Bad

Jag vet inte om jag någonsin lyssnat på ett Michael Jackson album front to back innan? Intressant, ingenting jag skulle göra om.

There are some all time classic songs, but overall the production is hopelessly dated on most of it. Michael's vocal performance is stellar throughout which props up the production a bit, but honestly there is no need to listen to 2/3rds of this album.

Some very famous songs on here. Man in the Mirror is my favorite. Dropping a star because of what he did to them kids.

Cheesy pop. Another album that I don't really like although I also don't mind it, and another of those albums which is so popular and ubiquitous that listening to it in one sitting is almost a formality, my opinion was already mostly formed before I pressed play.

Brilliant pop album. Not at all my thing

The appeal of this baffles me. Didn't like his music 40 years ago. Not much has changed.

It's difficult to convey how much I hate Michael Jackson's music. This has nothing to do with alleegations of bad behavior. First, I was in high school in the 80s. MJ was everywhere and I didn't understand it then. But his music was forced down my throat over and over; there was no escaping it. So the fact that I didn't like it much to begin with just got amplified by the constant airplay. I suspect if I hadn't been bombarded with MJ for so many years, my dislike might not be so intense But let's go over what I can't stand: (1) repetitive 80s synth beats. (2) Dance music will never be my thing. (3) His breathy interjections and high-pitched "ehs" have always seemed totally ridiculous. (4) His effeminate manner and voice is totally wrong for his love songs. It's bizarre and laughable; how did women love these songs so much? How did women swoon for him? [Every freakin' MJ lyric that references love or sex is and has always been ridiculous to me. He is not believable.] In fairness, I do recognize his talent as a live performer, both singing and dancing. But that doesn't change the fact that I don't like his music, and I would be happy to never hear any of his music again.

I’m not really much of a fan. The music doesn’t really do it for me and after watching the documentary it is difficult to ignore his past. 2.5

Smooth Criminal and Bad are great songs, but the rest is mediocre.

Does a few cool songs make for a cool album. No. Having grown up hearing MJ constantly on the radio, I wonder if I'm now indifferent to his music.

There’s absolutely nothing musically important here. This is the point where his cultural impact began to outshine and outweigh his musical talent. I liked Man In the Mirror when I was a four year old, but it sucks now and goes on way too long.

Never really liked Michael Jackson, apart from the song Give In To Me. I do think the quality is palpable. It's just not for me.

As a whole, it's bad, but the hit singles are fantastic. The peak pop formula is to write a couple of hits, slap whatever's on to the media in the studio, release, play the same show of hits night after night, and profit. That's Bad, like touching kids, mmmkay.

Smooth criminal is a goat, but everything else feels a bit underwhelming when you compare it to his earlier in the 80s output.

I can respect that by this point MJ was one of the biggest artists ever but it's just a bit load of meh to me

not only is he a bad person this album is also bad . go figure

Surprised how tinny and 80's some of this sounds on the remastered version, like they ramped it up rather than down. Anyway obviously full of bangers, pity about the necessary pop label ballad nonsense

Have never listened to a Jackson album in full and this has not aged well, in more ways than one.

I decided that as Jackson is dead and can no long do anything creepy/illegal, I would listen to this one. I've never been a massive fan of his but it's kinda a fun album, if a bit naff. Some of the songs are actively bad, 'Speed Demon' is awful and made worse by the car sound effects. 'Bad' and 'Smooth Criminal' are okay, wouldn't object to these coming on at 80s night. It's just not very cool is it?

I remember grooving to this in my socks, moonwalking across the kitchen floor when I was maybe 8? So for a second I was glowing with childhood nostalgia. Then I remembered who I was listening to... stopped me in my socks. A lot of shamoning, gyrating and "sensual" whispering that has not only lost its charm because it's performed by a child molester, but also it's no aged gracefully. Now... I will admit, I had my toe tapping at times. Dirty Diana is probably the best on there for me. But it's not getting a revisit of my own volition. The King of Pop is a creep, oh how the mighty have fallen.

Pretty dull… the odd hit.

At some level there’s always a real challenge in trying to separate any musical enjoyment you get with the obviously immensely talented Michael Jackson from the fact he’s America’s answer to Jimmy Saville. Fortunately, there is no such issue of guilty enjoyment to be had with ‘Bad’, as it’s fucking rubbish. This album has aged TERRIBLY. It’s a collection of dated and random noises parping and clattering against each other, whilst an obviously insane maniac wails shamone over the top. It’s a horrible, humourless, tasteless mess. I don’t dislike everything here: I don’t mind the broken male posturing of the title track, and ‘Smooth Criminal’ is legitimately great. The barely concealed paranoia that runs through this album is fully unleashed here, presenting as a sort of Howard Hughes-esque breakdown set to furiously propulsive inhuman funk. Then there’s the rest of it. What is there even to say about the brass rubbing of a cliched C-tier MJ song that is ‘Another Part of the Me’, the lumbering ‘Dirty Diana’ that reveals Jackson to be more terrified of women than anyone who has ever lived, and the ballads… good lord the ballads. There’s the horrible and dreary ‘Liberian Girl’, the tacky pan pipe-tactic ‘Man in the Mirror’ which displays an early outing of the always welcome messianic Michael ‘maybe if I cry enough about elephants then people will forgot that I have constructed an elaborate bell system to alert me ahead of time if someone is approaching my bedroom’ Jackson and the supernovaly creepy ‘I Just Can't Stop Loving You’ who’s jump scare of a ‘sensual’ spoken word intro appears to be missing from Spotify, but was very much there on the version I listened to. I personally would have quite happily gone without hearing the great man breathlessly whimper ‘I just want to touch you’ at me. I physically shuddered. It’s all just really gross this. it sounds gross. It’s lyrically gross. It’s morally gross. It is GROSS; and it’s a grossness that the estate of Michael Jackson and all of his weird, creepy fans are welcome to keep. Hee hee.

Look it has some well known but it really isn't that great. Its weakened by some pretty poor 80s production sounds too. Outside of the main 4 or 5 songs the songwriting is pretty weak.

1️⃣ Man in the Mirror 2️⃣ Bad

While MJ was a good musician, the scandals around him and the people he hurt forever damage his musical legacy, making it hard to enjoy his album.

Two incredible stand out tracks in Dirty Diana, and Smooth Criminal (easily a top 5 track) and a ton of decent to awful tracks, with Liberian being the worst offender - and borderline unlistenable - and the title track being a weaker version of Beat It. In short, Bad is bad album. It’s not worth inclusion on the list

None of the songs on this album convey a "bad" persona. The cover doesn't portray a "bad" persona. But catchy tunes can't stop the album being bad

It sounds so dated and is unbearable due to how many times I heard it growing up, it was everywhere.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh smooth criminal é maneira

Hard to say anything without an unintended pun.. I'm not saying it's not good. There are many hit songs- Smooth Criminal is probably the one I enjoy most. But I'm just not a fan of this type of 80s pop. And his private life massively puts me off listening to his stuff. Also I both think he's rightly celebrated but even so feel he's ridiculously overrated.

I don't think I'd ever listened to this album in it's entirety before. For one of the best selling albums of all time there's an awful lot of filler. It hasn't aged well, but then I never liked Jackson to begin with either. And finally, how has he escaped getting a (thoroughly deserved) cancelling??

I guess the bass lines are pretty good.

Yeah, the clue here is in the title … Everything about this is so affected and dated, and it’s just so boring and bland. The high-gated drums. The horrid synth bass. The syrupy over-production. Jackson ticking ‘ooh’, or ‘hee’, or ‘cha’, or ‘chamone’, or ending every word with an extraneous ‘-ah’. Everything just comes together in one horrible cloying glop like a really unpleasant dog-egg that has worked its way into the tread of your boot and leaves its subtle perfume everywhere. Says a lot when I give an album a roasting and don’t mention that the artist was likely a paedo. Hee-hee! Cha! OW!

