"Off the Wall" has always been my #1 favorite MJ album.  :)

I will add my voice to the preference for "Off The Wall". The song "Thriller" was only remarkable because of the groundbreaking video clip ...and the sequenced dance moves. The song itself was not all that great. Billie Jean was the only singlr I really loved in his catalogue (post 1979).

Off The Wall had better tunes and he also looked great. 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough' is in my top 5 disco hits of all time and Rock With You...was a beautiful song. I also agree that the J-5 hits were more enjoyable than MJ's post Thriller songs..

"Off the Wall" has always been my #1 favorite MJ album.   :)


mine too...

for me it goes

Ben (because I love the song so much)
the Off the wall album
the jackson five stuff
then thriller....

I stopped listening after BAd.

Don't forget She's Out of My Life.....very soulful performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF0o-W5uu8o




Off The Wall had better tunes and he also looked great. 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough' is in my top 5 disco hits of all time and Rock With You...was a beautiful song.

I liked Michael from the first time I saw him on the Ed Sullivan show.  You could tell then that he had something real special, something his brothers, or pretty much no one else, had.

I was talking to a friend about the mixed feelings because of what he morphed into, but I said he was like the baby brother you had that did some bad things, but he was your baby brother and you couldn't help but love him.  He agreed.

I think 'Off The Wall' was the first (if not the only) album you could have bought in instalments! (Although 'Thriller' may have come close!)

Apart from the five singles, the remaining 50% of the LP was released as flip sides to later singles!

There will always be the "Thriller" vs "Off The Wall" groups, both claiming one is better than the other...and I can understand why.

If you look at it the albums themselves, they actually have a lot in common, both produced by Quincy Jones, a master in production values. And MJ was quite capable, nearly at his peak both vocally and imaginatively on both sessions.

To me, the difference is in the production values and his mindset as a professional performer. There is something just a bit more raw on Off the Wall, and Thriller is SOOO much more polished and slick than Off The Wall. There's nothing wrong with that, as a matter of fact there is no better example of great 80's music production values, standards and what was important to have in an 80's era album than looking at Thriller.

BUT...

Thriller was slick, VERY slick, very polished, very tech savvy. Both Quincy and Michael had been in the biz for some time and were displaying both their knowledge of production, but also the power of video and other manipulations of the press and market that just didn't exist previously. Thriller is a master example of using all the current and electronic and powerful studio tools to produce/make an album along with a very healthy dose of just plain talent from MJ, and the result is pretty much understandable...

But Off The Wall, its a bit different. The tail end of the 70's, the ushering in of a new decade. Off The Wall had a lot of past "luggage" so to speak of the past, and showcased the last bit of what "was" so very well. Even though MJ had left Motown, theres a lot of "this is how far this can go" from Motown on that album. Its a masterpiece on its own of the best result of Marvin Gaye, Holland-Dozier-Holland, etc and R&B of the past. As if there was an understanding that this is as far as this is going to go, and he was acknowledging that, and made a showcase of it. He knew there was a change in the musical scene coming...Theres a lot of past dance and 70's "ME" decade in there and its a lot more "raw" than Thriller, and its pretty much obvious. Theres a spark of a very young, still expanding young man very much present in that album. In Thriller its a reflection of a much more accomplished man making a very purposeful product (don't get the wrong idea, it was a great product), but didn't have the fun and the bit more abandon and easy nature of Off The Wall.

Off The Wall pretty much was the pinnacle of the "boy" MJ and who he was in the Jackson 5 we all grew up with, reaching his ultimate in that mode. The album just seems a bit more human and personal to me, and I think that resonates to a lot of fans of that album better than Thriller which was a lot bigger giant a media project that seems to have crossed boundaries of a bigger scope and not be, well, genuinely as personal a album to listen to (thought I'm sure it was for MJ at the time)...

Thriller was just so much a bit more calculated, a bit more innocence lost in its conception, after Thriller everything, video, music, even the format (CD's) changed and that made a helluva difference...

mine too...

for me it goes

Ben (because I love the song so much)
the Off the wall album
the jackson five stuff
then thriller....

I stopped listening after BAd.


We agree exactly ...for the second time this year!  :o ;)

We agree exactly ...for the second time this year!  :o ;)


somebody please help me... I appear to be doomed  ;)


seriously tho... I knew you had to have at least some good taste  :)

mine too...

for me it goes

Ben (because I love the song so much)
the Off the wall album
the jackson five stuff
then thriller....

I stopped listening after BAd.


We agree exactly ...for the second time this year!  :o ;)

somebody please help me... I appear to be doomed  ;)


seriously tho... I knew you had to have at least some good taste  :)

I guess that makes 3 of us....unless I look it up I really don't remember to many songs after the Bad album..I love alot of his old stuff including Rockin' Robin,Ben, Rock With You,I'll Be There,Got To Be There & Dancing Machine

Honestly, aside from Thriller (Which had Vincent Price opening!), I couldn't care less for his newer stuff. After the Jackson 5 split, he might as well have been Toto Jackson... ;)

... I always felt that Michael Jackson has been part of me.  I'll miss him like crazy.   :(  ...


As I've been remembering and mourning, I've found a steady diet of MJ/J5 music to be real therapeutic.


...  I also delved into the lesser known stuff, minor/forgotten hits, album cuts and "B" sides - which big fans usually do. ...


I quick uploaded a new web page filled with MJ/J5 video links to my website.  It has some rarities, minor/forgotten hits, album cuts and "B" sides like I was talking about.  Here's the link, to anyone interested:

http://users.dls.net/~faulkners/mj_videos.htm

I quick uploaded a new web page filled with MJ/J5 video links to my website.  It has some rarities, minor/forgotten hits, album cuts and "B" sides like I was talking about.  Here's the link, to anyone interested:

http://users.dls.net/~faulkners/mj_videos.htm


Not really surprised to not see this one included, as it never charted in the US for whatever reason (was it even released?)

However, it's worthy of inclusion as it eventually became his first British #1 back in 1981...

Speaking of 1981, Sugar Minott's soft-reggae version of 'We've Got A Good Thing Going' was a major British hit that year...

Nobody mentioned either of these albums:

The Jacksons 1980 album, Triumph, was acclaimed by the critics and I love it as well.  It didn't have the monster hits, so people forget about it.  But it had some dynamite songs.  IMO "Heartbreak Hotel" was a direct predecessor to the song "Thriller".  Also check out gems like "Give It Up", "Walk Right Now" and "Time Waits For No One".

The Jackson 5's 1973 album, Skywriter.  (Some may have called it the "Michael's voice is changing OH NO" album.)  It didn't wow the critics, nor did it have huge hits - "Corner Of The Sky" is the best known.  Then again, its "The Boogie Man" has rightly become a Halloween classic.  To me the album is better than you'd think.  It's cohesive and shows a bit more maturity than J-5 albums that came before it.  Its fine album cuts include "Touch", and "You Made Me What I Am".  :)

For honorable mention, I'll also mention the Jacksons 1978 album, Destiny.  It's also definitely worth a listen.

Nobody mentioned either of these albums:

The Jacksons 1980 album, Triumph, was acclaimed by the critics and I love it as well.  It didn't have the monster hits, so people forget about it.  But it had some dynamite songs.  IMO "Heartbreak Hotel" was a direct predecessor to the song "Thriller".  Also check out gems like "Give It Up", "Walk Right Now" and "Time Waits For No One".


It did well overseas:  'Walk Right Now', 'Feel It' and 'Lovely One' were all Top 40 hits in the UK