Reviews (page 12 of 14)
Like Bad, Smooth Criminal; everything else’s okay.
His vocal styling and drama he puts into it is strong and carries the mediocre synth music.
Although this album has quite a number of Michael's hit singles, I found it less creative and interesting as previous albums, such as Thriller. Although I enjoyed listening to the album, I found it very much a product of pure commercial tracks aimed to maximise sales, rather than a creative album.
Probably MJs second best album after Thriller. Lots of great songs and beats. 3
man in the mirror and smooth criminal slap hard. others cannot be critically reviewed by me
This album is like a time capsule of pop music from the 80s. It reeks of its sound. Other than that, it’s mostly just a weird 80s pop record. Didn’t age too well.
Good album but totally over produced. MJ’s squeaks, gasps, woots and hee-hees wear thin quickly. I find it difficult to take his songs about women seriously given his reported proclivities and Speed Demon is just ridiculous. Still there are bunch of hits on this album, hence the score.
Man in the mirror seems to be relevant
Some classics, of course. Non-singles are generally a bit crap though.
Ah, the King! I don’t have much nostalgia for MJ, but can say I definitely enjoy a majority of the songs. Been looking for a way to get more familiar with some of his work. I’m surprised by how many I know but wasn’t aware they were from him. Easy to listen, many will put me in a good mood, no matter what kind of music I want to listen to. Favorite tracks: Bad and Smooth Criminal
well produced. not my style
Great pop album by a weird man.
Some good singles but a lot of the songs are forgettable.
its michael jackson what should i say babes extremely famous album with amazing songs on it
Michael Jackson. Doing MJ things. Couple of HUGE tunes on here, but also some absolute stinkers. And of course, the elephant in the room makes it hard to separate the art from the artist. But in general, it’s not a great album, it’s just ok. The classics stand up well as you would expect - Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal but the rest feels an awful lot like very average filler tunes.
First time finding myself having a hard time separating the art from the artist. Not a bad album but what a mess of a human.
All the hits
Bad is weird. while it's not bad (even though it is), it really doesn't feel all that good either. it really doesn't shine very well in comparison to thriller, or even off the wall. smooth criminal is obviously the highlight and only song I'd call thriller-tier. Bad (song) actually isn't that bad (even though it also is). The rest is memorable (dirty diana, speed demon, man in the mirror) but it's just like. sure. this exists. I'd rather just listen to thriller. still not bad (even though it is?) I'd see why someone would call this bad. though I do also not see how you wouldn't call it bad. where am i
p580. 1987. 3 stars Well, there's no denying he could knock out a tune - this is packed with hits - and Man In The Mirror is possibly the best thing he did. Vocally he's on top form, but set against that is the dated production and an awful lot of filler. And I can't shake off the embarrassment of listening to music made by a child molester.
No while this album is Bad, I wouldn't say it's bad. But it definitely isn't great. The second half stands out for sure.
The hits are hits. The rest is meh. I did like "Librarian Girl".
The songs sound quite dated and there are a few pretty shite tracks. The hits are rather good however. Trying to seperate art from artist is always tough, especially when the album was released seemingly before he went 'bad'. 2.5/5
Good music overshadowed by a disgraced legacy. I knew eventually I'd have to encounter a review like this, and still not sure where I land on the whole thing. I considered not rating this at all, but I think I'll just try not to overthink it and give an honest rating. There are some great pop songs here. I do prefer the production on the two previous albums, but the hits are pretty strong. Three stars. Fave track: The Way You Make Me Feel
The hits are there! About three of the songs were unknown to me. Not bad but they weren't anything special.
I see why the hits were the hits
The songs "Bad" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" are okay. The rest I can live without. Overall, a very dated 80s sound. Far from a timeless sound like, for example, Simon & Garfunkel. 2.5-3 stars
There are absolutely great songs on here like Smooth Criminal, and I cannot deny that, but everything here feels incredibly aged, for mostly worse, and the fact that the best song (Leave Me Alone) isn't even on the original track listening is kind of the final straw that makes this album feel incredibly mediocre. 2.5, round up to a 3.
Bad was good. all the hits
I heard most of these songs as singled on the radio.
Top-notch production, top-notch pop, though much of it definitely sounds dated. Looking forward to some of his other works.
Not my favoirite of his but still je of his best
HEE HEE. Actually pretty good. Not great, but definitely not Bad. Talk about clickbait. Do better Michael Jackson, I know you're reading this. Yaddi-yadda, insert eight paragraphs here about Michael Jackson being a questionable guy. Who cares. I know all of you fuckers writing college essays in the reviews pull out the nastiest bop of all time when "Billie Jean" comes on at the club.
When you reach the heights that MJ did, even an album made after you’ve begun your downward slide is pretty great. This has some hits and some filler and some garbage, but it’s just past peak Michael Jackson.
It's not BAD but it's no Thriller.
Hit power gives way to star power on Bad. The tracklist feels a bit stretched, and there's less spectacle for Michael's ad-libs to hide behind. Perfectly controlled, perfectly unique, but one such record among many.
Good pop album with a lot of good songs
Well not being a great fan of Mr Jackson, I surprised myself that I enjoyed this. I prefer the earlier stuff but the production and gutsy sound are both clever and stimulating.
Yes
Not bad!
already heard it
Good but not my favorite MJ album. I think thriller and off the wall are better but it’s still solid
It’s alright
Not a Michael Jackson fan but I did like a few. Top Tracks: 1) Liberian girl 2) Smooth Criminal 3) I just can’t stop loving you
wore out the cassette of this when i was like 7; really struggled to listen to it straight through now, partly b/c of, you know, and partly because this is just very dated now; really, smooth criminal is the only one that really still stands up. leave me alone is ok too.
Not for me, I guess. MJ's talent is undoubtable, and his performance is super energetic. But there's just too many songs on the record, which are "just there". So Bad and Smooth Criminal remain the standouts.
Take a stick and smash it repeatedly on a metal garbage can. You've just nailed the recurring sound of Bad. It's bad. The songs are just weird and the producer appears to have just unboxed a new synthesiser. Every track, any moment of breathing space, is filled with a wacky sound effect or slice of novelty nonsense. I actually bought this in 1987 and thought I'd arrived as a serious cultural thought leader. Today, I'd like to apologise to that young man, 30 years too late.
If I liked this type of music more I would give it a 4.
Hard to ignore the cliche and connotations of these songs. Although some songs undeniably good.
I liked the sounds. There were some good song but won't be rushing back to listen anytime soon.
Honestly, this album did not age well. The synthesizers sound like a parody of themselves, with effects reminiscent of my 1990s childhood Casio's demo song. Many of the lyrics are cheesy beyond redemption, and the ballads are straight up unlistenable. And after relistening to the masterpiece that is Thriller, which truly stands the test of time, it's even worse. If it weren't for some classic hits, I'd rate this a little lower.
Bookended by two great songs, the rest of the album is.. okay. It's not my favorite MJ album, but still alright.
Fun album with amazing vocals
My appreciation for Michael Jackson's abilities as an artist has grown as I've gotten older. When he was alive, his music always seemed over-hyped and over-shadowed by his personal life—you know, things like allegations of assault and molestation against children. But, if I separate the art from the artist, it's difficult to deny how talented he and his bandmates were. I can't help but wonder what the scene would look like if he were still here creating music today. Standout track moments for me include: Bad's bass throughout, Liberian Girl's subtle Xylophone accompaniment and smooth bass progression, and Dirty Diana's powerful electric riffs and solos. The synthesizer and sampling throughout the album are also nothing short of classic. And then of course, there's his signature scats, vocal tics, and flourishes—they may have been overused at the time of release, but they're fun and bring a smile to my face now. I've listened to this album before, but there's several tracks I had no memory of—clearly a sign the entire album didn't make a huge impact on me. I'll probably listen to this again in a few years and think the same thing. While the aforementioned tracks stand out in their own way, the album seems to be a collection of independent songs, not anything cohesive.
