Only Akon comes off well, flipping the meaning of “startin’ somethin’” and turning the song into a joyful seducer’s groove, and here it’s Jackson’s own mush-mouthed new vocal that spoils things. Fergie’s gift as a pop star is the way her crassness shifts into oddness-so on “Beat It” her nervous reverence is a waste of time. There’s a general reluctance to use what these guest stars are good at: will.I.am is a consistently slick, inventive pop producer but nobody wants to hear him rap, whereas on Kanye West’s “Billie Jean” a guest verse might have added dynamics to the mix’s clumsy claustrophobia. Will.i.am sets the tone: He takes Macca off “The Girl Is Mine” but decides it can’t work without someone sounding like an idiot and steps manfully in himself. “Thriller”’s joke-shop horror segues well into Eddie Van Halen’s headbanging guitar on “Beat It.” But to follow that into the paranoid celebrity funk of “Billie Jean,” the meltingly tender “Human Nature,” and the smooth R&B of “P.Y.T.”? These are all brilliant singles, though Thriller’s greatness lies in its great songs not in it “working like an album.”įor this edition Jackson called in some current big guns to provide remixes, and sadly they do provide the consistency the originals gloriously lack. Thriller is inconsistent in style, which gives it something to appeal to everyone, but it’s oddly tough to listen to even the great bits sequentially-its peaks are from different mountain ranges. But then you get “Baby Be Mine”-one of the original tracks that wasn’t a single-and the momentum fades: On the heels of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, it should maintain the temperature instead, it goes nowhere, starts nothing. That one holds up for six minutes and two seconds, during which Jackson and Quincy Jones mix the tension of rock’n’roll with the rapture of disco and hit perfection. So there’s another theory: Thriller is the best-selling record ever because it’s the best record ever. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is pure confused, shocked teenage rush. When Thriller opens, those 100 million sales feel just. The album was focus-grouped for broader appeal-but then why haven’t focus groups worked so well since? Jackson made the racial crossover breakthrough on MTV-but once that door was opened, why didn’t the sales crossover work for others? Jackson’s stunning dancing and videos exploded pop’s visual formatting-but the Thriller album, until DVD-era reissues like this one, wasn’t a visual experience. Welcome to the Hotel California.And so people try to concoct explanations. Paradise turning to nightmare On the hotel, you'll find it there The results of your dreamy illusion, An impossible love or a secret reason, Check in, dear friend, if you dare But close your eyes, better be prepared As only then, this beautiful hotel, Could suddenly turn to hell. Language: English Words: 3,424 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 6 Kudos: 33 Bookmarks: 2 Hits: 335 Put another way: there’s a reason Thomas’s helmet has a face, and Guy-Manuel’s doesn’t. They sound like the same thing, but they’re really not. Guy-Manuel does it because he doesn’t want to be himself. Thomas does it because he wants to be someone else. For lots of different reasons: shyness, the desire for anonymity, the belief in artistic merit over the cult of personality, the potential of elevating performance. Thomas and Guy-Manuel wear helmets, which is to say they put on masks. depersonalization! codependence! painfully boring industry functions!. Thomas Bangalter/Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.Language: English Words: 52,500 Chapters: 101/101 Comments: 124 Kudos: 26 Bookmarks: 5 Hits: 1264Įmotionmp4 (auralcosm) Fandoms: Daft Punk Or are they crack?įragments of time of the lives of Iwa and Oikawa together. Oikawa recollects memories about his life with Iwa. This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think.Album: Random Access Memories (Daft Punk).
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