44 Years On, Six Thriller Tracks Still Earn Their Keep — and Two Never Did

Nine tracks, 42 minutes, and a claim on the entire pop world. That is what Michael Jackson set out to make with Thriller, and mostly what he got. The album moves through rock, ballads, and soul without settling on one path, and it holds together because Jackson’s voice and instincts do the connecting work.

Opening Tracks Set the Pace

The album opens hard with Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, six minutes of pressure and rhythm that never lets up. Baby Be Mine passes by pleasantly enough but does not leave much behind. The Girl Is Mine, sung with a second voice, is the record’s weakest turn — thin where the rest of the album is strong.

Then Thriller itself arrives, all drama and shadow, just under six minutes of Jackson building a world out of sound effects and confidence. It is a title track that actually earns the title.

Deeper Into the Record

The back half of the album is where it stops being good and starts being important.

• Beat It: rock guitar meets pop hook meets a command over the floor, and none of the three parts loses.
• Billie Jean: the bassline alone carries a mood of fear and doubt that few pop songs before or since have matched.
• Human Nature: quieter, more closed and still, and it proves Jackson could hold a room without a beat.
• P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing): pure pleasure in rhythm, no more ambition than that, and it needs no more.

The Lady in My Life closes the record on a soft, warm note, a rest after the run that comes before it.

Weighing the Verdict

One review put the pressure on Thriller plainly: “No album, movie, or book should ever have to live up to the expectations attached to the label ‘biggest selling of all time.'” That is the weight Thriller has carried for decades — judged against its own sales figures instead of its own songs.

Judged as songs, the album is not equal throughout. The Girl Is Mine and Baby Be Mine are lesser work sitting next to some of the best pop music ever recorded. Another review rated the album 5 out of 5 and called it, in part, “just simply great music” — a verdict this record mostly backs up, even if not every track carries equal force.

Thriller does not need to be perfect to lead its time.

Beat It, Billie Jean, Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, Thriller, Human Nature, and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) would make a tighter, shorter album on their own, and they carry the reason this one still gets talked about. The rest is capable, pleasant, easy to forget.

This is a work with two soft spots and six songs that stand above the rest. That balance is enough to make history, even if it is not enough for a perfect record.

1980s music · album review · Michael Jackson · pop music · Thriller