Michael Jackson – “Thriller” (1982)

Rating: 9

Best song: “Billie Jean”

            So, Thriller. The biggest-selling album of all time and one that holds a personal place in my heart too. I have so many memories associated with this album: actually being terrified when I first saw the “Thriller” video and not wanting to watch the werewolf sequence for several years, calling my dad and trying to figure out what was the name of the song that was always stuck in my head (“Baby Be Mine”). So perhaps no one could really fault me if I just let nostalgia dominate and gave Thriller a perfect score. Yet alas, I will not be doing so.

            The way I see it, Thriller is probably just about the pinnacle of mainstream commercial pop in the album format. It’s somewhat elusive as to what distinguishes a commercial-oriented album, but the main factor that stands out to me is that although Michael’s personality is a distinct one, he only actually wrote four of the nine songs on the album. The other five are songs, where judging by the liner notes, Jackson contributed only the vocal part. On his own songs, he’s usually credited for rhythm and vocal arrangements in addition to the songwriting, but on the others, this credit is absent. I suppose this isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it is worth examining the reaction to Thriller in context, especially that of the Motown tradition that Michael hails from.

In the 60s, the best Motown singles were undeniably great. But the artists themselves were given minimal creative control, and most of them are known for their singles, not their albums. It’s only when artists like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye assumed complete creative control for themselves that they were able to emerge as creators of great albums, not just singles. So in this context, where not much is expected from a pop album outside of the singles, Thriller does look amazing. Seven of the nine songs on the album were Top 10 hits! So basically, you have nearly all singles. And almost all of those songs are very good to great.

Yet although I too love Thriller and rank it very highly, I feel it is ultimately held back by the fact that Michael only had partial, rather than full creative control. In that sense, it has one foot in the Motown days of yore and one foot in the full Gaye/Wonder breakthrough. Perhaps he just didn’t have it in him to write nine high-quality songs of his own. Yet although the songs contributed by other songwriters are generally quite good and catchy, what I see as the ‘big three’ of this album were all written by Jackson and really take things to a different level. The opening “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is somewhat similar to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” riding a quirky, infectious groove for 6+ minutes. Yet I think it’s even better and increasingly intriguing as it goes. For one thing, it’s loaded with hooks, with at least five distinct sections that are all deliriously catchy. It’s also weird too, with lyrics hinting at Jackson’s paranoia and eccentricities like “You’re a vegetable/You’re just a buffet/They eat off of you” or “If you can’t feed your baby, then don’t have a baby.” It doesn’t get as much hype as “Beat It” or “Billie Jean” but I feel it’s just as good.

“Beat It” is of course most famous for featuring Eddie Van Halen on guitar and indeed, his riff and solo are integrated excellently into the song. It doesn’t hurt that the chorus ranks among Jackson’s catchiest refrains. “Billie Jean” is my pick, like many, for best song on the album and probably the best thing Michael ever did. Lyrically, it’s intriguing due to being his first of many songs about a jealous, insane, sexually starved woman out to get him. This moves beyond just simple paranoia especially because I doubt that Michael was having actual relationships with women during this time period. It’s almost like he’s making up what he thinks romance is like and when the result is this darkly paranoid, I can’t help feeling that it says a lot about how screwed up he was.

But armchair psychology aside, the real reason “Billie Jean” stands out is because again, it’s brilliantly catchy, with the opening bass line and “the kid is not my son” hook being particularly iconic, but also because it’s just so dense with vocal and instrumental hooks, perhaps even denser than “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” There is not a wasted second in the arrangement and if more commercial pop was like this, perhaps I wouldn’t be so derisive of the corporate machine. But I don’t think it’s possible for most commercial pop to be like this, because this song is pure Michael and its success is reflective of his own vision and perfectionism.

Unfortunately that perfectionism did not seem to extend to the songs that he didn’t write, and that’s why although my designated ‘big 3’ are enough to earn Thriller a high rating, the rest of the album holds it back from gaining true masterpiece status in my mind. Which is not to say there’s nothing else of value here, of course. I’ve barely talked about the title track, which I feel non-Jackson aficionados would be surprised to learn was not actually written by Michael, but rather trusted sidekick Rod Temperton, who wrote three songs on the last album and contributes three here as well (“Thriller” plus “Baby Be Mine” and “The Lady in My Life”). I like “Thriller” a lot of course, although the effect isn’t quite as strong without the video. “Baby Be Mine” seems to get a lot of flak in most reviews I’ve read, and is only one of the two non-singles here, but whether it’s my childhood nostalgia, or its smooth, easygoing melody, I enjoy it greatly. “The Lady in My Life” definitely veers closer to filler and is proof that Jackson had far surpassed what Temperton was contributing at this point, which was not necessarily the case on Off the Wall. Yet while I enjoy all of these songs, along with “Human Nature” and “P.Y.T.,” they never quite make the leap from very good to great.

But the real problem here is Michael’s duet with Paul McCartney, “The Girl Is Mine.” Although the song was in fact written by Michael, it feels the most gimmicky and fake of any song on the album, with no purpose besides to be a vehicle for a big celebrity duet. Yet the result is honestly embarrassing, especially for Paul. The main body of the song is trite enough, but the spoken-word section, much as I enjoy to recite it word for word, is really stupid. I sense zero actual interest in the song from either Michael or Paul. Since Michael has the songwriting credit, perhaps it really was his harebrained idea, but this is the main reason that Thriller can’t muster a higher grade. In an alternate universe where Michael Jackson was not a child star and wrote and produced Thriller himself, I’d like to think it would still have “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin,” “Beat It, and “Billie Jean,” (maybe minus the slick production and Van Halen guitar solo) but it would never have “The Girl Is Mine.”