Jackson will never be a shouter, he can summon timbres from a soul singer's raspy exhortations to his androgynous alto.Epic ( US label founded by CBS in 1953, now owned by Sony)īad Dirty Diana I Just Can’t Stop Loving You Leave Me Alone Smooth Criminal The Way You Make Me Feel The Way You Make Me Feel He has taken his vocal mannerisms even further - the intakes of breath, the hesitations, the whoops -and they add up to lead singing that finds percussion in every consonant and cross rhythms with every ''hoo hoo!'' and ''aaow!'' Although Mr. While the lyrics on ''Bad'' are largely impersonal, the music revolves around Mr. The compact disk of ''Bad'' has an extra, closing song with an unmistakable message: ''Leave Me Alone.'' The oddest lyrics show up in ''Another Part of Me,'' cosmic tidings delivered by a messianic ''we.'' ''Man in the Mirror,'' written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard, declares that the way to ''make the world a better place'' is to ''take a look at yourself and then make that change'' it's activism for hermits. He portrays himself in conventional pop terms, as a lover and as a rather tame outlaw when he insists he's ''really, really bad'' in ''Bad,'' he's not too believable.īeyond those poses, he seems isolated and glad of it. Jackson generally stays away from psychological danger zones. ''Dirty Diana'' reduces the singer to a terrified whimper in ''Smooth Criminal,'' the singer finds a bloodstained carpet and an unconscious body, and asks, obsessively, ''Annie are you O.K.?'' when, clearly, she's not. Jackson's lyrics on ''Thriller'' testified to overwhelming fear and paranoia ''They're out to get you, better leave while you can,'' he warned in ''Beat It.'' On ''Bad,'' there are still a few signs of that fearfulness. (He wrote four out of nine songs on ''Thriller.'') But ''Bad'' is an even less revealing album. Jackson has written most of the songs for an album - 8 of the 10 songs on the ''Bad'' LP and cassette, 9 of 11 on the compact disk. Jackson do the same in ''Just Good Friends.''įor the first time, Mr. Jackson argued over a romance in ''The Girl Is Mine'' on ''Thriller,'' on ''Bad'' Stevie Wonder and Mr. There are also, of course, echoes of ''Thriller.'' A melody line from ''Billie Jean'' reappears in ''Liberian Girl,'' while ''Dirty Diana,'' a song about a groupie who latches onto the narrator, mixes the sexual fears of ''Billie Jean'' with the hard-rock lead guitar of ''Beat It.'' The low-slung riff in ''Bad'' recalls the one from the song ''Thriller.'' And where Paul McCartney and Mr.
Jackson appears to be lightening his skin, he hasn't turned away from black music. Amid the modern electronics, there's a taste of older soul music, with the rolling groove and blues harmonies of ''The Way You Make Me Feel'' and the gospelly lift of ''Man in the Mirror'' although Mr. Jackson and his longtime producer Quincy Jones have concocted synthesizer-driven arrangements that are clear but that carry a solid kick. And for a little while its smooth surface -sculpted no less carefully than the singer's face - should keep it there. The hype and anticipation ought to boost ''Bad'' into the Top 10. 12 the tour should arrive in the United States next year. And he begins a world tour in Tokyo on Sept. One sign of the merchandising to come is ''Michael's Pets,'' a toy menagerie based on Mr. Tapes were not available to critics in advance. Tonight at 8, CBS, which owns Epic Records, will broadcast a 30-minute special, ''Michael Jackson - The Magic Returns,'' which will introduce the music video of ''Bad,'' directed by Martin Scorsese. The new-look Michael Jackson is also on view. Radio stations started playing other songs from the album as early as last Thursday.
''I Just Can't Stop Loving You,'' a plush ballad, was released as a single in July. The promotional machinery that helped ''Thriller'' sell 38.5 million copies worldwide is already clanking away. Jackson's 29th birthday, the long-delayed ''Bad'' (Epic EK 40600) arrives in record stores, and it's a gleaming, high-tech dance record that's just a little eccentric at the edges.
The wait between albums stretched to four and a half years. Jackson made a film for Disneyland he had a cleft implanted in his chin he offered a British hospital a million dollars to buy the remains of the Elephant Man. WHAT could Michael Jackson do to follow up the best-selling album to date? That's been the question since 1983, when sales of ''Thriller'' took off - and the answers in the last few years were peculiar indeed.
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