If you can separate the art from the artist, some of these songs are pretty good. I mean, I prefer the Weird Al version whenever that's an option, but the originals ain't bad. 3.5. Apparently I hate whole numbers and refuse to acclimate to this 1-5 scale.
Michael Jackson-Bad I thought i knew all the songs but I was surprised I didn’t know/ remember a couple. Great album but I didn’t love every song.
Not really an MJ fan but I get why people like it.
A strange listen - I'd loved this album as a kid, but had forgotten half of it. Some parts - like the speed metal kick drums on Speed Demon and the funk stabs on just another part of me, were fun, and it almost reminded me of Zappa in terms of orchestration, but it also felt quite bloodless. Smooth Criminal and Bad and pop anthems, but elsewhere you see the signs of boredom and paranoia. I can't listen to Man in the Mirror without thinking of Patrick Bateman. By the end of the album I'm a bit tired of the same adlibs and hiccups on every song. I can't say it's a great album, but it's very unusual to listen to in retrospect. I feel like everyone should listen once, but I can't say I'm itching to go back to it.
I've never been a big fan of Michael's music, but I've never hated it either. If I was going to listen to one of his albums, I think this is the one. It's very polished and has some great grooves. Parts of it reminded my of Stevie Wonder, who I love, and then I was pleasantly surprised to hear a song featuring Stevie. Overall pretty good listen. 3 stars.
Politics aside, this is really a mixed album. The singles are massive and still stand up very well now. However, some of the album tracks really drag down the overall rating. The highs are really high, but the lows really low.
Dont really like michael jackson but its fine
Clearly doesn't hold up as well as Off The Wall or Thriller. I suspected as such. It was loaded with hits that basically rode the magic residue leftover from the Thriller era, but in hindsight sound dated. ”Hey pretty baby with the high heels on" doesn't work as a pickup line, especially from an alleged child molester. MJ protests a little too much with songs like" Leave Me Alone", and he clearly had no intention of taking his own advice singing" Man In The Mirror". It's fitting that the one solid legacy track from the album is "Smooth Criminal", a song that's built around what CPR students say to the Resusci Annie, which makes me suspect MJ didn't take a CPR class until he was in his 30's, and he probably only took a class to hang out with young boys. Smooth Criminal is the one truly solid banger here. Anything Michael released as a follow up to Thriller was going to be huge. This is where his weirdness finally started catching up with him. It's sad for many reasons. But I can still listen to Off The Wall and Thriller repeatedly without a concern for MJ's extra curricular activities. Those albums are that great. This album is where you start to hear all the whispers that would eventually become too loud to ignore.
I was never the biggest MJ fan, and have never listened to Bad in full before. When it started I thought, yeah these first two tracks are great if this carries on I'm going to love this. But it didn't really carry on and after a while, all of Jacko's vocal ticks and affectations started to annoy me.
Following Thriller, a timeless classic wasn’t easy. Listening back Bad sounds dated now. The title track borders on comical, sounding like a cartoon soundtrack.
I like the hits on this one
This definitely has a different sound than Thriller, which I like in some of the songs, but I generally prefer the style of Thriller. Still some good songs, but I am indifferent to too many of them to give this a four. My favourite songs were Leave Me Alone and Smooth Criminal.
One of the greatest songs of all time is on this album. I'll let you guess what one I'm referring to.
It has some undoubted tunes on it, but MJ's schtick hasnt aged as well as some others of this era
Memorable primary school joke - Q. "Why did Michael Jackson call his album Bad" A. "Because he couldn't spell terrible" Clearly, it's not terrible, but for one of the biggest selling albums of all time, it's not amazing either. Smooth Criminal is a banger, but that aside, there's a lot of over-engineered generic 80s pop here.
I liked Thriller better than Bad, but neither were my type of music. I recognize the significance of this album and it's influence on music and culture.
If this album had been put out by Michael Johnson, not Michael Jackson, I don't think it would have got nearly as much airplay. That's not to say that it's bad. It's not. But it's not great either. At most it's 4 stars. But I think it's really closer to 3.5, and given the "overhype", I'm rounding down.
3 Stars This is so thriller but it's also no dangerous.
Not fly bag, but not bad. Smooth Criminal is pretty awesome
Incredible and unique voice, he was truly a Master of his craft. The music is just too profoundly 80s for me.
They were ok and catchy but not the genre I like listening to.
TBH it's really really bad. Okay pun out of the way - I think it falls short of Thriller by quite a bit. A lot of the songs just aren't all that catchy or just have a very strange subject it's written about. 6/10
its good but not much more the highs are high and the lows are low the album is very dated and just doesnt have the hits to back it up with.
Favourite song: The Way You Make Me Feel
Difficult to review this one. Half of the album is made up of big hits that I can appreciate the quality of. The other half of the album is made up of what could only be described as filler, nothing stands out as anything other than that. It made me wonder if the bad tracks on Bad are there simply to make up the running time, maybe they're not as bad as I thought and just haven't had the airplay that the other tracks get, or maybe it's part of the whole MJ song writing. Maybe there's always going to be failures to sit alongside the huge hits?
there’s some real shit on here and even the best songs are fucked up by bad choices but it’s still a pretty impressive late Empire artifact
Almost forgot it was playing for the first half. It's not bad, though.
Not bad actually. Pretty good. Maybe like 3.5ish.
plástico. no tiene la misma onda que sus discos anteriores.
Michael Jackson put some great effort in his albums, more than we tend to think, but he'll mostly be remembered for this powerful singles. He's a singles artist, whether he liked it or not. And so it goes for 'Bad' which might be one of his best albums. But I only really care for Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel and Smooth Criminal - three powerful singles, accompanied by more mediocre tracks. Hence I give Bad as an album an average rating.
I don't think it's ever been a particularly great album, just 'good', and it's not really aged any better than that
There are lots of good hits on this album. Past those hits though, I was reminded why I don't listen to too many of his songs in a row. Lots of vocal tics. Now I know he is an amazing writer and performer. He has more talent than so many. Still.
Four of the tracks on this album were featured on Glee (Bad, Man In The Mirror, Smooth Criminal, I Just Can’t Stop Loving You) And two of the Glee versions were better (Bad and Smooth Criminal) The great tracks on this album are excellent pop songs, and hits for a reason. The rest just feels like weak filler. Best tracks: The Way You Make Me Feel, Man In The Mirror, I Just Can’t Stop Loving You, Dirty Diana Worst tracks: Liberian Girl (wtf), Just Good Friends, Another Part of Me
I was surprised that this wasn't better. A lot of the non-singles aren't that great. Speed Demon in particular made my eyebrow raise. The title track and Man In The Mirror are pop gold. The other big single, The Way You Make Me Feel is one of my least favorite MJ singles. I don't get the appeal. Not terrible by any means but not nearly on the level of Thriller or even Off The Wall.
classic Mike.
Hooooooo, Sha moon, cha. Shot da bita.
This is supposed to be the album where he moves away from the high pitched vocals but there are still a few too many high pitched “woo”s for my taste.
