Off The Wall by far.

CinisterCee said:

hook me up!

50+ million copies sold and counting....

TonyVanDam said:

Which makes it the most popular but not the best.

Michael Jackson - Farewell My Summer Love
Released May 8 1984
Chart positions #46 (US); #31 (US R&B); #9 (UK)

"Don't Let It Get You Down"
"You've Really Got a Hold On Me"
"Melodie"
"Touch The One You Love"
"Girl You're So Together"
"Farewell My Summer Love"
"Call On Me"
"Here I Am (Come and Take Me)"
"To Make My Father Proud"


I love THAT song!!!

TonyVanDam said:

"Call On Me" is reaaaally good. The version on this 1984 album has some extra moog.

dseann said:

Since we're all talking honest opinions, Thriller is the best overall album because every song belongs togehter. Apart from Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, & Prince, I don't know too many artists of the past or present that can release an album that very good from beginning to end.

Now if any of you were to ask me which album has better tracks, when my vote goes to Bad.



Speed Demon & Just Good Friends are the weakest tracks, IMO. But everything else surpass any track that Thriller has (except for Billie Jean & Beat It of course).

CinisterCee said:

I don't know how to upload it but I can get someone to do it for me so I'll orgnote it to you

TonyVanDam said:

I was inspired by Bart Simspon in that,
now,
whenever I am performing a feat of magic,
I wear this album cover as a wizard's hat.

AFAIC, "Speed Demon" is damn near perfect. The same goes for "Farewell, My Summer Love."

Definately "Off The Wall". After that, each one of his albums got a little bit worse than the previous one.

vainandy said:

But what about his MOTOWN ALBUMS

I don't have any of those albums. I just have a few of the songs on "Best Of" compilations. It's hard to know which songs are his because they have them on the same discs with the Jackson 5 songs.

Bad - much more consistent songwriting, despite fucking "Librarian Girl".


Off the Wall really only has a handful of decent tracks as does Thriller - the latter in particular is a really mediocre album. Wanna Be Startin' Something is canny; Billy Jean is outstanding; Beat It is well written, even if it gets on my nerves; PYT has its moments - otherwise it's really not all that. Baby Be Mine? Hell, Rod Temperton should be buried up to his ankles - head first.
[Edited 2/24/07 18:57pm]

Cloudbuster said:

No, you're not the only one who thinks that Invincible is among MJ's best work. I absolutely LOVE this album. The album is still the only MJ album that I play on a consistent basis other than the Ultimate Collection. Invincible was marred by bad promotion from Sony,contrived negativity by the media and 9/11. This album was huge despite all of these things. Just think how much bigger it would have been without those incidents? I nave never seen R&B radio embrace a Michael Jackson album the way that they did Invincible. DJ's loved "Butterflies","Heaven Can Wait", "Break of Dawn" and "You Rock My World." If the promotion hadn't stalled this album would have gone through the roof. This album was Michael at his most mature and non MJ fans ate it up. In fact, it was non-fans who helped make this album the big seller that it was. Some fans were not able to accept that Michael is a grown-ass man and songs such as "Butterflies","Break of Dawn", YRMR, "Heaven Can Wait" reflect that maturity. Some fans wanted him to still only sing songs like "Heal The World". Sorry,but I don't want to hear any more "heal the world" songs. The public doesn't deserve that side of Michael anymore. They don't appreciate his goodness.

peterfalconer said:

You lost me here, then continued on to bash "Baby Be Mine"

CinisterCee said:

I stand by that, dagnabbit!

peterfalconer said:

All the songs on Bad were written in the 1985-87 period WITH THE EXCEPTION of Liberian Girl which was originally done in 1983-84.

CinisterCee said:

I know, right? That's just wrong! "Liberian Girl" is easily one of the best songs on Bad and "Baby Be Mine" is just a perfectly executed and completely fun song.

AlexdeParis said:

Once again, I'm fighting a losing battle! I will maintain until my dying day that Liberian Girl is absolutely ghastly, and Baby Be Mine is naff in the extreme.

*sobs alone in his cynical corner*

peterfalconer said:

is it the girl/world rhyming couplet?

