So, honestly I’m not really sure what to say that can’t be said about this album already.

It is the
best selling album of all time, and I’m sure at least some of you have some childhood nostalgia
associated to these songs whether from your parents playing them or from halloween. And this
is for good reason, as the collaborations between Michael and legendary producer Quincy
Jones make for some of the most well performed and exceptionally produced songs of all time.
This isn’t the first time the duo teamed up, as Michael Jackson’s commercial debut post Jackson
5 Off The Wall was produced by Quincy. While this is arguably one of if not the greatest disco
albums of all time, the album fundamentally is limited by sticking to its discos roots, especially at
a time when culturally music listeners were starting to reject disco. Quincy and Michael
obviously took note of this, and with Quincy’s deep musical background in jazz and film scores,
made strides to branch out into other stylistic lanes of music. And though Thriller as an album is
not structurally cohesive, it is the genesis for everything Michael would be doing on his follow up
record Bad, which is a great album if you haven’t heard it and liked this one, and represents a
turning point in not only Michael Jackson’s music but it also set a new standard for pop music
quality and coinciding with that the use of new music technology. Though Quincy and Michael
weren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, the way this album seamlessly weaves together disco,
funk, soul and even rock makes for an extremely artful listening experience that is made
accessible to the masses by putting it in a pop context. Quincy’s musical background is all over
this thing as well. Not only is the quality of all the songs so crisp, but all the instrumental
compositions are so well structured and densely layered. Quincy’s jazz background
compliments the tracks here too in that this album has so many great heavily syncopated
grooves and polyrhythms and the choices of chords provide the album with a rich sound that a
lot of modern pop music doesn’t achieve. It’s obviously fitted to a pop context, so your not gonna
hear some chord like E dominant 7 sharp 9 but the progressions are a lot more thoughtful than
C F G. These elements well compliment the genre fusing in the sense that sometimes it can be
hard to tell where a song stylistically starts and ends. Like for example on the title track Thriller,
the rhythm section is very distinctly disco yet the track is not a disco song. On the track Baby Be
Mine, Michael’s soulful vocals and the shimmering synth chords in combination with the
squlechy funk guitar and punchy synth bass creates for a pop song that is equally peppy as it is
smooth. The track beat it is obviously a great fist pumping rock song which the irony in that
lyrically the song is the exact opposite of fist pumping. I think the genius in that can certainly be
attributed as well to Michael’s vocal delivery. And to additionally praise Michael’s contributions to
this project, some of the songwriting here is pretty interesting. There are obviously some songs
that have a “surface level” meaning or some pockets of lyrics that are totally nonsensical hello
Wanna Be Startin Somethin (even though thats my favourite song on the album for other
reasons), but some of the others can provide more value than a typical pop hit. Like Billie Jean
for example I think provides a really interesting narrative about people trying to trap or abuse
someone in a position of fame for their own personal gain, which likely reflects some of
Michaels personal life experiences. Obviously we now know that Michael didn’t use his status of
fame for the best, but the reality is is that he is dead and what is left of him here on the Earth is
his music, which is some of the best music ever made in my opinion. That’s not to say the album
is flawless. The Girl is Mine while it serves a purpose and is a good song is undoubtedly very
cheesy, and the lady in my life isn’t the strongest album closer, but I don’t think these flaws even
necessarily suggest the album has any skips, and honestly i’ve yet to hear an album that is
flawless anyway. For that reason, I’m easily awarding this album a 10/10, fantastic record.