1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine 
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. The Lady in My Life

But the superficiality of that damnably catchy hit belies the surprising substance of Thriller. Rather than reheating Off the Wall's agreeably mindless funk, Jackson has cooked up a zesty LP whose uptempo workouts don't obscure its harrowing, dark messages. Particularly on Jackson's own compositions, Thriller's tense, nearly obsessive sound complements lyrics that delineate a world that has put the twenty-four-year-old on the defensive. "They're out to get you, better leave while you can Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man." It's been a challenging time for Jackson - his parents may separate, he's been involved in a paternity claim - and he's responded to those challenges head-on. He's dropped the boyish falsetto that sparked his hits from "I Want You Back" to "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and chosen to address his tormentors in a full, adult voice with a feisty determination that is tinged by sadness. Jackson's new attitude gives Thriller a deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency than any of his previous work, and marks another watershed in the creative development of this prodigiously talented performer.

Take "Billie Jean," a lean, insistent funk number whose message couldn't be more blunt: "She says I am the one/But the kid is not my son." The party spirit that suffused Off the Wall has landed him in trouble, and he tempers that exuberance with suspicion. "What do you mean I am the one," he quizzically asks his femme fatale, "who will dance on the floor?" It's a sad, almost mournful song, but a thumping resolve underlies his feelings: "Billie Jean is not my lover" is incessantly repeated as the song fades out.

Billie Jean is mentioned in passing in Thriller's most combative track, the hyperactive "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," wherein Jackson also takes on the press, gossips of all kinds and other grief-givers. Here the emotions are so raw that the song nearly goes out of control. "Somebody's always tryin' to start my baby crying," he laments, and that sense of quasi paranoia yields to near-bitterness in the chorus: "You're a vegetable, you're a vegetable/They'll eat off you, you're a vegetable." It's a tune that's almost as exciting as seeing Jackson motivate himself across a concert stage - and a lot more unpredictable. These lyrics won't keep Elvis Costello awake nights, but they do show that Jackson has progressed past the hey-let's-hustle sentiments that dominated Off the Wall.

The sheer vitality of the musical setting obviates any sense of self-pity. Quincy Jones' production - Jackson coproduced his own compositions-is sparer than usual, and refreshingly free of schmaltz. Then again, he's working with what might be pop music's most spectacular instrument: Michael Jackson's voice. Where lesser artists need a string section or a lusty blast from a synthesizer, Jackson need only sing to convey deep, heartfelt emotion. His raw ability and conviction make material like "Baby Be Mine" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" into first-class cuts and even salvage "The Girl Is Mine." Well, almost.

Maybe the best song here is "Beat It," a this-ain't-no-disco AOR track if ever I heard one. Jackson's voice soars all over the melody, Eddie Van Halen checks in with a blistering guitar solo, you could build a convention center on the backbeat, and the result is one nifty dance song. Programmers, take note.

Jackson's greatest failing has been a tendency to go for the glitz, and while he's curbed the urge on Thriller, he hasn't obliterated it entirely. The end of side two, especially "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," isn't up to the spunky character of the other tracks. And the title song, which at first sounds like a metaphoric examination of the same under-siege mentality that marks the LP's best moments, instead degenerates into silly camp, with a rap by Vincent Price. (Couldn't they get Count Floyd?)

Jackson has made no secret of his affection for traditional showbiz and the glamour that goes with it. His talents, not just singing but dancing and acting, could make him a perfect mainstream performer. Perish the thought. The fiery conviction of Thriller offers hope that Michael is still a long way away from succumbing to the lures of Vegas. Thriller may not be Michael Jackson's 1999, but it's a gorgeous, snappy step in the right direction. 4/5
Q
If these reissues, coinciding with the breaking of a ten-year silence, are meant to capitalise on a wave of Jackomania, that's a desperate hope. They are however a reminder of how extraordinary the music was before it became a sideshow. 1979's Off The Wall is the first ace: Quincy Jones's disco production fairly sizzles while unheard demos of Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Workin' Day And Night (featuring a bickering Janet and Randy Jackson on cowbells and glass bottles) show Jackson's sublime songs already fully formed. 1982's planet-eating Thriller adds rock, schlock horror and, on Billie Jean, bristling tension, plus the rotten The Girl Is Mine. Like most blockbusters, it spawned a bloated sequel but despite the icky syn-drums and Man In The Mirror, 1987's Bad is better than you remember, not least the blistering Smooth Criminal. R&B hotshot Teddy Riley stepped in for 1991's Dangerous, and his brutalist funk grooves are heady if personality-lite. Elsewhere, though, this has wacko in ssuitepades: Heal The World is toe-curlingly bad. 5/5
suite 101
by the 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson, is the biggest selling album of all time. With that sort of hype you'd expect it to be pretty good. But what sort of album is it?

