194. Michael Jackson, "Bad"

 


After yesterday's somnambulant stroll through the morose stylings of Leonard Cohen, at least it was a breath of fresh air to get this blast of high energy dance-pop.  If you are a human who existed in the world between 1987 and, say, 1998, you are familiar with at least three to five songs on this album, which, as the follow-up to Thriller, one of the biggest albums in the history of music, was as highly anticipated as Halley's Comet.  It sold something like 25 million copies.  Not bad, Michael!

As you would expect from a Jackson/Quincy Jones album, it is as slickly and tightly produced as it gets.  There is not a single breath or beat or synth bump out of place.  Right off the bat, the title track lets you know you are not in Thriller territory any more - Jackson's going for something harder-edged, to the extent that was possible for him.  Quick digression - since 1987 I have wondered why Jackson sings what sounds like "chum on" instead of "come on" in this song.  Turns out it is not a reference to shark baiting but, according to the lyrics annotators at genius, it is a tribute to the way Mavis Staples sings "shamone" in "I'll Take You There."  OK then.  The synth lines and drum machine patterns bubble and pop, and there's a fair amount of horns that brighten up the whole thing.  The second song, "The Way You Make Me Feel," takes a hard U-turn back to Jackson's older stuff, so much so that I always thought it was on an older album.

"Man in the Mirror" I also remember, probably because it was on the radio a ton?  I just found out it was co-written by Glen Ballard, who also co-wrote a bunch of Jagged Little Pill, an album I am certain we will see at some point.  There are more "shum ons" in this song too!  "Smooth Criminal" is a pretty great song, I must admit, again with the kind of burbling popping synth track we saw on the title track.  As you may know, half of this song is Michael singing "Annie, are you OK, are you OK Annie" (although he gives it a line reading like "Annie did you whoa kay") and you will be as surprised as I was to learn that some people believe it's a reference to "CPR Annie," the dummy you use to learn CPR.  Apparently you're supposed to say "Annie, are you OK?" when you're doing the training.  I am not OK now.  Of course, Alien Ant Farm did a fairly well-known cover in 2001 that I vaguely remember being on MTV all the time.

They managed to shave about a minute off of Michael's running time for the song, which brings me to one issue I have with this record - every song feels padded out.  They're all about a minute too long.  Now, I get that it's Michael Jackson and Quincy fucking Jones and that's just it.  Who's gonna be the guy to say "Quincy, Michael, this is great, love it, but don't you think we can cut about 45 seconds from the outro where nothing really happens?"  Hello, sidewalk!  Same problem with modern-era Stephen King.  When he turns in a book that's 1200 pages and should be 600, do you wanna be the guy to send it back with a Post-It saying "Please cut it in half, big guy."  No you fucking don't.  Anyway, it's Bad.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Of course.

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