8A - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
AlRUM REIIVIW
TRAILER REVIEWS
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The return of
Michael
I
I
Reissue of Thriller
proves to be an
unnecessary and trite
release
By CHRIS GAERIG
ManagingArts Editor
Reviewing Michael Jackson's
Thriller is sort of an act of futil-
ity. Around 1982
when this album *
first dropped
- this recent Michael
incarnation com- Jackson
memorating the
particularly arbi- Thriller25th
trary decade times Anniversary
2.5re-release-this Edition
disc and Michael Epic
himself were certi-
fied cash. Anything
the man released sold through the
roof. Anything he said was truth. He
was like the pope... but could moon-
walk. Simultaneously innovative
and catchy, Thriller instantly proved
itself an album for the ages.
And yet with time and exces-
sive spins, Thriller, re-packaged to
the nines with a hardcover binding
and numerous pages of "Thriller"
screenshots and lyrics, is remark-
ably underwhelming. It may be a
function of the hype surrounding
the album, the elaborate release or
Michael's own mythic status - or it
could just be the embarrassingly bad
bonus material - but this album is
not, like the artist himself, the prod-
uct of yore.
Judging Thriller on its own merit,
it's a great album. Not perfect, but
certainly better than most of the
similar releases that preceded it.
The heart of the album (the sequen-
tial "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billy
Jean") is untouchable. You'd be hard
pressed to find any triumvirate of
songs that can stack up to the mono-
lithic status of these.
But even with arguably the best
consecutive songs in pop history,
this album is still somewhat of a let-
down. Amplifying the greatness of
these tracks is their collective pre-
fix "The Girl Is Mine" - featuring a
horrific guest spot from a then semi-
youthful but still painfully mid-
dle-aged Paul McCartney. If ever
there was a duo that shouldn't have
worked together it was these two,
especially given the public backstab-
bing Michael laid on The Beatles and
McCartney himself.
Aside from this graphic misstep,
the rest of the disc is rather unob-
jectionable. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young
Thing)" is another undeniable hit,
but little else on the record is a leg-
endary standout. As such, to say it's
any better than "very good" without
the context of the album's origi-
nal release - it was released before
most of us were born - would be
assuming too much. This album
revolutionized the way the pop bal-
lad was written and recorded, but its
own artistic merit may be slightly
exaggerated.
Great album aside, it's a won-
der why Thriller was given such an
extravagant reissue. It boasts a bevy
of bonus material that ranges from
functionally enjoyable (the includ-
ed DVD) to downright atrocious
(remixes by will.i.am). The DVD
contains the videos for the afore-
mentioned, heart-pounding trio, but
given the age and repetitive play of
the videos and access to things like
YouTube, the DVD is convenient but
little else. How many times in a day
(week) can you honestly watch the
"Thriller" video? It might seem like
a good idea - a necessity rather than
extracurricular enjoyment - but in
the end, it's simply a marketing ploy
used to get people to buy an album
they probably already own.
Similarly, the bonus tracks
included on the disc are horrible.
Whoever thought will.i.am and Fer-
gie would be able to improve what
is commonly considered the best
pop album of all time was terribly
mistaken and responsible for some
of the most objectionable remixes
in quite some time. Though Kanye
West's remix of "Billie Jean" - a
track that fortunately doesn't have
any added vocals but rather a reor-
ganization of the musical back drop
- is remarkably succinct and intel-
ligent, it begs only one question:
Why?
And that's the real issue with
this re-release: There seems to be
absolutely no reason for this album
to have been reissued besides being
approximately 25 years old. The
most depressing answer to this ques-
tion is that Michael may have turned
his legacy into a cash cow. But what
else is there to do with this disc? It's
run its course and pop artists have
been name-dropping it in just about
every interview they've given in the
last decade. It has served its pur-
pose: Where once there was a Thrill-
er, there stands only a collection of
tracks you're particularly familiar
with.
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