This shit didn’t age well. MJ knew it would be hard to top “Thriller”, so he didn’t. You can’t dance to any of it, and the beats and lyrics are so soft. Your butt is mine, indeed.

Shame about the molest

Bit of a mess, clearly influential on late 80s and early 90s US boy bands but despite all the massive hype at the time, and standouts like Smooth Criminal - there’s definitely a start of a decline here

Smooth Criminal is still kind of a cool song, but the whole thing sounds so weak. So many synths and drum machines. I just don't feel like it holds up at all.

How did I never realize the beginning of Bad was the song used in all those TikTok sports edits lmao. I can recognize why people like this but it just really isn’t for me. Meh.

- Thriller habe ich damals aus versehen statt einer 2/5 eine 1/5 gegeben, das gefiel mir (bis auf die Hits, die waren okay) nicht so richtig gut - generell bin ich einfach kein Fan von seinem Sound und seiner Stimme, klickt bei mir einfach nicht

Technically good but to be honest his stuff never really grabbed me

Fully expect this to be a 4 or 5 star album drug down by all the creepy personal details that came out about Jackson later. But really it's like 3 (4 if I feel generous) great singles, surrounded by a bunch of other, dated music that ranges from forgettable to cringey.

It's pretty much impossible to separate the person from the music - which were becoming increasingly intertwined even at the time, as evidenced by the existence of 'Leave Me Alone,' which was explicitly focused on all the tabloid noise about Michael's weirdness. Even if I were to succeed in doing that, like Prince's Sign of the Times, this feels like a retread of better ideas in a lot of ways (Bad & Beat It, Dirty Diana & Billie Jean [tho, admittedly, Diana is much more of a rock song]). The deep cuts are...not good to say the least (Speed Demon, Liberian Girl, Just Good Friends) - and while the album was admittedly huge, it's hard not to remember that NWA's Straight Outta Compton came out a year later making the try-hard affectation of 'Bad' even more cringe-worthy than it kind of already was at the time. I bobbed my head to a few songs. I admire the influence he had over others (Usher, the Weekend, Alien Ant Farm). But he destroyed lives with his abuse - and pretty much got away with it because even if people side-eyed how weird he was at the time, I guess it's too hard to admit you're enjoying a child molester's music? So it's easier to tell yourself it's not true. Or it didn't matter. Or something.

Lots of hits....not cup of tea Very 80s and not very authentic sounding now Smooth Criminal is a bit of fun

de singles zijn OK, rest is absoluut bagger... en dan laat ik MJ persoonlijke voorkeur nog buiten beschouwing

The hits are the hits, but the rest are definitely not hits

This album is alright, a bit dated and cheesy today. It reeks of the simultaneously great and terrible 80s. Unfortunately, this album is closer to the terrible side. "Dirty Diana" was my favourite off "Bad". The few decent tracks don't save this album. 2 stars for "Bad".

Not really my vibe, especially Michael's backgroud history. Songs i could listen again: Dirty Diana Smooth Criminal Liberian Girl

Sad iteration on 80’s pop. High pitched screechy voice.

Honestly, Weird Al Yankovic has a better version of the incredibly well known song Bad, these lyrics are quieter and the high pitched background singing felt pretty goofy when faced with the idea of the song. But then, The Way You Make Me Feel fits Jackson’s image better. As well as the high pitched background singers. But then the album just repeats unnecessarily like Jackson had an extra minute or so, and gives me an idea of what most of the rest of the album is like. Most of it absolutely sucks. This album made me realize Michael Jackson isn’t so great a musician. Some of it’s good, but he fails with consistency on such a level. Maybe he’s just figuring it out, but this album is not great.

I realize it’s an unpopular opinion, but I just don’t like Michael Jackson’s music. None of it. Not then, and not now. And, quite frankly, the “hee-hee’s” and “ow’s” get really old really fast. This album 100% deserves to be on this list for its importance to popular music, but I wasn’t happy when it finally popped up because I just didn’t want to listen to it.

Music wise I want to give it more - just don’t want to perpetuate the horror

This has aged like milk.

I am not a huge MJ fan though I admit he has some very iconic tunes. I know most of this album already, I’m not gonna listen to this all the way through because I’m doing this challenge mainly to discover new music. I’ll review the songs I haven’t heard before. SPEED DEMON - I like the rapid percussion. It’s experimental. LIBERIAN GIRL - Wow! The transition from Speed Demon to this was magnificent. JUST GOOD FRIENDS - I don’t care ANOTHER PART OF ME - I also don’t care and I’m tired of the HEE HEE MAN IN THE MIRROR - repetitive 4/10 I like most of the singles, but Michael Jackson is so overplayed for me I would never just put on his music and listen to it… an undeniable classic, though, just not my cup of tea

Very 80s and not for me. Highlight is Smooth Criminal, lowlight is Liberian Girl.

foi o primeiro álbum do MJ que eu escutei e po, infelizmente não é tão bom... fora bad e smooth criminal, achei chato btw os gritim do michael são intankáveis

I generally dislike pop music. But I've loved Thriller my whole life. I didn't like this album when it came out. I didn't really care so I never gave it much thought. Listening now, I think it's because Q turned the rhythm section over to synths and sequencers and that creates a flat, lifeless sound. Billie Jean has the simplest/straitest drum part maybe ever recorded. But that drum performance is AMAZING and it infuses an urgency into the entire track. Compare the feeling of that to anything here. Y A W N

One of my earliest music related memories is not liking Michael Jackson. A friend of mine in primary school was really into his music. And I just didn’t get it. He was loving it so much. And it just didn’t move me at all. Still doesn’t.

Smooth Criminal is the only saving grace in this album. Off the Wall and Thriller capped his career.

King of pop for sure. Tons of respect for that. Maybe I was in too shitty a mood when listening, but mostly didn’t enjoy.

Abgesehen von den bekannten Liedern habe ich von diesem Album eigentlich nichts gekannt. Und das wohl aus gutem Grund. Die Musik hat mich beim Zugfahren jetzt nicht gestört, aber wäre auch nicht meine erste Wahl gewesen.

What to do about Michael Jackson? No doubt that he was a flawed genius and a superstar the modern equivalent on the scale of Taylor Swift. But all the pedophile allegations do hang heavy. If I was able to leave that aside and just look at his music, he was never an artist that I personally took to at all. Like everyone else I enjoyed his videos. Not the musical value but they were to some extent groundbreaking and a bit of a do not miss thing when they were released. Equally I enjoyed Jarvis Cocker’s protest at The Brits over the pomposity of it all. Back to this album. I know just about every track on it and would not be bothered if I never heard them again. Come to think of it they are rarely played since his death so maybe there is something in the allegations or it’s the woke world we live in? As I am familiar with the album I have not played it today as I do not want MJ corrupting my Roon algorithm. Don’t like the music but as he was a genius in his own field I give it an extra star than it deserves and in recognition that millions of people love this album. 2/5 27/7/24

Hits

Genuinely didn’t want to finish this, and not because it’s bad but because I honestly just don’t care about Michael Jackson that much? Like yes I can appreciate that he is incredibly talented but like I just get over it so quickly. I’m not someone that can just listen to Michael Jackson long term. Sigh.

The song “bad” has never worked for me because, while it seems like MJ was bad, he was not this tough guy. And upon listening to this album, several other songs don’t work in the same way. I cannot see MJ as a bad boy or casa nova. The album sounds dated but I do have to give it to “the way you make me feel.” That still slaps. And “smooth criminal.” So probably a 2.5, rounding down for how I feel about MJ these days.

So dated. And reminds me why I have never owned an MJ album. Smooth Criminal gains this collection of nonsense an extra star. I mean, Speed Demon ... really? And Liberian Girl ... feel queasy just thinking about it 🤮

Almost every track was a single and they were played to death. I barely needed to listen to the album to confirm that I don't like it!