Well the first thing you notice- on the album cover- is that Michael Jackson used to be black. That aside, Thriller shows just what a good musician this man is and why he's so respected by so many people. Although there is nothing special about the structure or production of the songs- as evidenced by the fact that the same beat runs pretty much throughout the entire record- what does stand out is the outstanding songwriting. Michael Jackson definitely has an ear for a melody.

Some of the songs are already very famous. 'Beat It', 'Billie Jean' and the title track can all be found on Thriller and all are outstanding songs. Incidentally- and perhaps not coincidentally- these three tracks represent the rockier portion of the album, with the rest of it made up of smooth pop. Maybe this type of song is easier to market?

Still the other songs are of the same high standard. 'The Girl is Mine' is a fun ballad sung with ex-Beatles hero Paul McCartney, while the closing track 'Lady In My Life' is a very sensual piece of music.

Four more songs- 'Wanna be Startin' Something'', 'Baby be Mine', 'Human Nature' and 'P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)'- round out Thriller and seem just like more of the same. This is the one chief criticism that could be levelled at the album. On the one hand, more of the same seems like a good thing when good melodies are involved. On the other hand, however, there is a distinct similarity to a lot of the music and it can be irritating to hear the same sound over and over.

Despite this criticism, Thriller is a very strong collection of songs. It certainly confirms that both the singer and album are worthy of the associated hype.8/10
barnes & noble
There was a time when Michael Jackson wasn't merely the self-described King of Pop but the king of the world, in the James Cameron sense of the term. He had artistic acclaim and monumental commercial success, and nothing seemed beyond his reach: music, videos, live performances, movies. Thriller is his "Titanic": a big, bold, glossy, and gripping tour de force that consumed the pop world. It never failed to make you move, from the opening challenge of "Wanna Be Startin' Something," with its "Soul Makossa" groove, to the sleek beats of "Billy Jean" to the funked-up rock of "Beat It" (with a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, no less). More than a cavalcade of justly deserved hits, 1982's Thriller suggested that Jackson was only beginning to tap into his massive talent, and that was perhaps the most, well, thrilling aspect of it. Here was an album that, in an increasingly fractured culture, almost everyone could favorably agree on; it had a luxurious production sheen, courtesy of Quincy Jones, and the most expensive studio talent that money could buy, yet it never sounded manufactured or contrived. Michael Jackson really meant it, and Thriller remains both his masterwork and a decade-defining album of the '80s. It's a testimony to Jackson's incredible gifts, to what he was, and to what we hoped he could always be.
amazon
Michael Jackson's Thriller is the bestselling album of all time, with 45 million worldwide sales powered by eight Grammy Awards. The 1982 album was also a success from which the pop superstar never really recovered--subsequent albums seemed to have no other goal than to beat the records set by Thriller. The highly- polished sound of Quincy Jones's production sounds almost organic compared to Jackson's more recent work, and in the same regard, Thriller was significantly slicker than its predecessor, Off the Wall. Both albums established a Jackson style that aimed for the dance floor with songs built on a state-of-the-art bed of percussion and keyboards. Elements of milestone Thriller tracks like "Billie Jean" (arguably Jackson's best-ever performance) and "Beat It" (with its hard- rock solo by guitarist Eddie Van Halen) influenced not just Jackson's records, but those of the entire dance-pop world. On the song "Thriller", Jackson indulged his taste for the juvenile and invited Vincent Price to rap in a really scary voice. With Thriller the album, Jackson created a different kind of monster--a hit album of such magnitude that it would have an irrevocable impact not just on the singer's art, but on his altogether kooky life.