Average
Bad is great, Man in the Mirror is kinda lame but still good, Smooth Criminal is awesome, the only track I wasn’t already familiar with that struck me was Dirty Diana, which was also kinda lame but at least it was interesting. Everything else here is kinda just meh or just straight up bad. Liberian Girl was awful, Just Can’t Stop Loving you was boring trash. This is the second MJ album I’ve been served up in the last week and I’m starting to think it was more about the live acts than the albums, though I haven’t got to Thriller yet. This was whatever 2.5 rounded to a generous 3 stars
grand
Heee-heeeee! My overriding memory of this album is from listening to it as a (roughly) 6-7 year old. My brother had it on cassette, and I remember us playing it while jumping up and down on our beds together. Fun times! A lot of these songs do sound dated now, but you can't deny MJ is a really talented song-writer. There's some great songs on here and the hit ratio is really high. 3.5 / 5 rounded down.
I have never listened to a Michael Jackson album. Ok, I knew most of the songs on this album. Good but I would almost never pick this album to listen to. 3/5
It’s all fine, the hits are about as good (which is not to say great) as they were back in the day, but this still feels massively over-engineered, as perhaps befits a mega-star for the masses. The stompy/chompy synths and breathless vocals on nearly every song really mark the long-gone-by moment, as do the squelchy-screechy guitars (and don’t forget the occasional laser beam, in case there wasn’t enough going on for you). The problem is that so many of the songs are either mediocre or lame. Steve Wonder can’t save “Just Good Friends.” And do “Liberian Girl” and “Dirty Diana” need trigger warnings for our day and age? Give me Off the Wall and Thriller (and in that order) if MJ is required listening.
How to rate the album I loved most in the world aged 8 now we’re in 2026 Well it sounds incredibly dated in places But it does still contain some incredible songs (Smooth Criminal probably stands the test of time best of all) But it’s really impossible to enjoy an MJ album anymore now we know he was at best guilty of inappropriate relationships with young boys, and at worst guilty of unspeakable acts Probably just best to leave it as 8 year old me loved it as much as MJ would have loved 8 year old me
I forgot how many duds were on this one
"Bad" by Michael Jackson is a decent album, but it falls short of the brilliance of "Thriller." While there are some standout tracks on the album, overall I would give it a 3 out of 5 rating. To be fair, "Bad" had some big shoes to fill, coming on the heels of one of the best-selling albums of all time. While there are moments of brilliance, like the funky title track and the uplifting "Man in the Mirror," there are also a few forgettable tracks that don't quite measure up. The production on the album is solid, with Quincy Jones once again lending his talents to create a polished, radio-friendly sound. The instrumentation is tight, with a mix of synths, guitars, and horns that gives the album a distinctive '80s pop sound. Despite these strengths, there are a few things that hold "Bad" back. For one thing, the album is a bit bloated, with 11 tracks that feel a bit repetitive at times. Additionally, while Jackson's vocals are as impressive as ever, there's a certain sameness to his delivery that can make some of the songs blur together. Comparing "Bad" to "Thriller" is inevitable, and unfortunately, "Bad" falls short in a few key areas. While "Thriller" was a masterpiece of pop craftsmanship, "Bad" feels more like a collection of catchy but forgettable singles. That being said, for fans of Michael Jackson or '80s pop in general, "Bad" is still worth a listen - just don't expect it to live up to the hype of its predecessor.
extremely 80s with some legendary songs. cool to see who The Weeknd modeled after. Kind of a lot of MJ for a single sitting. 3.5/5
Thriller this is not. Definitely an uneven outing to my ears. A few classic songs that are great, but the overall vibe and feel of this album is peaks and valleys. Not for me by any means.
Skipped. RRKW
phew. there are like 10/12 songs on here that i would consider formative pop hits for me. i can sing most of them from heart. i don't know what michael jackson actually did. the things i have read and seen are damning. i can't ever listen to michael jackson the same way.
Can't separate the art from the artist with this guy anymore.
Mid michael
Ei sisällä mitään Thrillerin tavalla maata järisyttävää, mutta tämä on joko melko tasainen kokonaisuus, tai sitten hitit on ripoteltu juuri oikeisiin kohtiin. Ja esim. Man in the Mirror on biisi, jonka kertosäe vaikuttaa ensi kierrolla yhdentekevältä, mutta jo toisella kerralla saa laulamaan mukana. En edes anna tällä kertaa miinusta kasarituotannosta, joka ärsyttävästi jopa toimii.
There are some catchy pop songs in here along with Dirty Diana (my favourite MJ song), but the everything else is garbage. Scrapes a 3.
The hits are great but the songs that were new to me were just kinda, well.... Standout Track: Dirty Diana
A good album, not great. For all the famous songs, the other stuff in between is a waste of time and nothing but filler, so probably a 3, because even the best tracks aren't Jackson's best.
I don't quite know what to think of this... on one hand it's got some of my favourite MJ songs on it (Dirty Diana, Man In The Mirror, and Smooth Criminal), on the other it flips between so many different styles that it feels almost more like a greatest hits album with the lack of coherence. Plus, outside the songs I already knew (which tbf is half the album), it's not great - there's this horrible run from Speed Demon through to Another Part of Me which was really not good. And Leave Me Alone at the end was pretty bad too. 3/5, feels a bit harsh but the bad bits were really bad.
Nothing to really write home about in regards to this album. Actually a pretty boring listen if I’m being brutally honest. This project was released 5 years after Thriller and it takes a step back. There’s little to no musical expansion in comparison to Thriller, just Quincy Jones and his redundant drum machines that begin to fall out of touch in this musical time period. I understand the perception of Michael Jackson, however this is not the first album I’m showing people if they’re new to him. I will say it’s nice you can dance to this album!
Pretty good album just a bit dramatic.
It was... okay, a few good song but most of them I didn't enjoy.
I'll be honest, the first time I listened near in full was in high school and I was probably about 14 or 15. My parents were never really big fans and because of a horrible group project, I can never listen to Billie Jean ever again. I'd say the album is fine, it doesn't have Billie Jean on it so it makes it okay in my book.
You feel the Quincy Jones production throughout. Liberian Girl is my favourite, not keen on some of the backing vocals.
Good
Classic Michael Jackson.
For 80s some of it wasn’t horrible
Some of the first half is comically bad. Bad itself sounds hilariously ironic because it's so twee and preppy - and librarian girl is just baffling. But the second half picks it up a lot, with some seriously good catchy pop hits. A weird one
The hits still bang but it's hard to separate the art from the artist
Terror inducing flashbacks to high school choir singing Man in the Mirror. Otherwise a great album.
Obviously this album's singles are some of the defining songs of the 80s but the deep cuts are extremely cookie cutter and I'm just not an MJ gal at heart
Best songs: Bad, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Leave me alone
A decent Jackson LP that suffers a tad from the track ordering. Putting the uptempo heavy hitters (especially the title track) up first before stacking all the ballad-pace songs in the middle means the energy seems to peter out. Luckily the instrumentals don’t suffer from datedness, and Michael’s killer vocals do save even the slowest track from being too boring.
As always, I am torn. Great album, but sheesh.
Flipping heck this is like getting punched in the face by pop. The vocal ticks and staccato verge on the disturbing at some points. Whole thing was unnerving
Overall this one was a mixed bag. The best songs were really catchy and had memorable choruses, but there were a handful of songs that were very boring in comparison and felt like filler. Would've enjoyed the whole album much more if they trimmed some of that down. Also there were a couple of songs where it almost seemed like the vocals were being drowned out by everything else, which is weird considering they should be the focal point of the album
Hard to listen to a pedophile
Still wondering if annie is okay. Conflicted because what’s good is good and what’s not good is bad (ba dum tss). 3.25
Happy to listen to something I mostly know. Classic MJ.
Heard it before. Many iconic songs.
This is pretty standard Michael Jackson. The hooks for a lot of the songs were pretty good, but what was in between got a bit dull, with the background (particularly the percussion) leaving something to be desired. Bad and Smooth Criminal were songs I already knew and liked. Dirty Diana was the standout of songs I didn't already know. MJ is a talented singer of course, I didn't care for some of his weird vocal stuff, but the harmonies were pretty good in general.
