Michael Jackson’s Thriller 25th Anniversary Review

If you ask me what the greatest album of all time is, there would be…several but the one that I’d pick if I seriously had to would definitely be Michael Jackson’s Thriller and it was 25 years ago that MJ’s masterpiece was released. Seriously, there are so many incredible songs on this album including Thriller, The Girl is Mine, PYT (Pretty Young Thing), Wanna Be Starting Something, Beat It and the song I consider to be the perfect song, Billie Jean.

Now in the 25 years since, MJ has run into some financial trouble so I’m sure that’s why a 25th anniversary edition of Thriller is being released in a couple days with enhanced versions of the originals as well as remix recordings of all our favorites featuring some of today’s artists. Now, I’m sure the originals need no introduction. Thriller is as good today as it was in 1983.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the new recordings, featuring “artists” like Fergie, will.i.am, Akon and Kanye West.

First of all, I didn’t think Fergie could suck any more than she does already with her brand of soulless, garbage pop music but she manages to ruin what is undoubtedly one of the greatest songs of all time, Beat It. Luckily for those of us with ears, the song retains much of the famous baseline but the problem is Fergie’s shrill, annoying vocals now compose a duet with MJ, making it far inferior to the original.

Fergie’s Black Eyed Peas bandmate will.i.am “raps” and sings along with MJ in The Girl Is Mine, replacing the infinitely more talented Paul McCartney for some reason, again ruining another classic song. He takes a page out of Lil’ Jon’s playbook, repeating the same phrases over and over. Again, little substance and just a terrible remix.

The robot-voiced Akon nearly replaces MJ altogether in Wanna Be Starting Something. I can’t stand Akon’s voice or any of his horrible, horrible “music” but compared to the previous two songs, this is a lesser degree of horrible. It’s still barely listenable but at least he tries to be true to the original to the best of his abilities.

Kanye West is undoubtedly one of today’s most talented artists in the music industry but once again, the modern version fails to compare to the original. However, Kanye was given the unenviable task of giving his take on the best song ever, Billie Jean. His remix isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, it’s quite good but compared to MJ’s original Billie Jean, it’s a shadow of its predecessor.

What I want to know is…who told Fergie, will.i.am and Akon they were worthy of being on an album with one of the greatest artists of all time? Are these the people the studios thought would go well with MJ’s best? I can’t stress enough how Fergie makes some of the worst music I’ve heard ever in life…and will.i.am and Akon aren’t far behind. I swear to god that buying any of their albums is funding freakin’ terrorism. They’re the epitome of suck and their music kills your soul. It angers me that whoever’s responsible for putting together this album thought that these garbage artists were the best they could come up with?

They had the right idea with Kanye even though his effort was uninspired but I’d kill to hear Justice or Daft Punk remix some MJ. I wouldn’t mind hearing Jay-Z or Lil’ Wayne drop a verse over one of MJ’s classic beats. Ne-Yo sounds like he’d do a good job. Hell, I’d settle for Justin Timberlake.

My point is…this album is a WASTE OF YOUR TIME AND MONEY. If you want to experience one of the best albums of all time, buy the real version of Thriller, not this Fergified mess.

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