Bad

Smooth Criminal keeps this criminal's album rating above a 1.
Bad is amazingly terrible simply because those keyboards are jarringly basic when compared to other music of its time.

4
Not sure some of the deeper cuts hold up to the hits but overall pretty great album

some great songs, but also some stinkers. doesnt help that the synths didnt age too well. thriller was much better imo

Oof. Fuck Michael Jackson, but Thriller and Off the Wall are four-star albums. This one is pretty... wait for it... wait for it..... terrible.

The most fine/ok a Michael Jackson album can be, production really holds this one back.

Of course this is absolutely expert pop music.

Just on a simply musical level this is going to score high.

The One Two punch of Bad and The Way You Make Me Feel is an industrial strength opener and Speed Demon isn't far behind.

But Liberian Girl, with its Swahili intro and "I'm in love with an African woman" theme sets a bit odd coming from someone who seems to have paid a lot of money to look like a white man.

And asking the Man in in the Mirror to change his ways seems uncomfortably confessional, given what would come out later about what exactly "his ways" were.

I Can't Stop Loving You is another of Michael's long line of soppy, middle of the road, oh so sensitive love songs. First "Ben" now this.

Dirty Diana hasn't aged well at all. It's another one of those songs about band groupies and aren't they always a great idea?

Smooth Criminal seems to be a chance to get down and Boogie to the story of a woman being murdered. Fun times.

And this was kind of the beginning of the end. From here on the weirdness only increased and the stories just got stranger until he was more a punchline than a star.

Oh of course, it sounds great, I enjoyed many songs on this album. And of course, the very first thought that crossed my mind when this was revealed was "child predator." Like, absolutely he was. Michael Jackson was a lot of things. Inhumanly great performer, and also a child predator. I can't even do the "separate the art from the artist" thing here. Those go hand in hand.\

But I can't deny The Way You Make Me Feel, nor Smooth Criminal, nor the silliness of Speed Demon...I mean it's Michael Fucking Jackson. What could I possibly say about this that hasn't already been said?

Very iconic Michael Jackson album packed with memorable moments. It is less cohesive than other albums of his, but cannot deny the bangers.

8/10 [KEEP]

Starter knallsterkt med to certified bangers, men ble overrasket over hvor mange fillers som er på plata.

Produksjonen, synthene og trommemaskinene er ekstremt datert. "Speed Demon" og "Just Good Friend" høres ut som MJ har sunget over en keyboard-demolåt.

"Man in the Mirror" må også nevnes som en veldig fin låt som jeg alltid har likt. Her på albumet blir den et veldig velkomment avbrekk fra alt synthbråket fram til nå. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" virker som en skrotet Disney-låt (Låtene er det verste med Disney-filmer), så det vrir seg i meg. Jeg har allerede mista trua når "Dirty Diana" og "Smooth Criminal" kommer på. "Leave Me Alone" er passende som siste låt, for det er nettopp det jeg vil at Bad skal gjøre.

Etter Bad og Off the Wall begynner jeg å lure på om et samlealbum er alt man trenger av MJ, men jeg har fortsatt trua på Thriller.

Is this "bad" meaning bad, or "bad" meaning good? Turns out to be the latter. Who knew every MJ bop* was on a single album?? Briefly considered a 5, but half of the songs are just all right, so I guess it's a 4.

*except 'Black or White'

Highlights: 'The Way You Make Me Feel' (every song in the classic film Center Stage is a precious gem, including this one!!!), 'Man in the Mirror' (reminds me of my college acapella group singing 'Heart of the Matter', another bop), 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' (very "90s kids movie end credits song that they'd play in the grocery store" vibe), 'Dirty Diana' (admittedly I knew the Weeknd's version first, which I prefer, but this is still pretty good), 'Smooth Criminal' (admittedly I knew the Alien Ant Farm version first, but in a rare happening, I like this better)

Lowlights: 'Bad' (I think this may be the maximally bad song on the album, in fact!)

Wiki highlight:
<<"Bad" was originally planned as a duet between Jackson and Prince, after Jones suggested they record a song together. Prince said in 1997 that he declined because of reservations he had with the opening line of the song: 'Your butt is mine'.>> (understandable)

I bloody LOVED this.This is only the second Michael Jackson album I’ve ever heard and while I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve become a fan of his yet, I will be keeping this saved and going back to it.

Top Track - Smooth Criminal, a belter of a song. Can’t believe I’d never heard this before considering I do really like the Alien Ant Farm cover version.

Great great album, not much else to be said.

I think Off the Wall and Thriller might be a little better, but this of course slaps

I hoped I’d get something to cheer me on this blah Friday. This came up, first full album of his I have heard, and within 2 seconds I literally could not stop clicking my fingers to the beat and intermittently woohing. The soul and RnB feels so familiar and retro but there is a freshness to it. It’s a wonderful album but I need to go put my fingers in a bucket of ice water now!

This has always been my least favorite mj album, and relistening to it it feels a bit rushed in a lot of places. Its a very sparce album which seems like a crazy word to use for Michael Jackson the perfectionist, but he clearly understands pop music of the era. The good songs work. Its funny to listen to dirty Diana and it feels so much like a sequel to Billie Jean and it just ended up a bit flat coming from him...

I don't know. Its a good album but not a great one like thriller or the one after this. Plus the added drama of his life, just left me a bit unfulfilled.

Even without the allegations l, I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan , and this hasn't changed my mind.

Good album full of hits.

High 4/5

Extremely uneven - 3 all time greats, pure fun bangers (Bad, Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make me Feel) and then a heaping pile of schmaltzy saccharine bullshit. Noone cares about the ballads, MJ, we're here for the dance hits so cut out the crooning, it's truly awful. The 80s guitar shredding is kind of good and really funny.

Not as good as Thriller, but that's like saying Rubber Soul or The White Album wasn't as good as Sgt. Pepper... You've already released the quintessential 1980s all time best selling monster record, how do you follow that up? Just casually make the 12th biggest selling album of all time I guess, make it have 11 songs and release 7 as singles and have 5 go to number 1 in the charts, make the "Bad" video be an 18 minute long short directed by Martin Scorsese? Sounds like a plan, be sure to throw in a world tour that seemingly never ended, play to 500k paying people over 7 nights at Wembley Stadium? Oh go on then...

I remember when MJ was a little boy in the Jackson 5. He was very cute then. My older sisters loved him. We danced to his music from tweens on. My kids got hooked on his music as tweens when his untimely demise was announced. My grandkids will probably be fans. He was as good as they get.