Sämre än hans annat
Good pop as expected but the production has not aged as gracefully and the album as a whole is not as strong as his previous two
Honestly? It's only okay, MJ was a hit maker but overall I think he had more duds than good songs, still a decent album though
Épico tema.. a Megamente le gusta mucho.
A mislim meni je okej album, ne bi si pustio sad ovako. Ali ima hitova i to je najjače na albumu.
its closer to a 4, but the slower songs drag it down. liberian girl is boring, but leave me alone kicks like a lions mane. i dont know, he sings good. he also sits around on his hands on these slow tracks. bops only please.
Obviously a classic and it keeps the energy going all the way through, even with the slower songs which is commendable. I've never considered myself much of a Michael Jackson fan and I don't go out of my way to listen to his music but I admit I found this album enjoyable, especially to listen to while I'm working. My personal favourite tracks (in no particular order): Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, and Leave Me Alone. 3.5
Nolan are you okay, are you okay, are you okay Nolan? Nolan: Yuh
i think thriller is the superior MJ album but this one has a lot of good singles. never listened to the album all the way through. nothing stood out besides the popular ones we all already know.
Michael still is a great performer and talented singer, but the album itself is held back by some really questionable instrumentation/recording decisions. In particular, I don't like the way the synth bass sounds at all. Sometimes it can fit well on certain tracks (Another Part of Me almost sounds chiptune-esque and works well with it), but on others it sounds so out of place (The Way You Make Me Feel and Liberian Girl. The constant thunk of the snare on 2 and 4 also gets old quickly. It's not bad overall though and has some classics even if they sound dated today. Smooth Criminal single handedly bumps it up a star.
Don’t care for this albumsmusic but the supporting videos are very interesting
I mean, the hits are the hits and you can't really argue with them. But the deep cuts are forgotten for a reason. They're not great. They're not even good, really. You might even say they're... Bad. But the album, as a whole, isn't bad. I mean, it's "Bad" but it's not bad... You know what I'm saying.
+thumpy bass +classics +lot of texture +vocal range of mj -dated sounding at points -front half sounds too similar -sonic music? Fav - smooth criminal Least - Liberian girl
This is an album that represents the launch of an entire era of music. It is highly significant in that context and some songs were a massive departure from everything before and landed solidly in the late 80's-- particularly Bad, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, and Leave me Alone exemplify this. Off the Wall and of course Thriller had set these wheels in motion, and in many ways, it is Thriller that is the standout for originality and shapeshifting music thinking. But it's also really important to remember that by the time this album had come out, a lot of the 80's sounds had already been codified. And Michael Jackson had been playing quite a long time and had witnessed firsthand the role of the black American musician that started in RnB and rock and roll in the 50's push into these new areas-- and Jackson was able to move with it transcending the chorus of voices of his siblings into the rockstar and international pop sensation-- something unparalleled in black music at the time. Bad is a solid album although it is not as pleasing to hear now that so many years have passed and styles have frayed.
Dirty Diana! Can I get a high-pitched 'He! He!'? Wondering if Librarian Girl and Dirty Diana are the same person. You know, librarian by day, moonlighting as dirty Diana when the lights are turned out? Dirty Diana is Bad, and is probably also the Smooth Criminal. Oh, wait. Hold on, That's Liberian Girl, so I guess she's a staunch devotee of Rand Paul, then? Not sure what politics has to do with this album, but whatevvs. This album Bad, is uhh, badly showing its age. Thankfully there's some songs on this that have been immortalized by youth and still makes for an interesting drive down memory lane. "He! He!"
Y’all have captured all of my feelings in your reviews. Nothing more to add.
4-star album (too much unremarkable filler like Speed Demon, Liberian Girl, Another Part of Me and MJs ballads like I Just Can't Stop Loving You are really not my thing), but the real question is do I give it 4 stars when I can't hear a Michael Jackson song without thinking about the allegations of abuse? My ability to listen to his music is tainted. Lose a star.
This album has some classics and sounds dated at the same time. I remember Casey Casem telling the story on American Top 40 behind MJ’s dedication of Man In The Mirror to a 5 year old Japanese boy, Yoshiaki Hagiwara, who was kidnapped and eventually murdered. See, MJ cared for children. Wait…you say the next liner note is “I will always love you. Michael Jackson.” Well yes…that is a bit forward of MJ for having never met young Yoshiaki. I feel like that is a bit creepy, but maybe MJ was just super empathetic…🤷🏽♀️ Ummm…I told myself I was going to avoid the MJ/children angle and focus on the music. But then I remembered Casey Casem telling the Yoshiaki story. How in the hell do I remember that?!? Back to the music… Man In The Mirror is a great song. Other highlights include The Way You Make Me Feel, Dirty Diana, and Smooth Criminal. However, along with the highs are flat numbers like Just Good Friends and Liberian Girl. I still can’t figure LG out. It’s strange.
In my opinion, there are three really good songs in this album, and the rest are decent to... bad.
The hits were good, but I didn’t really like every track on this album
Not too bad, though a few too many slow and sappy songs for me to enjoy the whole thing. Bad and Smooth Criminal are both groovy classics though. Favourite: Bad
I'm listening to the 2012 remaster and what in the parted buttocks has been done to this? The levels are dismal. His backing vocals are more prominent. The hi-hat synths are uncomfortably prominent and genuinely, I'm afraid I almost can't listen to it. What on earth was the producer thinking? The way you make me feel isn't quite as bad as Bad. But it still reeks of terrible remastering. Thinking it couldn't possibly be such inept remixing, I checked out the video on YouTube, and it actually is terrible. The album - well. It's Michael Jackson. He done had problems. He was insanely talented in ways that very, very few people could hope to match. But he had problems, and the resolutions of which were insulated from him by vast amounts of money. Album has to get a 3.
3.5 stars. Not my favorite era of MJ. Honestly would be 3 stars if not for Smooth Criminal
Good album, but not the best MJ album. So many tracks that I would skip if I had this playing outside of this list.
Could have just been my mood, but this effort sounds really dated to me and not MJ's best work. Even the hits were not his best. I can't see myself reaching for this album ever again. He was an amazing musician so feels wrong to go below a 3 but I'm genuinely inclined to go 2 on it.
I don't get it
Pretty much peak 80’s.
Not as good as I remember it. Bad, Man in the Mirror, Smooth criminal are all still fantastic. The other stuff hasn't aged well, along with his legacy.
The four hits are good. Other songs are dated junk. Same as his other albums. Best way to experience MJ is compilation albums. (3.0)
6/10
Het is Michael Jackson. Goed maar niet super fan.
I was expecting this to be 5 stars. It is not. First two songs, fantastic. Next two, horrible. And the rest is mostly blah.
It's not "bad" (hur hur hur), but Michael Jackson's pop doesn't do a lot for me. It's immaculate for what it's doing but it ain't doing it for me.
Fijn hoor!
It did give us some great Weird Al covers 😉
6/10 it’s aight
3/5, not really interesting smooth criminal and man in the mirror are nice
It is truly remarkable how many songs and lyrics can be remembered after 35 years. I listened to this album on repeat when it came out; I was only 8 years old and a huge fan of Michael. And after all these years I was able to sing and/or hum along to every song except "Leave Me Alone", which I just discovered wasn't on the cassette (!) release. Listening back now, I really recognize how my music taste and knowledge have changed over the years. Where as a little boy I thought the song "Bad" was by far the best of the album, it is now one of the lesser songs in my ears. BAD is Michael Jackson who became a little less funky and a little more pop/rock. Now the poppy side is ok, but I'm actually more surprised how well his voice fits the more rocking tracks like "Dirty Diana", or the almost prince-esque track of "Speed Demon". And these songs, along with "Man In The Mirror", are real highlights of the album. Other songs that put a smile on my face are "Smooth Criminal" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" But to put the nostalgia aside, this is certainly not a great album in every way. I find songs like "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" a listless trifle, "Just Good Friends?" almost instantly forgettable and "Another Part of Me" feels very strained and unnecessary on the album. Ultimately, the album has more ups and downs, and - since he wrote 9 of the 11 songs himself - it shows that Jackson was a talented songwriter. But even though the album has been hugely influential on pop-music, I can't say it's great throughout.
