Someone on my estate will not stop playing Thriller at top volume

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Michael Jackson on endless repeat. It's really quite scary. Not as scary as the giant poster of Michael Jackson's Face on the New North Road... (has anyone else seen this?)

What's scary is how every song on this album has been beaten into my psyche whether I wanted it there or not. Nine singles, what were they thinking? But you can't beat the basslines. Production still sounds really fresh. And the Vincent Price bit is fantastic.

I remember as a child it being a terrible album. But it's not as bad as I remembered. Odd, that.

― kate, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)

nothing can beat the bassline on billie jean.
michael's face is scary, i agree. totally.

― joan vich (joan vich), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

not as bad as you remembered - duh, it's fantastic!

And I'm throwing my vote in for "Wanna Be Startin' Something" as greatest MJ moment of all time, while admitting that "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and "I Want You Back" advocates might have stronger arguments.

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:37 (twenty-three years ago)

There's been a copy of Thriller lying in the bargin bin of Fantastic Plastic ever since they started stocking CDs, begging me to give it a home. I doubt I could find my cassette copy if my life depended on it. I haven't even heard that album since we used to blare it from the tinny speakers of ye olde ghetto blaster.

God God. Imagine that I do buy it, and play it, and even put on headphones, thereby giving it a *proper* listen. And imagine that I *like* it. Oh God.

No. Too, too freaky. I've seen a reduced version of that poster. After his full blackendectomy his mug used to scare the wits out of me. Now all I can feel is pity. Either his munchkin-land house doesn't have any mirrors, or he's brain damaged.

― Michael A. (Michael A.), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Is "I Want You Back" the title of a MJ song as well? JESUS! How many different songs are there with that name?

But aren't Wanna Be Startin and Don't Stop on Off The Wall, not Thriller?

― kate, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:42 (twenty-three years ago)

God God. Imagine that I do buy it, and play it, and even put on headphones, thereby giving it a *proper* listen. And imagine that I *like* it. Oh God.

Jess to thread!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

everything michael jackson did up to and including "the way you make me feel" is fucking fantastic. some of the stuff after it (ie. "you rock my world") is also ace.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:50 (twenty-three years ago)

"I remember as a child it being a terrible album. But it's not as bad as I remembered. Odd, that."

Trust in your first impressions.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:50 (twenty-three years ago)

It's weird, when you get used to seeing a faded star as a bloated ego support machine, to discover that there was actually a point where they were talented, and discover why people are still willing to put up with the bullshit.

Do any of you trainspotting types know who did the bass on these sessions? It's that unholy 3-dimensional slab of a bass sound that really gets me.

― kate, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:56 (twenty-three years ago)

You poor poor woman! Can you not blare Sonic Youth back at them?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 14:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't own a stereo. I suppose, since Daren is away, I could use his stereo. But my neighbours don't appreciate Sloan as much as I do. The bastards.

At least it's not Nickelback. There was a time over the summer that a different neighbour would NOT stop playing that same bloody song over and over and over.

At least I know my landlady gets revenge by blasting Radio 4 at them whenever she's home. (And I mean The bloody Archers, not the wibbling NYC band of the same name.)

― kate, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

_Thriller_ is a great album, "P.Y.T." notwithstanding. "Human Nature", "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" in particular are spectacular.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 15:29 (twenty-three years ago)

i personally can't believe that someone seriously asked
which trax were on the biggest selling album of the 80's.
just 2 reiterate this board is ' i *love* music'.

aren't the lyrics on thriller awful tho ?

'if u can't feed ya baby,
then don't have a baby...'

well cheers !
hardly 'sign o the times' is it ?

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 16:55 (twenty-three years ago)

uh, "Sign 'o' the Times" has one of Prince's most simple-minded lyrics ever (non-Rainbow Children division). the lyrics of Thriller do not pale in comparison, trust me

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

The dance tracks are amazing, but the ballads are shit. The part in "Billie Jean" when you hear "DON'T think twice!" in the left speaker immediately followed by "DO think twice!" in the right - untoppable! It's the angel/devil-on-the-shoulder effect made real through the use of stereo sound - beautiful.

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 18 September 2002 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

i was playing 'like i love you' on repeat all night.

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 23:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS THREAD ISN'T ABOUT HOW GRATE "BABY BE MINE" IS!!

― A.V. Alexandre (Keiko), Thursday, 19 September 2002 00:18 (twenty-three years ago)

'baby be mine' all day.

― brian badword (badwords), Thursday, 19 September 2002 00:53 (twenty-three years ago)

The ballads rule, even the Macca one (racial subtext less fun than gay subtext). But then I like the "bloated ego support machine" so what do I know?

― B:Rad (Brad), Thursday, 19 September 2002 01:55 (twenty-three years ago)

even if the songs were all lousy (which they are most assuredly NOT), the singing is so unbelievably breathtakingly transported it would hardly matter. (that's not even to mention the arrangements et al)

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 19 September 2002 01:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Thriller = the only album offhand I can think of where by the end of the singles run it was easier to name which songs on it didn't get released at all on 45 (a grand total of two). And why? Because it was THAT FUCKING GOOD. If you don't mind my saying.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 September 2002 05:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I like this record fine but it's not that great that I needed to hear it constantly in my undergrad music lounge. (Sometimes it would barely have time to finish playing before it would get slapped on again.) I would also not object if the odd DJ chose not to mix it into his set and if one could get through more social chats about pop music without hearing the exact same raves about it. Except for cuba libre and myself, respectively, no one makes that big a deal about Rumours or Boston, the next two biggest selling albums last time I checked. At least I listen to Don't Look Back sometimes too.

― sundar subramanian, Thursday, 19 September 2002 15:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Rumours is great!

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 19 September 2002 17:33 (twenty-three years ago)

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