I would also include the 'ultimate collection' as an album to be considered as there are unreleased/unheard songs on it that would make a brand new album -

Sunset Driver
P.Y.T.(different version)
Scared of The Moon
We Are the World
We Are Here to Change the World
Cheater
Dangerous (different version)
Monkey Business
Someone Put Your Hand Out
On the Line
Fall Again
In the Back
Beautiful Girl
The Way You Love Me
We've Had Enough

My favourites in order -

1- Thriller
2- Bad
3- Dangerous
4- History
5- Off the wall
6- Invincible
7- Got to be there
8- Ben
9- Ultimate collection
10- Blood on the dancefloor
11- Forever Michael
12- Music and me
13- Farewell My Summer Love
14- One Day in Your Life

Off The Wall.Great Stevie song on it!!

kash said:

I could have bought the box set for $44 today, but damn do I need those?

CinisterCee said:

Hell yes!!

The boxed set is worth getting for a few reasons. There is a lot of never-before-released material, and some of it is really great (I'll explain in detail which songs are good, and why, below). All the greatest hits stuff has been remastered and it all sounds really great. They've also done interesting stuff like mixing You Can't Win with Can't Get Outta The Rain. The DVD is great, but if you are an MJ fan you've probably seen it before (it's the Dangerous Tour concert in Bucharest '92). The booklet that comes with it is really great too. It's got a very detailed timeline. A nice short biography. Full credits for all the songs in the collection. And some rare, nice piccies. Any MJ fan (just the casual fans) should own this.

A little bit about the new/unreleased material...

Sunset Driver is some of Michael's best shit ever. It's an out-take from either Destiny or Off The Wall. Michael's version of PYT is great, although very un-finished. It's completely different to the version Quincy wrote. Michael's solo demo recording of We Are the World is interesting. Monkey Business great and I still can't believe he didn't put it on Dangerous. It defies all logic. Most MJ fans would've already hears Someone Put Your Hand Out (from the '92 Dangerous Tour promo CD) and On The Line (from the 'On The Bus' sountrack). Michael's version of Fall Again (from 'Maid in Manhatten') is allright. In The Back is good but very un-finished (there's not many lyrics, just Michael singing "da da da" for the most part). Beautiful Girl is very good, although un-finished (same deal with In The Back, da da da lyrics). The Way You Love Me is one of his best songs. Again, it defies logic that Michael didn't put it on Invincible. We've Had Enough is a newbie (well back in '04 it was) and it's the only song recorded specifically for the ultimate collection. It's good, but it's too much like Earth Song. Any songs I didn't mention, it's because I didn't care for it much or you've probably heard it before.
[Edited 2/24/07 22:23pm]

I got the impression with Invincible he was trying to go back to his roots, but didn't exactly know how to anymore.

My impression off Michael's solo career is with each album starting with Thriller he tone down his soul a little, either going pure pop i.e Bad or trying desperately to cater to all people i.e Dangerous, thus it sounded messy and all over the place. I think like his looks Michael bought into the notion that if he wanted to sell to the masses and outsell Thriller, not only couldn't he look "too black", but neither must he sound "too black". So out went the funk and soul and in came the disneyfied songs and pure pop songs. Now and again he would come up with something that continued to touch the soul i.e "Stranger in Moscow".

What was so great about the Michael Jackson from 69 to 84, is that Michael could give you songs that you could really Jam to and songs that could really touch your soul all on the same album, but from Bad onwards if you listen to most of his songs you couldn't jam to them nor did they really touch your soul, well they definetly didn't touch my soul, with few exceptions. I mean could anybody really Jam to "Dirty Diana", "Speed demon", "Black and White". Even songs like "Jam" just doesn't have that rhythm like "Wannbe Startin something" or "Don't stop". And when I listen to songs like "Heal The World", "Earth song", "Gone too Soon" they just sound sappy in the extreme. His sound from Bad onwards just sound so hollow and blande, regardless of what he was trying to convey.

peterfalconer said:

1. I like Librarian Girl a lot better than that weak filler Just Good Friends (sorry AlexdeParis! ).

2. When it comes to dance tracks, Rod Temperton is the freaking man! At least I can dance to most of the songs that he compose for Michael, Donna Summers, Heatwave, etc. With that said, Baby Be Mine is a sweet but simple R&B groove that I can still vibe to from time to time.
[Edited 2/25/07 0:55am]

CinisterCee said:

You tell him Cee. Shameful!!!!

AlexdeParis said:

Sweet songs like those are vintage Michael, IMO.

TonyVanDam said:

excellent point.