There's a reason MJ was a superstar's superstar, and this holds up in this album. His performance on many of these tracks is unmatched. However, many of these songs sound very similar to one another, and they show their age. This project defined the sound of the 80s, which can be interpreted as good or bad. All of these songs are creative and danceable, but the album feels too self-similar.
The King of Pop's most 80s-infused album yet. Objectively, it's an impeccable, world-class pop album. Subjectively, I enjoyed the listen plenty but I have no desire to listen to the album again, which is how I classify my 3/5's. I liked Dirty Diana and the last track
A couple decent songs.
Didn't get to listen to most of it because I had no signal most of the weekend. Lots of heehee's. Can you listen to this anymore after the diddling?
A mix of absolute classics (“Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Smooth Criminal”), some enjoyable if not quite great songs, and some less memorable filler tracks (“Liberian Girl” is a funny one). I’m not sold on it as a great album but man the highlights are incredible.
K. I wasn't going to rate MJ, because I can't listen to him anymore, but I know this album really well. So, I don't have to listen to know.
While this is an insanely popular and important album, thriller just can’t be beat. The production and lyrics and sound are overall more mature and darker but it just isn’t my jam the way that something like billy Jean is. Smooth criminal, dirty Diana, etc. are all still deserved classics though
1. Veit ikkje om det fortsatt er innafor med Michael Jackson? 2. Hadde sånn samleboks med all Michael Jackson når eg var liten, så har hørt sånn alt og det meste er ganske dårlig 3. Anerkjenner at han har sånn 2-3 bra songar 5. HOOOOW'S ANNIE????
Liked it as a kid, not as much as the predecessors, but feels surprisingly soulful compared to what I remember. Massive nonce or not, he had a rare groove to his music
This album has some great hits, but I feel is missing a connecting line through the songs.
Not one for cancelling people but.... dodgy time when this was recorded. The then "King Of Pop" at his poptastic best (In the words of "Smashy & Nicey") some good tunes here and whilst nowhere near as good as Thriller this LP has some creditable tracks. My favourites "Bad" "The Way You Make Me Feel" "Man In The Mirror" "Dirty Diana" and "Smooth Criminal" I don't have it on my list but can see why it is here.
Its got some great hits on it, but the in-between hits are a bit fillery. It's enjoyable but I don't think I would ever listen to whole album again
Remember how he made a terrible movie after this? Good times.
Has not gotten better with age, though perhaps not significantly worse either. MJ really gives himself over to these songs, breathlessly so at times, but there’s far, far too much going on productionwise (heavy synths, overreaching guitar solos, the seven-layer vocals, the odd outer space sound effect). There’s a straining for maximum impact on many songs that don’t offer a ton. The musical equivalent of daytime TV, which was big back in the day, but not really worth watching – neither then nor now.
Mikið sem ég elskaði þessa plötu þegar ég var 11 ára (sérstaklega Man in the mirror), en það á ekki við í dag. Fínt popp og filler, en ég mun ekki leita hana upp aftur.
We have a new contender for most 80s sounding album of all time, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. Initially I was wowed by the number of hit singles and thought it had to be at least 4 stars, but then I thought: are the hits on here *really* all that? Bad ain't good. Man in the Mirror isn't the masterpiece I thought it was when I was 10. Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal are still fun, and The Way You Make Me Feel holds up fairly well, but there's at least as much filler as killer here.
Kind of annoying how he's like constantly going HEE HEE and DAH and whatnot by this point. Stops me from hearing the music, which sounds like it was made on a Mega Drive, and therefore rules.
MJ's grocery store era. Very 80s. Still great songs tho.
Pues fuera de las obvias (Bad, Smooth Criminal y The Way You Make Me Feel) la verdad es que sí, es un disco de Pop bien hecho, pero me llegó a aburrir. Liberian Girl hoy quizá sería tachada de expropación cultural (además tiene esa onda jungla-sensual que no me late), Speed Demon que nadie se la cree a MJ, Dirty Diana que también tiene una temática muy cuestionable. En general al final no fueron los hits que esperaba y espero poder pronto comparar con Thriller que seguro está en la lsita.
So 80s and this guy was right there at the top. All the other stuff came later but at the time these tracks were on the radio and on MTV and partially defined the decade in my view. I know 9 of the 11tracks and it could even be a Greatest Hits album such is his fame. Very lively, catchy and well produced with all his trademark yelps etc. Good to listen to still although not his best (that had already passed).
Good singles with a lot of ok filler. Nothing bad but not my cup of tea
Some good mj some less good, alright overall.
The singles are still as undeniable as they were in the 80s. The rest of the album doesn't hold up as well.
some of his best
C’est vraiment de la grosse pop bien produite. Michael mérite bien son statut de roi du genre. Tous les clichés de Michael sont ici. Pas fan de ses balades par contre. Elles passent moins bien l’épreuve du temps. La chanson Bad est une incontournable du catalogue de Michael. C’est aussi sur cet album qu’on retrouve Smooth Criminal que j’avais d’abord découverte reprise par Alien Ant Farm. J’aime beaucoup leur version rock de cette chanson. La synthbass dans Speed Demon. J’ai découvert la pièce Dirty Diana et je l’aime un peu plus à chaque écoute. Encore une fois, Micheal amène une guitare très rock dans une chanson pop. J’entendrais bien The Weekend reprendre cette chanson. Pièce préférée: Bad suivi de près par Smooth Criminal et Dirty Diana
J’ai toujours du mal à comprendre la place majeure qu’occupe MJ au panthéon de la musique pop. Les clips sont ridicules. « Bad », vraiment? Je trouvais attrayante la proposition de départ de traiter de la rupture sociale due à la réussite de certains afro-américains, mais une chorégraphie ballet-jazz pour montrer qu’on est resté un dur à cuire?« The way you make me feel », qui fait l’apologie du harcèlement de rue? C’est fou! Pour ce dernier, on pourra dire que c’est l’époque. Il reste que ce personnage a zéro crédibilité quand il s’agit de passer pour un méchant. Je parle beaucoup du personnage parce que des efforts évidents ont été déployés pour le créer. « Smooth criminal » est définitivement la proposition la mieux réussie, le clip et la chanson sont un régal. On doit quand même reconnaître le travail technique ahurissant des artisans pour ces productions impeccables autant sur le plan des musiques que des chorégraphies.
some thriller, some filler
Some great tunes, but it's really quite dated now and it's hard to separate the music from the artist.
Neben all den großartigen und zu Ende gedachten Hits tun die einigen Filler dann doch zu sehr weh. 3.0
It's a classic. Not my all-time personal favorite, but still good.
