Michael Jackson's 'Bad': 34 Years Later*

This album suffered from three almost-fatal flaws:
-- the cover photo (made Michael look ridiculous... not for the last time)
-- overly-mannered singing
-- lack of Quincy Jones' input resulting in poor late-80s' production sound

I could also add the first signs of Michael's messianic complex appearing on 'Man In The Mirror', but since he didn't write it I guess it's forgivable. The lyrics are also kind of poor ('Bad' is downright embarrassing), but hey, it's pop music, what do we expect?

All that said, it's still a nice slice of very-1987 sounding soul-pop if you can get past the above flaws.

I do enjoy 'Liberian Girl' and 'Another Part Of Me'. I think those two hold up, and seem to have less baggage on them than the other tracks.

 

What a load of bollocks.

KISS are entirely white and they're f*cking drivel if you ask me, with Gene Simmons being perhaps the biggest twat on the planet.

 

i love Michael , I'm talking about all the fake allegations

 

you nailed it ...also Leave Me Alone should have been on the vinyl

 

Oh please, enough of that rubbish already..

 

His best album by far.

 

While Thriller was groundbreaking, Off The Wall is the only one I play regularly.
Bad? Well....title says it all.....but still better than what followed.

 

Aside from Thriller’s big singles, its songs are forgettable (like Baby Be Mine and The Lady In My Life). Head to head, Bad wins.

 

What I remember is that, while I loved a lot of the music, his singing had taken a serious turn for the worse in comparison to Thriller. Seemingly everything song had vocal tics that made no sense and took away from the actual lyrics. Rather than flowing and soaring, his voice had a harsh edge that made the album quite tiring to sit through.

 

You laugh but who’s the one putting forgettable songs like Baby be Mine and The Lady In My Life above Bad’s?

 

Made me pull the album to remember what was on it.
4 hits, IIRC, impressive for sure, but not Thriller impressive.
But for content/quality, give me Off The Wall any day

 

Actually Bad had 5 number ones, which was record breaking at the time, plus an additional top 10 hit and top 20 hit, so 7 hits.

 

Impressive. But without Thriller.....?

 

You mean the fake allegations that have loads of credible evidence, first-hand testimony from multiple complainants, and MJ's own behaviour patterns to support them? Those fake allegations?

 

Is there a tally of how many posts say something like "yep, still Bad." ?

I thought he peaked with Off The Wall...

 

I'd like to see some kind off Bad Super Deluxe box set with all the outtakes and live shows from the Bad tour that exist on video gathered together in one set.

 

But if you google 'Super Bad' you just get Jonah Hill.

 

Well, you took it to a place it didn't need to go.

 

Yeah, he peaked on his first adult solo album. What’s next, the Beatles peaked with Please Please Me?

 

Come on dude!!!

 

I think everything after Off the Wall has aged horribly. All of the Jam and Lewis Janet stuff holds up so much better.

 

It happens, Pearl Jam peaked with "Ten" and many prefer the first Doors album or the first Clash album. Imo "Off the Wall" is his most consistent album when it comes to style. Not all these artifacts to please people who are not into disco but might buy a single with a rock sound. It's soul/disco from start to end. After "Off the Wall" Mike was only in it for the money.

 

Disagree hugely , in fact , I think is the exact opposite. R&B radio in America would seem to back this up. The airplay is not even close to being on the same level. He is still the most played artist in the US on R&B/Soul radio. And by a mile. The last time I looked at total airplay numbers for a month. Bruno Mars was #2, and he was still far behind.

 

30 years later and I still don't care for the album much.