Bad Review

Following the best selling album in history was never going to go well, and Bad is the sound of Michael Jackson trying to win anyway. He wrote most of it himself this time, and Quincy Jones, in their last album together, gives him the hardest drums and brightest synthesisers money could buy in 1987. It became the first album to send five singles to number one in America, and the hits still hold. The Way You Make Me Feel struts, Man in the Mirror builds to a gospel lift that justifies every key change, Smooth Criminal is all nervous tension and Dirty Diana broods over a heavy rock guitar.

His singing is as agile and precise as it ever was. It still has dips. Speed Demon and Just Good Friends are thin, and the tough guy posturing of the title track sits oddly on a singer this gentle. The writing leans on paranoia, cartoon menace and slogans, and the lyrics mark reflects it. The production has dated more than Thriller's, with every sound pushed to the front at once. It is a steadier record than Thriller, and it never reaches the moments that made Thriller untouchable.