started off w/ the jackson 5.
you've heard all of the best material from this era,
b/c all the best material was released as a single.


but the first 3 or 4 jackson five albums
actually work as albums... they have lots of motown covers
of songs like "my girl" and the have MJ handing in credible
covers of songs like "la la means i love you" (i prefer it to
the delphonics) and "ready or not" (i'm on the fence about that one.)





after MJ's voice started to change,
the MJ pretty much wandered through the wilderness on motown...
too much buble gum, too much stuff that sounded like
attempts at broadway tunes....

just some really godawful tunes.

but there are some notable exceptions.
"one day in your life,"
is one of my favorite MJ tracks. is a real tear jerker. it has taken on greater significance now that he's gone.

SEE ALSO: "looking through the windows."


SEE ALSO: "when i come of age." (this song is striking
b/c he's talking about all of the wonderful things
he does when he grows up, as he implores the woman of his dreams
to wait until he gets older so that he can express
the deep feelings he has for her already. i am certain
he is singing to diana ross.

it's extra striking because obviously, he never got
with diana ross, and the problems that MJ faced
as a result of being an old soul in a little body
plauged MJ until the day he died.)









the transition point for jackson 5 MJ
into adult MJ was "shake your body down to the ground."

he had finally grown into his adult voice,
he finally had some great material to showcase that voice,
and his adult voice shows all of the gulps and hiccups
that we would grow to love.







after this, we get to OTW and Thriller.
i won't rehash these albums b/c we are all familiar with them,
but i will encourage folks to check out "triumph" which
is a jacksons album he released that appears to be forgotten about.

"heartbreak hotel" you know,
but what about the gripping balad, "time waits for no one."
great stuff.







by the time he got to "bad," he was still
releasing great singles,
but they weren't as universal as the singles from
"off the wall" and "thriller."

i'm sure you've heard it, no need to talk about it.








MJ recurited teddy riley to help him craft
a new sound for dangerous. it was a great album,
but the problem with it is that the vocal hiccups
that were once charming are sometimes annoying at this point.

also, most of the save the world songs
he released aside from "man in the mirror" are pretty dreadful.

it's more consisant than bad,
but nothing on it is as great as OTW.







after the child molstestation charges,
MJ still made great music, but a lot of his albums were too long.

that being said, he still had hot fire on every album.
even though his uptempo songs sounded dated,
he could still rip a ballad a new asshole.

stand-out cuts from his "past his prime" era:



"butterflies"

"heaven can wait"

"break of dawn"

"smile"

"stranger in moscow."






he also had a few tracks
that were tesimonies to his paranoia.

the most powerful one was "morphine," his song about drug addiction.
it sounds like a nine inch nails song.



i also dig "is it scary."





all MJ fans should track down the short film for "ghosts."
it's one of the best videos he's ever done.




that's my crash course on MJ.