Scream by Michael Jackson
This trivial gimmick was released digitally in September 2017 and on CD and glow-in-the-dark vinyl the following month. Conceived by Sony's catalog label and Michael Jackson's estate, it draws from MJ's Epic catalog, dating back to the Jacksons' Triumph for "This Place Hotel" (1980) and working all the way up to the posthumous, barely dusty Xscape (2014) for its title track. The set is a conceptually muddled overview of Jackson's "most electrifying and danceable tracks" with the obvious intent to provide a one-stop Halloween party soundtrack. Some of the selections indeed deal in some level of horror and fantasy -- most obviously "Thriller," Rockwell's MJ-assisted "Somebody's Watching Me," the Jacksons' "Torture," "Dirty Diana," and "Blood on the Dance Floor." A greater portion is forced into the program, chosen for tenuous, superficial reasons, with real grief, anger, and frustration among the subject matter. Take the fiery, relevant-as-ever title track, which rails against injustice. Had it been titled "Stop Pressuring Me" instead, it might not have made the cut. Taken out of an opportunistic context, as simply a set of previously released Michael Jackson songs, Scream certainly is no substitute for any of the best studio albums or proper anthologies unavailable at seasonal strip-mall retailers. For completists, it offers one new track, a forgettable "mash-up."
Although his 1979 multi-platinum breakthrough, <i>Off the Wall</i>, was already Michael Jackson’s fifth solo album—after his bro-band run with the Jackson 5 and then The Jacksons—it didn’t achieve the pop-crossover goals that the singer desperately wanted. So, in true all-conquering fashion, the future King of Pop set out to beat himself when <i>Thriller</i> was released on 30 November 1982. And with his trusted producer Quincy Jones back behind the boards, Jackson—just 24 years old—delivered his crowning achievement, one that even he would fail to top. <i>Thriller</i> held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Album charts for 37 nonconsecutive weeks, and spawned seven singles—all of them smashes, including the chart-toppers “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”. <i>Thriller</i> would then sweep the Grammys, and eventually become one of the best-selling albums of all time. Most crucially, it defined the modern pop blockbuster, creating a blueprint for everyone from Usher and Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé, and, yes, his own baby sis, Janet Jackson. From the Paul McCartney-blessed pop of the hit first single “The Girl is Mine” to the Eddie Van Halen-revved head-banging of “Beat It”, Jackson’s crossover moves opened up the eyes and ears of the industry—and audiences around the world—to what music could sound, look and feel like if we blurred those old colour lines. “Billie Jean” is a gripping psycho-study of the paranoia and persecution that the superstar was already feeling—yet it still maintains the mysterious allure of an artist who we never really got to know. Meanwhile, the album’s opening throwdown, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is Jackson at his fiercest and funkiest, picking up right where <i>Off the Wall</i> left off—and shoring up his R&B bona fides. Then there’s the title track, a spooky spectacular that’s impossible to separate from its iconic video—and that still thrills us every single Halloween.