Pretty ok, Dirty Diana is probably the song I enjoyed the most on this album. I hadn't listened to much MJ in a very long time (not that I ever really did).

This album is waaaaay to clean and produced. It's okay to be pop, but that goes to a point I just can't stand.

Good department store music

Bad is not bad for a style of music I typically don't like. Its elevated dance music. Not a huge MJ fan either but appreciate his popularity. The driving beat, like hammering on a trash can, and the incessant falsetto get tedious. 2.5

Say what you will about his music, but boy oh boy did the man ever know how to accurately title an album.

singles are good, but whats all the rest of this like

The 80’s synths and and drum machines are impossible to get past. It sounds so dated and and cheesy. The sound and production of this record is so deeply ensconced In the dated gimmicks of that decade that it is impossible to listen to the songs and the songwriting objectively. King of Pop? King of Krap.

-.- o_o :/ c_c ;/

This was worse than I remembered. Super plastic-sounding 80s sounds, and really much weaker songs than on 'Thriller'. Let's be honest the James Brown style vocal tics have just grown beyond parody at this point. Like remember that bit on 'Don't stop til you get enough' where he goes "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" just before that little pause and then the main riff comes in. That was cool, this just sounds like someone who got their happy sack caught in their zip (or in someone elses). I'm surprised this wasn't regarded as quite an anticlimax at the time as it seems a real step down in quality, especially compared to Janet Jackson's albums of this era, much better songs, far superior production. Is it bad 'Bad'? Well it is a bit pants. Heeeeee!

Going back to some of my earliest childhood memories, I vividly remember my babysitter playing this album in the late ‘80s. Today was the first time I’ve listened to it since then. Not that I have a clear memory of it in the first place, but overall, I can’t say I’ve ever been a big Michael Jackson fan. Obviously, he has standout classics, and in this case, “Smooth Criminal” is my favorite track. Other than that, the album isn’t bad but doesn’t offer much else that would make me want to revisit it. There’s really nothing more to add, because this is one of those albums that has been thoroughly discussed, and anything I could say has probably already been said a hundred times before.

Not my style, and I'm over MJ.

- just good friends - man in the mirror

Honestly not that great. The non-single tracks reek of filler. Not the Minor Threat 7", either.

I never liked this album. I don’t even care for its hits. Speed demon is silly. I never liked Corey Feldman either and suspect that this album somehow made him worse.

I've never been a Michael Jackson fan, but we're listening to this only made my opinion of Michael Jackson even worse. The few songs that I thought I liked were actually worse than I remembered. When thinking of the song "Bad" I can never see Michael Jackson as a bad ass character. Therefore this song oddly reminds me of the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef where Drake called himself Michael Jackson. I concor both are fake badasses. I'll take Jackson's advice and leave him alone.

Oy. Ok, this is where I checked out on Michael Jackson’s music. After Thriller, he got all weird, pulling media stunts. At this point he was super cheesy and his attempts to butch up his image seemed desperate. Yes, this was wildly successful, but I never understood why. It’s still so cheesy, heavy handed and affected. Melodies are basic. Catchy pop, for sure, but so bland, formulaic. He-he-he!

I had no real desire to listen to this album again...

Not for me really

Yeah. This is one of the quintessential pop albums of the 90s. I feel at least 7 of these songs were singles or released somehow and very popular. And because of that, this whole album sounds dated and quite frankly bores me. Strangely Thriller doesn't bore me, although it sounds pretty dated too. I didn't really care about this album in 1987. I care about it even less in 2024.

There's some decent tracks ("Smooth Criminal" and "Man in the Mirror") but overall I'm just not a fan. There's some real duds ("Dirty Diana" and "Speed Demon") and the rest just feels dated.

TItle track ok. The rest I can live without.

Странные ощущения от этого произведения. Я никогда сильно не любил его творчество, а в контексте обвинений это дается еще труднее, независимо от моего отношения к разделению творчества и автора. Это такое заезженное дэнс-поп, но встает очевидный вопрос: оно такое заезженное, потому что он такой большой артист? В любом случае, звучит это все неплохо, но желания в это все вникать, и тем более переслушивать, нет. Лучшая песня - Smooth Criminal.

awful pop with 2 hits

Off The Wall was a good time. Thriller was a mindblower. This is an album desperately trying to do it again and failing. This all sounded impossibly soft by the time it came out. Like, you're really gonna kick off an album bragging about how bad you are in a light, bouncy pop song when I've just spent the whole last year listening to Master of Puppets? Are you not paying attention to me at all? It's pretty dorky. And I can deal with dorky - They Might Be Giants is also in heavy rotation. But don't try to sell me on how tough you are, come on.

So many "1 star or 5 stars" polar opposite reviews for this. Personally, I just thought it was mediocre overall. He was only ever an ok songwriter imo, and the production on this wasn't as shiny and 80s-tastic as I expected, not enough to elevate the songs, so I'm really not sure why some folks see this is the ultimate 80s pop album (ABC and Duran Duran had already nailed that in 1981 and 1982 respectively, surely). I do like Smooth Criminal, he certainly released the odd banger after Off The Wall but overall... mediocre. I always did like his dancing more than his music, and I'll stop there.

I’ve never been able to understand the appeal of MJ; I find his inevitable yelps, grunts, gasps and falsetto “hee hee”s really off-putting. He plagiarised much of his look and many of his moves from Fosse and he didn’t originate the moonwalk, yet people let on that he’s some kind of dance visionary. Genuinely don’t get it. I have heard most of this album many times (as it was bloody unavoidable in the Pre-Streaming Days of Yore) and thought I’d never have to bother with it again. TLDR; I stand with Jarvis Cocker.

I hate Micheal Jackson-

Dislike: I just can't stop loving you Dirty diana Meh: Bad Speed demon Liberian girl Another part of me Leave me alone Like: The way you make me feel Just good friends Man in the mirror Smooth criminal Added to playlist:

Conhecia muitas músicas desse álbum. Algumas são boas pra ouvir individualmente, mas não aguentei escutar o álbum inteiro de uma vez. Fica cansativo. A interpretação do Michael é icônica, mas repetitiva.

Another conundrum... do I rate the art or the artist? I've struggled with this a few times here and think they have to be considered together. Unpopular opinion and interesting twist is that even in '87, I was pretty firmly in the \"meh\" lane of MJ fandom so what we've learned about his supposed perversions doesn't impact how I literally rate this particular album. It is too pop for me. With the exception of Dirty Diana (that always felt like MJ's attempt at being Prince) and Smooth Criminal (which is about a woman who was assaulted, kinda not cool), the other tracks are formulaic and nothing special.

Nowhere near as good as Michael Jackson's first solo album, off the wall. Coming off of Thriller, you can see the Michael Jackson solo sound develop further, but not in a good waty.

Yeah it’s Bad alright. Ok so it’s Off The Wall > Thriller > this album. And I think each album has more hype and cultural buzz around it, while each album also has less substance in it (yes Off The Wall has more substance than Thriller). To further go on about comparisons, Purple Rain just kinda does everything on here but better? As far as this album goes on its own…I wish for so much more edge. So much more soul. It seems like Michael is being pulled between the desire to be his own unique voice and the need for this album to have a universal commercial appeal. Smooth Criminal is a beautiful Thriller holdover that CLEARS everything else on this album. What a fun song. I don’t get much enjoyment out of the rest of this album

Not my thing... the "dah-huh-uh" vocals becomes a distracting gimmick quick.

