am more than likely to reach for.

I won't editorialize my journey with the album over the last twenty years. I don't have any real answers one way or the other. My gut tells me where there is smoke there is fire and there is a lot of fucking smoke.

Twenty-five years ago this would have been a five. These days, I'd give it a four with an asterisk.
 
Wicked Dreamer said:
I should really get back into these. I’d meant to listen to that Van Halen album yesterday but didn’t get around to it. At least I’m a lot more familiar with today’s album!
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I misread that as you weren't familiar with today's album and I was gonna be like what fucking rock were you hiding under since 1982?
 
Also, for reference, this is that Eddie Van Halen guy:
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Never been that much of a fan of Michael Jackson, and never really understood what the fuss is all about to be honest. I was seven when this album came out, but I don't think any of my friends or family really played it or talked about it back then. I mean, Thriller sold well here in Sweden and was at the top of the charts at the time, obviously, but I think we had other (and more local) icons to connect to on a cultural level in the early 80s. In fact, I don't think he became that big of a phenomenon in Sweden until Bad and Moonwalker came out. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that MTV wasn't established in Sweden until the mid to late 80s when cable and satellite tv started to be more freely accessible. And I think the (admittedly great!) videos was a big part of his popularity, as he built an entire myth around his persona and dance moves in them.
Listening to it now, I can't really say that I'm ready to reevaluate anything personally. Billie Jean is still a great song. Beat it has a cool guitar riff. I think the song Thriller is pretty anonymous without the video. The rest is slick and well produced disco pop, that doesn't really do anything for me.
I won't even attempt to open the can of worms about the allegations, other than that it naturally affects my opinion of him in the negative sense.
Score: 2 (or maybe 3)/5
 
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Michael Jackson - Thriller
Stone-cold classic.

Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean!

Paul McCartney!

If the Thriller video didn't scare you shitless as a kid in the 80s, what were you even doing?!

NO ONE WANTS TO BE DEFEATED!!!

EVH guitar solo!

1.3 billion streams!

Ah, it's like a nice mellow come down.

And back up again.

And down.

Wow.

5 / 5 stars.
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Whiteout75 said:
Never been that much of a fan of Michael Jackson, and never really understood what the fuss is all about to be honest. I was seven when this album came out, but I don't think any of my friends or family really played it or talked about it back then. I mean, Thriller sold well here in Sweden and was at the top of the charts at the time, obviously, but I think we had other (and more local) icons to connect to on a cultural level in the early 80s. In fact, I don't think he became that big of a phenomenon in Sweden until Bad and Moonwalker came out. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that MTV wasn't established in Sweden until the mid to late 80s when cable and satellite tv started to be more freely accessible. And I think the (admittedly great!) videos was a big part of his popularity, as he built an entire myth around his persona and dance moves in them.
Listening to it now, I can't really say that I'm ready to reevaluate anything personally. Billie Jean is still a great song. Beat it has a cool guitar riff. I think the song Thriller is pretty anonymous without the video. The rest is slick and well produced disco pop, that doesn't really do anything for me.
I won't even attempt to open the can of worms about the allegations, other than that it naturally affects my opinion of him in the negative sense.
Score: 2 (or maybe 3)/5
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That’s the cool thing about doing the group and in this international setting. You know @Joe Mac talked about the US bias here and yeah that’s for sure, but your relationship with the album gives it a broader context.

Another thing to think about within the context of his success here is that he came from Motown and was already kind of American royalty anyhow. Off the Wall was his breakout and this was just validation that it wasn’t a fluke and in a moment when it could all be capitalized to an extraordinary extent unlike anything that had happened previously and really since.
 
Lee Newman said:
That’s the cool thing about doing the group and in this international setting. You know @Joe Mac talked about the US bias here and yeah that’s for sure, but your relationship with the album gives it a broader context.

Another thing to think about within the context of his success here is that he came from Motown and was already kind of American royalty anyhow. Off the Wall was his breakout and this was just validation that it wasn’t a fluke and in a moment when it could all be capitalized to an extraordinary extent unlike anything that had happened previously and really since.
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I totally agree that the different viewpoints and opinions is what I really enjoy with this group! And interesting to see how Jacksons icon status come from partially different contexts in different parts of the world. And to be clear, he was very popular in Sweden in the early eighties too, but I do think that it was first with Bad that he cemented his status as King of Pop here. Another aspect of this is that I think the Bad tour was the first time he played live here as well, and by then the craze definitely had landed.
 
Lee Newman said:
That’s the cool thing about doing the group and in this international setting. You know @Joe Mac talked about the US bias here and yeah that’s for sure, but your relationship with the album gives it a broader context.

Another thing to think about within the context of his success here is that he came from Motown and was already kind of American royalty anyhow. Off the Wall was his breakout and this was just validation that it wasn’t a fluke and in a moment when it could all be capitalized to an extraordinary extent unlike anything that had happened previously and really since.
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I think I’m just too young, and my parents probably a little too old for Jackson to land fully. I have a vague memory of bad but mostly was just a slightly odd looking public figure who would every now and again release a cloying overblown ballad about stuff.

I’ve heard most of the early stuff back, and it’s clear that it is great pop, but not really without the spectre of the allegations over him being in existence. It’s so very clear that he was a predatory pedophile, even if he wasn’t convicted of any offences, that I don’t really care much to give his music a chance. I get why if you’ve grown up with this stuff as a core of your childhood or adolescence that this would be more difficult.
 
15. Love - Forever Changes

So I know this album pretty well, I first heard it in college and have read the 33 1/3 about it. It is a classic in my opinion and as far as vibes go, this is 1967 in my eyes. I don’t think an album better summarizes the Summer of Love better musically than this - a fine balance of psychedelia, folk, and pop with just a tinge of the darkness to come. There’s no weak spots on the album even if it perhaps never hits the highest highs of Alone Again Or. But few albums do. A classic.

Rating - 5.0/5
 
Lee Newman said:
2/16/2023
View attachment 167238
Michael Jackson - Thriller



Allmusic Review
www.allmusic.com

Thriller - Michael Jackson | Album | AllMusic

Thriller by Michael Jackson released in 1982. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
www.allmusic.com www.allmusic.com
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Being originally from the Detroit area there were a lot of Michael Jackson worshippers. My uncle took me to my first record show when I was seven and I was slightly scared by the MJ and Elvis fanatics who were practically fighting each other for first dibs on those. There was a heavy set woman in a mobility scooter who ran over my foot trying to get to a copy of Thriller that had a newspaper clipping with it. Idk, maybe it was something special but that's all I remember of it and my foot hurt like hell the rest of the day. My mom very much disliked MJ because he creeped her out. My dad didn't have any MJ in his collection, so it wasn't until I was a teenager working in a kitchen that this album and bad got frequent play. They're fun albums and I do still listen to them occasionally, but like @Lee Newman, the older I get the harder it is for me to separate the art from the artist. And while, sure, there's a chance he was just a creepy weirdo who didn't do all he was accused of, there was enough out there to make me never be able to fully listen to these albums without thinking about how there's a good chance he did do all that stuff, and that does taint the experience.

5/5 for the music on its own terms, because there's no question he was incredibly talented. But I'm also fine if it doesn't show up on these lists anymore.
 
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