The mist of hairspray. The smoke of fireworks. The dust kicked up from a pair of working dance shoes. As a Baby Boomer I am practically required by my tribe to like Michael Jackson . And, I do, to a point. I would probably like him even more were he not operating under a major disadvantage- too much airplay. Six out of these ten songs are hits; four, at least, major hits. ‘Man In The Mirror,’ alone, qualifies as a mega-hit. As fitting, the arrangements, production, etc are pretty over-the-top, ala Vegas Elvis, including a generous amount of big hair metal 80s rock squeezed in between all the funk. What surprised me, though, was how current it still sounded, and not nearly as dated as I was expecting. The groove endures. I mean, we are talking about the King of pop here. Yet another surprise, listening to this so many years later as an older man now (I was only in my late 20s at the time of Bad’s release) was the realization of how young this LP really is, and I’m referring to its energy rather than its chronological age. It’s chocked full of the kinds of experiences and emotions with which a young man would typically resonate: hot girls and fast cars, obviously. It’s certainly preachy enough (we can create a better world than the crappy one we inherited from our parents), possessing that marvelous blend of arrogance and ignorance so characteristic of youth. But young man Michael’s special sauce, above and beyond all that, is his badness. He’s bad. Really, really bad. But not bad bad. Note that Michael does not go the route of say, a Miles Davis or a James Brown. Michael is not a bad 'motherfucker'! That would frighten the whites too much. Michael is Black Lite- the full flavor of the funky experience but with a third less guilt. Michael wants to challenge you, all right, to get in your face, to take you outside into the back alley. But not to fight. To dance. Maybe later, to love. By the way, Michael’s love songs are truly lovely, ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You,’ for example, the duet with Siedah Garrett. Sweet and tender. Smooth. Or, ‘Liberian Girl’- again, what’s better than being in love? (Note that in this song, he’s not yet married to Miss Liberia. For what it’s worth.) The only two of the bunch that didn’t seem to work well in the mix was the duet with the usually great Stevie Wonder. Relationships aren’t always a smooth mix, the song observes. Neither are Michael and Stevie, at least on this number. And the final song, ‘Smooth Criminal,’ exploring the aftermath of a violent crime? Weird ending for this LP, and a bit of a bummer, frankly. I just came to do a little dancing and flirting. And thankfully, Michael mostly serves up a lot of that, and still better than most. A good time all around, 'Bad' is, in spite of that one accidental and unfortunate glimpse of myself (the man) in the mirror, donning not much more than an open bathrobe, and gyrating to ‘The Way You Make Me Feel.’ In my sincere effort to make the world a better place, rest assured I’ve already taken steps to ensure that no one need ever take a look at that.
Is it fair to think of Bad in the same way one (now thinks of Kanye West's 808 and Heartbreaks? An underrated album, belated recognised as the first step in an artist's creative zenith? Yes and no. Bad is underrated. If it were a couple of songs shorter, it might have been a flawed masterpiece (exit stage left, Speed Demon, for example). As it is, it is flawed. But with more than the occasional flash of genius (Smooth Criminal, Liberian Girl, Man in the Mirror). Kanye did MBDF, the first great album of the 10s, next. Michael, unfortunately, became a circus attraction: the good in his subsequent albums (and there was a lot of good) swamped by gossip, eccentricity, and ultimately tragedy. So it goes...
Michael Jackson was mijn eerste echte kennismaking met muziek. Ik vond dit album zo cool, had 'm op tape en LP! Maar wat valt het nu eigenlijk tegen zeg... Gedateerde sound en ik kan niet eens terughalen wat er destijds goed aan vond.
Tja, de tand des tijds begint nu toch ook zijn sporen na te laten op dit album. Een paar ijzersterke nummers plus een flinke dosis jeugdsentiment houden het overeind.
Ik heb eigenlijk nooit zo de lol ingezien van MJ, afgezien van een paar hitjes dan. Dat iele stemgeluid... Dit was dan ook de eerste keer in m'n leven dat ik een heel album van hem heb gedraaid. Best leuk, maar I stick to my guns. (Die Franse en Spaanse versie op het tweede album zijn overigens weerzinwekkend).
Saved Prior: Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal Off Rip: Liberian Girl, Just Good Friends Cutting Edge: Leave Me Alone Overall Notes: Felt like a worse Thriller. Also I need to speak my truth: I prefer the Alien Ant Farm version and I won't be apologizing for it.
It's good, minus the pedophilia
Inconsistent effort overall. Some classics, others entirely forgettable. Amazing studio musicians though. Easy to forget that before his public life became such a mess that this was a portrait of Michael at the crest of his height before it would all come crashing down. Enough Cabot be said for the effects that Quincy Jones had on Michael's catalog.
6/10
Meh. It's Michael Jackson, but it's heavily influenced by the 80s. Some songs are great, others are not.
Difficult to know whether this part of a greatest hits album with so many singles on it. Had not listened to the full abum before and it suffers from being swamped by the singles. An edgier approach still with very strong production.
Man! Looking back on this album, there is so much cringe-worthy content. After listening to the track "Bad" and then "Speed Demon", I couldn't help but feel like this whole album was going to be like scrolling through r/IAmVeryBadAss. Seriously, all I could think about while I was listening to "Liberian Girl" was the scene in "40 year old virgin" where the main character was (falsely) talking about all the experience he had with girls. "Just like in the movies" - ha! Jokes aside though, the album is still undeniably good. My personal favorite is "Leave Me Alone", and there are many other that are great listening and chalk full of nostalgia for me. I guess what makes the album hard for me, hence the lower rating, is it's a bit much to take in one sitting. A ton of great singles, but I need a break between most songs to wash the synthesized taste of my mouth.
I don't know. Listening to MJ mostly just makes me feel sad and conflicted now. Highlights of this album for me are the groove of The Way You Make Me Feel (you knock me offa my feet now baby --- hoo!) and when the chorus comes in at the key change in Man In the Mirror and also remembering how my college friend Laura changed the words to Bad and sang, "My dad...has had...a crush on Cheryl Ladd!"
I'm less entertained than I thought I would be by this album. Whatever your thoughts on Jackson and his music, it's indisputable that he was incredibly talented and that, at his best, he's really entertaining to listen to. So I had some general expectations for this album that really didn't play out. Honestly, I was pretty bored through a lot of this, especially toward the middle of it. "Bad" is an excellent pop song, the best on the album. "Leave Me Alone," "Smooth Criminal" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" are also pretty good. But some of the other songs just feel dead inside, like his heart wasn't in it. I also feel like Jackson is trying to go along with what he thinks will be musically relevant, so he ends up with a weird, disjointed assortment of songs that doesn't really serve his particular talents. It neither lives up to our expectations of him nor breaks any new ground. On the scale of pop music in general in 1987, I suppose it was a good record? But if you were listening to much music in 1987, you know that isn't really a compliment. Fave Songs: Bad, Leave Me Alone, Smooth Criminal
I usually don't listen to MJ, but this was nice
I’ve listened to Michael Jackson my whole life, mostly just the classics but those songs are some of the damn best songs to come out of the decade. I’ve never listened to one of his albums before and I’m sad to say it’s really disappointing. Maybe I’m just biased because I was only looking forward to the popular songs like Bad, Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal (Amazing songs by the way) but the rest of the album just sucked, the songs were all so bland. Like every other song that wasn’t iconic sounded like a lame B-Track. At best the songs were repetitive and cliché but at worst they sounded kinda rapey and insulting to the listener. I don’t know, those three good songs really are amazing songs and for that I’ll give the album a 6/10. I really wished the rest of the album could’ve had more quality in it.
I was in high school and college during Michael Jackson's massive spotlight years in the 80s, and back then it was so hard to separate the image projected endlessly by all form of media at the time from the actual artist and his work. Because of that, I didn't listen to his music on purpose (it was everywhere anyway, but I didn't make an effort). I missed this album mostly at the time, except for the controversial original 'Bad' video that was unavoidable because it was so relentlessly covered. All that being said, over the decades since then I've come to enjoy some of his music. I saw the documentary 'This Is It' after his death, and it helped me see him in a different light (as an artist; not commenting on him as a person). Listening to this album all the way through now for what is the first time for me, I hear some good music. Some of the tracks aren't to my liking, a little too synth-poppy for me, but 'Bad,' 'Smooth Criminal,' 'The Way You Make Me Feel,' and 'Man In the Mirror' are really well done.