Oh, the reviews for this are entertaining. I remember the album being awaited, then launched, then listened to, and it just sticking to the airwaves like a stain. It just dominated. For all its design brilliance, and clever music, it just felt a little forced, saying 'how clever am I' - he was clever, he did do brilliant things, but the charm of young Michael compared to this Michael, something is lost. I wish I had more to like about the album right now l, the legacy is not one I'm particularly thrilled by. Some bits are good. Some great, overall ... Unlikely to seek out and listen to again. I can't think why I'd like to listen to this, it's not got much of the joys that I find with my re-listened to albums. So, 2 stars. Sorry Michael, for all your genius and trauma, your tainted legacy, this isn't one I'm going to get excited by.

This isn't a bad album, but I have trouble listening to the artist ethically

okay but not making me seek for it

bad

I am always so conflicted listening to MJ. I really don’t like or support who he was at all. But purely from a music standpoint I think he was a great musician and genuinely enjoy his tracks. MJ - 0/5 stars “Bad” album - 4/5 stars

"Bad" is yet another song in the series of "Songs I'm incapable of hearing as anything other than Weird Al's lyrics." "Man in the Mirror" is... insipid, uninspired, and knowing what we know now about Michael Jackson, just a little weird. Overall - I'm trying to give this a fair shot but it's hard to escape the context. Ultimately, it's everything I don't like about 80s music with very little of the good bits. I won't say there aren't some high points (Smooth Criminal, bits of Dirty Diana) but I don't think I'll be revisiting it.

I did my best but the album just did not do it for me. Putting aside the private life issues that followed MJ until his death aside from the singles the album seemed to try too hard, his vocal ticks were down right annoying and the songs failed to really catch my attention.

Interesting listening. Of course I listened to this album in the 80s and at that time found it great. But now, approx. 40 years later, it simply isn't the same as before. Yes, it was great at it's time but for me now not anymore.

Era defining. You know it. You no longer feel comfortable listening to it.

Did not like it at all after its release and has not changed since.

Love: Smooth Criminal Like: Bad, Another Part of Me, Dirty Diana, Leave Me Alone The instrumentation really cement this album as of its time, and is pretty sparse in some sections despite Jackson's apparent perfectionism in recording. The vocal inflections and delivery (shamona, heehee, ah-ah, etc.) make it really difficult to get immersed in many songs and take them seriously. - preachy (Man in the Mirror) - muzak (Way you make me feel)

It’s very well made and I dig the title track, but it’s just not my thing. 2.5/5

First time listening to an MJ album as a whole, have only heard some of his songs here and there. I don't really love this synthetized sound, but I can understand how this can stand out in 80s pop. All feels very manufactured except for MJ's voice, which if it were autotuned would sound robotic like everything else in the album. Maybe it's this particular usage of drum machines that is just unenjoyable to me. 2* for one of the best sellers of all time. Just doesn't stand out to me. Not bad enough for a 1* because MJ's singing is great but not something I'd pop in again to get 3*. Standout tracks: man in the mirror, smooth criminal Zero judgement based on MJ as a person when judging this album.

Do I like it or am I just conditioned to appreciate popular music

This shit's fucking boring man idk

I don't want to rate this at all. It's obviously very good but the man is a big NO for me. I will hit 2 because yay for the production and artistry but the man ruined some people's lives quite profoundly so that colours my enjoyment.

It has 4 pretty good songs but the rest is well, bad

Thriller was the first album I ever owned and I and everyone I knew loved it, but by the time Bad came out I had moved on from MJ. So I never listened this all the way through until now, though a lot of these songs were constantly on the radio and MTV. Today the slick production sounds kind of thin and tinny. I really like The Way You Make Me Feel and especially Smooth Criminal, but I can't hear the title track without thinking of Weird Al. It's interesting that the closing track asks us to let MJ be his weird self in his personal life. He would get a lot weirder after this, and a hell of lot weirder than Weird Al.

I’m sorry but I’m a hater

I've already had this album before I was in the group. I'm not listening to this s*** again. The radio hits are nostalgic but otherwise I had a hard time listening. So many extra "noises" and MJs little squeak noise, and all together too much pop music. And the fake drums are too tinny. Also: Wtf is up with Liberian Girl?

Did not feel this one, even though I like the "Thriller" album. Lots of slow jams on this that are snoozers to me, and the production throughout feels so dated to me. "Smooth Criminal" and the title track are good, but "Fat" surpasses the latter in every way. There better be a Weird Al album on this list...

Thinking about Weird Al😳....Man In The Mirror, I just Can't Stop Loving You, and Smooth Criminal were my favorite tracks. Overall not my favorite type of sound. Also, I think I find his voice a little goofy? Can't tell if that's just because it so unique and has been parodied so many times.

Nope. This is the point where Michael Jackson starts to believe his own "King of Pop" hype. Bad is self-indulgent and, compared to Thriller, dull. Even the title song, the only enduring hit from this album, sounds like a Thriller outtake. In all fairness, trying to craft a follow up to an album such as Thriller is very hard, but Bad falls amazingly short. This is a parody of a Michael Jackson album that is not nearly as good as the real parody by Weird Al. Jackson is playing to MTV - all style but little substance. The only worse Michael Jackson albums are all the ones that followed. Bad is just bad.

Also the sound of the drum machine is super irritating. A very tinny drum machine. Iberian girl? WTF is this song! In general: so many added noises it's almost chaotic. And how many times is he gonna do that high pitched squeak noise? The ones I know from the 80s radio of my past are tolerable.

perfect title

Beginning of album is kind of weak and gets worse. Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal are the only reason its listenable

The album name is accurate

This album is just weird at some points. Idk what to make of it. The singles off of it are good, but the rest of it just feels like filler

Musically I've no opinion about this. Familiar withe the singles. Not my style.

It really is very hard to not think the entire time through this about MJ being such a massive sexual predator, and just isolate the music. Obviously these are classic tunes that you always here on an 80s club night, but even pre scandal I didn't really like MJ that much. I do like Man In the mirror, did sing along to that tbh

Owwwwwh it's a tricky one isn't it. Obviously he's a massive creeper and that can't be forgiven. Listening to this without thinking about that, it's incredible album with some amazing songs and I really do love it. I loved Michael Jackson as a kid. I think in some situations you can separate the art from the artist but with Michael Jackson I just don't think it's possible really so I gotta rate it low. But talking just about the music, Man in the Mirror is exceptional and Dirty Diana is probably the best MJ song in my opinion. Smooth Criminal, it's all there. But yeah, dark stuff.

BAD by Michael Jackson is one of the best produced records to which I have ever listened. Or best engineered, at the very least. The pureness of the vocal recording is a testament to Jackson's skill as a singer. This sterile, candy shop, pop isn't a genre to which I typically find myself returning and I don't see that being different this time.

I absolutely love Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal. I absolutely cannot stand most of the rest of the album.

Three songs and I was already over all his grunts and "hee-hee" vocal tics.

Oh Christ. Yes, nonce etc. Look, we all know. I was a kid when this came out so I already know what I'm in for here. Pre listen I think The Way You Make me Feel is going to be the only thing salvageable from this, and the aforementioned key change in Man in the Mirror. Ah no wait, Smooth Criminal is here too. And I just can't stop loving you, I remember that's a piece of pure pop goodness. There's definitely going to be high levels of cringe here the rest of the time. One to listen to on headphones because noone else must know what I am doing. Listening back I of course remember every song, Liberian Girl (onomatopoeia onomatopoeia, bend away), all the album tracks. They don't age well. Oh jeez, that run of tracks 3-7. And Man in the Mirror is Jackson cheese pop central. I remember thinking Dirty Diana was shit when I was 8 and I salute you 8 year old me, you had good taste. Apart from Steve Stevens guitar at the end. So yeah, 3 good songs that remain good. And a whole lot of arse to wade through, best left in the 80s.

I read that MJ wanted a harder, edgier sound and approached some Metal guitarists in that regard. In the end, he got Steve Stevens, but on only one song, "Dirty Diana", which is too bad, because it really changes the feel of the music, in a positive way, as Eddy VH did on Beat It. The song after "Smooth Criminal", I also like, but Bad's hits fall short of the bar he had set for himself on Thriller, and the ballads are lethal.

