This single album is a greatest hits album for most hall of fame careers. It's the best selling album of all time, and is so good that it harbors gems like a duet with Paul McCartney that is mostly forgotten when discussing this record. The most awkward of its tracks simply suffered from a mix that wasn't a great song for Michael's voice but would go on to be reworked as an R&B smash for LL Cool J. There's an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo buried in here just in case it wasn't the consensus ultimate 1980s album. And none of this addresses the cultural phenomen of Michael Jackson or the music videos that came with the album; foremost is of course Thriller, an absolute artistic game changer. He carried on with so much more after this alongside the tragedy of his life, and he had a hall of fame discography before this, but this was the mountaintop. He could write these songs for every instrument or element he wanted included and knew how to massage out exactly what he wanted the listener to experience while achieving precisely that. Even with its age apparent in places, it's exactly what a pop album should be.