3.5
The album that birthed one of the best parodies of all time “fat” we will forever be indebted to Bad for that. This is another mj classic, lots of killer tracks, funky. It’s great….but it’s no Thriller
3 and a half....to 4. Some add tunes
No hot takes from me, nor do I want to get into the morality of listening to an artist and the separation of their actions from their art. A crazy amount of hits live on this album. Some of them feel about as dated as it gets. Dirty Diana will always be a slap though.
This album has several iconic songs that can keep its head above water despite the issues that Jackson had in his personal life. However, there are some real slow and sensual songs that haven’t aged well or are entirely lacking in flair.
Hatte ich besser in Erinnerung. Oft zu seicht und schnulzig irgendwie.
Singles were good but not overly keen on the others.
Although I am a massive Motown fan I never took to Michael Jackson's solo stuff. Obviously a classic album with commercially successful pop songs, well crafted and produced. But not for me this one I'm afraid
It's okay, it's no Thriller though, obviously. There isn't much else to say about this, it's a Jackson album. I always considered it one of the weaker ones, but lots of people seem to like it.
ehh, the singles on this are all pretty good but it's a slog to get through a good portion of these.
Catchy songs but a hard act to follow post Thriller.
What to do with a problem like Michael Jackson. On one had the big songs on this album are timeless classics. On the other hand he's quite possibly singing them about children he's molested. The songs are great but I can't truly enjoy them anymore. 3/5 Is it possible to remove one from the other?
Some of it holds up well, but some of it (Speed Demon) in particular is nowhere near as good as I remember
Good- Smooth Criminal, Man In The Mirror, Leave Me Alone Bad- Liberian Woman, Another Part Of Me 6/10
This album did not age well. Ee-hee!
Man in the Mirror is definitely Ashton’s favourite on this. Happy to hear 80’s bass and drums in Sydney traffic. The Way You Make Me Feel is the standout out of 4 standout tracks. The rest is real real average.
Soul, pop. Melódico.
Michael Jackson's obviously iconic- but I don't think I've ever actually listened to a full album of his. I really enjoyed it! I will say his french is trash holy shit. (ALSO Pitbull trash jesus)
It's Michael Jackson. You know who he is and what he sounds like. Bad is not his best album (two guesses what it is), but it's not bad (pun intended) either. The sound is dated, but it's been a very important and influential album so this makes sense as one of the "albums you must listen to".
Did not realize all these hits were on one album. Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal, AND Man in the Mirror...Wowzers. The first line of the album is something I've heard Mike say dozens of times. Had no idea he was quoting MJ. Speed Demon and Just Good Friends has some cool 80s synth bass... Liberian Girl isn't bad, but ignorable. Just Good Friends has comfortable elements... Overall, you know the hits while the rest feels more like filler than hidden gems - possibly with the exception of Dirty Diana. Still, another classic album. Good listen.
Does it sound dated, or was it date-defining? Who knows! Fave track - "Smooth Criminal"
the album overall was good, and i really enjoyed certain songs on it. However the instrumentals were very unimpressive
i'm still not sure i really care for michael. this was ok, but it ultimately just leaves me cold.
Quite enjoyed the album. Not hating it, not my favorite as well. Maybe it's not just what I usually listen to
80's pop star cool
Smooth Criminal, Bad, and Man in the Mirror are all on this album, so it feels criminal to rate it low- but I'm not a fan of a lot of Jackson's secondary songs, so 3 is as far as it goes.
I'm not listening to two Michael albums in a row. I'll assume it was a 3.
Puh... Was soll man zu ihm sagen? Mitreißende Musik, aber ein bisschen zu upbeat für meinen Geschmack. Sehr markante Stimme, aber mich stört mittlerweile sein ständiges „Huh-heh“ und „Ow“ und der gleichen. Als Kind hab ich ihn auch mal gehört und schlecht ist die Musik definitiv nicht, nur nicht mehr so mein Ding. Ein Argument für ihn, das ich glücklicherweise hier ignorieren kann und was mich ohnehin nie angesprochen hat, ist seine Persönlichkeit und Leistung bei Live Performances. Moving on...
I've never listened to this whole album. I've definitely heard the popular songs: "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man In The Mirror", and "Smooth Criminal". I don't recall hearing any of the other songs. I would have been 8 when this album came out. I was not into music then. I have vivid memories of hearing Thriller and my siblings watching the music video and not letting me watch it because it was too scary. I have a strong association with Thriller and GI Joes for some reason. Probably just the thing that I was into at that age.
Some fun songs, but mostly pretty annoying and cheesy. Smooth Criminal is good. Speed Demon and Man in the Mirror were better than expected.
1987. Key Songs: Bad, Smooth Criminal
++: Bad, Just Good Friends +: Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal +-: The Way You Make Me Feel, Speed Demon, Another Part of Me, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Dirty Diana -: Liberian Girl 4,9/10
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.
Some really important songs here (Smooth Criminal, The Way you Make Me Feel) but most of the album is underwhelming to me. Actually makes me appreciate Prince even more.
Sweet. Final Jackson. It's been about 180 albums since I listened to "Off the Wall". To be honest, I don't remember anything about that album. I felt a bit of whiplash coming off of the back of Thriller, where I was intimately familiar with just about every song on that album through radio osmosis. At the very least, I know there'll be one song on this album that I recognise, so I'll hopefully have an easier time engaging with this music. Here goes. Hmm. Kind of a bummer. I remember Thriller being immaculately produced, which makes the artificial, minimalistic sound of this album disappointing by comparison. That being said, I understand the assignment with this album. Jackson's trying to create stripped-back, easy-listening dance tunes, and I think he succeeds in that respect. The reduced emphasis on audio fidelity places greater focus to Jackson's vocals, which are generally adept. He has a good level of kick on the more rigid dance offerings and his distinctive falsetto is pleasing on the more ballady and atmospheric tunes. Unfortunately, this music crumbles quite a bit in the songwriting department. The vocal melodies are generally hit-or-miss, repetitious and airheaded, which makes their weaknesses stand out more when paired with the hefty song lengths and simple production. The result is an album where I felt disengaged across most of its runtime. Yeah, there's the title track. I should have expected to be hit with it right out the gate. It's not as iconic as the high points of "Thriller", though there's still a lot that it gets right. The funky synths are instantly recognisable and provide a good sense of forward momentum. Jackson offers a strong vocal performance and I like how the backup vocalists harmonise with him during the chorus. I've heard "The Way You Make Me Feel", too. No surprises there. Good song - I prefer it to the title track. The songwriting is tighter and Jackson delivers a more spirited performance, which is owed in part to his iconic heehee-ing. The instrumental is stronger, too. I do enjoy those Sega Genesis synths (especially down the middle of the song) along with the brass numbers and clapping percussion. Overall, the song nails the one thing it's focusing on, which is a constant sense of forward momentum. There's "Man in the Mirror". Honestly, I was beginning to lose hope in this album by the time this one rocked up, so it's good to be getting back on track. Nice tune. As one of my guilty pleasure instruments, I greatly appreciate the inclusion of the cowbell. The heavy, percussive sound is also charming in how of-the-time it is and I enjoy the ambient/funk synths. The songwriting of this track is once again the highlight, though I admittedly find the vocal hooks to be weaker than the other songs on this album. Overall, I think the song lacks a bit of focus, though it's still nice. Ah. I should have known that I wouldn't be getting through this list without getting hit by a smooth criminal. Great song. The lyrics are fun, the vocals well-delivered and the instrumental is well-executed, if simple. All in all the song is a good time. I, once again, don't need to research why this album is in here - it's a Michael Jackson release. Truth be told, I think Jackson could do with four list albums. The releases following this don't appear to have been as warmly received by the critics, though you can't deny their level of chart success, which I would argue makes at least one of them a must-hear. For the time being, however, I'm content to let this one through. I cosign this inclusion.