I know he sold a shit-ton of this record, but I don't think it comes close to Thriller. There are two decent songs here, the title track and Smooth Criminal, the rest is a slog to get thru.

Great name for the album

Not his best work.

Mulla on tämä ja en pidä! Paitsi onhan nää biisit tarttuvia

I've heard most of the songs on this album before, so I just went with those tracks that did not air on mainstream radio. Of those, the only one I liked was "Another Part of Me" ... otherwise I'd call the rest skip tracks. I still don't like "Dirty Diana" -- the chorus kinda pounds away at the senses. The best song here is "Smooth Criminal" ... by far the best music, best bass line, best lyrics, best singing.

Kiddy fidler

Aside from the popular songs off this album, I didn’t care for it much.

Eh 2.5

The production on this album isn't my favorite, which kept me from enjoying a lot of the songs. Shout out to "The Way You Make Me Feel"

Should have been called Filler.

incredibly mid. like one song that caught my attention

PREFS : Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal, Leave Me Alone MOINS PREF : Dirty Diana

i wasn't expecting the production to sound so dated i dunno it doesn't do it for me really "smooth criminal" is still pretty great tho

kinda fun. had heard the hits and they're pretty good. the rest wasn't as good. the style isn't really my thing in general but i don't mind it either

Gaap. MJ all time most overrated artiest.

Bad!! Nå nää men feela int

Ei paljoa sanottavaa

It’s very difficult to separate the music from the history. We all do it though. Who consciously refuses to use the font Gill Sans because Eric Gill abused his children? Very few of us. I consciously don’t listen to MJ, but before the scandal I’m kind of proud that I was never a fan. I’m not proud of the fact that I do find some of his songs quite fun. They’re inane and cloying, but it is very funny to keep punctuating song lines with ‘woo hoo’ and ‘Shamu’ and ‘whee-hee’. MJ could’ve been singing about himself with ‘Smooth Criminal’ and we all know “he’s bad, he’s bad, he is very very bad”. But he gets a score for his impact on the 1980s music scene.

If you like Michael Jackson it’s good. I don’t so it’s bad.

No, employing more production elements does not mean that it's "edgier". I don't really see it as a mover outward from the phenomenal "Thriller". Apart, of course, from the fact that it sounds like the filler tracks of "Thriller" being stretched into an album. As trite as it sounds, it's indeed bad. Basically the groovy "Smooth Criminal" and the rest is filler.

Reconheci dois hits, prefiro Smooth Criminal. Audição do álbum completo foi cansativo pra mim.

This is a good collection of Michael Jackson songs that are popular, but I don't like. Smooth Criminal is on this album, but it's not enough to save it.

Not my style, sound is good and you can tell the production is polished but... ooooof

I used to listen to this album a lot with my friends when I was a kid, but man, it's mostly annoying the crap out of me now. He went WAY too hard on all of his ow, hoo hoo, and hee hee vocalizations on this album. I do dig the bass lines in Bad and Smooth Criminal.

One has to admire the machine-tooled production and the rock solid choruses, but not my 80s at all.

This is brilliantly written but poorly produced music. It felt like a wall of sound.

Not Thriller, not Off the Wall

Back when Michael Jackson released Bad and other albums before and after Bad, I wasn't sure what to think about Jackson. There are a lot of things I still don't understand about Jackson. There's some baggage that comes with Jackson, mixed in with a lot of cultural impact. This album is a pop-culture anchor. I knew and have seen the videos for all but three of the tracks off of this album before listening to the album as a whole. Even though I have heard several of these tracks multiple times, I must not have been listening too carefully. It took me a few years to realize that "toh tega nya-nya" = "Dirty Diana". I don't know what to think about Jackson and his music. I can't take seriously Jackson's bragging or hitting on the ladies in his lyrics. This album is full of his trademark "hee hee"s (e.g. "another pawt-uh me, hee hee hee"). And as I listened to this album, I kept wondering if there going to be any Weird Al on this list of recommended albums. Yes there are some tracks that I would and probably will listen to again. Scoring individual tracks, the album averages 3 stars, but there are three tracks in the middle that sink this album: "Speed Demon" (¿what's up with all of the "chop/chirp" in this track"?), "Liberian Girl" (please don't make me listen to this track again), "Just Good Friends" (a full dose of "hee hee"s, enough for the album alone). These three middle tracks feel so goofy and weird that I don't see myself listening to the whole album ever again. "chop" "chirp"? no doubt that I wouldn't listen to this track again "ah. ah., hee hee" "another pawt-uh me, hee hee hee" I forgot about this one "toh tega nya-nya" don't even want to put down what lyrics I didn't understand do I know this one

Some classics on here for sure, but the production is so dated (80's, for the most part, hasn't aged well). And, well, it's by the world's most musically revered pervert. Gotta lose points for THAT, ya sick fucko.

Liberian Girl habe ich gleich nochmal gehört, was sonst bei den Alben, die ich im Rahmen dieser Liste durchhöre, eher selten vorkommt. Auf dieser Platte sind ärgerlich viele Füllsel und sie hat mit eben Liberian Girl, Dirty Diana und Smooth Criminal dann auch ihr Pulver verschossen.

Only really 2 songs I liked and Jennifer them the remake is better. Between the oohs and woos, if you cut those out the album would be about 25 mins.

There’s something annoying about the synths used in bad. I do like the way you make me feel hee hee ooo go on girl Speed demon - hate it Liberian girl - weird intro weird lyrics weird vibe. Skipped after 2 mins. Just good friends - it’s becoming more apparent how often he hoos and he’s Another part of me - bad Gave up listening cause I heard rest of the songs before

Slitsomt. Groovy og alt, men orker ikke..

liberian girl is pretty cringe adlib GOAT? interesting that that is the influence i hear on more modern tunes another pwaaaaRT of me swings so nice man in mirror is wonderful, i can't imagine how many lives its changed for the better i know prince vs mj is played out buy some of this just feels like a slicker, less interesting purple rain (dirty diana vs darling nikki) uh is annie okay. mj really wants to know harmonization on leave me alone is perfect. trying to think of examples of equally impressive multitracked harmonies.

De bekende nummers ken je al, de rest is een beetje meh

I went into this only knowing the hits. I've never been a Michael Jackson fan, per se, though my kids went through an MJ period a few years ago and I came to appreciate a few of his hits. (Though Off the Wall has long been a fave.) Anyway, I was not prepared to dislike this album as much as I did. The title track is ridiculously fun. The Way You Make Me Feel is fine, I guess. The rest of it was terrible, I thought. Would be a 1-star review, but I'm giving it an extra because it's really fun to sing along to the song "Bad."

Listening to this album and trying to put aside all we now know, my resounding thought is "kill your darlings." Out of 11 tracks, there are only 3 songs that I consider a bop: (in order of preference)The Way You Make Me Feel, Bad, Leave Me Alone. I might toss Man in the Mirror in the bop category but if I'm following my own kill-your-darling-thought---that song along with all the others does not make the list.

This ain't no Thriller; the tracks aren't half as catchy. The whole album is outdated, from the "Bad" inscription on the cover to the music that didn't stand the test of time. P.S. Whenever I hear the track Bad, I can't help but reminisce on the vastly superior Fat by Weird Al Yankovic.

While some if his singles are decent never got into Micheal Jackson and this hasn't done it either.

I remember when this album came out and I remember the hype and the disappointment…… Of the 11 songs on the album there are just 3 tracks that today stand the test of time, the rest are just album fillers and from an artist like MJ that’s a poor performance. I appreciate that to create an album that follows thriller would always be a tough act to achieve but it looks like MJ didn’t even bother. It’s a 2 from me.

Aldri vært fan, fortsatt ikke.

