Michael Jackson
Thriller 25
(Epic/Legacy)
Thriller’s continuing ubiquity -- not to mention MJ’s descent into epic creepiness -- makes the planet’s best-selling album as difficult to objectively analyze as The Wizard of Oz. But the 25th-anniversary edition’s best moments remain stellar, even if some cuts taste cheesier than Kraft Singles.
The extras are a wash. An okay companion DVD includes three music videos and the famed Motown 25 moonwalking segment, but superstar remixes featuring the likes of will.i.am, Kanye West and Fergie range from tolerable to teeth-grinding. As for the original tracks, the Paul McCartney duet “The Girl Is Mine” comes across as laughable in a bad (rather than Bad) way, and “The Lady in My Life” would fall flat even if we didn’t suspect that Michael’s current amour is a ten-year-old boy named Chad. But “Billie Jean” deserves its era-highlight status, while “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and other less omnipresent ditties hold more freshness than anyone might have expected.
Not all of their thrills are gone. -- Sagar Giri
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