Except Man In The Mirror,, I couldn't listen. Nopes.
Michael Jackson was on the decline when I was born and died when I was a child. I only really knew of his status as a massive star, but this album did not convince me of how justified that status is. I understand why the hits were hits, but at least 5 of the songs are awful, like speed demon and liberian girl.
First Michael Jackson album I've ever listened to as a whole. Phew... He employs his signature "heee heee"s, "wooo"s and "ow"s so damn often, you get the impression this is a Michael Jackson parody. Most of the songs did nothing for me, though it had its good moments like in the title track or the groovy "Smooth Criminal". Other songs were cringeworthy and hard not to skip. "King of Pop"? Apparently not earned through great songwriting. However, worst of all is the 80s sounding production. The drums and bass sound like shit, the synths are just horrible. 1.5/5 - weak
Previously known. A few great songs but more medicore ones.
Some major hits, but I feel like nobody was supposed to hear all the non-singles on this album. "Liberian Girl" is kinda an insane song Highlights: "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", "Smooth Criminal"
Ham on Ham on Ham on whole wheat Alright
It feels a bit soulless. For an artist such as Jackson, I was expecting a bit more. Besides "Man in the Mirror" and "Smooth Criminal" the songs sounded overproduced and failed to demonstrate any sort of the spark that he is known for. I didn't like "Thriller" that much either", and I feel this is of similar standard.
it's fun. he's a child molestor. still everyone should hear this before they die.
While I think Off The Wall still holds up pretty well, and Thriller is worth the price of admission for its title track, this turned out to be a hilariously aptly-named album. I knew loads of people who seemed to worship this album when it came out, but when it came down to it, what they actually seemed to love was his videos and the spectacle of him. Personally, I always found this album weird, from the imagery and outfits meant to imply that he was some badass (the lyrics “I’m creepy…” wouldn’t have scanned well, but “I’m weird, I’m weird, I’m really, really weird” could have worked) through to the strange vocal tics - not just the shamones, eee-hees, wooohs, but also the weird pronunciations (“…another *pwart* of me…”). The saving graces for me are Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal, but the river of dross you have to cross to get there is generally not worth it.
Besides the hits, this just didn't do it for me. Add the complications of who Michael Jackson was and what he did, and this was super missable for me. 4/10
Not really the best mj album, off the wall is better
bad
kind of weird i've never heard the album in full. also pretty ironic that the michael movie has been launched just a couple of weeks ago. the drums are so !!! toit i think i've heard more covers of michael jackson songs than the originals. i like speed demon (the falsetto part got me rolling though) i just do not like this type of music / pop?
Good album.
It’s MJ, so none of it is truly truly heinous, but for the most part it lives up to its name. There’s the inane songs, the affected high pitched noises, the “sha-mo”s, the awful Stevie Wonder duet, and then mixed in a couple of pop classics. But it’s actually really quite a poor album and doesn’t have the disco energy to carry it through.
"Speed Demon" is a weak song it's a bit repetitive and silly so loses a bit of classic MJ to me. It sticks out to me as not sure of its place in the overall album effect. I guess the positive in this album of all this flip-flopping styles is exactly that he can transition to almost anything vocally, and the range is insane. "Liberian Girl" is another gear change as it's a significant down change of pace but has not much more quality than Speed Demon. I probably only "woke up" when Man in the mirror came on. That is a classic song but had to wade through some filler before that (Including a dire duet between Stevie Wonder and MJ. How did those 2 manage such a crap song!). I do like "Dirty Diana" & "Smooth Criminal" in that I think they have got a bit of extra passion and not just another pop jingle and start to blend some styles in this case with a strong rock influence. MJ has one of the best vocals of the century and probably why he can lift almost anything to a pop hit. I do actually like MJ but for me this album lacks consistency to be considered great and when 2 thirds of the album is weak not much more to be said.
MJ is completely unconvincing as a "Bad" boy and this album is like the musical equivalent of Mario Kart. I found myself instantly irritated by the odd noises, sqeals, and stoccato beats. Every now and then MJ whooping like man-child. He completely fails to sell any song about love or sexuality, but maybe that's because I know with hindsight that he has the mental age of a twelve year old. I have to admit that he is pitch perfect throughout the album and it has a couple of classics. Just too much camp pop for me in this one.
This was always going to be a troublesome listen for me. Can appreciate tracks like Smooth Criminal as 'Classics' but won't be listening to it again
Sounds dated and childish. Probably his worst album and an awful rebrand for him. Gets a 2 for Man in the Mirror
Of his big three albums (Off the Wall, Thriller) this is probably his weakest. He also went weird during this period. Too much plastic surgery and of course the elephant in the room, the allegations. So while it's not really that bad with many good songs, hard to give it above 2 stars
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don't care if his music is good or if he's an "icon" I'm sick of listening to men who've fucked kids on this stupid gameeeeeeeeeeee
I don't feel like listening to Michael Jackson and it doesn't help that this album is surprisingly meh.
Mid
Meh. Cant separate the art from the artist
Bleh
This album is when the car drives off the road and then Dangerous I'm assuming is when it goes off the cliff and whichever one after is when the car hits the ground and explodes .
I didn't really get Michael Jackson at the time and that hasn't changed
Mmmm. Not my thing. Never was, even before all the broohaha. Some great singles. But the self-consciously orgasmic whoop puts me on edge for all sorts of reasons. 2*
16-year-old me was entirely correct in rejecting this album as synth-pop garbage.
I was in 8th grade when this came out and even then I could tell this was ridiculously inauthentic. Bad, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana are beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. This would get a 1 if it weren't for The Way You Make Me Feel. I like that one.
A real flat album with the highlights being the hits and singles only. It was always going to be impossible to follow up Thriller, but somehow this came out more flat and more dated. The only unique hit on the entire record is "Smooth Criminal", and that's not enough to sustain this. Add to it what we know about Michael's actions and it just makes for a gross record all around.
I had this on cassette. Smooth Criminal is still my favourite song of his. That said ... can't really endorse the artist, but also... man, a lot of this album just isn't very good.
Don't think I've ever listened to this all the way through, so wanted to see if there were any hidden gems in here. Not really. Bad is corny, Smooth Criminal is great, I kinda like The Way You Make Me Feel, and despite everything in my body rejecting what I'm hearing, The Man in the Mirror is over-the-top 80's pablum at its best. The deeper cuts are blah.
bad, bad, bad.
Perfekt produziert, perfekt nicht meins
Outside of Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal, not blown away by this album.
You don’t have to tell me who’s bad.
good
I admire people who can separate the artist from the art. I cannot. And this is not a well aged piece of art as a consequence
Some good tunes. One star deducted for being a paedo.
This would be a decent album if the production wasn’t so awful
Glee version of smooth criminal is better
It's bad, it's bad, it's really really bad. MJ's tough guy songs are just weird. I do dig Smooth Criminal though.
Unlike some of MJs better work, this has aged poorly, and has a sickly 80s feel that I can't really get behind. Has it's moments in the title track and smooth criminal.
Srednja žalost. Ima tu dobrih stvari, ali brijem da ima i boljih njegovih albuma. 2/5, 4/10
Not very interesting... very corporate... made to sell above anything else...
Not of my taste, I couldn't distinguish one song from the other