Great hits but rest just sounds silly today

I was quite excited as this is the first MJ album I've been given, sadly that excitement died pretty early into the album, other than the breakout hits everything else in this album felts so basic, boring and a chore to listen through, with some songs like Liberian girl being actually dogshit to listen to. Even while separating the artist from the art, I still don't have many good things to say about this album other than the hits that became popular are obviously pretty good. Favourite Songs: Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal

The cover is all about that jacket. All those buckles and zippers. Fancy but ultimately pointless. Suggesting bondage but of course but actually pretty safe. I think you see where I am going. This album is <chef's kiss> as far as production. Goodness gracious it sounds good. And the hits are catchy, I can't deny it. But whereas Thriller was a breakthrough, Bad is just ... more. And a sad waste of Stevie Wonder, who should never be wasted, that's what's criminal. Anyway. It's fine. I'm not going to pretend I'm immune to Bad, Smooth Criminal, and especially the incredibly 80's appeal of The Way You Make Me Feel. Ow! Woo! But I *am* going to rate this album as if I have better taste than I actually do.

There’s not a lot I like about MJ. Not the music, not his singing.

Oh que j'ai trippé sur Michael Jackson quand j'étais enfant ! Je me rappelle d'avoir écouté en boucle cet album dans mon walkman, quand on s'en allait en Floride en auto, quand j'avais 9 ans. De beaux souvenir et de la bonne pop, mais un deux étoiles parce que plus du tout mon genre, haha !

det här var faktiskt inte så himla bra

It holds some of his most known songs and it is very well produced, but it's not for me.

Overrated.

Oh man, here we go. One of the sacred cows of pop music. I love Michael Jackson. He was my first concert, my first music video ("All I Wanna Say Is That They Don't Really Care About Us!"). Scandals and allegations aside, MJ was iconic, a cross genre visionary who could do RnB, funk and rock, all while sounding like himself. Bad, however, lives up to its name of being just that. While it has its strong tracks like Smooth Criminal, Man In The Mirror and the title track, the album lacks the sonic palette that one would be able to find in an album like Thriller. While Thriller flitted from tasty RnB basslines to a ripping guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen to a dance-y disco groove, Bad was the stylistic equivalent of a salad bar; sure you might find something you like, but it's really all the same thing, with little to no variance. While I want to write this review without making allusions to any specific time period, the album is chock full of the electric drum beats and synths that belie the 80s. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but one would be hard pressed to find bands that try to emulate that sound unironically. In conclusion, this writer posits that while Michael Jackson's place on this list is irrefutable, the album choice made for this list was, quite literally, bad.

no. just no. i drifted away from the 80's because i was sick of the synths and the cheesy love songs, and I wanted to like this. but no. ugh. why is this on here :/ Bad is a really catchy song, and I like listening to it if it comes my way for any reason. But it's not even that good now that I've carefully listened- God how I hate the ballads in here Dirty Diana was pretty good, I liked the guitar and the chorus. still wouldn't put it in a playlist. Smooth Criminal is the best song on the album, I kinda forgot that I liked it. But I just- It's not good enough for me to forgive the damage this album has done on me. After all, I gotta rate the album as a whole, and these songs are just better as fricking singles :')) why. is. this. album. here. Leave me alone tricked me in a really cruel way cus the beggining sounded like it was gonna be good but. yeah, no. literally had to listen to the glee version of smooth criminal to recover from this. it's better than the original. the GLEE VERSION. okay i'm done bye.

This is the first one I've had that I don't like. I've never been much of a Michael Jackson fan and separating the art from the artist is hard for me.

Some good riffs and some bops, but I only liked small snippets of a lot of the songs

Some of the songs are great but I just can't with MJ the person. Rating it 2/5 BAD

I mean, it's listenable... but the title of the album kind of says it all, Michael Jackson is just... bad

really not my style...

Am I the only guy to think Jackson was overrated, I didn't like this album when it came out and no amount of publicity or remixing can change that. It is still as bad today as it was then. Some of his other stuff is good but that isn't on this album.

Listen - MJ was a musical icon for good reason and the duo of "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" are deserving of accolades. I don't know how much percentage credit to give Quincy Jones for those, but it doesn't matter - those are great pop/soul/dance records with timeless songs (even the cheesy ones, I'd argue). But this is just.... ok honestly, if this wasn't "Michael Jackson™" would it have been so big? He probably could/would have released Metal Machine Music V2 and sold 15 million after people waited for the follow-up to Thriller. I like his voice, but despite the 1987-slick production this music is just so terribly weak overall - "Man In The Mirror" is kinda good I suppose. But call it as it is: this album is appropriately titled. Bad, indeed. 3/10 2 stars

Here I am with a bit of a dilemma. Michael Jackson is a problematic artist and I’ve not listened to his music in the last decade aside of what I’ve heard occasionally in the grocery store. But here goes… Somewhat familiar with this album, but never owned it. I have probably heard it all the way through before this, but not often enough that I remembered all of the songs. Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Another Part of Me, Man in the Mirror, Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal and Leave Me Alone are all understandable hits I remember well. Speed Demon and I Just Can’t Stop Loving You are up there too, but I can’t say the same for Liberian Girl and Just Good Friends which I didn’t think hold up against the rest. All that said, even this impressive assemblage of songs can’t overcome the terrible failings of Michael Jackson for me. At best I just end up feeling depressed listening to this. I doubt I’ll do so again.

4.5

This is the first album where the artist doesn't actually "play" on any of the songs. I'm finding it hard to judge a solo artist who just sings (granted, I know he also wrote most of the songs) - but here I go. I've never listened to an entire MJ album top to bottom. I was excited to, and then disappointed. His songs are much easier to appreciate in single doses. I really enjoyed (and even sang along with) the tracks I knew (Bad, Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make Me Feel), but I hated almost everything else - which made me wonder if my enjoyment of the former was really more nostalgia than appreciation. Still - he is the King of Pop in the sense that he is the mold for how to build a pop star - catchy hooks, lots of energy, swagger/attitude, huge live productions. Clearly, many have followed in his footsteps (Justin Timberlake, Brittney Spears, Bruno Mars, and so on and so on). But, in retrospect, it's like McDonald's - game changing at the time, but then Ray Kroc comes in and makes it all about money - which leads to a shitty product and a million other shitty restaurants all out to make a buck. Does that make sense?

I've heard several of these before, and I think they're in the category of \"familiar\" vs. \"things I like\". Noting near as good as Thriller, and I like Alien Ant Farm's \"Smooth Criminal\" better...

Well seven songs in and the non hits are really quite BAD (sorry for the pun). The Man in the Mirror is also a good rung or two below the hits from Thriller and Off the Wall. Besides the title track and "The Way You Make me Feel" there's just not much else of interest... 2.5 🌟

I won't deny Michael Jackson's significance, and that he's got some damn catchy tunes. That said, this is not good music to listen to while writing emails.

The popular tracks on this album are flawless. Bad, Smooth Criminal, etc. However, the rest of the album just isn't worth listening to IMO.

Not bad! But it wasn’t great either. A lot of simpering shite songs.

Legendary album but I don't like pop that much. 1 too many "hee-hee!" 2 stars

Of Michael's "imperial" period, I think this is the worst? It's not as consistent as OTW, and doesn't have the highs of Thriller, but it's still solid. "Bad" is just okat, it's plodding and feels weightless. 4-7 are all trash, except "Man In The Mirror", and then three of MJ's best songs close it out. 3/5

Fun throwback album, good music, but bruh theres an abortion song

Nope.

I don't patronise pedos

Didn’t listen but know all the songs … was never a big fan of this album to begin with and also can’t separate the man from the music. 1

not really my type

I hate Michael Jackson as a person so i couldn’t morally give this higher then a two- i also just didn’t like that many of the songs but i liked smooth criminal the most

I really can't bring myself to listen to this guy

BAD is Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson is BAD.

It’s bad You know it

Unable to separate the artist from the art.

It’s bad (although it’s actually good and I got given it for Christmas one year when santa swapped my sleeping beauty video with my sisters CD. My sister said we shouldn’t swap because it’s what Santa wanted. Pah. I guess I was the younger one

Bad

Nope, dated, horrible and very bad. Regardless of what he's done in his private life, this is not a good album.

i get it, but cmon, some of this sounds like stuff you'd hear at a 90s school disco

Making me listen to this should be a hate crime. I will never understand why this was popular.

it just doesn’t do it for me….. i hated this

Много ме дразни майкъл джексън

Not my fav artist

Not "bad" meaning "good". More like "bad" meaning "paedo"

Ronseal. (but I do still have a soft spot for Smooth Criminal)

FFS. I can’t believe there is something worse than Tears For Fears, physically unpleasant to listen to.

It’s Bad

Most underrated artist ever!

One of the best selling records of all time, if not the best It’s proof positive that sales are no reflection on quality and this remains an act of indescribable aural violence. Put another way there is no accounting for popular taste…

Bad. Not a fan. Too high pitched

No thank you

Not for me

This is just me a thing, but I haven't really been able to listen to Michael Jackson since that HBO documentary. Not judging anyone, but it really killed it for me.

Struggled to find any redeeming features in this awful mess, maybe the hook in Smooth criminal? The man was already damaged by the time of this and his decline would only get worse. Standard paedo tax applies to the marking.

I don't listen to abusers.

dnf

MJ was a bad man!

First album I just didn't want to listen to. Awful. Gasping and wooping and oh god just no.

As the title says, bad. It’s really a horrible album. There’s no Billie Jean. It’s filled with Michael’s quirky squeaky sounds and quivering whispery vocals. Man in the Mirror is almost as bad as Ebony and Ivory.

Still shit. Sorry Michael. Go with Madonna.

I got so sick of an ex listening to this back in the day, just looking at the cover invokes PTSD.

Disturbing album cover for a start. We didn’t know it at the time but maybe Jackson was trying to tell us something with the menacing look, a nonce jacket and his right hand in a wank grip. Anyway back to this record. So it took him 5 years to follow up Thriller and this was the best he could do. A couple of reasonable songs, Bad and Smooth Criminal, but the rest is forgettable formulaic trash. My main issue with the whole album is the annoying Tourettes-like ticks throughout. Heee-Hee! Hah! Ah-hhhea! Uh! Shaaamon! For fuck’s sake give it a rest. It gets so tedious. And I’m sorry I can’t listen to this without thinking of the comedy nose jobs, the strange skin whitening and the dangling of babies over 5th floor balconies. The behaviour was whacko enough before we even knew what he used to get up to with young boys and a chimp.

I hate Michael Jackson.

Nah

One star for predators

Pedo

nope

King of pop? Or monkey-bothering king of pop nonce? Whichever, I just can't be bothered.

Just can't with the Shamone.

My thoughts on MJ have been made clear in other reviews. Do you think he wrote ‘man in the mirror’ after molesting someone? Like this was his ‘no more molesting’ pump up speech to himself? Obviously a known molester like MJ can’t sing a lyric like ‘ see the kids in the street with not enough to eat Who am I to be blind, pretending not to see their needs?‘ without a little evil smile to himself about what those needs might be. If you want to make a the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change. Indeed. Unless that means stop molesting people, cuz I’m definitely not gonna do that lol.

1,3/5

Woo

Nah. Never a fan of Jacko, this is just weak sounding 80's synth pop

Massive, over-bloated pop music that's not for me at my time in life - can't be arsed to listen Heard before ✅️ Listened this time ❌️ Revisit ❌️ 3/10

Despite his legacy in music and the fact that many still enjoy his music, I just can't support a pedophile.

pedo

Grossly overrated nonce, even without his private life. 0 if I could.

I was 14 when this album came out and I hated it then and after forcing myself to listen to it now I realized I still hate it. Songs are boring and his voice annoys me. I never liked his music and I still don't. The only songs I didn't hate were the final three. Dirty Diana is a banger so that at least gives the album one star.

I meannnnnnnnn...(part 2)

Nothing could persuade me to listen to this oddball

So many classics but not something I would listen to. 1/5

Meh

Sugary, saccharin pop too much yelps vocals. Won’t get a second listen.

Yeah, to oldschool

Not a fan

The album title says enough. I just can’t stand Michael Jackson and his hoo-ha’s for more than two song on end, so no surprise the rating here. I hate Speed Demon and Liberian Girl and the ever-present 80s drum groove throughout the album drives me insane. I also never realised how awful Man In The Mirror actually is and the two songs that follow make up the worst three song run I have ever heard. The fact that I quite liked the first two songs cannot save this album, probably because after those the amount of Michael Jackson I can handle was exceeded. hee hee 1/5

Worse

Artiste connu et détesté, impossible d'y échapper à l'époque, le matraquage était insupportable. Dans l'album 'Thriller' le morceau 'Beat it' était plutôt sympa avec son riff et solo de guitare mémorable. Ici rien ne sauve l'album de la note minimale, même pas 'Dirty Diana' et sa guitare électrique malheureusement noyée dans les synthés. =>1/5

I always had problems with Michael Jackson. There was a lot of hype about him in my day. I always found his attitude a bit annoying. It got really gross and tacky when the subject of his desire to have children came up - barf -, this strange marriage with little Presley, which seemed like a fig leaf to cover his true desires - gag - and this rather creepy Neverland Farm. In the end, Jackson (also optical) almost seemed like a horror clown. The Earth Song was really disgusting, when the multimillionaire dances through the tidy streets of a favela with the objects of his desire and sings about the misery of the world. So I find Michael Jackson disgusting and I could never really get into his music. I always found his sharp cries annoying when he grabbed his balls while dancing. The squealing is also used a lot on this album. I like to switch off the radio from time to time. I really tried to listen to the whole album. At "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" it was over. I couldn't take it anymore. The best thing about the title song "Bad" is the parody "Fat" by Weird Al Yankovic. I really had fun with that. I only just found out that Jackson gave Yankovic permission to produce the parody and use the same setting. I wouldn't have believed him capable of so much humor. But maybe there was something else behind it. I suspect that "Fat" has also boosted sales of "Bad" again. Conclusion: For me, Bad is an unjustly hyped album that I definitely switch off the radio when it is played. 1/5

Over-polished pop. Not for me.

Sorry - No nonces. Pass. Got any Rolf Harris Albums? How about Gary Glitter?

Childmolester

Can’t do this

Is it morally okay to like Michael Jackson's music? Don't care, I despise it. I'll never understand why people like this so much.

1 Star. No joy. Overplayed. 2 death. Never liked this music. Sorry Michael, you deserve more respect.

Not my thing

It’s not bad. Minus 2 stars for questionable personal history.

No I’m not listening to MJ, at least not a whole album.

No.

BAD

I was 18 when this came out and into thrash meta. So I looked on the noncing King of Pop with disdain. In later years I've realised just how talented he was. Off the Wall is incredible. So in the spirit of this enterprise I did listen to this as an album. It's horrible. The electronic sound is plastic and grating. The bass is especially awful. The songs are surprisngly poor quality too. Bad could be a decent pop song but Michael's affected vocals ruin it, IMO. Smooth Criminal is the best song on here, but we've all heard better covers of it. I think it can still be done better, it's a top song. Dirty Diana is the only song that stands up, for me. If we remove the not insignificant issue of his personal life, it's still just a 2-3 star album. The songs are average (apart from Liberian Girl which should be wiped from the face of the earth and would remove stars from any album). And the production, weirdly, is incredibly dated. It's sad to look back and think he only got worse from this point on.

Pedoooooooooo

paedophiles get ones.

I hated the production and the hee-ing and woo-ing and screeching. I liked Dirty Diana.

At the start of the Spotify era, didn't we already knew most of what we now know about MJ? How does this have so many Spotify plays?

More ballady shite with shit drum sounds and his whisky voice and hiccups.

I bought this on tape cassette at the time. No idea why because it’s not very good.

No

No thanks

It’s really difficult to come at this with an open mind. I tried, but even the couple of times I absentmindedly started tapping my toes, it was only for a couple of seconds because I would remember who I was listening to. Those woos and eeheeeees and chh-chamonnnahs are ridiculous. Why did he do that? The synths and drum machine sounds exemplify everything I hate about 80s pop music. The love songs are trite and trying really hard to sound sexy. That style of love song always gives me the creeps, even without the context here. There’s a growing list of artists of all types whose art is no longer accessible to me because I can’t get past what they did. It’s impossible to view their lyrics, jokes, and movies through an untainted lens anymore. Even if he truly wasn’t a pedophile, he was definitely a guy with severe mental illness who had weird, creepy, ill-advised sleepovers with prepubescent children. All that said, Smooth Criminal is really hard to not like, even if I can’t fully enjoy it. And Thriller, depending on the mood I’m in when it comes up, may get a slightly more generous rating than this one, but Bad, in my opinion, is just not good or deserving of a list like this.

Sorry, I can't do MJ.

I just can’t separate the music from the man and his life here. I grew up with Jackson 5 and the rise of Michael Jackson. He was talented, yes, and he shaped or captured the essence of an era with this one, but I think of the totality of his music, the places he could have gone, and I’m just saddened for him and repulsed all at once. I generally skip his music when given a choice…

I remember lots of things from 1987. It was the year I finished school and went off to university; the year I worked in the US over the summer; the year it was Very Windy. I remember The Joshua Tree, Solitude Standing, Appetite for Destruction, Hold Your Fire, The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, Cluthing at Straws, and even Hysteria. But I honestly wouldn't have placed this in 1987 - it seems earlier than that. Certainly no one I knew was playing it and it seems kinda dated in the context of the other albums produced that year. As I vaguely recall, this is Jackson in his crotch grabbing, staccato, most affected, whoa shouting period. Maybe moon walking - I don't know, this shite all merges into one really. I tried to listen to this. It might not be quite as bad as Thriller in total, but it gets repetitive with those "whoa!s" and so on, and I struggled to listen to any complete songs after the first couple. Maybe I just don't like Jackson. This is a 1 or 2 star album for me - I just don't like it I'm afraid and if you love it then I'm sorry; I'm sure you're right. Jackson being an utter twunt drops it to 1.

I swore I'd listen to every one of these 1000 albums, and some have tested me for sure, especially ones where i have a moral objection. Some of the best songs ever sang by one of the worst kinds of person, I can't separate music from life. Sorry. 1/5

First LP I ever owned as a kid. It definitely fell out of favor as I grew older. Not as good as Thriller. IMO, this album begins the decline of Michael as an artist. For a pop album it's alright.

Reading the top rated review, I waited in horror for 2:45 to come up. The dreaded unnoticed synth riff. ‘My God,’ I thought to myself as it played drearily on in the background. ‘This is bad.’ Little did I know, my horror had only just begun. For when I was reading through the personnel on Wikipedia, a familiar name stood out to me. No, surely not. But as my heart began to beat faster and faster, I knew I was not mistaken. For the name with which I was so acquainted was… Jimmy Smith! One of the great Jazz organ players, one of the greatest improvisers of all time, and they got him in to do 20 seconds of trite sounding rubbish on a badly programmed synth. There are three big problems with most of the songs on Bad. The first is that they go on for too damn long. The Way You Make Me Feel is a prime example. Jackson gets to the point where he’s ad-libbing, the point where the great Soul songs of the 60’s and 70’s would fade out, and the song goes on for another two fucking minutes! It’s fucking arrogance is what it is, oh of course you want to listen to two minutes of Jackson and the band cooking because he sold 32 million copies. The second problem is that they are often unintentionally hilarious. The best example comes from the very first line of the album. ‘Your butt is mine,’ is not a badass line. Instead it’s overtly homoerotic, and exhibits a clear misunderstanding of the sort of character that Jackson’s supposed to be portraying. What makes this EVEN MORE ironic is that there’s some pretty compelling evidence that Jackson was involved with the LA Crips! He was a gangster who couldn’t write gangster characters. Mario Puzo he ain’t. Liberian Girl’s Wikipedia page has a section about the reaction in Liberia whose only source is a Washington Post article that only let me read three paragraphs before sending me to a spam page, so please forgive me if I don’t think that it is the best argument to be made that ‘women from the country foun[d] the song empowering.’ I find this particularly hilarious considering the non-English vocals are sung by a South African woman in Swahili. If we were to put this into a European context, imagine a fabulously wealthy entertainer wrote a song called British Boy, and had an Italian bloke singing a few words in Russian. I’m not sure I’d feel particularly empowered by that. Just Good Friends is also hilarious. ‘Oh, I know she loves me, but if you ask her she’ll deny it.’ You’re either getting strung along, or cucked mate. This is not romantic. Also, it was the only song not released as a single anywhere. This is a running theme in Jackson’s albums, why release the album as an album in the first fucking place? What’s the point? But also, I feel bad for Stevie Wonder, just for his 80’s output in general, but specifically because the song that he duetted on was the ONLY ONE not released as a single. Damn, gotta feel bad man. The third problem with Bad is that is incredibly fucking boring. They are dreary sentimental ballads, they’re repetitive, they’re really annoying at times. Jackson’s vocal tics are so overdone that by the end of a full album in his company they become grating. My theory about Thriller and Bad and the reason why they’re so critically acclaimed is two fold. Nostalgia and circular thinking. Most of the people who have reviewed this positively have mentioned specifically fond memories of listening as children. They have good memories and so cannot think of it badly. I admit that I’m guilty of this as well, I wrote a whole thousand words justifying why I like an Arctic Monkeys album that I first listened to when I was 7. But I think that there’s something more interesting going on with the professional reviews. A fallacy of because it’s popular, it must be good, and therefore I must give it a good review. I think it’s popular, not because it’s good, but because it was well promoted. It sold well, because it was well promoted, and therefore it’s popularity must be justified. There are too many instances when critics get things wrong, when we tell the public they’re stupid for liking something, and for the most popular artist of all time, well we can’t let a large amount of the public think that we think they’re stupid. So what does this all add up to? Well in my opinion, a series of fantastically dull, gratingly long and hilariously underwritten slabs of dated 80’s cheese, that was, of course, the second highest selling album of all time at some point. I’ll never understand people. But, what I really wanted to do was to prove that there is stuff to be talked about on this album, and that the conversation can be more than just repeating that he was either the GOAT or a nonce. Those who don’t like his music can have reasons for disliking it other than his personal life. I’ve spent the full review outline quite a few of them. And you’re at perfect liberty to like the album if you do. But I’d love to know why you think he’s so good, why you think he’s worth having the best selling album of all time. Let’s have a conversation. Because that’s what being a critic is all about. P.S. Do you want to know what the real kicker is? I still like this album more than I like Thriller

This album is everything I hate about the 80s. Over-inflated ego of the lyrist. Bass replaced with synth. False depth. It's bad.

Not my style. Only like smooth criminal

bad. music: hated. (⌐■_■)

Poopoo

I’ve never purposefully listened to Michael Jackson, because I thought I’d hate it. Turns out I was right.

Ow gyashhhh what a confusion. I have really connected with some of these songs in the past like Man in the Mirror still even, but some of them just sound super creepy now I know more about Jacko's disgusting behaviour later in his life. Liberian girl I found really scary for some reason! I can't enjoy most of the songs any more and the ones I can enjoy are the more energetic poppy dancy songs like Bad etc but just ew it's not the same any more. Also thinking of where all of the money is still going for those listens I just gave it, to the complicit people hiding grim information...